Dear Daily Kos community,
My name is Janos Marton, and this past Monday morning I announced my candidacy for the 2021 Manhattan District Attorney race, challenging 3-term incumbent Cy Vance. I am a lawyer, advocate, and criminal justice reformer who has spent his career fighting against powerful interests and standing up for New York communities. Of interest here, I was a longtime member of this online activist community from the Bush era through 2014, and was last heard here blowing the whistle on Governor Cuomo’s disbanding of the Moreland Commission.
As Special Counsel to the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption, I investigated Democrats, Republicans, and special interests, publicly challenging Governor Cuomo when he prematurely ended the commission’s investigation. As a leader of the #CLOSErikers campaign, I took on Mayor de Blasio, eventually winning the Mayor’s commitment to close New York’s shameful jail complex. Today, I lead a team fighting for national criminal justice reform at the American Civil Liberties Union. At the ACLU, we advocate for reform efforts nationwide, including bail reform, sentencing reform, and overhauls to broken probation and parole systems.
For the last decade, I’ve watched as DA Cy Vance harshly prosecute communities of color and poor people in Manhattan, resisting efforts to end mass incarceration. He’s failed to prosecute the crimes of Harvey Weinstein, Donald Trump, corrupt real estate interests, and Jeffrey Epstein, all while soliciting massive campaign contributions from special interests and traveling the world on asset forfeiture-funded junkets. As progressives, we can do better.
As a young man of color growing up in 1990s Manhattan, I experienced first-hand how “tough on crime” tactics like stop and frisk eroded the community’s trust in law enforcement and failed to promote public safety. As a progressive prosecutor, I will refocus the office to take on powerful interests like unscrupulous landlords, corrupt political actors, and corporations that steal from their workers. My proposals include a commitment to reducing Manhattan’s pretrial prison population by 80%, ending the use of solitary confinement for all Manhattan defendants, and revisiting unjustly long sentences from the past to reunite families sooner.
You can also learn more about my views on my campaign website and this morning’s profile in The Appeal. And of course, I’m a real Kossack, so I’ll stick around to answer any questions you might have, not post and run. I hope that you will join me on this campaign, and support this people-powered movement.
Website: Janos Marton for District Attorney