Carl Heastie’s beyond-absurd declaration of faith that punishment is pointless

“I just don’t believe raising penalties is ever a deterrent on crime,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told reporters last week.

Really.

Truly.

Seriously.

How does this man have any job, let alone one of the three most powerful posts in New York state government?

He doesn’t believe . . . one of the most fundamental facts of human nature, a keystone of codes of law going back at least to ancient Babylon’s King Hammurabi.