Gov. Kathy Hochul drew praise last week when her intervention led to the rearrest and incarceration of Van Phu Bui, a Vietnamese immigrant who was released without bail after being arrested and charged by police with attempted murder – a felony. But there is another important part to the story.
Bui was caught on camera, in a video that has since gone viral, allegedly punching a 52-year-old man unconscious on a Bronx street without any apparent provocation. The New York Police Department’s charges of attempted murder, however, were puzzingly downgraded by Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark to misdemeanor assault and harassment. Under the new laws, these are no-bail violations. Bui was rearrested after the Governor informed DA Clark that Bui was likely in violation of lifetime parole for an unrelated crime.
So, rather than demonstrating that the current laws work, the incident sharply pointed to the problems with our newly reformed New York criminal justice system.
What galls above all is that we had a graphic video showing someone being violently attacked, to the point that he required surgery, was put on a ventilator, and is still hospitalized five days later – yet the district attorney didn’t want to treat it as a serious matter and a judge went along with this appraisal, both ostensibly acting within the parameters of current law.
It’s time for Governor Hochul to get the attention of soft-on-crime district attorneys, judges, and legislative leaders in Albany in ways that only a serious governor can. Pulling a rabbit out of a hat is no strategy for running a state.
