Police Commissioner O'Neill: Justice, Not Parole

March 23, 2018

Letter to the editor from Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill published in the Friday, March 23, 2018, print edition of The New York Times.

Re "Parole Must Mean Something" (editorial, March 19):

Parole does mean something. It's relief granted to people who deserve a second chance.

Herman Bell doesn't fall into this category. It isn't as if he killed a police officer on the spur of the moment when the officer was trying to apprehend him for another crime, as sometimes happens. In fact, he plotted with his co-conspirators to waylay and murder Officers Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini in cold blood in Harlem in 1971.

In the case of Officer Piagentini, there is strong evidence that he was tortured by Mr. Bell and his accomplices, as they shot him 22 times while he begged for his life. And in San Francisco, Mr. Bell went on to kill a police sergeant with a shotgun blast, also in a premeditated and planned attack.

One shouldn't have a second chance after committing crimes like these no matter how carefully one rehearses a long-delayed statement of remorse. Crimes like these should be punished to the full extent of the law, which in New York State is life in prison.

Parole must mean something. So should justice.