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News 12 Staff

bxpp114part2_2024-01-14-12-48-02

Welcome back to power and politics. Everyone right here on News 12, we're joined this week by Bronx District attorney Darcel Clark as we are going through a lot of the issues facing the borough right now. Thanks again for being here this week and it is human trafficking prevention month. So I wanted to talk with you about this. I know your office has a human trafficking unit. You, you know, very active in the community. How big of a problem is this here in the Bronx and what's being done about it? One person is one person too many is being trafficked. So it is a problem is something that has been prevalent, which is why I had to establish a unit because we were seeing the trends and we're working really hard with prosecutors, working with law enforcement and working with, you know, sex workers that get caught up into this is, you know, treating the as victims and making sure that we get them out of the life. And at the same time, hold accountable those people who find it ok to, to traffic them, you know, they, they're vulnerable individuals. Most times, you know, we're talking about young girls, young women, trans boys, you name it, it, it doesn't discriminate but to make sure that, you know, we hold them accountable. So the unit has, has um lawyers, we work with law enforcement. I have a social work but also that's involved to make sure that, you know, we work day and night to, to rescue these people that are here that are involved in this. We had cases last year where we, you know, took down a operation that was, that was working in one of our local hotels. Um There needs to be regulations on some of these small hotels that are popping up that are just, you know, at will running these types of operations. So we continue to work with law enforcement to make sure that we enforce that. And this month is awareness about it. So people can understand see what the signs are because people don't necessarily know. And there are a lot of things, there's trainings going on this Saturday. Uh There's an organization called Not on my Watch. Um And uh we will be participating in the day long workshop with them to really inform parents and community on, on, on what to look for and also be there for individuals that may find themselves in that situation and they need help getting out, we'll be there to help them with that as well. And it's important as you mentioned, this is the prevention month there, who's getting awareness out about it. Here in the Bronx, there was so much awareness last year about something made national headlines. And this was the discovery of fentaNYL at a day care center, a home daycare center right here in the borough. And it's seemingly led to one discovery after another in the coming weeks. Of course, that remember mostly for the death of the one year old uh Nicholas Domenici there at that facility, there is legislation. I know propose of this. I know your office is, but I think people would like to know just kind of what's being done in the aftermath of that discovery, what's being done to make sure the kids are being kept safe at these facilities. Well, first of all, you know, my heart goes out to the Dominici family because of the loss of one year old Nicholas, I've worked very closely with them to make sure they're getting the services that they need while we go forward with the prosecution on the case. But as well as there were three other young kids that were almost killed, it was attempted murder on them. So we're working very hard in concentrating on that prosecution to hold those individuals accountable. But more than that, I promised that I would look into the issue of the home daycare centers and making sure that it is safe for our Children. So my office has conducted, has started conducting an investigation. There's over 300 home daycare uh centers um in the borough. So we're looking at each and every one of them making sure that, you know, they're following procedures AAA and making sure that they're safe. And, um, so, you know, making sure there's no, you know, drugs or anything else. So, so that's ongoing investigation with my office with, uh, you know, the federal government that, you know, NYPD and, and other law enforcement officials, um, Department of Investigation, et cetera and then there's the legislation. So State Senator um Gustavo Rivera and council member Pina Sanchez, both are, are, are putting forth legislation which is not necessarily law enforcement, but it's about compliance, making sure that these daycare centers are actually safe and also empowering parents to have some power over, you know, the, the inspection of the places that they're sending their kids because I mean, in this situation and fentaNYL was under the floorboard where the kids were sleeping in the closet where the legos and the toys were. That, that's unconscionable, but this family didn't even get a chance to go in and see that they're approved for the daycare. This is where the child is gonna go and they go the legislation from what I understand and they're working on it is gonna give parents the power to be able to inspect its gonna also um give training to those providers to make sure that they know how to be safe. Narcan being available. Things like that, that to make sure that accident like that doesn't happen again. And then the inspectors that go in and look at these daycare center to make sure they're looking under every nook and cranny now, really, really reeling, not only just having a checklist, but really making sure that the place is safe for everyone. So those types of laws will be good in addition to what I'm already doing on the law enforcement side to make sure you hold accountable people that have decided to violate, you know, our penal laws and, and, and end up killing a young baby like that. I wanna make sure it never happens again. And this is a story that made headlines and it wasn't the only one that we saw that made headlines here in the borough recently. It's been a month now if you can believe it since that building collapse, we saw at Billingsley Terrace. So much has come out and so much we've learned since then, your office has taken an interest in this case, obviously what's been going on, but also with potential other issues here in the borough, we talk about other buildings. Can you kind of let people know what's going on in regards to this? Well, that that investigation is ongoing, so I can't go into all the details of it, but we're working with the department of building the Department of Investigation, um every single law enforcement agency to make sure we get to the bottom of what actually happened in that building. And my heart goes out to the residents of that building. Some of them still have not been able to return, but we have to be so thankful that nobody died. So we're doing an investigation on that, you know, looking at whatever other contracts that engineer has to make sure that, you know, the city looks into those other places as well to make sure that they're safe and secure so that, you know, this is not gonna end up happening somewhere else because of the failures that may have happened uh with this particular engineer and it was something else that we thankfully, no one was hurt in that. That's I think the big thing we talk about that building collapse coming down here. It was incredible to see that, to see that and to see the images and the video that we just saw just a moment ago up there still fresh in everyone's mind. Hard to believe it's been a month since that collapse, but we will stay tuned to see what happens with that in a bit. And we want you all to stay tuned because we've got more coming up here with the district attorney. We're gonna wrap things up right here on news 12 when power and politics continues just a couple of minutes, stay with us.

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bxpp114part3_2024-01-14-12-48-55

Welcome back to Power and Politics here on News 12 as Bronx D ad uh Darcel Clark is with us here this week. And I wanna ask you d A when we talk about uh some of the issues that are going on in law enforcement and the way you guys are going after these cases right now, you're using new technologies and new ways of getting these information and getting the evidence you need. Can you tell us a little bit about something that's been going on? Yeah, we have, we saw the 2020 year old uh sexual assault that happened using new technology with this investigative genealogy um um resources so that we were able to connect a person who committed this crime 20 years ago, was able to connect them and, and bring justice now for that victim who waited 20 years to make sure that the person who assault her was brought to justice. So, you know, any type of new, you know, technology that can help us do the work that we have to do. In addition to our traditional, we take every, we'll use every tool in our toolbox to make sure that we keep um Bronx site safe and new technologies is one way that you're obviously going and using out there, but also new approaches and that's a good thing to do. And this is not necessarily a new approach. You're just expanding on it. I wanted to talk about getting out there talking to the youth here in the Bronx. It, something that you've been working on a number of different issues, but you're really gonna be dialing into that with a new initiative this year, right? So last year I had a youth summit because I gotta tell you, I go out into communities all the time and I hear parents, I hear adults, I hear communities talking about, we gotta do something with our kids, our kids need this, our kids need that. And every time I'm in a meeting, there's no young people in the room. So I decided, how about I just run a meeting with just the young people and we had 100 and 50 young um Bronx kids come in and spend a whole day with us telling us how they felt what solutions they had about the problems that they're facing as young people. And the the best way to solve a problem is to get it from the people that it affects the most. So it was great having that. We came up with a lot of ideas. So now moving forward, I'm establishing a Youth Advisory council that's gonna work with me and my office to really effectuate some of the solutions that they talk about how social media has impacted them. Violence. You know, schools lack of jobs. We really, really need to invest in our kids in a good way, not by me prosecuting them, but because it's too late but getting to the root causes of why they're getting in trouble in the first place. So going to the schools, you know, working with schools, education, getting them jobs, you know, it's nice to volunteer. But these kids gotta get transportation back and forth food. We, we need to start paying them for, for their volunteerism even I wanna see that. And those are some of the solutions that they came up with. So I really excited. We're looking for young people, ages 14 to 20 to come to our office to join the Youth Advisory Council and really help me get the um the, the, the programs and the resources that they need so they can do better. Having them be part of the solution here will only help things going on because you want, first of all, I want them to be heard because the biggest thing is that nobody ever hears them. They're always talking at them but nobody listens. So I wanna listen and then respond in a proper way so that we could do it together if they're interested. What's the best thing they can do? Reach out to my office? We you know, we're doing a community engagement, uh, unit is, is running that and we're really looking forward. We're gonna have something coming up in February and we're gonna continue to do it. We also have, uh, a lot of programs that we already run. Uh, uh, you know, youth trial advocacy program. We had an Explorer program that we had for COVID. So we're reinstituting that anything we can to engage them in a positive way with my office and law enforcement rather than seeing them on the other end of an arrest report. All right. Well, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, thank you so much for being here with us this week. Thank you, Kurt. I appreciate that. I appreciate the time and I appreciate our conversation and I wanna thank everybody out there for watching this week. I appreciate you as well. Hope you have a great rest of your day. That's it for power and politics right here on news. 12.

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For the past eight years, Darcel Clark has served as Bronx district attorney, prosecuting some of the highest profile cases in the city. Her efforts to combat gun violence, domestic violence and overall crime in the community are well-documented.

Power & Politics: Q&A with Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark

For the past eight years, Darcel Clark has served as Bronx district attorney, prosecuting some of the highest profile cases in the city. Her efforts to combat gun violence, domestic violence and overall crime in the community are well-documented.

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