Village Voice Shows DA Vance as Twisting Republican Arms Against Knife Reform Bill

Republicans in the New York Senate still seem lukewarm to any change, allowing a bill championed by Assemblyman Dan Quart, a Manhattan Democrat, to languish for months without a vote. And for the first time, a powerful opponent to reform — Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. — is coming out of the shadows and going full-bore to scuttle Democratic efforts.

It’s an odd look for a self-styled progressive prosecutor like Vance. Outside of a few reactionary — and baldly hypocritical — Republicans in the statehouse, Vance stands more or less alone in his public opposition.

For two years now, we’ve been documenting how the NYPD and local D.A.s — Vance chief among them — have used the state’s “gravity knife” statute to lock up mostly black and brown New Yorkers, sometimes in outrageous circumstances.

More Here

Image of policeman demonstrating "gravity knife technique

http://images1.villagevoice.com/imager/u/original/8708124/knife_flick_gif.gif