Albany mayor and progressives owe ex-DA Soares an apology

After yet another epic weekend of teen gun crime in Albany, local Democrats are implicitly admitting that longtime District Attorney David Soares was right after all — a year after the party machine ousted him for refusing to shut up about how state “reforms” fuel the violence.

Amid generally slamming overbroad criminal-justice changes for New York’s rising crime, Soares relentlessly fingered the Raise the Age law for teaching teens all the wrong lessons — angering the Legislature’s leaders enough that they got the Albany party to deny him the party line in last year’s election.

The 2017 Raise the Age law upped the age of criminal responsibility to 18 — mandating that nearly all 16- and 17-year-olds, even those charged with violent offenses or caught with loaded guns, go to Family Court and so walk right out with barely a slap on the wrist.

Now, after teen shootings left 10 wounded and (thanks to a flare gun) set a house ablaze, Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan is echoing Soares: “This is not about needing more youth basketball,” she fumed. “These are some of the hardest kids to reach.”

Albany is “flooded with guns,” she declared last month after two teens were shot near the Governor’s Mansion.

“At what number will the body count be enough to prompt action?” Soares asked after two fatal shootings in 2023.

Two years later, the body count continues to rise.

And the carnage will continue unless and until Democrats representing communities plagued by youth gun crimes demand an end to the Legislature’s failed criminal-justice experiments.