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Bravo! A Creative Move By A Queens Legislator
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| State Senator Shirley Huntley
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(Sunday, February 24, 2008) I read about it in yesterday’s New York Post online.
First, most regualr readers know I am no fan of our pathetic New York State Legislature. Regulars also know, my work-week schedule forces me to write my column which is published Thursdays and Fridays, on the weekends. Thus, I can only assume the Post got this great story and chose to play it as a light-hearted spoof instead of the brave and creative piece of work that I believe it is.
With that being said, I really don’t know the star of this creative investagative effort, Queens State Senator Shirley Huntley. I may have met her once -- not really sure -- but she was the recipient of a strong, strong endorsement on the part of the Queens Tribune and Press of Southeast Queens because she was running against the wicked witch of the West.
We believed that defeating incumbent State Senator Ada Smith who had been physically abusive to staff, police and others was an important thing for the mostly minority south Queens communities which encompasses the 10th senatorial district (Jamaica, South Jamaica, Springfield Gardens, Laurelton, South Ozone Park, Broad Channel, Lindenwood and parts of Forest Hills).
Thus we utilized our South Queens paper, the Press in the Democratic Primary to try to make the voters aware of the abdominal behavior of the incumbent. To our surprise and almost every other political observer, the incumbent lost and Shirley Huntley became the Democratic candidate and, of course, the winner and new State Senator.
The jury however was still out on her.
Shirley had a real tough job in order to impress us. She was joining the nation’s most dysfunctional state legislature. She was the junior member of the Democratic minority. All the State Senate Dems can ever do, because of how Albany works, is to try to win the majority.
They’ve been trying to do that for more than the 30 years I’ve been in journalism. They have done so very unsuccessfully.
So how could a rookie member of a powerless minority in a meaningless body prove herself?
The Post reported yesterday: “A state senator from Queens deliberately went into mortgage foreclosure to see what the experience was like - and complained that her bank was at fault for being slow in telling her she might lose her Jamaica home.
Sen. Shirley Huntley said she stopped making $2,000-a-month payments in November to verify the mortgage horror stories her constituents told her.
She said she’d planned to pay up when faced with a deadline.
Huntley said that her family was served with foreclosure papers on Feb. 7 and that she agreed to pay all arrears and fees by the March 11 deadline.”
Bravo, Shirley.
If you check the web or the clips, since her election, one of Huntley’s central issues has been fighting predatory lending and informing the public about the horrendous situation with home mortgages. Like other elected officials from Southeast Queens, she has been an advocate fighting to keep the financial predators away from her constituents.
It is a fight that may inform but usually has no teeth and doesn’t go very far.
Huntley took it up a notch by putting herself and her family’s home in the path of the foreclosure threat.
Creative tactics on the part of legislators can often bring needed attention to the ills of society. In the case of the NYS Senate, we believe, that such tactics accomplish much more than meaningless committee meetings, pre-decided votes and playing the tune that the three men in a room orchestrate.
Shirley Huntley has won our respect and has brought a big smile to the jaded lips of one longtime observer of the NYS Legislature.
Shirley, how about a cup of coffee and a long overdue interview?
MSchenkler@QueensTribune.com
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Who will tackle the problem? Public Safety & Mental Patients
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HENRY STERN
On February 12, David Tarloff murdered Dr. Kathryn Faughey. The sensational case has been widely publicized. Tarloff, a schizophrenic, had a long psychiatric history. His family did whatever they could to get him committed to a mental institution, but he was always found not to be dangerous and released.
There have been articles, columns and editorials written about the case in New York City’s dailies.
So far, we have not had many reasonable suggestions about what to do about the problem of released mental patients who commit crimes when they go off the meds which keep them tranquil. We offer the following ideas:
1. There should be a central computerized registry of discharged patients, available to the examining doctor when a former patient is brought in for examination. Does this violate the patient’s privacy rights. No more than looking up the rap sheet, fingerprints or DNA of a person accused of a crime. There comes a time when society’s rights have to be taken into account as well. In our view, that time has long passed. One aspect of the problem is that these matters are left to mental health professionals, many of them empathize with the patients, who are the people with whom they deal.
2. When a person is brought in for psychiatric examination, he/she should be physically examined as well. We do not know whether this was done in the Tarloff case, but the patient’s blood should be tested for medications or their absence.
3. People released from mental hospitals should keep regular weekly appointments with testers, who will check their blood levels. If they do not keep their appointments, they should be returned to the hospital promptly. If they disappear, warrants should be issued for their arrest, and police officers sent out to find them. When they are found, they should go through the criminal justice system, rather than simply being returned and then cut loose again.
4. Judges and district attorneys should be educated as to the potential danger posed by violent mental patients. If Judge Barry Kron received no information indicating that Tarloff was a danger, he cannot be faulted for releasing the man.
5. Where a judge or a doctor makes a finding that someone is not dangerous, he/she should write a memorandum explaining how that decision was reached. The authorities should keep score on how many times such rulings turn out to be erroneous.
6. When Kendra’s Law is invoked, the state or city police should track down the suspect, or report in writing why they cannot be found. This work is too important to be left to employees who ring the bell and leave when the patient does not answer.
7. Whenever the police are called in an EDP (emotionally disturbed person) situation, the mental health record of the person causing the disturbance should be available on a computer. This will help the police know what to do, and it may save the patient from being shot.
The secrecy surrounding mental health, the result of old prejudices, stands as an impediment to the appropriate care and treatment of patients. It is also a risk to the larger community which may be put at risk by unsuitably discharged patients. It is common that people are discharged when they are well, and then relapse, just as drug addicts and alcoholics do.
An administration that properly declares war on trans-fats should show equal concern for citizens murdered on the streets, in their offices or homes, or pushed off subway platforms by psychotics who were unwisely discharged and then unsupervised. The courts should co-operate in this effort. It may be more politically correct to go after purveyors of strudel than doctors and hospitals who serve humanity. But a knife stops a beating heart even more quickly than a globule of fat.
Again, we ask for suggestions. This should be an important governmental initiative. Who has the courage to take it on?
StarQuest@NYCivic.org
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A Rose By Any Other Name...
Now, I don’t know how many of you watch Charlie Rose on PBS 13. I’m certainly not a devotee but do stop my nighttime surfing occasionally when I find the conversation stimulating or the guest interesting.
However, Rose, a skilled interviewer with years in the business and a far reach to the production values of 60 Minutes, blunders every night in attracting and keeping an audience. Charlie and his entire production company have yet to figure out that it is user friendly to occasionally display the guests name and a brief ID at the bottom of the screen.
While everyone knows recent guests Bill Clinton or Bill Gates by sight, and many may recognize Iranian strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and fewer investment guru Warren Buffet, there are the many marvelous faceless journalists Charlie interviews who nobody recognizes.
Hey Charlie, surf by Larry King’s show so that you can learn how to it’s done.
BTW – a high school student with a computer terminal could probably handle the technical aspects.
--MS
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Not4Publication.com by Dom Nunziato |
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