A deranged, apparent leftist attacked GOP Representative Lee Zeldin with a “self-defense weapon” on Thursday, but immediately after his arrest the sheriff’s department released him.
David G. Jakubonis, a 43-year-old wearing an Iraq War veteran’s hat, attacked Zeldin as the gubernatorial candidate spoke at a campaign stop in Perinton, New York.
The irony of the attack, and the subsequent, immediate release of Jakubonis, is that Zeldin was speaking about New York’s crazy bail-reform law. Zeldin predicted that Jakubonis would be released.
Instant Release
Video shows Jakubonis approach Zeldin with a deadly weapon and say, “you’re done, you’re done, you’re done.”
“The man is holding what appears to be a pointed self-defense tool shaped like the face of a cartoon cat, the New York Times observed. The weapon appears to be a “My Kitty Plastic Self Defense Keychain Weapon.”
Fox News reported that Joe Chenelly, national director of AMVETS, tackled the maniac. “His right hand came up, I assume out of his pocket, and he had a blade on his hand,” Chenelly said:
His fingers were like two finger holes in the blade and lunged at the congressman. And Congressman Zeldin blocked the first lunge. And then as he tried to lunge again, I grabbed him from behind and tackled him down to the ground and held him on the ground.
Several others joined Chenelly and pinned Jakubonis to the ground.
“I’m ok, and @EspositoforNY , and all other attendees are safe,” Zeldin tweeted:
The attacker is in custody. Grateful for the attendees who stepped up quickly to assist and the law enforcement officers who quickly responded. I’m as resolute as ever to do my part to make NY safe again.
But that wasn’t all Zeldin said. “The attacker will likely be instantly released under NY’s laws.”
The attempted stab suspect was charged with attempted second-degree assault, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department said. “Jakubonis was arraigned in Perinton Town Court and released on his own recognizance.”
While leftist Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul “condemn[ed] this violent behavior in the strongest terms possible,” her own baseless attack on Zeldin as a “far-right extremist” might have pushed Jakubonis over the edge.
If so, it isn’t the first time far-left, extremist propaganda has led to violence. The Southern Poverty Law Center is directly tied to two attacks on conservatives and Republicans because it has repeatedly labeled them “extremists” and part of “hate groups.”
Bail Reform in New York
Zeldin, who represents New York’s 1st District that comprises eastern Long Island, had good reason to speak about bail reform. And not just because the nut who attacked him with what amounts to a dagger skated out of jail minutes after he was booked.
New York City is suffering from a major crime wave.
“New York City is off to an inauspicious start on the crime front in 2022,” former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton wrote for The Wall Street Journal with Manhattan Institute fellow Rafael A. Mangual:
Index crimes — murder, robbery, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, car theft and grand larceny — rose by nearly 40% in January compared with last year. Several high-profile violent crimes have shocked and outraged residents. Five New York City Police Department officers were shot in January, two of them fatally.
The reason: Leftist bail reform foisted on law-abiding New Yorkers.
“The reforms made it more difficult for judges to require defendants to post bail,” Bratton and Mangual continued. Judges can neither put defendants in jail nor even require ankle monitors because they’re dangerous. “They can consider only risk of flight”:
The bail reform was predictably followed by a sharp increase in the percentage of violent felony arrests involving suspects with open cases. According to data released by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, 19.5% of total arrests and 20.2% of violent felony arrests were of suspects with open cases in 2019. New York’s bail reform went into effect the following year, and those rates jumped to 24.4% and 25.1%, respectively. Violent crime in many of the city’s precincts also rose dramatically.
As The New American reported in 2020, “bail reform” enabled one determined criminal to wage a campaign of robbery and assault for which he was arrested 141 times.
H/T: Breitbart
