Crimes that aren’t crimes in New York

There were lots of shocked people when state terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione – the man accused of murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson – were dismissed on Tuesday. I wasn’t one of them.

As a survivor of homicide and an advocate for victims for more than 20 years, I’ve seen firsthand how New York’s penal code is a disaster. It doesn’t just fail victims; it rewards predators. It protects the violent. It gives them loopholes and light slaps on the wrist. And then we all act surprised when killers like Mangione benefit.

Here’s a reality check that most people don’t know: punching someone in the face is not considered assault in New York. It’s classified as “harassment” – not even aggravated harassment. Stabbing someone isn’t attempted murder. It’s “assault.” Let that sink in. A fist to your face? Harassment. A knife in your gut? Assault. The absurdity writes itself.

And the list goes on.

Take strangulation and choking – one of the clearest predictors of homicide in domestic violence cases. For years, choking someone unconscious was only a misdemeanor unless there was visible injury. Bruises fade, but the trauma is permanent. New York eventually patched this embarrassment with a strangulation statute, but prosecutors still find ways to plead it down.

Child abuse is just as bad. Kids with broken bones, brain injuries, or who are beaten within an inch of their lives often see their abusers charged with misdemeanors – unless the child dies. So in New York, a dead child finally gets justice. A brutalized but living child? Sorry, that’s not serious enough.

And let’s not forget sexual assault. For decades, New York required proof of “forcible compulsion.” Translation: if you were too drunk, drugged, or coerced to fight back, your rape didn’t “count.” Prosecutors would downgrade or toss cases because the victim couldn’t prove physical force. That isn’t justice. That’s state-sanctioned humiliation.

This is the real problem. Instead of lawmakers fixing these grotesque loopholes and making charges fit the crime, we’ve spent the last decade on so-called “social justice reforms.” What do these reforms actually do? They close prisons, release violent repeat offenders, and unleash the hell George Soros envisions upon society. They put the rights of criminals before the lives of victims.

And don’t expect this to change under one-party Democrat rule in New York. Why would it? These are the same “progressives” who can’t bring themselves to stand with victims, who bend over backwards to excuse predators, and who look the other way when mobs of New Yorkers actually protest in support of Mangione and donate millions to his legal defense. Yes, you read that right: in today’s upside-down culture, terrorists and murderers get sympathy marches while grieving families are told to move on.

Raise the Age. Bail Reform. HALT (Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act). Less Is More. Each of these social justice experiments has one thing in common: they serve offenders, not the innocent. The victims – people like me, like Brian Thompson’s family, like countless others – are an afterthought.

This is a depraved indifference to human life.

But here’s the good news: all hope is not lost. Thank God federal charges are in play. Thank God President Trump’s Department of Justice still believes in protecting the innocent and fighting for real justice. If it were left to Albany, Mangione would be treated like a misunderstood soul rather than a cold-blooded killer.

The path forward is obvious. Lawmakers need to stop writing laws that coddle predators and start rewriting penal codes and sentencing guidelines. That’s exactly what our Victims Rights Reform Agenda calls for: charges that fit the crime, penalties that fit the damage done, and a justice system that remembers its purpose is to defend the innocent, not excuse the guilty.

New Yorkers are living in a nightmare created by their own politicians. The only question is: how many more families have to be destroyed before voters wake up and demand justice? And is there any hope of that happening when crowds are actually protesting to free Mangione and pouring millions into his legal defense?