COURIER L 18 IFE, JULY 17-23, 2020
OPINION
Why I support the 68th Precinct
Why November needs us, too
I’ve detected a worrying
pattern among many new
activists: they care almost
only about Democratic
primaries and very little
about general elections. The
activists and operatives my
age and older make this error
a fair bit, but the younger
generation seems to have the
problem in droves.
Much of this fixation is
rational: in New York state,
especially New York City,
the Democratic primary is
always a much more important
election than the November
general. In Brooklyn
this year, there is Congressman
Max Rose’s re-election
against Nicole Malliotakis,
State Senator Andrew Gounardes’s
re-election against
Vito Bruno, and a vigorous
campaign in Bay Ridge and
Staten Island for the open
Assembly seat that Nicole
has vacated. Upstate, we
have several other competitive
congressional elections
and a few state legislative
races. And that’s it.
Next year, the winners
of the June Democratic
primary will almost certainly
sit six months later
in the chairs of the mayor,
the comptroller, the public
advocate, four of the five
borough presidents, and
about 48 of the 51 City Councilmembers.
The November
election will be basically
a formality. The year after
that, Gov. Andrew Cuomo
and Senator Chuck Schumer
are up for re-election, but
their toughest campaigns
will both be in the primary,
although who any of their
opponents will be is right
now totally unclear.
In most of NYC — outside
of south Staten Island,
parts of outer Queens, and
maybe four neighborhoods
in southern Brooklyn that
my conservative co-columnist
seems to always be
writing about — and therefore
the state, there is not a
two-party system but maybe
a one-and-a-quarter party
system. That’s clearly bad
for democracy, though a lot
of the blame for that falls
with Republicans for being
so inadequate.
But the fact is that November
general elections in
the rest of the country still
matter enormously to New
Yorkers. We live in a very
historic year, but future historians
will surely be most
interested in what happens
between late October this
year and January 20th of
next year. Expect that election
to last a while and be
messy and inadequate. We
are three and a half weeks
after the New York primary,
and many, many elections
have yet to be decided.
It makes sense that with
so many recounts, seven
more weeks of primaries
still in other states, and the
important general elections
being mostly quite far away,
activists are still in primary
mode. But I think a lot
of this aversion to general
elections comes from elitist
lefty distaste for swing district
neighborhoods, their
Democratic candidates, and
the compromises with reality
that campaigning there
requires.
Compromise is distasteful
to so many people, but it’s
important to campaign this
November for several reasons.
First, the opinions of
people outside of major cities
are numerically vital to
our shared politics. Second,
discovering and respecting
the strange beliefs of others
is a crucial life skill for humans.
Third, the eyes of the
rest of the world and of history
are upon us right now.
They need us really badly.
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
On the evening of July
12, I witnessed the
chaos brought to Bay
Ridge by those protesting
against our police.
A rally in support of the
NYPD, led by former State
Senator Marty Golden, was
quickly seized by counterprotesters
as an opportunity
to create confrontation
and havoc on our normally
quiet Bay Ridge streets. The
stand-off took place up the
block from the 68th Precinct
on 65th Street and Fourth
Avenue.
The counter-protesters,
some carrying “Black Lives
Matter” and ‘FU-K the Police”
signs, clearly came
looking to create problems.
For example, when the police
asked Golden to back
up his group to create more
separation between the two
sides, a majority of NYPD
supporters promptly followed
the request. However,
many rabble-rousers moved
forward as if to continue the
close encounters and confrontations.
Golden and others had
unknown beverages and
substances thrown at them,
our 68th Precinct cops had
eggs flung at them as chants
of “NYPD suck my di-k”
echoed, American flags were
burnt and senior citizens
who had nothing to do with
the protests were harassed.
Cops were forced to stand
idly by as hostile protesters
danced in their faces and directed
constant profanity at
them — all the while fires
were set along Fifth Avenue.
All of this should make
every decent New Yorkers’
blood boil.
Watching the abuse cops
take from these agitators up
close makes me appreciate
their service and restraint
even more. It also makes me
even angrier that Mayor Bill
de Blasio and New York City
Democrats have created this
environment and emboldened
these people with their
policies and rhetoric.
Bay Ridge Democratic
elected officials defended
and supported the counterprotesters’
right to demonstrate.
Though he denounced
certain violent actions of protesters
on both sides, Councilman
Justin Brannan also
tweeted that he reached out
to the NYPD and the mayor
to request “a full investigation”
into 68th Precinct officers
who were filmed Tasing
a man. That man is said to
have thrown a hard hat that
injured a NYPD supporter.
Of course, he asked for no
such investigation into others
who hurled objects, set
fires, and harassed senior
citizens.
Even more astoundingly,
after protesters and counterprotesters
clashed at a similar
demonstration on July 11,
Brannan blamed Republican
elected officials and leaders
for the friction. This is nuts
— and State Senator Andrew
Gounardes and Assemblywoman
Mathylde Frontus
made similar statements.
Some local Republicans
now yearn for the days of
Democrat Vincent Gentile in
the City Council. It is hard
to imagine him defending
those that harass and abuse
the men and women of the
68th Precinct.
I expect and hope that,
as more neighborhoods directly
see the antics of these
folks (as Bay Ridge did), the
more voters will say enough
is enough and show Democrats
the door in this coming
election.
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
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