Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins is firing back at Attorney General William Barr, calling him a “social injustice” prosecutor after the nation’s top law-enforcement official bashed progressive “social justice” prosecutors like her earlier this week.
“Better to be a ‘social justice’ prosecutor than a social injustice one,” Rollins told the Herald in a statement on Tuesday. “And if being a ‘social justice’ prosecutor means being committed to the fair administration of justice — for all, not just those who have power, influence, and money — then I am proud of the title. Also, no ‘misleading’ here. I am doing exactly what I promised to do for the people of Suffolk County when they voted me into office.”
This comes after Barr, speaking Monday to the Fraternal Order of Police conference in New Orleans, took some swipes at “social justice prosecutors with no-prosecute lists,” as Rollins does, as being “demoralizing to law enforcement and dangerous to public safety.”
Barr lambasted such decisions from these prosecutors, saying, “Once in office, they have been announcing their refusal to enforce broad swathes of the criminal law. Most disturbing is that some are refusing to prosecute cases of resisting police. Some are refusing to prosecute various theft cases or drug cases, even where the suspect is involved in distribution. And when they do deign to charge a criminal suspect, they are frequently seeking sentences that are pathetically lenient. So these cities are headed back to the days of revolving door justice.”
Barr, per his DOJ’s transcript of the comments, added, “The results will be predictable. More crime; more victims.”
Barr didn’t mention Rollins by name, instead referring broadly to lefty prosecutors elected in big cities where Rollins, along with Philadelphia’s Larry Krassner, have campaigned and taken office with controversial lists of offenses their offices by default will not prosecute as standalone charges.
For Rollins, that includes drug possession, theft, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
President Trump’s AG also said the decisions of “district attorneys that style themselves as ‘social-justice’ reformers, who spend their time undercutting the police, letting criminals off the hook, and refusing to enforce the law” are “demoralizing to law enforcement and dangerous to public safety.”
Rollins and her supporters say the crimes she won’t prosecute are charges that criminalize poverty and mental illness.
Rollins won a crowded Democratic primary last September before cruising to victory in the November general election against an independent candidate.
She’s also aimed to cut down on federal immigration enforcement in courthouses, instructing her staff to let her know when ICE agents are nearby and to factor immigration status into prosecutorial decisions.
