I honestly don't remember conservative media "frothing" about crime in the mid-2010s NY, and I was here too and consuming a lot of media.
They are leaning into it now because it is a real actual problem, and Dems and the woke left can do nothing but dissemble and gaslight. Significant portions of the left just spent years pushing to abolish policing and incarceration entirely. The Overton window moved far enough that the NY Times platformed that view prominently, several times, with no pushback.
As far as this "nothing can be done" business - we now have significant evident that bail reform and deincarceration is a significant driver of this. It turns out, what a surprise, there is a connect between cutting the population of Rikers in half and the skyrocketing rate of violent street crime:
Furthermore, focusing on shootings and murder being down is a dodge. Violent crime in the subway is up 40% vs 2019. As Nicole Gelinas explains, "If you take the subway 400 times a year, your risk of being a victim of a violent felony is about one in 2,059. It used to be one in 4,975. That is a big difference."
1. Open (new) psychiatric hospitals. Treatment options are much better now. Take the shame out of having a temporary or chronic mental problem. The earlier help is given the better the chance for reversal of a condition. Train doctors and nurses to give patients proper help.
Some people will have to stay in closed wards. But the alternative is probably prison.
2. How is it possible that Mr. Pelosi's attacker, DePape, was allowed to stay for over twenty years in the US as an illegal immigrant ? Why was he not deported back to his homecountry - Canada (a safe country with a good healthcare system). Also, if he indeed had a US Soc. Sec. number, how was he able to obtain this ?
The left constantly talks about the need to increase help for the mentally ill and its connection to crime. I guess that doesn't fit the premise of your article though.
"For liberals, there was far more howling on social media about Paul Pelosi than about the 78-year-old who was just punched out on the subway after he asked someone to lower the volume on their music."
Well yes, people are going to pay more attention to an attempt to assassinate the Speaker of the House than they are to the random assault of an anonymous stranger. I don't think that tells us anything about liberals, or politics.
But I do think there's an interesting political point in the fact that Eric Adams's name is mentioned exactly once in this column, in an aside noting that he's announced plans to put more police in the subway.
You assert that Republicans are "the party of the subway victim," but no politician in America has leveraged these legitimate concerns about crime more successfully than Adams. It is the singular reason that he is Mayor of New York City right now instead of a random clubrat.
At the time, you dismissed his campaign as weaponized "identity politics." I'm curious if you've reconsidered that now.
I honestly don't remember conservative media "frothing" about crime in the mid-2010s NY, and I was here too and consuming a lot of media.
They are leaning into it now because it is a real actual problem, and Dems and the woke left can do nothing but dissemble and gaslight. Significant portions of the left just spent years pushing to abolish policing and incarceration entirely. The Overton window moved far enough that the NY Times platformed that view prominently, several times, with no pushback.
As far as this "nothing can be done" business - we now have significant evident that bail reform and deincarceration is a significant driver of this. It turns out, what a surprise, there is a connect between cutting the population of Rikers in half and the skyrocketing rate of violent street crime:
https://media4.manhattan-institute.org/sites/default/files/Measuring-the-Public-Safety-Impact-of-New-Yorks-2019-Bail-Law.pdf
https://www.city-journal.org/new-yorks-bail-reform-has-increased-crime
Furthermore, focusing on shootings and murder being down is a dodge. Violent crime in the subway is up 40% vs 2019. As Nicole Gelinas explains, "If you take the subway 400 times a year, your risk of being a victim of a violent felony is about one in 2,059. It used to be one in 4,975. That is a big difference."
https://nypost.com/2022/10/19/yes-new-yorkers-have-a-perception-of-more-crime-because-there-is-more-crime/
One of your best. Discouraging, but kudos for showing respect for the real problem(s).
You forgot attempts to murder SCOTIS judges. Surely that counts.
1. Open (new) psychiatric hospitals. Treatment options are much better now. Take the shame out of having a temporary or chronic mental problem. The earlier help is given the better the chance for reversal of a condition. Train doctors and nurses to give patients proper help.
Some people will have to stay in closed wards. But the alternative is probably prison.
2. How is it possible that Mr. Pelosi's attacker, DePape, was allowed to stay for over twenty years in the US as an illegal immigrant ? Why was he not deported back to his homecountry - Canada (a safe country with a good healthcare system). Also, if he indeed had a US Soc. Sec. number, how was he able to obtain this ?
Good piece
The left constantly talks about the need to increase help for the mentally ill and its connection to crime. I guess that doesn't fit the premise of your article though.
"For liberals, there was far more howling on social media about Paul Pelosi than about the 78-year-old who was just punched out on the subway after he asked someone to lower the volume on their music."
Well yes, people are going to pay more attention to an attempt to assassinate the Speaker of the House than they are to the random assault of an anonymous stranger. I don't think that tells us anything about liberals, or politics.
But I do think there's an interesting political point in the fact that Eric Adams's name is mentioned exactly once in this column, in an aside noting that he's announced plans to put more police in the subway.
You assert that Republicans are "the party of the subway victim," but no politician in America has leveraged these legitimate concerns about crime more successfully than Adams. It is the singular reason that he is Mayor of New York City right now instead of a random clubrat.
At the time, you dismissed his campaign as weaponized "identity politics." I'm curious if you've reconsidered that now.
Thanks, as always, for the interesting content.