12 MAY 10, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
HEADING
Another betrayal of New York’s trust
It was as swift a fall from grace as
one could witness.
Within mere hours on Monday,
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman
went from being a prosecutor
with a bright future to a politically
radioactive villain without an office.
His downfall came following a
report that he physically assaulted
several women with whom he had
been associated — accusations
which were particularly shocking
considering that Schneiderman was,
in the public eye, a staunch advocate
of women’s rights and the #MeToo
movement.
But when the cameras were gone,
as The New Yorker reported, Schneiderman
was apparently nothing
like the upstanding public servant
that New York residents had come
to know since he took office in 2011.
The alleged actions are monstrous.
Sadly, this isn’t the first time our
trust has been betrayed; sadly, we
know it won’t be the last.
If recent history has taught us
anything, it’s that nothing about
the New York politicians we see on
camera is indicative of who they
really are.
Eliot Spitzer resigned as governor
in 2008 over his extra-marital exploits.
Indecent photographs cooked
Anthony Weiner’s political career,
and ultimately led him to prison.
But lust is just one deadly sin
that afflicted New York politicians;
greed is still another.
In the pages of this paper, we’ve
documented indictments and
convictions of one corrupt elected
official after another: Anthony
Seminerio, Alan Hevesi, Malcolm
Smith, Dan Halloran, Hiram Monserrate,
Shirley Huntley, Sheldon
Silver, Joseph Bruno, Dean Skelos,
William Scarborough, and so on.
Each of them used the offices they
held for personal gain, violating the
public trust in them — and for many,
ruining confidence in our system of
government.
Some found pleasure in Schneiderman’s
downfall, considering
that he was also investigating individuals
close to the Trump administration
over alleged corruption. For
one thing, Schneiderman’s scandal
doesn’t negate the investigation the
Attorney General’s office is conducting;
for another, the scandal doesn’t
amount to a pardon for offenses that
others may have committed.
Abuse of people and abuse of
power are the worst parts of a toxic
culture in our state capital that must
end. We need to find good, decent
people and elect them to serve us
in Albany — and we must rely upon
the press and other investigators to
continue exposing bad actors in government
and facilitate their removal
from office.
Referring to his brilliant and
prescient essay, “Defining Deviancy
Down,” the late Senator Daniel Patrick
Moynihan once said, “There is
always a certain amount of deviancy
in a society. But when you get too
much, you begin to think that it’s
not really that bad. Pretty soon you
become accustomed to very destructive
behavior.”
We’ve breached that unacceptable
threshold long ago; now it’s up to us
to step back from it.
EDITORIAL
ESTABLISHED 1908
Co-Publishers
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
Editor-in-Chief
ROBERT POZARYCKI
Classifi ed Manager
DEBORAH CUSICK
Assistant Classifi ed Manager
MARLENE RUIZ
Reporter
RYAN KELLEY
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