Widows Against Parole

We stood behind the podium where PBA President Patrick Lynch told the media that killing a police officer means life in prison, no parole, no chance to walks the streets of New York City to kill again. Mary Beth O'Neill talked about her husband, a police officer, who was shot by a man out on parole after committing his first murder. And Linda Sledge, whose husband was on duty when he was dragged behind a car to his death by a repeat offender. These men are up for parole, eligible to get out of prison and live and work in the city of New York. I'm all for rehabilitation, Lynch told us, all for education and restoration, but I am not for allowing cop killers to strike again.

The parole board has changed, he said, so that today when a convicted cop killer comes up for parole, he is judged on his prison record, how well he managed to stay out of trouble, but not on the crime itself, so that a thief gets the same consideration as a cop killer. It isn't right, it isn't justice, and we need to implore Governor Cuomo to acknowledge and change the way cop killers are granted freedom.