Carl Heastie seeks evidence of the effectiveness of penalties in reducing crime.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is demanding evidence that tougher penalties deter crime, which is hard to believe.

After facing public criticism (including our disdain) for his initial comments on the issue, Heastie reaffirmed his stance on Tuesday, stating, “I don’t believe, in the history of increasing penalties, has that ever been the reason that crime has gone down” — and “I’d love somebody to give me an example as to when that happened.”

Well, there are plenty of examples. It’s not difficult to find one.

As crime expert Rafael Mangual from the Manhattan Institute points out in The Post, there is a wealth of evidence showing that “harsher criminal penalties can and do deter crime.”

For example, a study revealed that California’s three-strikes law reduced felony arrests among individuals with two strikes by as much as 20%.

Another study demonstrated that including incarceration as a penalty for failing to pay court fines increased the likelihood of payments being made.

It’s also a fact that individuals who are incarcerated for longer periods are unable to commit crimes during that time.

The likelihood of being arrested and incarcerated also plays a crucial role: The increase in the number of city police officers by nearly 30% during the tenures of Mayors David Dinkins and Rudy Giuliani resulted in a significant decrease in major felonies, from 430,460 in 1993 to 162,064 by 2001.

Murders during those years decreased from 1,927 to 649 — a 66% decline — and continued to drop to 292 in 2017, a remarkable 87% decrease from the high of 2,262 in 1990.

Additionally, the implementation of Broken Windows policing, which involves cracking down on minor crimes, was beneficial.

There is substantial evidence to support the effectiveness of consequences in deterring crime.

Unfortunately, crime rates began to rise again after enforcement efforts were weakened by the city and state, resulting in restrictions on law enforcement and relaxed consequences for criminals.

When Mayor Bill de Blasio and the state released prisoners during the COVID pandemic and implemented cashless bail in 2020, murder rates increased to 488 by 2021, a 67% rise from just four years earlier.

Retail thefts (and the threat of violence towards workers) have skyrocketed, increasing by over 6.5% to 14,910 this year alone compared to the same period in 2023.

Therefore, there is a push to strengthen penalties for violent shoplifters to safeguard retail workers.

“How do you deter crime except through penalties?” questioned Coalition to Save our Supermarkets leader Nelson Eusebio in The Post regarding Heastie’s denial of the situation. “It’s open season on retail workers in the city.”

It appears that the speaker feels compelled to cater to radical progressives by blocking measures aimed at protecting bodega workers and others.

However, he appears foolish by denying the evidence that policies he opposes have proven to be effective.