What was accomplished in Albany this year?

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Governor David Patterson, and he has a few things to say about what’s going on in our city or state, our country. Governor Patterson Aubity, first of all, has wiped the clean the slate clean. They’re all.

0:19 They passed the budget, but there’s a few items that nobody knows what really is going on. It’s called the clean slate law. Can you explain in simple English to the American people what it is?

0:34 Speaker 2 So, John, under the theory that if a person serves their time, that they are basically forgiven by society. Unfortunately, some people have come out of prison and the fact that they had a prison record hurt them in trying to get employment, trying to get education, that kind of thing.

0:54 So basically that theory would be that at a certain point, if a person stayed clean in other words, they didn’t commit any crimes, that we would basically expunge the convictions from the record and therefore they would not have this in background checks. Now, in theory it works, but one of the problems that we have in the state right

1:18 now is you have people getting arrested forty to fifty sixty times, and when that kind of thing happens, there can never be a clean slate because they were never more than, you know, six months away from their previous conviction.

1:31 So I think that the legislature’s intent was positive, but I think the result of it could actually increase the number of people who are now not only out of prison, but are not out long enough for us to determine whether or not they really did learn their lesson.

1:49 Speaker 1 You know, for example, what I was afraid of, Governor is you know, we’re one of our companies that we owners Prestides. And does that mean if somebody got out, was he was a murderer? See I worry about violent crimes.

2:06 If he was a murderer and got out, can you wipe the slate clean? And if I hire him, he’ll be in one of my stores on the East Side and nobody would know he was a murderer.

2:21 Speaker 2 It’s possible that no one would know what his previous criminal record is. But I think that there would have to I would have made the time longer.

2:30 Speaker 1 Than the legislature did.

2:32 Speaker 2 In other words, I would have made it a period of time that you would have to say, if this person did not get into any trouble, whatever it is that they did in the past, they were able to turn their life around and live a meaningful life and a lawful life. But right now, the Senate passed the

2:50 legislation two weeks ago. The Assembly came back this week and passed it, and it does appear that this is going to be a little bit of a controversy, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens should someone as you described, perhaps commit a crime when no one even was around them knew that they were a previous offender,

3:09 and then that comes back up that they that they were, and that’s you know, that’s the chance you take. Like I said, I certainly think if people serve their time and they turn their lives around, and you know, you hope that there’s no recidivism, but that doesn’t always work out that way. And the number of people who are

3:29 in the who’ve been in the system, there aren’t really that many of them compared to the total population. So if we focused on those who seem to continue to commit crimes even after they’ve been convicted, that’s one of the ways you could lower the crime rate.

3:46 Speaker 1 You know, in my vocabulary, and I’m a New Yorker all my life, I worry about violent crimes and violent people being with civilized people. I don’t care if a person stole a loaf of bread, like they usually say, it doesn’t bother me, but violent crimes, let’s move on.

4:09 I understand New Jersey is trying to pass the law, and I haven’t heard all the details. I wonder if you have that kids could do whatever they want if they’re minors, even if they’re in high school at age twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and the parents don’t have to be notified. Let’s talk in general, because I haven’t seen the details of that law.

4:37 What do you I mean? I think that’s the craziest thing I ever heard.

4:41 Speaker 2 I think it’s a policy that if a child wants to announce that they are of a different sex, or have questions about their sexuality or that kind of thing, that the school would be prevented from telling their parents.

4:59 Now I think more and more we’re moving into a society where we’re adultifying children before they reach the age of maturity. So even if they do say these things, it might be a good idea that the parent know, because in the end, the parent is the custodial entity that will get blamed along with the child if the

5:24 child does something that’s improper. So, you know, more and more the rights of younger people are being expanded to treat them as if they are older. And although I think people, you know, probably some children know at an early age that they’re different than other children, or they wish they were of an opposite sex, and there’s nothing

5:47 wrong with that, but I think the fact that it’s now something that the parent wouldn’t find out is a little bit unfair to the parents. And the New Jersey governor apparently has been part of this policy, so we’ll see how that weighs out.

6:04 Speaker 1 I thought Governor Murphy was a common sense individual, but I’d be disappointed if he’s really supporting that. And if I was a parent in New Jersey and I had high school age kids, I would move out. Yeah.

6:20 Speaker 2 Well, Governor Murphy’s had a great record as a governor New Jersey, and I’m sure maybe we’ll try to bring him on next week and have him explain it. Let’s do that so that we’ll get a better understanding. I don’t want to I agree with you.

6:34 Speaker 1 I don’t want to criticize him unless we understand it exactly well. Governor Patterson, thank you very much for coming on and we’ll catch up with Hu again next week.

6:43 Speaker 2 So John, on my way home, if I, you know, just kind of grab a loaf of bread from cristiitis, you’ll let it go.

6:49 Speaker 1 Absolutely. I will tell him they cannot use the rocky Colorvido bat on you please have a good, good weekend.