Guest Post by Jess Lawson
Eric Adams, New York City’s new Democratic mayor, had an extraordinarily low bar to clear when it came to being perceived as an improvement compared to his predecessor. Adams succeeded the far-left groundhog murderer Bill DeBlasio who, for reasons that are still unclear, decided to run for president and couldn’t get his polling numbers out of the single digits in his own city.
Guest Post by Mark Crispin Miller
A friend has written up his observations on the subway shooting said to have occurred in New York City on Tuesday morning. Here’s the video that he analyzes (the segment starting at 35:40):
I’m sure there are some readers who will reflexively laugh off these perceptions, or try to, as so much “conspiracy theory”—as if, by now, what with all the whoppers we’ve been force-fed just these last two years, from “the coronavirus” set to wipe out millions of us, to the “insurrection” in the Capitol, to the many fake atrocities committed (not) by the Russians in Ukraine, we have any reason to believe a single story pumped out by the Western press; and all those recent Big Lies were devised, and all too many people swallowed them, because so many other Big Lies had been put across successfully throughout the prior half- century, at least.
Continue reading “Some reasons to suspect that subway shooting didn’t really happen”
New York City’s struggling small businesses are dealing with one of the worst spikes in retail theft rates in recent memory. And owners aren’t sure whether Mayor Eric Adams’ decision to roll back certain COVID restrictions will improve the situation, or make it worse.
The owner of a couple of downtown boutiques said she has never felt “more exhausted” trying to protect her businesses from emboldened shoplifters and criminal crews working small retail businesses.
Someone shattered the front door overnight and ripped out the cash drawer. The new security gates cost $2,300. The streets became quieter after four neighboring businesses closed permanently during the pandemic, emboldening shoplifters. Two security guards quit.
For Deborah Koenigsberger, who has worked in retail for three decades, keeping her two clothing stores open in Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood has never felt so exhausting.
“As small businesses, we are getting creamed right now in so many ways,” Ms. Koenigsberger said. “I might as well leave my store door open and say, ‘Help yourselves.”
According to data from the NYT, shoplifting complaints are up 16% over the past year, while arrests have fallen.
The debate over the underlying causes has also focused on New York’s bail laws, on a police force distracted by a spike in shootings and on online marketplaces where organized retail crews can easily sell stolen goods.
As the city emerges from the public health crisis, officials say a sense of safety is critical to its economic recovery.
Last year, complaints of retail theft were about 16 percent higher than in 2019, according to the New York Police Department. But arrest rates have dropped, with about 28 percent of the complaints resulting in arrests last year, compared with 48.5 percent in 2019.
An index of major crimes, including murders and felony assaults, was up 7.5 percent in the same period, but still lower last year than in 2015.
At least he kept his mask on.
Another brutal white supremacist attack in NYC. Out of control. pic.twitter.com/anfDC3ovFy
— Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com (@stillgray) July 25, 2021
