To the Editor:

The hypocrisy of our state government knows no bounds.

When Cuomo rammed the NY Safe Act through, literally in the dark of night, without any sort of public comment, he argued that such quick action was necessary to ensure public safety.

Most of us know that this claim reeks of bovine excrement, and that this tactic - using the “message of necessity” – was no more than a means of deliberately circumventing the democratic process.

Recent headlines indicate that the state has not yet created the database needed to perform background checks to comply with the NY Safe act.

Think about this: he rammed a bill into law in mere minutes, but subsequently failed, after a full twelve months, to implement the database required by his own law!

It is obvious that the NY Safe Act was more about providing Cuomo with sound bites and publicity than it ever was about actual public safety. If public safety was indeed Cuomo’s primary concern, one would reasonably assume that he would have pushed the database creation with the same zeal he used to crush citizens’ rights.

7 News/Fox 28 reports that Addie Russell believes it is good that state officials are taking their time creating the database: “I would much rather have a system done right instead of trying to force something into a deadline,” said Russell.

This level of hypocrisy is truly astounding! Russell is one of many who responded to Cuomo’s night-time “emergency session” and subsequently voted for the Safe Act, a law so hastily and poorly crafted that Cuomo, Russell and others ‘forgot’ to exempt police officers from its provisions.

She voted for it without adequate preparation, without forethought, without public comment, debate, or constituent input. In mere minutes she crushed all basic democratic principles and helped ram this bill into law.

In other words, she demonstrated none of the sort of due diligence, none of the “let’s get this right” attitude, that she thinks others ought to demonstrate.

Something is truly rotten in Albany. Let’s ensure we elect truly accountable and responsible elected officials next time. These hypocrites really must go.

Dale Petry

Canton