http://www.tenantplanet.org/2009/03/31/manhattan-da-hopefuls-accidentally-meet/

"Unsafe bike messengers is a workers' rights issue. There are certainly some daredevil messengers, but I'm guessing most would rather not be risking their lives if they didn't feel their incomes depended on it."

Indeed. The pay for these jobs is not livable.

i have a feeling that all the candidates will choose the cautious route but, for livable streets advocates, even being on the radar as an identifiable constituency/interest group is a worthwhile goal. and in the event that one of the candidates actively courts our votes (panders to us, basically) -- that would be reason enough to actively donate, fundraise, campaign, and volunteer for such a candidate.

you should be lining up an interview with Cy Vance asap.

The fact that she thought we would be sympathetic to her criticism of cyclists just shows she didn't do her homework. The one big idea that she had on her own for traffic safety is to "send a message" to cyclists? That's just insane*.

But hey, why take the time to think up a coherent policy on this issue? It's only the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. Much better to draw something up about terrorism, because the DA's office has a lot more to do with that than the Federal Government. Ridiculous.

She's good on sexual assault, and pretty much literally nothing else, from drug laws to the death penalty. And she's still running as the anti-Morgenthau, even though he's not running this year. Let's hope there are some other serious candidates out there. Some good ones.

*Unsafe bike messengers is a workers' rights issue. There are certainly some daredevil messengers, but I'm guessing most would rather not be risking their lives if they didn't feel their incomes depended on it.

She is bad news. She is pro-death penalty and was known in the Courts as the worst type of hanging judge.
Insiders know her as a sadist, who would taunt defendants instead of combining compassion with justice.

She comes from wealthy Shaker Heights, Ohio, born with a silver spoon in her mouth and disdains the poor. Think Dick Cheney.

Don't fall for her b.s. here. She is evil. You don't want to be a defendant, ladies and gentlemen, with her as D.A.

Do let your ideology cloud your mercy.

Police will more thoroughly investigate traffic accidents if they think the DAs will prosecute.

DAs will prosecute more cases if they have more evidence available.

Grand juries will move cases forward if the DAs can make their cases stronger and more compelling (and not let defendants blame the victims).

More convictions, more high penalty moving violations issued, more licenses suspended = less deaths

Advocacy is at the root of all of these.

Whoever the next DA is, if they’re proactive on this, it will do more than improve the promise of justice for victims and their families. For every grand jury who hears one of these cases, there’s 23 more citizens who now know more about traffic laws, and whatever they decide, they’ll have heard about injured or grieving people, and they’ll have heard lawyers making their best arguments to show that a driver is the responsible party.

The families of these victims are not the only ones who deserve a “human being’s” consideration on this. All of us are more likely to become victims, as long as these drivers face no consequences. As a city, we could, with the help of a good DA, really do something to reduce the number of grieving families, and reduce the danger.

Whether Ms. Snyder wins or not, I agree with Charles Komanoff, this interview might indeed turn out to be a milestone. I hope it does.

Great job. I was riveted - reading every word of the transcript. I think Ms. Crocker is in a good mindset now - she's listening and obviously wants the DA office to become more effective. We need to continue to drive home the fact that - yes - someone is as likely to killed by a stranger in a car, then they are murdered by a stranger. Last year NYC again had around 500 killings, but if you look at a site like The Murder Book (http://tinyurl.com/co7djv) over half the women in NYC murdered were victims of their partners. A good percentage of men also knew their killers or associated with them.

So with over 100+ pedestrians killed each year, you really are getting close to a ratio of it being as dangerous to be killed with a weapon (traditional thinking) as it is with a car (also a weapon.)

Load up the stats folks, I am sure people will be reading today.

The one thing that Aaron might have done differently was to reframe his upfront question, "... Do you hear more complaints about cyclists violating the law than motorists?" Given how we cyclists (myself included) tend to treat traffic signals as advisory rather than mandatory, we'll do better if we frame driver behavior in terms of endangering people rather than violating laws per se.

I'm especially glad that Aaron posed the question, "Why don’t we see traffic justice as an issue on your web site?" Crocker's answer (essentially, "I know about murder, rape, drugs but not about traffic violence") shows we have a lot of educating to do.

Anyway, this is a terrific piece of work by Aaron and Streetsblog. I'm awed and grateful.

I lived in Georgia in the late 80's, early 90's. I forget the specific details, but a man killed his ex-wife with his truck in north Georgia. The most he could possibly have faced was five years in prison. The sheriff in that county actually said, "If you want to kill someone in Georgia, use your car, you'll get away with it." Had he so much as gotten out and slapped her he could've face more prison time that what he got. The courts treat any deaths by vehicle as a random, unfortunate accident. And then we wonder why drivers aren't more careful and attentive.