Back in the day, pro-crime advocates told us that all the criminals had to be freed from prison or they’d die of massive coronavirus outbreaks in detention facilities. (And, obviously, illegal aliens also had to be freed for the same reason. Meanwhile coronavirus patients had to be transferred into nursing homes, because unlike prisons, many of the people living there might vote Republican. Or least non-leftist.)

And here’s how freeing criminals worked out in New York.

Hundreds of prisoners released early from Rikers due to COVID concerns are being enabled to re-offend again and again without consequences, law enforcement leaders say.

“We’re continuing to see people get arrested over and over and let right back out. And it really defies common sense,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said in an interview with NBC New York.

Of approximately 2,500 defendants sprung from Rikers early because of COVID safety planning, at least 250 have been arrested again since, according to Michael LiPetri, chief of Crime Control Strategies for the NYPD.

Chief LiPetri tells NBC New York the NYPD did not object to releasing older defendants, nor those with underlying medical conditions. But he says the consequences of the larger-scale release of prisoners are now showing up in the arrest data, with those 250 re-offenders being arrested 450 times so far during the pandemic.

Here’s a glorious test case.

Martinez was released from Rikers on March 16 under plans to reduce the jail population for health reasons during the pandemic, according to the Manhattan DA’s office. At the time, he was facing a range of charges, from petit larceny to forcible touching, stemming from at least six separate incidents since November 2019.

Martinez was being held for allegedly robbing the Sephora on East 86th Street (with conflicting reports about whether or not he brandished a gun). He also had a violent past. Martinez had already served a 364-day sentence after pleading guilty in 2014 to strangulation involving his girlfriend, according to law enforcement officials.   

Seven days after his early release, Martinez was arrested for allegedly pulling a boxcutter while stealing a cellphone from a passenger in a parked car. NBC New York has obtained video of this incident. Martinez was released on his own recognizance.

In New York City, if you pull a boxcutter on someone during a mugging, you get released on your own recognizance. 

Is it any wonder America’s cities are burning?

We don’t need to defund the police. We need to defund advocates for criminals.