While I've seen a couple of threads about the least harmful candidates in the #5BDManhattanDAHarmReport, I think it's just as important to discuss the MOST harmful candidates. @5BoroDefenders found that the two most harmful candidates are Liz Crotty and Tali Farhadian Weinstein

Crotty is not running as progressive and is not pretending to be one. She is clear in her belief that the criminal system functions effectively, that incarceration is a useful tool, and that the DA's office is not responsible for systemic racism.

I think it's incredibly unlikely that anyone considering voting for Crotty would be swayed by 5BD's analysis or even reading here. I don't want to belabor her candidacy.

The same CANNOT be said for Farhadian Weinstein, who presents herself as a highly-credentialed progressive

Farhadian Weinstein worked under ADA Gonzalez in BK & AG Holder. She touts the Do Not Call list of officers w/ credibility issues as the 1st of its kind & points to declining to prosecute marijuana in BK as two progressive actions. It would be easy to view her as a progressive DA

This is a mistake. During our interview Farhadian Weinstein made it extremely clear that she sees the criminal punishment system as generally functional, when in the hands of ethical & professional prosecutors. She repeatedly fell back to the answer of "I would follow the law"

Disregarding the many racist, classist, and destructive ways that the law can be legally applied. As an example, she was clearly surprised by our question regarding whether she would use peremptory challenges, saying that her office would follow the law.

There is extensive literature about how peremptory challenges systemically remove black jurors and how Batson protections are insufficient. When given the option to rectify this racist part of our criminal system by voluntarily refusing to use peremptory challenges, she declined

Farhadian Weinstein made it clear she was unfamiliar with or would continue some of Vance's most insidious practices, including continuing to prosecute drug possession, challenge findings of incompetency by mental health experts, & using conspiracy charges in gang prosecutions

Even those reforms she does support and uses to present herself as a progressive are incremental to the point of being meaningless. The Do Not Call list in Brooklyn included 7 names when released. The gun court which she repeatedly points to as a diversion court

is a "rocket docket" that gives people 1. early access to speedy hearings (a significantly less urgent problem in MH than BK) or 2. a diversion program that requires an upfront felony with plea with a prison sentence and requirements so onerous that very few people succeed

These are a small sample of the issues with Farhadian Weinstein's candidacy discussed at https://www.5bd.org/ , but in light of her extensive financial backing & nominally progressive platform, I wanted to highlight how regressive her platform truly is