We did it for the kids!
Indeed, local youngsters were the through line in this week’s all-new episode of Brooklyn Paper Radio, on which co-hosts Anthony Rotunno and Johnny Kunen took a deeper dive into stories unfolding across the borough that put children front and center.
Our co-hosts first welcomed reporter Kevin Duggan, who zipped to the studio straight from an event hosted by District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, where he laid out his so-called Justice 2020 initiative that aims to eliminate the trend of incarceration-as-first-resort in Kings County.
The scheme in part calls for a reduction in prosecution of so-called school-based offenses in order to divert young people from the criminal-justice system — which Gonzalez said for too long encouraged the jailing of individuals who could be appropriately punished without spending time behind bars, according to Duggan.
“The main thing was to avoid people being sent to jail,” Duggan said. “It’s basically what he calls a progressive approach to criminal justice.”
Reporter Colin Mixon then joined the hosts to remind listeners of officials’ call to vaccinate their children, after 21 new victims contracted the measles virus when leaders of a Williamsburg yeshiva allowed a sick, pre-symptomatic kid to attend class.
“Within the past month or two, a single yeshiva has been home to more than twenty cases alone,” he said.
Mixon then pivoted to another developing saga on his beat — residents’ growing chorus of calls for a dominatrix to flee the sexual-education space she operates inside a Bedford-Stuyvesant residential unit, one neighbor of which claimed draws “creepy” clientele who could simply snatch a hapless child from the street one day.
“I always thought the worst kind of neighbor would be a drummer,” Johnny mused after hearing of the Bdsm battle waged by the dom’s neighbors.
Reporter Julianne McShane closed the broadcast’s hard-news segment by joining the hosts to discuss a new bill up in Albany that would bring 750 school-zone speed cameras to city streets if passed. The legislation, proposed by Bay Ridge state Sen. Andrew Gounardes, would preserve and massively expand the speed-camera program — which briefly powered down last summer when state pols failed to pass legislation to extend it beyond its original expiration date — that proponents claim saves lives, and opponents blast as another way for lawmakers to take cash from taxpayers’ pockets.
“The bill would authorize the city to install up to 750 cameras, and would also change the scope of how they operate — cameras would be on longer, from 6am to 10am, and could be placed within a quarter-mile radius around the school, instead of just on the block,” McShane said.
To wrap it all up, Arts Editor Bill Roundy again visited the studio to share his list of can’t-miss events — for all ages! — coming up in the borough of Kings.
Tune in now to hear it all — and don’t forget to stream the latest episode of our sister Power Women podcast when you’re done.
Brooklyn Paper Radio is recorded at our studio in America’s Downtown, debuts new episodes every Tuesday, and can be found, as always, right here on Brook