Dan Schorr’s plan to fight gang violence
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- October
- 22
UPDATED: District Attorney Janet DiFiore’s response below.
Westchester Republican District Attorney candidate Dan Schorr today announced his plan to tackle gang violence in the county, especially in Yonkers and Mount Vernon, where murders and gun violence are high.
If he unseats incumbent Democratic District Attorney Janet DiFiore, he said, he would:
• Assign experienced prosecutors to high-crime jurisdictions for longer periods of time.
• Establish a Zero Tolerance Policy for gang-related and/or violent offenses involving handguns. If a criminal is convicted of a violent gun crime, (s)he would go to state prison, not the county jail. Repeat violent offenders would get consecutive, not concurrent sentences.
• Assign the same prosecutor or team of prosecutors from beginning to end, instead of changing at different stages of the case, so help them understand the complexities of a case and complicated nature of gangs.
• Hold off on giving plea deals until notifying the arresting officer(s).
• Send prosecutors and criminal investigators into local schools to teach a comprehensive anti-gang program to increase gang awareness and point out the legal punishments for gang offenses.
• Combat the “anti-snitch” attitude on the street, in part by reinvigorating the Crimestoppers program and developing a stronger witness protection program.
• Work with the corrections and probation officers to identify and monitor known gang members, as well as those at high risk of joining a gang.
• Hold convicted gang members responsible for violating probation curfews, drug use, and other criminal activity.
• Develop standard questions for police to ask anyone they arrested to determine if the arrestee is part of a gang or has information about gang activity.
• Improve ties with federal law enforcement agencies that have the resources and intelligence to help investigate gang activity in Westchester.
“This plan to reduce gang violence is a result of my experience prosecuting violent crime in New York City and Westchester, and from talking with local police, community, and religious leaders to create a realistic and achievable approach to making our streets safer from gangs,” Schorr said. “We can’t bury our heads in the sand from this growing problem, and I’m confident that a multi-pronged solution such as the one I’ve proposed will result in a real reduction of dangerous gang activity in our county.”
And here is what DiFiore thinks of Schorr’s plan:
“Dan Schorr displays a complete lack of understanding of how gang-related violent crime is currently handled by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and, indeed, how cases are investigated by the police and prosecuted by my office. Just as he fails to grasp the facts of cases he continually comments on in this race, his so-called plan demonstrates he has no idea what has been going on in the law enforcement community over the last four years.”
This entry was posted
on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm by Rebecca Baker.
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Wow, Dan Schorr is really clueless; it is obvious that Dan Schorr went searching on the internet for information on how to deal with gang violence and put together a so called plan. Dan Schorr has no idea what he is talking about. I can not believe Dan Schorr’s lack of understanding of the issues that face the District Attorney’s office. If Dan keeps this up they may start calling him “Clueless Dan”
this election is over..it was over when tony castro lost
the primary solidifying janet as the real democrat in a county where democrats outnumber republicans by 124,000
voters..the rtl candidate who will draw votes from dan
because dan is a pro choice republican will get about
3%...then tony castro(who shouldn’t have run in the first
place if the republicans really wanted their guy to have a shot, and that could have been arranged between zherka
and cavalo but they are too dumb)..will get about 3% on the
wfp and another 4% on the IND line leaving 90 percent left
to be split between difiore and schorr…schorr has spent
very little on anything but staffing..another brilliant
campaign strategy..he has pissed his money away paying for
people to tell him what a good candidate he is and for
polling..(he is at 9percent hard name id) so dan gets
about 32%....and janet with democrat and conservative
support should get 58 per cent..maybe even 60 which
given the number of candidates would be a whopping blow
out and the largest absolute margin between the two major
parties in recent memory..and that is the way it will go
next tuesday…..
Schorr’s campaign has been a disaster, but then again what should we expect from a man who never ran for public office or who never made it out of the middle of the pack when he was an ADA many years ago. Schorr has no real law experience; he has no background to speak of, his campaign is based on a bunch of ideas which it appears that were gotten off a Goggle search. Schorr’s credibility has been severely damaged by the people he keeps around him, he runs around with a former employee of the District Attorney’s office who could not make the cut. This same person is so mean spirited and loves to curse and tell lies about things she knows nothing about. Schorr should cut his losses now and try to garner some respect for himself by conducting himself like a person who could have a future in politics. As it stands now, Schorr will be a “One timer”, here today, gone tomorrow and never heard from again. Those who are hanging their future on the likelihood that Schorr might get elected I suggest you start viewing the help wanted section of your local newspaper.
Rather than just say that her opponent doesn’t understand, why doesn’t our current DA say what the heck she is doing to combat gang violence? Those of us in Yonkers who deal with this everyday want answers, not stupid political statements that say nothing. Voters are fed up. Give us answers or you’ll be gone after Election Day.
Isn’t it the job of police to figure out how they are going to stop gang violence? Isn’t it the job of police in all jurisdictions to combat crimes in their districts? I think the job of the District Attorney is to prosecute crimes once the police have made the arrest. Once the arrest are made I assume the D.A. Investigators work in conjunction with the police to assure that a conviction is the end result.
So, the DA’s office can do absolutely NOTHING to combat gang violence? They can’t contribute anything at all? Like partnering with local police departments to help get these jerks off the streets? I just want to be clear on this. Because if that is the stance of the current DA, she has lost my vote.
the present DA has in place many of the recomendaations
that schorr took from the internet…she works closely
with municipal police departments particularly in yonkers
and mount vernon to develop gang profiles and to obtain
intelligence on gangs from those arrested on other charges
but the DA cannot and should not be on the streets patroling for gang violence that is not the job of
a lawyer..it is the job of a police officer
After you comments I checked with a few police officers I know, the D.A. does work closely with police in a cooperative manner to jointly work on matters relating to preventing gang violence. Westchester County has a strong Strong District Attorney in Janet DiFiore.
This is not a job for a novice like Dan Schorr who will be looking for on the job training.
If she works so closely with the Yonkers PD, why did Eddie Armour, a well respected police officer, say in the Journal News that he has issues with the DA? And if she is so cooperative, why haven’t Yonkers or Mt. Vernon endorsed her, which they both did 4 years ago? Rank and file cops don’t like the work she does because they are arresting these guys and finding them back out on the streets soon after. If she has many of these so called Internet ideas in place, why do the cops not bother to learn the names of the ADAs? Its because they will cover a municipality for a month or two then move on. There is a major crisis going on in Yonkers and Mt. Vernon and the silence of those police departments is deafening. Voters aren’t stupid, they are fed up.
You are clearly a campaign worker for Dan Schorr, I am sure you and Dan Schorr can both seek employment else where after the election.
And the charred pot accuses the kettle of darkness. Rj’s posts incessantly refer to political appointment and the attainment/retention of those positions. Methinks the lad/lady doth too much protest.
Voters indeed are not stupid..and the issue you raise
is not the determining issue this year..gang violence will
not be attributed to the work of the DA…gang violence
is primarily a police matter and for example in yonkers
chuck lesnikc and the city council cut the police budget
substantially tying their hands on the street issues in
terms of manpower..this is not a DA did or didnt do issue
Dan Schorr has neither the temperment, experience, or breadth of service to the community to step into the role
of chief law enforcement officer..he is a pretender to the thorne..difiore has served the community for well over 23
years in appointive and elective law enforcement and judicial capacity..even.if in fact as you claim there needs
to be more emphaisis on gang issues, the person who can
respond to the rising gang violence more efficiently is
not dan schorr it is is indeed the present DA who has
in place protocols to deal with gang violence and even
if those protocols need to be tweaked, she is the person
to tweak it..in addition to gang issues however there are
a whole range of issues that difiore has dealt with effectively including illegal guns, domestic violence,
narcotic prosecutions, mortgage fraud, etc….her office
has been cited nationally for her innovative programs..
it is not just about gangs…violence in the streets will
be dealt with primariliy by first responders ie the police
departments…in mount vernon and yonkers..ada’s prosecute
after arrests are made and they don’t rotate in and out
on a monthly basis..some of the chiefs have been there for
years…so stop making erroneous claims..if you want to
examine records take a look a schorr’s record in queens
and ask his supervisors what their opinion of his performance was…he was no star..he was judged as mediocre
at best…and he runs not as a person with any upper management experience of any kind in either queens or
westchester he runs as an unemployed lawyer..there is no
contest here..you are right voters are not stupid ..they
will not entrust a 20 million dollar budget and 100 employees to a person with so little backround as schorr
not going to happen scnorr gets maybe 32 percent tops
Hey – anyone see Difiores latest filing with BOE? Specifically her expenditures? She has spent thousands of dollars to pay upwards of 30 people to pay to get out the vote for her. Hypocritical since she blasted Tony Castro in the Primary for paying people. I thought morale in the DAs office was high and the employees loved their boss? If so, why arent they volunteering their time on weekends to help her get re-elected? Pretty humiliating an incumbent that’s “been serving the community for 23 years” has to PAY people to hand out her palm cards! At least when you see people handing out Schorr literature they are willing volunteers happy to do it for free. Can’t say the same for those handing out Janet lit – most of whom can’t even tell you who she is. PATHETIC! And hilarious.
once again you have it upside down..janet will not accept
money or other contrbutions from her staff..they are not
part of her political operation…castro paid people
to GET SIGNATURES FOR HIS PETITIONS..janet did not do
that…paying people to get out the vote in the DEMOCRATIC
party is traditional…sorry to inform you…schorr gets under 30% I’ve changed my mind..
You state: “At least when you see people handing out Schorr literature they are willing volunteers happy to do it for free”
You are wrong about Schorr’s volunteers doing anything for free, these are people who Dan Schorr has promised jobs, it’s called having a vested interest.
The below comments were well stated by D.A. Hanet DiFiore.
“Dan Schorr displays a complete lack of understanding of how gang-related violent crime is currently handled by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office and, indeed, how cases are investigated by the police and prosecuted by my office. Just as he fails to grasp the facts of cases he continually comments on in this race, his so-called plan demonstrates he has no idea what has been going on in the law enforcement community over the last four years.”
REPUBLICANS don’t have to PAY people to get out the vote on their behalf – their volunteers are happy to do it! And most of them have day jobs already – they aren’t waiting to be rewarded. Especially in the DA’s office which has few civilian jobs available to hand out. I didn’t say Janet should accept donations from her staff….I said if they were so happy with her as a DA, they would gladly give a few hours of their time on the weekend to help out. There sure is a ton of county employees more than happy to help Andy Spano…...
but your premise is wrong..if they are so happy with her
they would gladly give a few hours..their jobs do not
depend on them volunteering for janet on their own time
nor have they been asked to do so…nor will they be asked
to do so..your argument is totally false..if janet has
the funds to pay for literature drops at the end of
her campaign it not only is perfectly legal but its
smart..I doubt the republicans you speak of have any
resources to do the same so they have to rely on
volunteers ..you have no idea how many and who…nor is
it important…difiore made clear to her staff a long
time ago that they would not be asked either for money
or for time…its a big departure from previous da’s
don’t you think?
Then why were her DA Investigators putting out her lawn signs while on the clock during the primary???? And many in County cars.
stop making stuff up..you have names and dates and times
and license plates? do you follow her investigators around
do you even know who they are..this is how dan wants to
end a campaign..complaining about da’s investigators?
you are doing him no service to attempt to bring that up
and in fact doing him a great disservice..why don’t you
explain why dan’s management skills caused him to spend
well over 50% of his total raised money on strategists
consultants and pollsters..where is his voter communication
where are his tv spots ..where is his mailers…non existant
that’s where..and you want to talk about da investigators
who do you work for the guardian…its like richard
blassberg writing your material..thats not what campaigns
are decided on.its what political partisans resort to
when they are losing