So While Bragg Chases Trump...
New York City chases decline
So the grandees here in New York assure us the city is going in the right direction, and that all our crime and quality-of-life issues are behind us.
And if we can just convict Trump, all will be well, right?
Here’s how it currently looks in Manhattan, Alvin Bragg’s jurisdiction, broken out by race — check (literally) the bottom line:
(courtesy, whitecollarfraud.com — click the link for further)
Now, Manhattan crime is incrementally down over last year. But anyone who has been here since the criminal justice reforms and COVID knows that we don’t need single-digit incremental gains in non-violent categories. We need a major systemic shock.
The answer, under Bill de Blasio, Eric Adams, the state legislature, the city council, and the city’s prosecutors has been the usual “root cause” approach — while foolishly ignoring the mess in front of our faces.
So what are we getting instead? Here in NYC — and nationwide?
The Violence Interruptor Program — The Worst Idea You’ve Never Heard Of
There have been a few articles of late decrying the police response to “violence interrupter” programs – that is, programs designed to expose “at risk” youth to older gang members who have left the life. A recent piece in The New York Times portrays cops as closed-minded and territorial in their dealings with violence interrupters, and disparages the arrest of two citizens involved in the Save Our Streets violence interrupter group.
Violence Interrupters Mark Johnson and Dequann Stanley were arrested for interfering with a drug arrest in Crown Heights. Their charges were naturally dropped by the Brooklyn DA’s Office – because that’s what they do down on Jay Street. But this isn’t the first time cops and violence interrupters have clashed since the programs began.
Violence Interrupter programs started several decades ago in Boston and Chicago as a way to bring formerly “violence involved” individuals to talk to current gang bangers and shooters. The idea is that the two groups meet, often along with cops, in an effort to dissuade future crimes.
The idea, at least initially, seemed to work. It allowed youthful offenders to see people who left the gang life behind and became successful and productive citizens. A noble venture.
The programs proliferated and were copied in cities all over the country. The results, however, were mixed. This was likely due to the fact that government money became heavily involved in the programs. What started as a few well-intentioned people partnering with cops became a business model to scoop up government largess. Corporations were formed. Perps saw a way to make a few easy dollars. And unfortunately, some even used their relationships to promote crime and recruit accomplices. Recent studies show that violence interrupter programs have no real effect on crime; some even show that it increases violent crime.
Although there are certainly some honest and hard-working people involved in trying to reduce violence in their communities, it seems like the train has gone off the rails in the violence interruption game. Just a few recent headlines:
· From Baltimore - Safe Streets supervisor charged after FBI raided his home last week, documents show
· From Saint Louis - Cure Violence interrupter accused of destroying evidence in murder case
· From New York - Cure Violence Interrupter, Michael Rodriguez, Arrested on Drug & Gun Charges in Orange County
· From Chicago - Anti-violence worker found in Chicago home naked with gun, suspected narcotics and $50K cash: prosecutors
· From Nashville - Gideon's Army 'violence interrupter' to plead guilty to federal firearms charges stemming from shootout
· From Louisville - Another Violence Interrupter has been indicted
No wonder cops are suspicious of these programs. Yet they persist. Cops don’t trust them, there is no evidence that they work, and they cost taxpayers a good chunk of change.
In many cases they seem to be a government employment and financial favor program. They don’t appear to have much fiscal oversight.
So let’s take just one violence interrupter program in New York City and see where it leads us.
New York’s Version: Tied To The Mayor’s Office (of course…)
The Center for Justice Innovation runs the New York City “Save Our Streets” groups. This is the group that is referenced in The New York Times piece, where the NYPD made arrests. The Center for Justice Innovation is one of these companies that lives off government funding. So who supervises it?
When Eric Adams became Mayor of the City of New York he immediately changed the oversight of the contracts for violence interrupter programs -- including that of the Center for Justice Innovation – from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice to the Department of Youth and Community Development, headed by Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. Wright is a longtime associate of Adams, the domestic partner of Schools Chancellor David Banks, and friend of Philip Banks, the Public Safety Commissioner.
She was also arrested twice in 2013 for domestic violence, but somehow those charges just seemed to go away (it pays to have a Banks in the family. Sheena Wright is now the First Deputy Mayor. She is also the CEO of numerous housing development corporations in Harlem. A busy woman.
In 2022, the Center for Justice Innovation claimed to receive 69 percent of its funding from New York City, 10 percent from “Private and Fee for Service,” nine percent from New York State, eight percent from the federal government, and four percent from “Other Government” funding. If you look at the organization’s tax returns for 2021, the Center awarded over $3.7 million in grants and awarded more than $314,000 to Elite Learners, Inc., a community organization in Brooklyn; over $740,000 to the Fund for the City of New York; $50,000 to Legal Services NYC; and more than $1.6 million to the Fortune Society, an organization working to support prisoner reentry from incarceration.
The Center for Justice Innovation’s total revenue in 2021 was $38,389,954. Remember, 69% of that funding is from New York City. It claims to have spent $18,633,866. We cannot determine where all of that money went and where the unspent money is. We also cannot determine if any of this money had any effect whatsoever on crime or neighborhood stability.
We do know that some of it was probably used to pay Mark Johnson and Dequann Stanley, the two SOS members arrested by the NYPD. Both men intend to sue the City for their arrests. That will certainly cost New York taxpayers a few more dollars. Add it to our tab.
Meanwhile, Back In The Real World
Bragg’s office in action:
According to the reporting, the “outside agitators” and students who took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University forcibly detained several custodians.
Why are there no charges from Bragg’s office related to this? My inquiries to the DA’s office remain ignored.
Also during the Trump trial, a woman leading a tour group of young schoolgirls was randomly stabbed in Times Square by (yet another) NYC street psycho. Bragg’s office charged Assault 2 (which will almost certainly be dropped to misdemeanor Assault, allowing the perp to walk free).
How is this not Attempted Murder? The blade of this knife appears at least six inches.
And while Bragg’s office offers plea deals to the migrants who attacked the NYPD officers in Times Square, “Laken’s Law,” a bill in the NYS legislature to allow at least some interaction between law enforcement and ICE, is quietly killed by the Dems.
As I told Sean Hannity on the radio last week: No wonder everyone (including Sean!) is moving to Florida.
Looks Like I Was Wrong…
… thanks to Judge Merchan.
At this point, I’d have to say that, while I called that the defense would use Bob Costello, Merchan ensured his testimony was constrained, to say the least (that said: I did say the jury would hang only if Costello was allowed to, “testify freely” — which certainly didn’t happen).
At this point: Costello looks like a defense backfire.
Merchan is, in this writer’s opinion, more partisan even than Bragg. That he would not let Trump’s expert on campaign finance in, after Michael Cohen — Michael Cohen! — opined on campaign finance law, is astounding.
Merchan’s other offenses are legion. By picking a fight with Costello, he not only made Costello look like his enemy (and thereby an enemy of the jury, who almost always identifies with the judge), but he made Costello’s key testimony disjointed and confusing.
Merchan’s other sin here: Sending the jury home for a five-day weekend.
Five days. To marinate in anti-Trump Manhattan.
And if you don’t think that The New York Times won’t be putting out an enormous propaganda anti-Trump polemic this Sunday, specifically for the consumption of the jury: I’ll see you in the funny papers.
Hey DOJ — You Seeing This?
Since 2020’s Summer of Love, not a single Antifa conspiracy case has been made by DOJ. None.
In fact: DOJ has never made a single case against the group.
There’s never really been any justification for this, despite the fact that Antifa and their cohorts have organizationally been responsible for so much violence and mayhem. The canard that they are “tough to penetrate” because of their loose structure is embarassing to law enforcement — and of course not true.
If we could penetrate the mafia, al Qaeda, ISIS, etc… you could penetrate these clowns.
Now comes word of an actual Antifa case — 12 black-clad Antifa members convicted at the state level, courtesy of the San Diego District Attorney.
As Andy Ngo writes at The Post Millenial: “This legal case could provide a blueprint on how prosecutors can unmask and break up criminal Antifa cells.”
Damn right — but only if prosecutors have the guts and leadership to pursue it.
Luckily, DOJ is on the really important issues:
(That’s a real headline, I swear — click on it).
The DOJ Civil Rights Division in action, folks. You know — the unit Matt Colangelo formerly served in.
And Finally….
Great job, New York State! Who needed that “Loitering for Prostitution” charge, anyway. It was so sexist!
Wow. Is it 1977 already?
