A very long three weeks
ago, I wrote that while
social distancing is necessary
right now, it will damage
the communal social life
essential to democracy. It appears
that I gravely understated
matters.
Democracy, small business,
and worker rights are
under extreme threat right
now, and we have lost most
of the tools traditionally
used to fix the problems.
On Monday, March 30,
Hungary’s parliament voted
to give prime minister Viktor
Orbán dictatorial powers,
using the coronavirus
crisis as an excuse.
Hungary had been heading
in that direction for a
while, but now there is rule
by Orbán’s decree, an end
to free speech, and a state
of emergency with no scheduled
elections. Hungary is
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano
now the first dictatorship in
the history of the European
Union.
COURIER L 26 IFE, APRIL 3-9, 2020
Also on Monday, an Amazon
warehouse on Staten Island
walked out to demand
better protections for workers
there, after reports of
multiple employees at that
warehouse testing positive
for coronavirus last week.
That afternoon, Amazon
fired the worker who organized
the brief strike.
I’d say there are three
main strategies groups of
people use to non-violently
assert their rights: strikes,
elections, and protest
marches. All three are difficult
or impossible now.
Strikes are difficult at
the moment. Right now, it
would be wrong for health
care workers to go on strike,
though their lives are atrisk.
Many of us have discovered
that our jobs are
“non-essential.” Those who
still have remote, non-essential
jobs are desperate not to
jeopardize them. Underpaid
workers in essential jobs are
under heavy pressure to not
leave them except for health
reasons. Even then, many
low-income workers are
working sick, which might
spread to the rest of us and
further bog down our embattled
healthcare system.
New York’s presidential
primary has been delayed
to match the rest of the primaries
in June, but we don’t
know we’ll be capable of holding
an election even then.
The states which went ahead
with elections in the last few
weeks appear to have spread
the virus further. Be glad we
don’t have touch screen voting
machines here in New
York, as many states do.
While we hopefully still will
have elections in November,
we don’t have any sense right
now of what seven months
from now looks like.
Frankly, I never saw the
point of protest marches —
unless one is willing to stay
somewhere until the hated
government is gone, which is
not the American way — but
for the first time in years, no
one is even proposing them.
And journalism, freedom’s
guard dog, is also under
attack, both from crashing
revenues and people who
believe truth is whatever
they want it to be.
I don’t have any solutions,
besides supporting your local
news organization, but
when I think of some I’ll
write them in this column.
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.
When all fi ve of the city’s
district attorneys, who
are all fellow Democrats,
say that the mayor’s initiative
of releasing inmates
from Rikers Island is dangerous,
we should listen to them.
This week, the top prosecutors
in Brooklyn, Queens,
Manhattan, Staten Island,
and the Bronx united to
strongly condemn Mayor de
Blasio on this matter.
They said, “We want to
make clear that the categories
of those proposed for
release have, in some instances,
included individuals
who pose a high risk to public
safety.” They concluded
with this zinger: “We should
not have to make release decisions
that we know will put
communities at risk.”
As the quintessential example
of the lunacy of this
policy, Mayor Bill de Blasio
actually wanted to release
Christopher Ransom
and Jagger Freeman, both
indicted on murder and robbery
charges, and now facing
life in prison. These were the
two that were responsible for
the friendly-fi re death of Detective
Brian Simonsen in
Queens on February 12, 2019.
Simonsen was shot when
cops were responding to the
pair’s robbery of a T-mobile
store. Thankfully, they were
taken off de Blasio’s “get out
of jail free” list when Queens
District Attorney Melinda
Katz objected.
These releases are part of
the progressive left’s continued
push to make sure no one
is in jail. They have used the
virus to call for the NYPD to
stop making arrests, and for
district attorneys to cease
prosecuting crimes. The
NYPD Commissioner says
they are not halting arrests
but some District Attorneys
have stopped prosecuting
many crimes, including Eric
Gonzalez here in Brooklyn.
One anecdotal example
this week may show that
we are heading for a public
safety crisis as well as a public
health one due to the even
softer approach to crime in
response to the this pandemic.
Last Sunday, the Guardian
Angels, led by their
founder Curtis Sliwa, had to
lockdown Penn Station due
to the anarchy that was occurring.
As seen in videos,
they had to break up fi ghts
and chase down perpetrators.
There were no police.
Sliwa expressed concern
for the elderly, and the homeless
folks at the station, surviving
in this “Darwinian
Dante’s Inferno.” Of course,
there was no city homeless
outreach or anyone from
First Lady Chirlane Mc-
Cray’s ThriveNYC mental
health program to be found to
assist them, or those considered
emotionally disturbed.
If we continue releasing
prisoners and not prosecuting
crimes, this scene
could expand to more public
places and neighborhoods.
New Yorkers don’t need even
more to worry about in these
times.
Bob Capano has worked
for Brooklyn Republican and
Democrat elected offi cials,
and has been an adjunct political
science professor for over
15 years. Follow him on twitter
@bobcapano.
OPINION
Releasing inmates during a time
of crisis is a terrible idea
The latest tragic casualty of the novel
coronavirus outbreak: Democracy
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo