Accountability for Next Westchester District Attorney is Paramount

By John Sarcone

People say it every year: “This is the most important election in my lifetime.”

We hear it from candidates and politicians; we hear it from television talking heads; we even hear it from friends and family. It’s such a familiar refrain, it’s become cliche.

And yet, 2024 is the most important election of our lifetime, at every level. Federal elections and policies are having devastating impacts on local communities. The invasion at the southern border is resulting in violence in Yonkers by illegal immigrants.

On the state level, one-party rule is creating crisis after crisis. New York Democrats’ response to their own self-made immigration crisis was to make New York a sanctuary state. Coupled with their disastrous bail reform, they have just added more fuel to the fire. So-called bail reform provisions like cashless bail, raise the age, clean slate and discovery reform are emboldening criminals and terrorizing law-abiding citizens.

At the county level, despite the fact that New Yorkers are struggling and fear for their safety, the Democratic candidate for Westchester County District Attorney, who like me wants to be your chief law enforcement officer, refuses to face voters and debate.

What’s truly frightening is that currently, we can’t trust our own government on these important issues. Barely covered this month, the FBI quietly revised their original crime stats to show a huge increase in violence under Biden-Harris. The administration told us that in 2022, violent crime decreased by 2.1 percent, but now they are saying it actually increased by 4.5 percent.

In New York, crime is up nearly 25 percent since 2019, and almost every public poll shows that New Yorkers fear for their safety. But we might never know the truth about this either. We will certainly never know how much crime migrant gangs are committing because the sanctuary state laws preclude police officers from recording immigration status in arrest reports.

One-party rule and lack of accountability in the media in our state have allowed our elected representatives to put politics over people. Jew-hating protestors are allowed to terrorize parents, teachers and students at our very own Leffell School in Hartsdale based simply on their religion and chant death to America with no consequences. A dangerous Venezuelan gang is running migrant shelters across this state. Selective prosecutors like Alvin Bragg, when confronted with a law-abiding citizen defending themselves against a murderous violent criminal, actually choose to prosecute the law-abiding citizen.

When you look at things from this perspective, it makes perfect sense why Democrat Susan Cacace refuses to face voters. She disgracefully refuses to debate and defend her party’s record, but voters deserve to hear from her. We need to hear whether she would choose not to prosecute Jew-hating terrorists like Alvin Bragg did, while we all witnessed the organized assault on students and property at Columbia.

Even the architect of bail reform, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, who challenged me to a debate, which I accepted, has gone into hiding. Perhaps she realized that her elimination of bail for 90 percent of crimes was going to be tough to defend in New York’s current revolving-door-of-crime climate.

But the worst part about all of this may be that the media is giving her and every other Democrat a pass. From Kamala Harris to Susan Cacace, the Democrats refuse to engage with media or voters because they can’t defend their radical policies.

You may not agree with me on policy, but we can all agree that candidates refusing to debate and their media allies failing to hold them to account are bad for democracy. Our country, state and county are all heading in the wrong direction. Crime and inflation are up and common sense is down. The United States is under attack from enemies abroad and within, and it’s impacting Westchester County residents.

New York Democrats’ only solutions to these crises are to prioritize criminals and tax and spend law-abiding New Yorkers out of the state, all while refusing to face voters.

So, who can you trust? Not a federal government that revises crime numbers up after telling us for years that they have gone down. Not a state government that sends our tax dollars to New York City for migrants here illegally and in return sends violent migrants to the sanctuary county of Westchester. And not a candidate asking voters to make her the top law enforcement officer of the county but doesn’t respect them enough to speak with them directly.

So, when you hear that this is the most important election in our lifetime this year, don’t dismiss it. Instead, do your research. The Democrat running for Westchester district attorney refuses to face the voters, crime is out of control and illegal aliens are being protected as they invade our county’s homes and steal cars right out of our driveways.

Take a look at the options and vote for the candidate who stands for truth and transparency. With trust in our government institutions and political candidates so low, and for good reason, there has never been a more important election in my lifetime.

John Sarcone, a lifelong Croton-on-Hudson resident, is a prominent New York attorney and the Republican candidate for Westchester County District Attorney.

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