New York City's Corrupt Democratic Machine makes New York Less Safe
Eric Adams and Alvin Bragg Are No Good for NYC
Video interviews can be found at: https://bit.ly/3Gr2LmV
Eric Adams won the spot of NYC mayor with 66% of the vote and was sworn in at the beginning of 2022. Any elected mayor would be a welcome replacement to Bill De Blasio, a universally disliked politician that polled at 0% for President, meaning he and I polled at about the same rate for leader of the free world. The bar for Eric Adams is not high, and he had started off strongly during the January Omicron wave by listening to parents and not closing schools. He recognized that kids need school and parents need their kids in school. The harm done to young minds and those most vulnerable in our society is truly a national tragedy, so credit where it’s due for Eric Adams.
That may be the high note of his mayoral term thus far. Fresh off the accusations during the campaign trail that he didn’t live in NYC as he claimed, he has already damaged his own credibility. Eric Adams recently named Virginia parking administrator and retired police sergeant Bernard Adams to the top position in the NYPD. If you’re thinking that it must be a coincidence that they share the same last name, it’s not. Bernard is his brother. If this doesn’t seem like nepotism, I don’t know what does. The same party that had issues with Donald Trump appointing his family members to his administration is strikingly silent at this appointment. However you may view a Jared Kushner, to my knowledge, he’s helped negotiate more middle east peace deals in four years than most career politicians. Nepotism doesn’t look good for anyone, but should be a standard that all are held to.
Adams was asked by Tapper about this hire and you can watch his answer below:
“Let me be clear on this: My brother is qualified for the position. Number one, he will be in charge of my security, which is extremely important to me at a time when we see an increase in white supremacy and hate crimes,” the Mayor said on “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, when pressed about nepotism and ethics concerns over the appointment.
“I have to take my security in a very serious way.”
“Protection is personal. You have an increase of anarchists in this city, country. We have a serious problem with white supremacy. And when you talk about this type of security that I want, it’s extremely unique. I don’t want to be away from my public,” he said in Manhattan.
“I trust my brother. My brother understands me,” he continued. “And if I have to put my life in someone’s hands, I want to put it in the hands of a person that I trust deeply, because that is a very personal process of your security.”
Just look around you! If you view the world through the distorted lens of everything is racist, maybe Adams has a point. But the people that make up the city aren’t the structures. They are individuals and, last I checked, anarchists and white supremacists aren’t running rampant in one of the most diverse, melting pot cities in the country that overwhelmingly elected it’s second Black mayor. To be clear, hate crimes did rise last year according to an article in the New York Post. Hate crimes increased by 139 percent actually. But based on Adams’ words, you’d have thought they were all against Black people. The majority of hate crime attacks were committed against Asian Americans, up 400 percent! Looking at the raw numbers, hate crimes against Asian Americans went from 21 in 2020 to 105 in 2021 in the wake of blame for Coronavirus. Attacks against Jews went up 69%, from 67 attacks to 113. There were 11 hate crimes against white people, up from four in 2020 and 28 attacks on Black people, up almost double from last year’s 15.
As a matter of fact, here is the word graphic on the NYPD dashboard, the size of the descriptor indicating the groups most affected.
A breakdown of this data from 2019-2021 by bias motive shows that of the 1181 total counted hate crimes, 536 of them were against Jews, 142 against male homosexuals, 164 were against Asians, and 108 were against Black people.
Adams’ brother may be qualified for deputy mayor, aside from the nepotism, but is Adams on the side of law and order and the best interests of the city? He touted his background as a member of the NYPD during his campaign.
“Adams was a do nothing cop.” said a cop I spoke to about his thoughts on Adams on the condition of anonymity. “No one that actually worked with him has anything good to say about him. This is why the cops on the ground didn’t endorse him. He’s not one of us.”
Now, if we want to talk about what is a pressing issue and actually represents a danger, not only to Black people but all New Yorkers, we would rest our eyes on the new District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the first elected Black district attorney of NYC. Bragg comes from the class of progressive district attorneys like Chesa Boudin that have destroyed San Francisco, turning it into a lawless open air drug den with feces covering the streets where law abiding citizens leave their trunks open to avoid car break-ins, heroin needles strewn about, and where large scale flash thievery mobs are overtaking one Walgreens at a time and not going to jail for it. For a first-hand look at what progressive policy has done to San Francisco, look no further than my interview with Tom Wolf, a resident of San Francisco, recovery, homeless, and addiction advocate who is heavily featured in the book San Fransicko.
According to another article in the post, an ex-con would have faced a long time in jail if not for Bragg. This ex-con, a career criminal, held a knife up to a pharmacy employee and was only arraigned for misdemeanor petit larceny. The Post notes the Judge stated “a case that two weeks ago would have been charged as a robbery.” Whom does this man’s freedom hurt most? The pharmacy worker, yes. Someone that likely traumatized them is now out on the street again. But this individual is likely not just menacing pharmacies. He’s menacing the neighborhoods he lives in and is a risk to all those law abiding citizens that walk New York City’s now more dangerous streets.
As Michael Shellenberger writes in San Fransicko, Why Progressives Ruin Cities, “California was a national leader in taking a progressive, rehabilitative approach to prisoners starting in the 1940’s.” However, this was not enough for the foaming-from-the-mouth progressives who felt that this prison reform agenda was a ruse. These prisoners were being controlled by institutions without them knowing it. A leading advocate of such progressive reform, according to the book, was Michael Foucault, who argued that crime is a rational response to inequality created by capitalism and aimed to blur the moral divide between innocence and guilt.
“We have some of the richest people in the history of the world in this city…When we have those extremes in close proximity, there’s going to be some level of property crime. That’s a reality.” said Chesa Boudin. Suddenly, those who were not wealthy were not morally guilty of crimes because they were ACTUALLY VICTIMS of the system and forced to a life of crime, menacing, assaulting innocent bystanders, and coordinated five-finger discount shopping sprees.
In California, rather than prosecuting people for damaging property to steal from cars, the progressive DA Chesa Boudin proposed a fund to reimburse car owners. In California, Chesa Boudin went on to decline to prosecute two people, one of whom killed people in a car crash while driving under the influence after regaining their freedom. One of them, according to Shellenberger had just been released after repeatedly stealing cars. Those who are kind to the cruel are cruel to the kind. Innocent people suffer from policy that puts violent criminals back on the street. Reform? I’m all for it. But this isn’t the way. (For a good conservative/libertarian case for reform, see below)
Progressive policy has shown to be destabilizing wherever it is implemented. San Francisco, CHAZ, CHOP, all set the example. What does this mean for NYC? Well, even prior to Bragg’s term, there’s been a major rise in shootings in NYC since 2020 under the progressive “leadership” of Bill De Blasio. Shootings were up 166% in April 2021 compared to April 2020 after being on a downtrend for the previous 20 years with multiple tough-on-crime mayors. Bragg released a memo that on his first day in office, he would not seek prison sentences for anything other than homicides and other serious felonies, which would include domestic violence, sex crimes, public corruption, and major economic crimes. So if you hold a gun or a knife up to someone’s face and rob them? Well, no violence was committed, so you might be free to go. Ironic in a world where silence is now violence that literal theft and violence is not violence. But so goes progressive policy, in the name of progress it hurts those it purports to help and empowers the criminal elements of cities that can walk into a store, clear the shelves, and sell the products to buy drugs or other things. The productive are the victims of the thieves.
If New York wants to reclaim it’s former glory, law and order with reasonable criminal justice reform can be implemented and done safely. For that we shouldn’t just be listening to radical wings, but everyone together at the table to discuss ways to meaningfully enhance the lives of everyone. The city that never sleeps is going to be woken up by a lot more gun shots and a lot more violence if we continue to San Francisco New York City.
What are the consequences? Well, ask yourself, whom does rising prices hurt? Whom does letting out criminals hurt? What neighborhoods are those criminals living in? Whom does forced vaccination of children and adults and vaccine passports hurt and discriminate against? Qui bono? Who benefits? It won’t be minorities and small business owners. People afraid to leave their house? Checkmate for Amazon and Walmart. Game over for the local hardware store. But don’t worry, your average Jeff Bezos has his own security, and so does your average progressive congressman.
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