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Squadron pans Republican bill prohibiting NYC, state from paying for terror trials

June 8, 2017 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle
State Sen. Andrew J. Lanza (left) and state Sen. Daniel Squadron. Photos courtesy of the Offices of Lanza and Squadron
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The New York state Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that, if approved by the state Assembly, could prevent the city from paying for security during terror trials, according to state Sen. Daniel Squadron (D-Western Brooklyn waterfront and lower Manhattan).

Senate Bill S2617, sponsored by Sen. Andrew J. Lanza (R-Staten Island), prohibits “the expenditure of state, local and public authority moneys relating to any civilian criminal trial of enemy combatants for acts of terrorism in any federal court in the state of New York.”

The bill has passed the Senate every year since 2011, but failed in the Assembly. Its origin is rooted in the 9/11 terror attacks.

Lanza’s position is that terror trials should be held at military tribunals, not civilian courts, a spokesperson told the Brooklyn Eagle. To that end, the bill is designed to block any funding by the city and state related to these trials, including security.

“If no funding, then obviously the trial will not be held,” the spokesperson said.

“The United States should be sending a message to the world that we are serious with dealing with foreign attackers by trying them in a military tribunal,” the bill’s explanation text says.

Squadron has concerns, however, about the lack of clarity over who, exactly, the legislation would apply to. His district encompasses federal courthouses in lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn.

He told his fellow senators on Wednesday that the bill “says the New York City Police Department — the greatest police department in the world, one of the greatest entities in the world to protect against terrorism — they can’t do it. They can’t do it in lower Manhattan, they can’t do it in Downtown Brooklyn, they can’t do it in the federal courthouse on Long Island — and it makes no sense at all.”

“In the year or so since the last time we saw this bill … we’ve had a number of terrorists charged in New York City,” he said.

While not charged as enemy combatants, alleged terrorists currently on trial in Manhattan and Brooklyn include the notorious Mexican drug kingpin El Chapo, who is being tried in the Eastern District in Brooklyn and held in a Manhattan jail. Others include James Jackson, the racist terrorist who killed 66-year-old Timothy Caughman and the so-called Chelsea Bomber, Ahmad Khan Rahimi, who was arrested on September 19.

“The federal government hasn’t called anyone an enemy combatant since 2009, has any number of trials, many, many of them in my district … and yet the sponsor continuously wants to prohibit the New York City Police Department from protecting my constituents, our city and our state,” Squadron said. “I don’t know what he would have us do.”

The bill goes next to the Assembly.

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