Exiting John Jay, Travis Weighs In On Enforcement Changes, Bail and Rikers

Jeremy Travis was talking crime and punishment, the drop of enforcement actions by the NYPD of one million compared to five years ago and the “profound change in enforcement strategy” that accounted for it, when he was asked July 11 about a Brooklyn judge’s decision two days earlier to release without bail a man who had entered the 83rd Precinct stationhouse in Brooklyn, tried to wrest a Police Officer’s gun from her holster, and when finally subdued, stated that he had come there to kill cops.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Loren Baily-Schiffman was already facing withering criticism from police-union leaders and editorial writers for her decision, and on this occasion, the President of John Jay College—who is generally slower to criticize than those groups—admitted he was baffled by her ruling.