Nicole Malliotakis: New Yorkers Need to Protect Cops — And Themselves — By Ousting Hochul & Co. This November

Every day, police officers across our nation put on their uniforms, pin on their badges and kiss their families goodbye, not knowing if it will be for the last time.

When one of our police officers is killed in the line of duty, we owe it to their families and brothers and sisters in blue to hold their killer accountable. Unfortunately, thanks to the left-wing Parole Board appointed by the Cuomo-Hochul administration, we’re seeing cop-killers being released at an unprecedented level.

This is a slap in the face to all law enforcement and an insult to the memory of the lives cut short. But New Yorkers will have a chance to slap back at the voting booths come November.

In January, a career criminal assassinated two NYPD officers, Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera, as they responded to a domestic dispute in Harlem. It’s not far-fetched to believe the perp was emboldened by the lack of consequences those who assault police officers face.

In just the past five years, 35 cold-blooded cop-killers across New York state have been released. That includes Anthony Bottom, who brutally assassinated two NYPD cops in 1971. After his release, he was even given a platform to speak at SUNY Brockport, where he was billed as a “political prisoner” while our governor stayed silent.

Darryl Jeter, who fatally shot 25-year-old transit police officer Irma Lozada twice in the head in 1984, was also set loose last year. Lozada was the first female officer in New York City to die in the line of duty.

These assassins are not the only convicts the left-wing board let loose.

In March, Chris Patterson, who strangled his fiancé to death in their home and mutilated her body in a sad attempt to cover his tracks, was eventually released after being rightfully denied parole multiple times.

George Willis — the self-proclaimed “Jack the Ripper” of Staten Island — was freed in June, despite pleading guilty to abducting and murdering two innocent teen girls in 1979.

Also paroled in June was Matthew Poppe, who along with his wife viciously tortured and murdered their 3-year-old daughter Sylena, who would be 24 years old today. Poppe spent less time than that in jail.

One murderer who did get denied by the left-wing parole board is Mark David Chapman, the convicted killer of John Lennon. But make no mistake: Had Lennon been a police officer, not a Beatle, Chapman would be free today.

And Chapman may get his break soon if Albany Democrats get their way. State Sen. Brad Hoylman has introduced a bill that would force the release of hundreds of incarcerated murderers, rapists and felons who are 55 and older and have served more than 15 years of jail time — regardless of the danger they pose to society. This is unconscionable, seriously irresponsible, and further puts New Yorkers in harm’s way.

New York Democrats from Kathy Hochul to Brad Hoylman to Max Rose and every state legislator who supported the disastrous bail law have made a mockery of our justice system, disrespected our law enforcement and made their constituents less safe. The only solution is to send them all packing in November.

More than seven in 10 New Yorkers fear they will be a victim of violent crime. Not a single one of them should be voting for Hochul and the other bail-reform supporters.

Unless New Yorkers make their voices heard loud and clear on Nov. 8, New York’s crime crisis is only going to get worse. New Yorkers must put Lee Zeldin and Allison Esposito at the helm; it very well may be our last chance to stop those who are placating the very worst in our society, running our state into the ground and forcing people to flee at a record pace. 

We need people like them to put New Yorkers before hardened criminals, give law-enforcement officials the necessary tools to protect themselves and our communities, keep dangerous criminals behind bars and save the Empire State from the irreparable damage caused by another four years of the dangerous Cuomo-Hochul agenda.

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis represents New York’s 11th Congressional District, covering Staten Island and southern Brooklyn. 

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