What does it take to get locked up?

Two men allegedly stole a Dodge Charger muscle car and led cops on a wild chase through Harlem streets, driving up on sidewalks, endangering pedestrians and slamming into other vehicles. When the cops finally grabbed them, one of the men had a loaded, unlicensed pistol in his waistband. All of this was captured on video.

Here's the punchline. Hauled before a Bronx Criminal Court judge, the two men were back on the street within hours.

Former New York City Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly says "the cops clearly risked their lives" and that the judge's decision "shows a total disregard for their bravery."

Too many of the city's lower-court judges are ideologically opposed to locking up alleged offenders before trial or requiring cash bail, even when the state's pro-criminal laws allow it.

Kelly fears the situation will worsen if Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor. Mayors have the power to appoint judges to the city's courts for 10-year terms. It can be one of their most lasting legacies. Mamdani is intensely anti-incarceration, at times questioning if jails even have a purpose.

The pro-crime industrial complex is elated at the prospect. Legal Aid lawyer Susan Light, who represented one of the two men absconding in the Dodge Charger, says "Mamdani has made a lot of promises. ... One is more bail reform and social workers with cops."

"We've been the victims of wrongheaded judges in the past, but it could get much worse," predicts Kelly.

New Yorkers are still suffering the consequences of former Mayor Bill de Blasio's appointment of "let 'em go" judges. Among the worst is Queens Criminal Court Judge Wanda "Wendy" Licitra, an ex-Legal Aid attorney appointed by De Blasio in 2021. She lets violent perps walk before trial a shocking 85% of the time, according to a New York Post review of data from the Office of Court Administration in March.

You can blame the so-called bail reform law passed in Albany in 2019 for some of the recidivists walking the streets. The law bars judges from jailing the accused before trial or requiring cash bail for nearly all misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. Never mind how dangerous the defendant may be.

That has done real damage. After the law went into effect, the city's pretrial prison population fell by over 40% over two years, while major crimes rose by 36.6%.

But even when the law allows judges to set bail or detain a defendant, many like Licitra do not.

Another is Manhattan Judge Robert Rosenthal, a one-time De Blasio appointee later elected to a judgeship.

In January, he cut loose on supervised release — requiring a mere daily check-in phone call — a 37-year-old man charged with violent robbery. The very next day, the man went on a sexual assault rampage against a 12-year-old girl, then a 14-year-old girl and three women. "He shouldn't have been out on our streets the next day," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told the Post at the time.

De Blasio's successor, Mayor Eric Adams, vowed during an appearance on "The View" shortly after his election to appoint judges who would require bail or jail whenever the law allows it.

When asked if he can do something about it, he said, "That's the power of appointing the right judges."

Or the wrong one. The judge who released the two culprits in the Dodge Charger recently was an Adams appointee, Judge Ralph L. Wolf.

Even so, Adams' record has fewer of the glaring extremists De Blasio chose. Or that Mamdani would likely favor.

A Mamdani mayoralty will mean more criminals on the streets. Mamdani is vowing to close the Rikers Island jail facility, reducing the city's jail population by thousands. Every previously implemented reduction in Rikers' population has led to a crime surge.

Worse is Mamdani's zeal to the most hardened repeat offenders.

In 2022, while in the state legislature, Mamdani cosponsored the "Less is More" bill to exempt parolees from having to return to prison the first two times they get in trouble with the law or otherwise violate parole. As a result, 85% of parole violators stay free, up from 57% before the law was passed.

Another result: Maureen and Frank Olton, a Queens couple, are dead. Jamel McGriff, a repeat parole violator, is accused of butchering the couple in their home before setting the house afire in September.

More gruesome news to follow if Mamdani wins the mayor's race.

Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at www.hospitalinfection.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Wesley Tingey at Unsplash