COURIER L 16 IFE, JULY 24-30, 2020
OPINION
Just let the police do their jobs!
The current crisis of our democracy
has been brewing for a long time
Another week, another
column warning our
democracy is slowly
suffocating. But first, some
good news.
It has been over four
weeks since the primary
election, and almost all the
ballots have finally been
counted. Almost every state
assemblymember in New
York City who faced a progressive
challenger lost. Every
one of the city’s assembly
delegation who faced
a more conservative challenger
won.
Two weeks ago I suggested
that thousands of absentee
ballots would be invalidated
and it could shift
the results of elections.
While thousands, indeed
tens of thousands of votes
— a higher percentage than
ever before — were thrown
away, this mass disenfranchisement
appears not to
have changed the outcome
of any elections. It still
might for the congressional
race between Carolyn Maloney
and Suraj Patel, which
has not ended.
Beyond the machinery
of democracy seeming to
rust out or fill with grit, the
other news is grim as well.
President Donald Trump is
currently behind in the national
polls, but he has so
far given zero indication
he will respect the results
of the election. He said as
much at the end of a fairly
unhinged, even by his standards,
interview with Fox
News this week.
This occurs at the same
time as his government deploys
federal law enforcement
agents — mostly ICE
and Border Patrol wearing
camouf lage — to liberal cities
like Portland, Oregon, to
teargas mothers and force
protesters into unmarked
cars that take them to undisclosed
locations. We’re
in a uniquely shameful
and dangerous moment in
American history that foreshadows
the threats more of
us might be facing this autumn.
Here in New York City,
murders and burglaries
are both up significantly
over last year. The NYPD is
drawing so much overtime
that whatever cuts for this
next fiscal year that the City
Council supposedly gave it
will be totally eroded. Occupy
City Hall had been
winding down for weeks
now, but this week the police
threw its remaining inhabitants,
mostly homeless,
in jail.
The crisis has been brewing
for a long time. Money
has always played an outsized
role in our governance,
but the rich seem to
have more and more control.
The basic norms of democracy
have been decaying
for decades.
The United States federal
government has been getting
more powerful for decades,
has been killing and
detaining people beyond our
borders for so many years.
It was very foreseeable that
a Department of Homeland
Security would eventually
be used to secure the homeland
for the government
against its people.
We are more and more a
North American Ukraine.
We need to focus not just
on winning this November’s
presidential election
but also on securing a safe
count for the absentee ballots
and preparing a mass
gathering in Washington,
DC after the election to ensure
that Trump obeys democracy.
An American Maidan,
like Kiev had in 2014. Nowadays,
Ukraine not only has a
democracy again, but a new
coronavirus infection rate
that is one-sixth of ours. So
there’s some hope.
Nick Rizzo is a Democratic
District Leader representing
the 50th Assembly
District and a political consultant
who lives in Greenpoint.
Follow him on Twitter
@NickRizzo.
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo
Earlier this summer,
Brooklyn Borough
President and prospective
mayoral candidate
Eric Adams told residents
that they should confront
those committing illegal
acts, such as setting off fireworks,
rather than calling
the police. Now, an innocent
young Brooklyn woman is
dead after her family says
she followed this insane advice.
As the explosion of fireworks
began affecting all
parts of our city earlier this
summer, Adams said that
residents should “go talk to
the young people or the people
on your block who are
using fireworks” instead of
calling the police because
he worried that the NYPD
would use a heavy-handed
approach in minority communities.
As a former cop, Adams
carries a gun and as Borough
President he has a protective
detail, so he may feel
safe to confront folks. However,
in these times when
gun violence is surging, ordinary
New Yorkers would
be risking their lives to confront
people, as the family of
Shatavia Walls has learned.
Walls, only 33, died on
July 17 after she reportedly
confronted those setting off
fireworks in East New York
on July 7. Her heartbroken
mom has said that her daughter
was heeding the advice of
Adams and, fearing for the
safety of local children and
seniors, Walls asked those
shooting off the fireworks
to stop. She was shot eight
times, which proved fatal
when she died at Brookdale
University Hospital 10 days
later.
Amazingly, even after her
death, Adams doubled down
by saying “the first line of
interaction when it comes
to non-criminal behaviors
should be between neighbors.”
Here is the fallacy in his
statement — using fireworks
is illegal. As a former cop,
he should know the law, but
this is the problem with most
of today’s Democrats. They
want to give a pass to most
crimes and proclaim that we
do not need to enforce some
laws because of perceived racial
reasons. Just look at the
graffiti and other illegal activities
around Occupy City
Hall.
Adams has also accused
his former comrades in
blue of intentionally slowing
down incident response
time. In a news interview
on July 19, he said, “The increase
in crime is one thing,
but not responding to crime
is another thing…we can’t
have police not responding
to jobs.”
Here is the rub — on the
one hand, Adams says he
does not want police to respond
to crime and residents
should address it with their
neighbors, but now he is
saying that cops are not responding
fast enough.
Rightfully, two prospective
Republican mayoral candidates
— Curtis Sliwa and
John Catsimatidis — and
blasted Adams’ bad advice.
Not surprisingly, Democrats
have pleaded the Fifth.
Bob Capano has worked
for Brooklyn Republican and
Democrat elected officials,
and has been an adjunct political
science professor for
over 15 years. Follow him on
twitter @bobcapano.
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano