The World's Largest Clown Car

The New York City Council? Or the Manhattan DA's Office?

The group of gang members who assaulted two cops in Times Square this week have skipped town.  No surprise; anyone with half a brain could see that coming.  Off to the only place on earth that these perps might get treated better than in New York - to California.

And now New York’s Finest will have another task to accomplish.  Find these miscreants and bring them back to court.  We could say bring them to justice, but that would not be accurate.

Members of the NYPD will have to get a warrant from the Manhattan DA’s office (yes, the same office that cut these “asylum-seekers” loose).  They will probably have to wait until the next court date and hope the judge issues the warrant.  Then the case will be given to members of the Fugitive Enforcement Division.  They will have some work to do.  Locating these perps will not be easy.  They are using different names from the ones they were arrested under (and who knows if those are real).

They will be chasing ghosts, people with no name, no ties to community, no financial trail to follow.  It will be difficult.  The NYPD will have to fly detectives around the country to track down leads.  IF they confirm that they got on that bus, it will start with the stops the bus made and who may have seen them.  Yes, they can get help from local cops, but no one cares about a case as much as the catching detective. 

If they catch a few breaks and get some leads, they will get help from local police to make the dangerous apprehension.  These guys probably split up, so this might be several teams.  If captured out of state, the perps will be brought in front of a judge.  They have the right to waive extradition, but probably will not.  Hopefully the judge will hold them in custody for the extradition hearing, but there are no guarantees. 

The detectives will probably fly back to New York and wait for the state of capture to go through their hearing.  Once a judge approves the extradition, they have to be brought back to NYC.  Figure two detectives for each prisoner.  Eight plane tickets out, twelve tickets back (if they all get nabbed).

Now comes the payoff: their day in court.  Will they plead guilty?  Go to trial?  And if they plead out, what will they get?  They are charged now with a D felony (2^nd degree assault, just above a misdemeanor).  One thing we can be sure of, they will not get anywhere near the 6 ½ years that the feds just gave one of the January 6 rioters who assaulted a cop.  We are thinking time served, free Mets tickets, an EBT card, and a letter of appreciation from the New York City Council.  A bit of hyperbole, but you get the idea.

If you were an NYPD cop, how would you feel?

And as a taxpayer funding this madness: how do you feel?

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The Names To Blame

So as anticipated (and against all logic) the New York City Council overrode Mayor Adams veto on two public safety bills.  This did not come a surprise, as the City Council is, for all intents and purposes, opposed to public safety. 

We recently discussed the “How Many Stops” and “End Solitary Confinement” bills and how they would negatively effect safety in our street and in our prisons.  If you are a citizen of New York City, your officers will, once again have to work harder for a lesser result.  If you have a family member who is incarcerated in a NYC jail or works for the Department of Corrections, they are less safe today.  Injuries and deaths in custody will certainly go up under this mandate. 

What is most disturbing as a voter is the mindlessness of these laws.  We cannot decipher a logical explanation as to the point of the How Many Stops bill.  What does it accomplish?  It only makes cops’ jobs harder and discourages them to interact with the public.  Cops will know less about what is going on in the streets.  People will be less likely to volunteer information, knowing that there will be a written record of their interaction.  We can discern no benefit whatsoever for this mandate.  It does not document abuse of authority or use of force.  It does not glean intelligence.  It is simply a tool for police naysayers to point to racial discrepancies as false evidence of institutional bias. 

The “End Solitary Confinement” bill is a bit more nuanced, but equally, and perhaps more directly, dangerous.  Is the idea of holding an individual in solitary confinement for days on end disturbing? Yes.  It is not an outcome that people should want to occur.  However, some individuals need to be separated for their safety and the safety of others.  Corrections officers should use other means to ensure safety whenever possible.  But it is clearly not possible in all situations to allow a person to interact with others outside of their cells for 14 hours.  NYC Corrections Officers and subject matter experts have decried this law as dangerous.  They also need some ability to separate out-of-control inmates. 

But the City Council is not interested in listening to experts.  Not interested in listening to the undesirable, deplorable, Neanderthals that put on a uniform and protect our city.  They are not even interested in listening to their constituents.  Most are not in favor of seeing these bills passed.  But democracy be damned, they want what they want. 

(The New York City Council, spotted in the field.…)

Now the vast majority of elected officials in the City Council can sit around patting themselves on the back and talking about how “brave” they are.  Meanwhile their constituents will suffer.  The city they falsely proport to represent will become less safe.   

Below you can find the votes cast by NY City Council members on these two bills.  The voting for both bills are identical (it’s as if they are incapable of independent thought).  If you live in NYC, please take a look and find your Councilperson.  Give them a call or email.  Say thank you to those who voted against and give a piece of your mind (and never your vote) to those who overturned The Mayor’s veto. 

Representative’s Name Vote

Adrienne E. Adams Affirmative

Diana I. Ayala Affirmative

Shaun Abreu Affirmative

Joann Ariola Negative

Alexa Avilés Affirmative

Chris Banks Affirmative

Joseph C. Borelli Negative

Erik D. Bottcher Affirmative

Justin L. Brannan Affirmative

Gale A. Brewer Affirmative

Selvena N. Brooks-Powers Affirmative

Tiffany Cabán Affirmative

David M. Carr Negative

Carmen N. De La Rosa Affirmative

Eric Dinowitz Affirmative

Amanda Farías Affirmative

Oswald Feliz Affirmative

James F. Gennaro Affirmative

Jennifer Gutiérrez Affirmative

Shahana K. Hanif Affirmative

Kamillah Hanks Affirmative

Robert F. Holden Negative

Crystal Hudson Affirmative

Rita C. Joseph Affirmative

Shekar Krishnan Affirmative

Linda Lee Affirmative

Farah N. Louis Affirmative

Kristy Marmorato Negative

Christopher Marte Affirmative

Darlene Mealy Affirmative

Julie Menin Affirmative

Francisco P. Moya Affirmative

Mercedes Narcisse Affirmative

Sandy Nurse Affirmative

Chi A. Ossé Affirmative

Vickie Paladino Negative

Keith Powers Affirmative

Lincoln Restler Affirmative

Kevin C. Riley Affirmative

Carlina Rivera Affirmative

Yusef Salaam Affirmative

Rafael Salamanca, Jr. Affirmative

Pierina Ana Sanchez Affirmative

Lynn C. Schulman Affirmative

Althea V. Stevens Affirmative

Sandra Ung Affirmative

Inna Vernikov Negative

Nantasha M. Williams Affirmative

Julie Won Affirmative

Kalman Yeger Negative

Susan Zhuang Negative

And here’s another brainstorm by these geniuses… no donating to cops! How dare you? There are still taxpayers to soak out there…!

If we really do get the government we deserve… we’ve all done something very bad in a former life.

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