Another spate of shootings in the city last week, and another week of denial by our mayor.
Just as some right-wingers deny all evidence of evolution, leftist Mayor Bill de Blasio ignores statistics showing the number of shootings and homicides in NYC are on the rise. Why?
If your arguments are based on reason, you will abandon them if the facts go against you, said philosopher Bertrand Russell.
But if your arguments are based on faith, no amount of facts will change your mind. De Blasio was, is, and always will be a political ideologue, whether the issue is education, housing — or crime.
NYC first lady Chirlane McCray let the cat out of the bag earlier this month when she talked lovingly about 1977, her first year in New York, recalling how, “The city was strong. The city was inclusive and dynamic. We want the city to stay that way.”
Excuse me? The city was a hellhole in 1977. A time when a serial killer was shooting women in parked cars (“The Summer of Sam”), crime was out of control, the Bronx was burning, the subways were graffiti-covered and filthy, and a blackout led to mass rioting. Outside of that, things were swell.
Despite all this, the mayor said his wife made “a really powerful point.”
“. . . Those were not ideal times,” conceded de Blasio (you think?), “but at least you could find a place you could afford to live.”
Of course you could. The city was in chaos, and people were fleeing in droves.
For someone who is for strict gun control, it’s amazing how much Democrat de Blasio mirrors his true believer Republican counterparts when it comes to shootings. It doesn’t matter how many bodies pile up — if it clashes with their respective ideologies, they don’t want to hear it.
In 1990, a 22-year-old tourist from Utah was viciously attacked and killed on the subway defending his family in a case that drew national attention. Three years later, law-and-order candidate Rudy Giuliani was elected mayor. The city had had enough.
Hopefully, it won’t take another attack on a tourist before de Blasio stops ignoring rising shooting and homicide rates and takes action — even if it goes against his political religion.
Playwright Mike Vogel blogs at newyorkgritty.net.
