BY RICK MILLER
ALLEGANY — Crime and Punishment was the theme of the 46th Right Thinkers meeting held Monday night at The Hall, attended by about 150 members.
Moderator Nate Smith the conservative discussion group’s moderator, introduced a guest panel that included Cattaraugus County Undersheriff Eric Butler, Allegany County District Attorney Ian Jones, Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone and John Stengel of Clarksville, a retired state Corrections Department librarian.
Smith asked panelists whether “lawfare,” which combines the words law and warfare, which he said is being used against Donald Trump and Rudi Giuliani, will target “normal citizens like us?”
Jones, serving his first year as Allegany County district attorney, indicated Trump and Giuliani were no threat to democracy, like IRS investigations and the FBI investigating citizens attending school board meetings. The good news, he said, was that “people are wising up to this weaponizing” by government.
Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee “is a fantastic person” for the job of investigating illegal lawfare, Jones said. What Republicans really need to do is “win elections,” he added.
Butler, who has served as Cattaraugus County undersheriff for eight years and 27 years in law enforcement, asked whether the legal system “is able to be stabilized? I pray to God that it is. If people don’t get out and vote and get people involved in the system, we are screwed.
Quattrone, who is in his sixth year as Chautauqua County sheriff, said, “Not all is lost. It is recoverable.” He spoke of the recent efforts to rename military bases, including changing Fort Benning, Ga. to Fort Monroe, where his son serves as a captain in the Army. “They spent millions to get rid of history,” he said.
The renaming of U.S. military bases by the Department of Defense is part of an effort to remove association with the Confederacy.
Stengle was more direct to the question of lawfare. “If we do not stop this, we will impose lawfare on all America.” He added the legal troubles facing Trump and Giuliani is the same thing the radical left will use to destroy America.
Trump, who is facing 91 felony charges in four separate cases, was in court in New York City Monday for the first day of jury selection in the hush money trial involving payments to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.
The panel also discussed New York’s controversial bail and discovery reform.
Butler said bail reform has hindered the number of people who can be held for public safety as well. Deputies refer to it as “catch and release,” he added. Someone has to be arrested six to 10 times before bail is set.
Sometimes jail is the only place an incarcerated person waiting for trial is going to get help for a mental health or drug problem, Butler explained.
Jones said that in Allegany County, bail and discovery reform are designed for failure.
Those arrested for nonviolent felonies are generally released without bail. “You would be shocked” at the crimes that don’t require bail under the new law,” he said. “It’s not a workable system.” The new discovery law, which requires prosecutors to turn over evidence to defense attorneys, gives DAs “an unreasonable time to reply.”
Special interest groups are to blame for the new bail and discovery laws passed by Downstate democrats. The new bail law “is not really helping inmates,” said Quattrone. If they are not incarcerated, they do not get services and some will commit crimes again.
“One guy,” Quattrone said, “was booked into our jail 58 times in 4 ½ years.”
Stengel said bail reform has resulted “in a shameful increase in the victimization of the population.” He added: “The only thing that thwarts crime” is incarceration. Criminals deserve to be in custody or close supervision for even their first offense.
The Right Thinkers meet monthly at the Hall in the old school on Fourth Street Allegany. Their next meeting is May 20 at 5 p.m.
Right Thinkers leaders Nate Smith and Connie Wolfinger (from left) stand with Monday night’s panelists Allegany County District Attorney Ian Jones, Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone, Cattaraugus County Undersheriff Eric Butler and John Stengel, a retired state prison librarian. They discussed crime and punishment.
