Natasha Ramen and Claudette Marcellus are just two of way too many women murdered despite orders of protection against their killers. Their deaths could have been prevented had the New York State Assembly bothered to pass the domestic violence bills that would have strengthened their protection. These bills had been passed by a bipartisan Senate but most never made it out of the Assembly committees. Assembly members are up for re-election in November, and if voters send the same do-nothing members back to Albany, then more victims are likely to follow.

Most New Yorkers know who’s running for president but probably can’t name who represents them in the city or state. Yet these local politicians have way more power over our lives than anyone in the White House. Important issues such as domestic violence, child safety, and health care are being stalled in Albany while members spend more time fundraising for their reelections.

Bill # S2034, which attempted to upgrade crimes against children to felony offenses, was passed by the Senate on April 24, 2007, and died in the Assembly this January.

Bill # S3646 authorized family and supreme courts to issue orders of protection for the protection of witnesses. It also passed the Senate last April and died in the Assembly in January.

Bill # S894 authorized orders of protection of further or permanent duration in the presence of aggravating circumstances. Passed in April in the Senate — dead by January.

Bill # S4796, sponsored by Andrew Lanza, required that individuals who have an order of protection issued against them to wear an electronic monitoring device. It passed the Senate last June and died in the Assembly this January.

Ramen was a rape victim in 2005 who was preparing to testify against her alleged assailant, Hemant Megnath. More than a dozen times, he appeared in court on the rape charge and was always released on bail. In May 2007, Ramen was stabbed to death and Megnath has been charged with her murder. Marcellus obtained an order of protection against her boyfriend Jacques Dorcinvil in January 2007 after the 31-year-old allegedly beat her and her son. In May 2007 she was stabbed to death. Her 12-year-old son who survived had his throat slashed. Dorcinvil has been charged with her murder.

Every time I read about these atrocious acts of violence there’s inevitably a line in the report that reads, “The system failed.” Well, that’s unacceptable. In many cases, the hands of the police are tied because of inept legislation and judicial incompetence. But we are the system and we’re supposed to elect representatives who will correct the flaws in the system. Clearly that’s not happening.

In February, a frustrated Dan Donovan, the Staten Island District Attorney, wrote a letter to the Staten Island Advance asking for help from the public to address the inaction by the Assembly. He wrote that 10 bills targeting domestic violence passed the state Senate with near unanimous votes: “For some reason known only to the majority leadership of the Assembly, eight of those 10 bills were never allowed an up-or-down vote in the Assembly committees.” He ended his letter by asking for the public’s help in calling their Assembly members to ask what their position is on this matter.

But domestic violence is only one of the issues that gets short shrift from the Assembly leadership headed by Speaker Sheldon Silver, who incidentally is up for re-election in November. Health care coverage is dominating the discourse in the presidential race, but real solutions are rarely proposed. I watched a television ad for a company offering affordable insurance coverage for individuals and families. At the bottom of the screen, a disclaimer read, “not available in NY.” Now why is that, I wonder? Why aren’t we free to buy any policy we can afford?

How much does the state really care about our health care? The governor is proposing a hike in malpractice insurance that will effectively cause many New York physicians to quit their practices and will no doubt dampen enthusiasm for future medical careers. The rising costs can be directly contributed by the astronomical verdicts in costly lawsuits, but any hope for tort reform in New York State is useless, since Mr. Silver is counsel to one of the largest personal injury law firms in the state, Weitz and Luxenberg. He doesn’t have to declare publicly how much he earns from the firm.

The word “change” has become the buzzword this year. It’s high time for one in Albany.

acolon@nysun.com