It DOES Feel Worse This Time
Because those who don't know history are indeed doomed to repeat it
“For the first time in my life, even in the late ’80s and ’90s when the crime rate was killing 2,000 people a year, I never felt as unsafe as I do now just walking around.” — David Paterson, former New York Governor
Folks, Governor Paterson – a Democrat -- nails it with the quote he gave today in The NY Post. Things are different this time around – and they feel worse.
Here’s why.
1. There’s no feeling that the descent will stop. Unlike the 80’s and 90’s, generally considered the modern nadir for crime and quality of life in NYC, this time around there is no feeling that anyone in power really wants to stop the slide. There is, in fact, the suspicion that those responsible – primarily the NY State legislature and the NYC Council -- actually aspire to current conditions, by legislatively locking us into them. The ambition appears to be a ubiquitous state of disarray and danger that is somehow more “equitable.”
Add the woke DA’s to the Albany and the City Council, and you have a troika of government ideologues sacrificing the city’s health on the altar of wokeness.
Check out here, for the latest from Chris Flanagan, on what the City Council’s culpability for all this is — and what they should be doing to fix it. You won’t see it laid out this clearly anywhere else.
2. You cannot remove a public benefit once conferred. Remember this debate, when we were getting Obamacare? Well, it was accurate then and it’s accurate now. Public safety is a public benefit. Once conferred, people resent its removal.
We had it good for a long time. New York – “the safest big city in America!” The feeling that it is inexorably slipping away – and so fast! -- feels like losing a public benefit you’ve come to rely upon. It’s shocking. And it’s something, incidentally, that voters resent.
3. This time, it’s all on video. As the old saying went in the 1960’s, “the revolution will be televised.” Well, the revolution in criminal justice certainly is. For the first time, the public is getting a good view on what “disorder” actually looks like. Welcome to a cop’s life. In many ways, all of America is starting to live a cop’s life (hopefully you’re being paid better).
No need to belabor this point – we could post 100 videos on this. But maybe a few just to demonstrate the point?
Recently near Times Square:
Here’s one from our own Hell’s Kitchen (“civic” war? Whatevs…).
This one sort of ties it all together….
But why should we be shocked — when this is our nation’s capital, right across from the White House!
Hey progressives: Does all this actually look like progress to you?
Progressing towards what? North Korea?
Your humble narrator has proposed a possible measure to combat the gun crime engulfing our cities. The excellent folks over at the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, a publication I couldn’t recommend more, have published it. I am very flattered. Find it here: https://www.city-journal.org/handgun-trafficking-task-force
It’s received some nice attention already. Let’s hope it gets some consideration. It’s a good idea, written from experience.
Regarding the Hunter Biden case: Like everyone else, I have no idea what DOJ is doing or has been doing for four years. But I can say this: Any investigation that does not include extensive, on-the-record interviews with Tony Bobulinski is a whitewash. As an investigator, you AIM for a flip like that inside the target organization. To have one and ignore it is, as the saying goes in NYC, “highly fugazy.”
We have this poor man murdered at Marist College on a trip to see his child. We have a shootout in front of Gubanatorial candidate Lee Zeldin’s house, with his young daughters inside (this writer predicts underaged, gang-related perps, who will receive only wrist-slaps due to the new “raise the age” reform) (thanks Albany).
One wonders what the effect of criminals shooting up the suburbs will be this November 8th. As I keep saying in interviews, in my opinion, fear of crime will drive the vote as much or more than the economy. “Fear is on the ballot this November.” Let’s hope the soccer and tiger moms are getting the message.
Not for nothing, but: What is this woman doing back in NYC? We don’t have enough problems? Get her out already.
Here’s your narrator on America’s Newsroom this a.m. What a bunch of pros they are over there, from the staff to the hosts. If “duty is what we expect in others” (Oscar Wilde), then this gang comes through and then some….
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6313558628112
And finally: Watching these guys — who remind me of the families of many of my beloved old colleagues on the NYPD — just makes me happy. Check them out — and try not to smile. Impossible.
Until Thursday morning… please stay safe!