COURIER L 16 IFE, JUNE 19-25, 2020
OPINION
In defense of the NYPD — and
Adventure Bay’s ‘Paw Patrol’
Coronavirus is coming back to NYC
This coming Tuesday, New
York will have a primary
election, and on Tuesday
night — and most likely, for
days afterwards — the New
York City Board of Elections
will be counting more absentee
ballots than it has ever received
before.
The weather is nice, life
feels like it’s beginning to return
to normal (whatever
that means), and the city has
had fewer than a thousand
new cases of coronavirus every
day except one for the last
twelve days, which means new
diagnoses are down more than
90 percent from the peak two
months ago.
Make no mistake, though:
the coronavirus is coming
back.
The number of people infected
with coronavirus is
growing in the three most populous
states in the country:
California, Texas, and Florida.
Those states, especially Texas
and Florida, never took strong
enough measures to prevent
the spread of the disease, and
have relaxed some of the measures
they originally implemented.
For the fi rst time this
week, Houston and Miami had
more new cases than the New
York City metropolitan area,
with much smaller populations.
Los Angeles fi rst passed
us a couple weeks ago, but they
are closer in population to us.
It’s not surprising that
there would be a second wave
of the pandemic. The second
wave of the Spanish Flu pandemic
over a century ago occurred
six months after the
fi rst, and was more deadly.
And it’s not just the US; China
is implementing new measures
as it races to contain a
second wave in Beijing.
But no country on earth has
handled the disease as badly
as the United States. It will
be a lasting shame and tragedy
for us. Why is it so much
worse for us? I can identify
fi ve reasons. First, our leadership
from the government has
been very poor, though other
countries and cities have bad
leaders, too. Second, we have
the shoddiest and most expensive
health care system of
any rich country. Third, we
are a callous and unequal society,
content to let slaughterhouse
workers and prisoners
and bus drivers die at alarming
rates because of racism
and classism. Fourth, there
has been widespread fl outing
of the guidelines laid down by
public health authorities, because
so much of our population
lives in its own entitled
reality. Fifth, American exceptionalism:
we believed we
were different and better than
the other countries and this
could not happen to us.
In a few weeks, if not less,
our infection rates will begin
climbing again as hot spots
in the rest of the nation retransmit
the disease back to
its largest city. I hate to echo
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s advice
from three months ago, but it
is perhaps applicable for this
brief window where the city’s
rate is declining: go out a little
bit and enjoy yourselves
responsibly, for another lockdown
is coming.
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
Before my 11-month-old
son began watching
television a few months
ago, I had no clue about Paw
Patrol or any other shows on
Nickelodeon. Like most new
parents, I quickly learned
about the heroic pups.
There’s Chase, a German
shepherd police dog; Marshall,
a Dalmatian firedog;
and Rubble, a construction
worker bulldog.
Other than Sesame Street,
this is our favorite show to
watch together.
Therefore, I have taken a
closer interest in the growing
social media backlash
against the cartoon because
it portrays the pups as good
cops patrolling Adventure
Bay.
Some of the common refrains
of Chase are “Chase
is on the case!” and “All in a
police pup’s day.” For the sin
of being portrayed as a good
cop, tweets against the show
have included, “Euthanize
the police dog;” ‘Defund the
paw patrol;” and “All dogs
go to heaven, except the traitors
on the Paw Patrol.”
It seems ridiculous that
efforts to cancel a kids’ show
could be successful, but
LEGO has just stopped marketing
its “LEGO Police Station”
and “Police Highway
Arrest” toys. And, after 32
seasons, the show “Cops”
has been canceled.
My friend and AM 970 radio
personality Frank Morano
summed it up perfectly
when he tweeted, “I’ve never
seen (or heard of) Paw Patrol
prior to a few days ago, but
I’m now watching it in case
it gets banned this week.”
How sad is this new reality?
This is just one more example
of the left taking it too
far, just like their push to
defund and eliminate police
departments. Two weeks ago
in Minneapolis, a veto-proof
majority of the City Council
agreed to eliminate their
police force. Social workers
will respond to incidents
that were usually handled
by the cops. Here in New
York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio
has said he is now going
along with the council’s efforts
to slash the Police Department
budget.
In Seattle, “protesters”
carrying guns have taken
over six blocks and fenced it
off saying it is a police-free
zone and autonomous. The
Democratic mayor and governor
are seeking to ‘de-escalate”
and “negotiate” with
these people. Democrats
across the country are virtually
ignoring this situation
because they are afraid
to criticize the takeover of
part of an American city by
domestic terrorists for fear
of angering their radical farleft
base.
President Trump is fully
justified in utilizing the Insurrection
Act of 1807 to end
this madness. This empowers
the president to deploy
the military and federalize
National Guard troops
within the United States to
suppress civil disorder and
insurrection. Most common
sense Americans would
agree that this is exactly
what is occurring in Seattle.
The election of 2020 is
shaping up as a stark choice
between eliminating the police
or not; whether or not we
allow gun toting protesters
to take over sections of our
cities; and canceling shows
like the Paw Patrol because
they have the audacity of
portraying cops in a positive
light.
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.
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano