The Queens Courier editorial of May 11 is very much on the money in supporting the initiative of Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilmember Peter Vallone to restore the budget cuts that the City’s five District Attorneys have suffered in recent years.
Prosecutors are an integral part of our criminal justice system. It makes little sense to add funding to enable the police to hire more officers and make more arrests without ensuring that prosecutors can process those arrests in a timely manner.
Reductions in prosecutors’ budgets are penny-wise and pound-foolish. Cuts in our budgets mean increased case processing time which translates into greater police, correction and court costs. Whatever is cut from our budgets costs the city in the long run a great deal more than the city saves.
Similarly, if additional resources are being provided to enhance the City’s response to cases involving the physical and sexual abuse of children - as they should be - it is imperative that prosecutors be in a position to aggressively investigate and prosecute those cases.
I, together with my fellow prosecutors, look forward to working closely with Speaker Quinn and the Council in continuing to keep this City safe and helping to improve the quality of the lives of everyone who lives and works here.
Richard A. Brown
District Attorney
Make English The Official Language
We need a deeper awareness of patriotism. What nonsense to have our National Anthem sung in a foreign language. It is about time that English is made the official language of the United States of America.
When previous legal immigrants came to our shores, the Italians, Germans, and Eastern Europeans - they all learned English while maintaining their cultures. Does that mean that Spanish-speaking people have lesser intelligence?
Should we now have the “Star Spangled Banner” sung in Korean, Russian, etc. for equal time?
Wake up everyone - under no circumstances is our National Anthem to be sung in any other language but ENGLISH! Our politicians are selling their souls for election and/or re-election. Enough is enough!
Natalie Savoy
Rego Park
Reading List For America’s Children
I think that America’s children should read the Declaration of Independence as well as the Constitution when they are being educated! It is obvious that many of our politicians are ignorant of the Bill of Rights. If the Founding Fathers were alive today, I believe they would be shocked at what is going on in the schools.
Sure, America’s children may know “diversity,” and how to put a condom on a banana, but I question whether many of the children in our schools really know who George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison were and why those men are important.
In addition, I believe the Ten Commandments should be posted in every classroom in America. We are citizens of a nation “under God,” and we should start acting that way!
Michael Mullaney
Bayside
Not Proud Of These Boycotting Politicians
Shame on Albany lawmakers Luis Dias, Peter Rivera, and Jose Peralta. They walked off their jobs to support illegals marching in the recent immigration reform boycott.
What arrogance! Would they support other groups too?
These three were elected to uphold our laws, not to support those who have broken them! They should be docked a day’s pay just as some of the illegals were when they left their jobs!
All three lawmakers have been negligent and should have reported these lawbreakers to the I.N.S. a long time ago for a quick trip back to their homeland.
R. Spina
Queens
