State leaders resisting Mayor Adams on bail reform don’t have a leg to stand on

The state Legislature’s leaders instantly poured cold water on Mayor Eric Adams’ request for tweaks to disastrous criminal-justice reforms imposed in recent years, and Gov. Kathy Hochul basically says she won’t fight the issue. Yet their objections are ridiculous.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) complains about “misinformation” and told Adams to “review and improve pretrial services in the probation department which he oversees” as if that’s the problem. (Not that Heastie has committed to adequate state funding for those state-mandated services, two years after the fact.)

Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) says that letting judges order jail for suspects they deem clearly dangerous would disproportionately affect “black and brown and poor defendants.” Does she really believe that New York judges are a bunch of racists? And: Crime victims in this state are also disproportionately ““black and brown and poor” — why do legislators never worry about them?

On Adams’ other request, to allow gun cases involving uncooperative minors to go to criminal court, Stewart-Cousins insists that “data” and “science” support sending young teens to family court instead. How about the data on the rising number of shootings involving teens?

Hochul similarly pleads that she needs to look at the data before deciding anything. Well, here’s some data: the stats involving defendants arrested for felonies in the first two months under their “fixed” no-bail law (July 1, 2020, to Aug. 30, 2020), as ex-Queens prosecutor Jim Quinn did for The Post.

In those two months, New York City saw 3,680 defendants arraigned for felonies, two-thirds of whom (2,564) had a prior or pending case at time of arrest. And court data show that 31% of the 2,564 were re-arrested before their case was disposed, and many more were arrested while awaiting sentencing or after sentencing.

Under the pre-reform law, bail was rarely set for first-time nonviolent felony offenders or those charged with a range of misdemeanor crimes. Yet status-quo defenders pretend that giving judges discretion will somehow wind up endangering such people.

Again: The overwhelming majority of crime victims happen to be other people of color. They and their neighbors deserve the peace of mind knowing that the local menaces will be off the street pending trial.

President Joe Biden called Adams on Monday night to offer his “firm support.” In response, Adams tweeted: “[Biden’s] support will be invaluable in getting the job done.”