As this column is being
written on the morning
of Election Day,
storefronts are boarded up
across New York City for
fear of looting and rioting.
How sad. Unfortunately,
this is understandable, considering
the crimes associated
with the protests over
the summer, which were
virtually given a free pass
by Mayor de Blasio and the
district attorneys.
National chains and
mom-and-pop shops spent
last week preparing for riots,
or as Democrats now
call it, “civil unrest.” As if
they don’t have enough problems
from the pandemic,
some places are even closing
temporarily out of fear.
Elliot Kurland, the owner
of Leica Store in Soho, is
shutting down for at least a
week, and mentioned all of
the recent anti-Trump protesters
COURIER L 14 IFE, NOV. 6-12, 2020
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Bob Capano
battling the police.
Here in Brooklyn, Jessica
Richards, the owner of a
beauty supplies store called
Shen on Court Street, also
boarded her store up in fear
of the riots.
“It’s just unfortunate that
people take it out on small
businesses just trying to
survive,” she said.
Trump supporters will
most likely not be destroying
public property, setting fi res,
and attacking police if the
President loses. As we saw
a few months ago, the new
dominant left has committed
these crimes, which explains
why Democratic elected offi -
cials refused to condemn or
prosecute some of them.
These offi cials should act
differently to avoid another
round of rioting and looting
after the election, although I
hold out little hope that they
will.
For starters, Mayor de
Blasio should take the advice
of GOP mayoral hopeful
and businessman John
Catsimatidis, who tweeted
last weekend, “Mr. Mayor,
Let there be no doubt, that
the NYPD and its leadership
need to feel that it has your
approval to do their jobs, to
the fullest, in protecting our
citizens and businesses from
the wave of criminals and
professional looters…I urge
you to communicate that
message ASAP for the safety
of all New Yorkers, which is
of paramount importance.”
Secondly, the city’s district
attorneys should unite
and state unequivocally that
looting, resisting arrest, attacking
police, vandalism,
as well as all other crimes
associated with these protests
will be prosecuted to
the fullest extent of the law.
Our city, and our law abiding
residents and business
owners, deserve no less.
On another note, the results
of key local elections
in southwest Brooklyn will
determine if new life can be
brought back to the Brooklyn
GOP. The key races are
Malliotakis vs. Rose for congress;
Vito Bruno vs. Andrew
Gounardes for state
senate; and Michael Tannousis
vs. Brandon Patterson to
fi ll Malliotakis’ vacated seat
in the Assembly.
If the Republicans can
win two of three, it will demonstrate
a clear repudiation
of the tilt to the far left by
Democrats in an area long
known for middle of the road
politics.
It also will spell trouble
for Councilman Justin
Brannan in his re-election
bid next year.
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.
OPINION
Businesses shouldn’t have to board up
We need to start living
as if we were free
What a weird election.
My fi rst column here
noted the collapse of
this year’s Iowa Caucus, and
that the presidential election
was something “none of us
can control… a dumb competition
that we can’t really affect,
as the planet somehow
melts and burns simultaneously
and robots or immigrants
or a virus (take your
pick, depending on your ideology)
come for our jobs.”
That was almost nine
months ago, and this week,
the saga came to an end.
Mostly.
For this highest-turnout
election in American history,
we knew weeks in advance
that Joe Biden would get the
most votes but whether he
would win the presidency
was still in doubt. So much
money was spent — billions
and billions of dollars almost
all for federal races — and it
is hard to show that almost
any of that campaign spending
had a concrete effect.
We can feel ourselves
trapped in a Leviathan, something
so big, it takes a fuzzily
enormous number of us
to change its direction. The
United States has grown so
much larger than its founders
imagined. How can we
free ourselves from our archaic
18th Century constitution?
We need to start living as
if we were free.
The federal government
will not save us from this new
Supreme Court, this countermajoritarian
Senate, this
thoroughly undemocratic
Electoral College.
A lot of voters and the fi -
nancial markets like-divided
American government, and
that’s a sign this whole system
needs to be scrapped
and replaced. Divided government
drove our whole car
through the guardrail.
We’re currently weightless,
poised above the ravine.
Not good.
We are eight months into a
moment when the economy is
sliding and whole industries
are vaporizing — though
they’re not admitting it publicly
yet. The federal government
has failed us in a public
health crisis, and the other
levels of government failed
us, too. Look at the empty
schools and potholed roads.
I don’t think any other people
on the planet would live
like this and still call themselves
“the land of the free.”
We need to start living as
if we were free from the constraints
of this crumbling,
Leviathan superpower state.
What does “living as if we
were free” mean?
Sooner or later, we will
have to start ignoring the law
as laid down by this illegitimate
Supreme Court. You already
regularly ignore laws,
though, if you’re American.
It will still be a long time
before we leave this period
of great chaos, when selfi sh
and deranged people gradually
and then quickly took
over our federal government.
We have now fi nally evicted
them from one-third, the
executive branch, but they
will continue to occupy another
half: half the legislative
branch and the majority of
the judicial branch of our federal
government.
I’ve lived my whole life in
California and New York so
I’ve been effectively disenfranchised
from the federal
system my whole life.
We need to come up with a
new way of cooperating and
thriving, one that is democratic
and sustainable and
that works at human-scale.
Nick Rizzo is a former Democratic
District Leader and a
political consultant who lives
in Greenpoint. Follow him on
Twitter @NickRizzo.
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo