The uspet defeat of long-serving Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes was celebrated Wednesday by activists for Jewish victims of sex abuse.
“Hynes had to go,” said Mark Meyer Appel, founder of Voice of Justice, who has waged a long campaign to see Hynes defeated, believing he has not adequately prosecuted child molesters within the politically powerful Brooklyn ultra-Orthodox community. “I’m very happy.”
"The election result sends a clear message that the people of Brooklyn want to see fairness, not special treatment, and that when the people choose to speak at the polls, the chasidic bloc vote -- which went to Hynes -- becomes irrelevant," said Ben Hirsch, co-founder of Survivors for Justice, an organization that advocates and educates on issues related to child safety.
"Hynes' record on Orthodox child sex abuse, combined with the growing prosecutorial misconduct scandals, cost him the election," Hirsch said. "Brooklyn's Orthodox community was cynically used by Hynes for political ends."
Hynes, in office since 1989, lost the Democratic nomination to Ken Thompson, a litigator making his first bid for public office, by a large margin, 55-45 percent. Although he is also on the Republican and Conservative ballots, he said he would not continue his campaign.
