ALBANY – State Senator Tom O’Mara (R,C-Big Flats) today strongly criticized Governor Kathy Hochul for signing into law a measure known as the “Clean Slate Act” that will erase criminal records from public view and provide no protections for crime victims or law-abiding New Yorkers.
Hochul held a bill signing ceremony in Brooklyn this morning.
O’Mara voted against the legislation (S7551A/A1029C) when it was approved by the state Senate earlier this year. He was joined by every member of the Senate Republican conference in opposition to the new law.
The Clean Slate Act calls for sealing criminal records – including for violent crimes such as assault, armed robbery, attempted murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and others — eight years after a sentence is complete for felonies and after three years for misdemeanors. O’Mara and his GOP colleagues said the action continues an alarming trend by Hochul and the Legislature’s Democrat majorities to keep enacting pro-criminal policies despite rising rates of criminal violence statewide.
O’Mara said, “Another day in New York, another pro-criminal policy pushed by one-party rule. This state is facing a crisis of rising crime and lawlessness, and yet this new law continues to make our communities, neighborhoods, and streets even less safe. The crisis, caused in large part by Democrat-led cashless bail and other soft-on-crime policies, could be stopped if Albany Democrats stopped pushing a radical, pro-criminal agenda. These new actions once again prove that Democrats care more about protecting violent felons and dangerous individuals than they do victims and law-abiding New Yorkers.”
According to Senator O’Mara’s office, polling throughout the past year continues to show that New Yorkers view crime as one of the most critical issues confronting the state and that New York is moving in the wrong direction to address it.
In 2019, Senate Democrats began completely reversing years of public safety progress by pushing the enactment of dangerous cashless bail laws, discovery law changes, parole “reforms,” Raise the Age, HALT, and other pro-criminal policies, O’Mara said.
Senate Republicans have responded by sounding the alarm and continuously calling for the enactment of measures to restore public safety in New York. The Senate GOP public protection plan, part of a comprehensive “Rescue New York” agenda released earlier this year,
Common sense in our democratic government has been lost. Elected officials have forgotten that they work for the masses that count on them to do the right thing based on educational decision making.
Society has allowed a very small group of elites dictate our rules of life. None of the new rules hold any common sense and our young teens and adults have fallen into a black hole. The rule of law is gone , educational system is broken. The election system is broken and to many work for State and Federal governments that want to protect their jobs without performing. I am sad for my grand kids their life will be controlled by Democratic evil people. Power is all the current administration wants and to destroy our current way of life
I think almost every democrat has lost their minds.
It really says alot when Senator O’Mara provides NO facts about the “Clean Slate” act, in his “constructed” news release meant to continue his agenda.
https://www.rochesterfirst.com/new-york-state/new-clean-slate-act-will-allow-certain-criminal-records-to-be-sealed/
This governor’s apparent love for the criminal class in this state is the reason it’s in the shape it’s in. Perhaps instead of treating them with kid gloves we should return to holding them accountable for their actions. Anything less is a slap in the face to the people they’ve victimized. The people who have to live with the trauma that was inflicted on them.