New York's progressive politicians and activists have infected the state with an empathy bioweapon that empowers criminals and disproportionately victimizes the law abiding working-class. Progressives have become arms dealers supplying community terrorists with weaponized excuses for their violent actions—then erase how innocent citizens are harmed.
New York passed bail reform as some kind of necessary act of justice for the poor who can't afford to be released pre-trial when the truth is, bail is a mechanism to err on the side of caution to prevent more victims from harm. Now, "bail reform" has manifested as a crime revival, making New York a more dangerous and demoralizing place to live and work.
Organized crime has resurged in New York City with shoplifting syndicates targeting retail stores, because they know punishment will be slim if it comes at all. Meanwhile, excuses for their behavior are plentiful: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for example, will tell you they're stealing because they're hungry. Despite the NYPD reporting that retail crime has reached its highest levels in nearly 30 years, upper-class ideologues gaslight everyone else and insist there's no problem; I guess when Amazon delivers all your goods, it's easy to overlook the devastation of mom-and-pop businesses.
Recidivism is the key problem feuling all the dysfunction, and they've created a systemic turnstile for the career criminal who enjoys taking us all for a ride. It's exactly how serial criminals like Harold Gooding could get arrested 101 times and walk-free.
In 2022, the NYPD released a study showing that 327 people were responsible for 30 percent of all shoplifting arrests in NYC: Only a few bad apples are truly spoiling it for the Big Apple.
This problematic mentality of excessive leniency isn't limited to the thieves of New York; it's extended to violent offenders, too. Nearly every major story involving a physical assault against an innocent bystander reveals an assailant who has a history of inflicting harm on others.
When 64-year-old supermarket manager Ramon Acevedo was struck in the head with a hammer as he was opening his store, he had no idea that the man who was attacking him, Oscar Apronti, was also the same man who struck another market employee in the same Chelsea neighborhood.
But if Acevedo were to defend himself from a violent and unstable offender, he could be the one who would be charged with a crime, the way bodega employee Jose Alba was. Alba defended himself against a career criminal, Austin Simon, who stormed the counter to attack him, prompting Alba to stab Simon to death. Although the entire confrontation was caught on surveillance cameras within the bodega displaying a clear case of self-defense, Alba was initially charged with murder by Soros-funded DA Alvin Bragg, until public pressure caused Bragg to drop the charges weeks later.
New York now has more activists and professional advocates in positions of power who stick their necks out for the victimizers than the victims.
They've shown time again that their interest isn't with protecting the men and women of the city who are trying to keep their head above water in one of the most expensive cities in the world. They have instead an allegiance to the idea of uplifting the aggrieved and pitied criminal.
This is why the NYPD is struggling to recruit amid record retirements from the force: No one wants to risk their life for a city that will bend over backward for the guy you've arrested for the 11th time—and treat you like the criminal for arresting him.
Objectively, New York is trending for the worse, not better. As of end of March 2024, there have been 82 murders in NYC, when in the entirety of 2023, there were 99. There has already been an 3.8 percent increase of felony assaults over 2023.
Unfortunately, real change may not come until it starts affecting the lives of the wealthy and powerful in the City in the same way it impacts the poor and working class. Until then, they'll be sacrificed and ignored because the people in power truly believe that crime is supposed to happen there.
Adam B. Coleman is an author, and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Find his writing at Adambcoleman.substack.com.
All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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