America abandoned a custodial approach to mental illness a half-century ago, and the results have been obvious in the nation’s streets and public spaces ever since — and never more so than on the Bowery early Saturday morning.
Now Albany is moving toward the same non-coercive approach to crime and criminal justice — they call it “bail reform,” among other things — and the impact on New York’s already chaotic streets is certain to be dramatic. Just think of it as the latest insane embrace of social disorder and stand by for stormy weather.
The Bowery has been a last stop for the down and out since forever — well-known for moral dysfunction and urban despair, though not so often for bloody murder.
Enter Rodriguez “Randy” Santos, by most accounts a toxic broth of insanities, addictions and violent impulses so profound his own mother is said to be terrified of him. Police allege he savaged five fellow Bowery derelicts with a makeshift iron wrecking bar in the twilight hours, killing four outright and hospitalizing the fifth with critical injuries.
Santos is in custody, and thus now begins a complex adjudication process focused almost solely on him: his actions, his incapacities and his legal culpability. His victims, and the safety of the city itself, are very much on the periphery.
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Bob McManus is a contributing editor of City Journal. He retired as editorial page editor of the New York Post in 2013 and has since worked as a freelance editor, columnist, and writer.
This piece originally appeared in New York Post
