By Gary Tilzer

In one-party NYC change does not come from the people we elect to office; it can only come from outsiders who elected officials are afraid to ignore. Rev Sharpton has lived a lifetime proving that point. The founding father created a system of divided government, so public will can be heard and followed in the halls of government. The public desire for a safe NYC has been blocked by a perfect storm created by NY’s political operative, voter suppression which results in increasing the voting power of progressives and the collapse of the newspaper business.

The whole city had difficulty breathing when the widow of slain NYPD Detective Jason Rivera, Dominique Luzuriaga spoke standing next to his casket. As she delivered a message to NYC leaders during her heart-wrenching eulogy of her husband, “The system continues to fail us. We are not safe anymore.” Sadly, her from the heart message is already being ignored by the current crop of Albany leaders. If a movement of victim leaders, like the policeman’s widow, is not built to enforce her words and wishes on Albany, innocent people will continue to die.

Members of the Albany legislature who are going against the voters who voted for independent redistricting, only care about one thing, getting reelected. While voters who passed an Independent Redistricting Amendment in 2014, now understand that their vote and their need for a safe city, have become meaningless in Albany.

EnforceNYC @enforcelawsNYC I don’t like either party. However, our one-party state using redistricting to make it a unanimous one-party state is unethical and counter to what democrats say they are about. Which is allowing people to have a voice. @CarlHeastie @AndreaSCousins. Joe Borelli @JoeBorelliNYC New Yorkers voted for an independent redistricting commission. Instead they are getting one-party rule where maps are shared and decided on in a closed-door democratic conference.

The Assembly Speaker, Majority leader of the State Senate and the legislators from the city fear challengers from progressives, if they attempt to reform the bail law like Mayor Adams is pushing for. Their fear is so strong that they won’t even reform bail laws that allow the mentally ill to walk around the city attacking the innocent.

State Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins told reporters in Albany that attacking the 2019 bail-reform measures signed by then-Governor Cuomo “became a mantra because it’s easy.” Stewart-Cousins also said that giving judges more discretion in setting or denying bail would disproportionately affect “black and brown and poor defendants.”

In 2018, 289 people were killed in New York City — the lowest murder rate in 50 years. Last year, the number was 485. Two hundred more lives were taken annually — and a huge majority of them were African American or Hispanic men. The NY Times, which just did a story to inform its readers who the 16 prisoners who died on Rikers were, has never done a story to inform New Yorkers about the lives of the 485 who were victims of crime, some babies, killed on the streets of NYC last year.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie recently said, “Can we stop blaming bail reform when the sun comes out?” he said, sounding annoyed. “Can we stop just trying to make, you know, political fodder because we think it’ll make for good campaigns? Because I really think that’s doing a disservice to the people.”

Governor Hochul, as The NY Post’s Goodwin points out, has not used her office to force Albany leaders to back the mayor on Bail Reform. What Goodwin and the rest of the media do not understand is that Hochul, who is currently ahead in the polls, could be in a tight primary if she makes a move to anger the progressives. Hochul operatives who quickly out maneuvered AG Tish James, apparently feel that the third candidate in the race, moderate Tom Suozzi who will do well on Long Island will not cost her the race, if she uses President Clinton advisor Dick Morris’ Triangulation method between Adams and the progressives, to come up with a third plan to keep the city safe. The governor won her 2018 primary for Lt. Governor against the same candidate who is challenging her for governor, left-wing leader Public Advocate Jumaane Williams 768,029. 53.4% to 669,068, 46.5%. Even Senator Schumer is governing and campaigning to prevent a challenge from the left. All NY’s elected leaders understand that the left-wing Working Families Party and the close allies Democratic Socialist of America are aggressively trying to take over Albany during this year’s elections. At the same time Albany suppresses two million registered voters from voting in the only election that counts in NY the Democratic Primary.

The Progressives Have Used NY’s Voter Suppression, Broken Election and Political System to Gain Power, While Ignoring Serious Issues

The city’s left-wing gets elected by appealing to reimaging the government, but once elected they really do not have a clue how to solve NYC long-term problems beyond spinning unworkable solutions to the city’s mental health homeless crisis.

At a recent news conference several Manhattan progressives held at Times Square to give their solution to stopping future murders like future Michelle Go from the mentally ill homeless, put-up barriers on the subway stations. What subway services would be cut to pay for the expensive barriers, the decade it would take to put them in every station and problems with subway air flow they would cause was never discussed at the news conference. No solution was offered how to stop other homeless murders, like Rigoberto Lopez another mentally ill man who stabbed to death two homeless men last year. It was a good selfie for the politicians but did nothing to stop the homeless mentally ill who are attacking innocent citizens. Comptroller Lander the leader of defund the police and no changes in the bail law movement, offered his condolences to the murdered police offices, who said he wants to send social workers into domestic violence calls, offers no real solutions, no plan to solve the NYC’s public safety crisis.

The left-wing elected officials who also offered condolences to the two police officers, ignore, or do not understand that the fate of the city depends on public safety. Without it, commerce withers, jobs die, businesses move out and those who cannot leave the city move about in constant terror. No reservations: NYC restaurants starved for diners Table bookings in Manhattan restaurants are down 64% in January 2022 compared to pre-pandemic January 2020. Despite ignoring what crime does to the city’s tax base, left-wing elected progressives, including the Manhattan DA Bragg, more importantly do not feel that it is their first responsibility to keep people safe. They have little interaction of what happens when people’s lives are destroyed by violent crime. This allows them to pursue their ideological goal of emptying the city’s jails, instead of coming up with programs like The Police Athletic League that has disrupted the prison pipeline for generations in the city’s youth from poor and minority neighborhoods.

Mayor Adams Does Not Have the Right Kind of Political Power to Change Albany By Himself, He Needs Crime Victims Lobbyists  

Adams, a former police officer, has seen what murder does to families before the Friday night with the families of two dead police officers. Those life experiences have put his crime reduction blueprint plan at odds with the progressive community and against the Albany leaders who see their future power as not rocking the boat against the growing left-wing presence in their chambers. Mayor Adams recently ripped into Albany lawmakers who are blocking his bid to give judges the power to be able to use the “dangerousness standard” before releasing suspects that they deemed are a threat to the community, especially the mentally ill. There is little doubt that Albany’s 2019 reform in the bail law, has turned courthouses into revolving doors. Adams is pushing to allow the New York court system to have the same power as forty-nine other states, as well as the federal government, to allow judges to consider a defendant’s danger to the community, before setting them free.

Harry Siegel @harrysiegel Prior to 2019 bail reform, NY judges routinely (& problematically) used their discretion to set bail amounts as a proxy for dangerousness, which they’re not allowed to consider. Without cash bail, the absence of a dangerousness standard is newly problematic in this and many cases.

In his rebuke of Albany leaders after the funeral, Adams said: “Today of all days, with the city in mourning over the deaths of Detective First-Grade Jason Rivera and Police Officer Wilbert Mora, we all must come together and agree that changes are needed. We cannot allow those who carry guns to walk free — we can pursue safety and justice at the same time, and we must, for the safety of all of us.” His statement came just hours after 16-year-old Camrin Williams was sprung from the juvenile lockup in the South Bronx where he was being held on $200,000 bail on felony assault after he shot a NYPD officer.

The Broken Brave Widow of Slain NYPD Detective Jason Rivera, Dominique Luzuriaga Showed Us How to Change Albany, Victim Confrontations

In one-party NY, the political system is broken, which allows elected officials to ignore pressure from the mayor, media and public to make the city safe again. Dominique Luzuriaga somehow finding heroic strength told mourners at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as they gave her a standing ovation:

Dominique Luzuriaga: “Although you won’t be here anymore, I want you to live through me. The system continues to fail us. We are not safe anymore, not even the members of the service. I know you were tired of these laws, especially the ones from the new DA, I hope he’s watching you speak through me right now. I’m sure all of our blue family is tired too, but I promise, we promise that your death won’t be in vain. I love you until the end of time. We’ll take the watch from here.”

Other victims of crime like the family and friends of Michelle Go who died after being pushed in front of an R train, must confront lobbying Albany’s leadership during this year’s election to force them to address the city’s safety beyond slogans. The victim rights leaders should demand that Albany pass a bill named after the two murdered officers, the Rivera/Mora Law to reform the Bail Law and give Criminal Court Judges the power to lock up those under arrest they think will harm themselves or the innocent. Victim family, friends and rights groups have a limited time to change Albany. Once this year’s primaries and one-party redistricting are done, it will be almost impossible to convince Albany’s elected officials, who will then be safe districts that guarantee reelection to anything for the public, not theirs.

Even with A Broken Local Media the NY Times Sticks to Its Political Narrative to Limit a Widow’s Cries for Safety

Errol Louis’ last column for the Daily News describes the destruction of the newspaper business as a sinking ship that is breaking apart, after being hit by a torpedo called the internet, Facebook, and Twitter. Louis described how an old-timer in the newsroom told him when he started as a journalist that “We used to run this effing town.”

What we have now in NYC is a NY Times which lost it last three non-incumbent mayoral endorsements, Mark Green 2001, Christine Quinn (2013) and Kathryn-Garcia (2021), but still retains some political power because it influences the rest of the city’s media, except the NY Post to cover stories. So the Times on the left and the Rupert Murdoch team of the NY Post and Fox News on the right can push issues on New Yorkers, but they both lack the power to influence NY’s broken government and politics.