Free Republic

Please don’t mistake Wednesday’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree demonstration for just another unimaginative lashing-out by dyspeptic attention-mongering misfits. It was much more than that. Oh, the usual suspects were there — cossetted Columbia University types; unmoored sociopaths who hate America but who can’t bring themselves to leave; perverse excitement-seekers and the inevitable anti-Semites and associated haters. But that fellow waving a Palestinian flag while atop a pillar in front of 1211 Sixth Avenue — this newspaper’s headquarters — was something else entirely. His was an atavistic celebration of mass murder — this time not at home by hijacked airliner, but...

Nothing concentrates attention quite like the rattle of gunfire. Certainly Albany County District Attorney David Soares — a one-time disciple of civic-disrupter George Soros — is not immune. The fellow has had an epiphany, and good for him. There have been at least 13 gun homicides in New York’s capital city this year — two just this past week — and roughly 80 shootings. Adjusted for population, this would approximate 1,100 homicides in New York City, and 6,800 shootings — stats sure to grab any honest man’s attention. Soares appears to be that honest man — though it’s been a...

New York’s sanguinary summer lingers, even though November is fast approaching, with at least seven more city residents gunned down over the weekend, including a fatally wounded tourist. Don’t blame the cops. They’re doing what they’ve been told to do, which amounts to running in circles, now that Gotham’s political class has abandoned one of the most effective urban-policing strategies ever devised — largely because it was too harsh on criminals. Now New York is reaping the whirlwind. Or, as The New York Times reported over the weekend: “More than 1,515 people have been shot so far this year, twice...

Most New Yorkers love New York, but does New York love most New Yorkers? It doesn’t seem so. Gov. Cuomo treats them like children, and Mayor de Blasio like idiots. That’s why you could roll a bowling ball down many Midtown sidewalks these days, in broad daylight, and not hit more than an overflowing trash basket or a nodding-out junkie. This is merely one symptom, of course. The true dysfunction resides in City Hall and Albany. But there are many more symptoms, and people are noticing. Consider: New York City, paralyzed by race-driven ideology and ­administrative incompetence, and totally outmatched...

Well, Bill de Blasio for sure. But also mayoral spouse Chirlane McCray, who has just been revealed as a world-class boondoggler in her own right. Hey, the family that preys together stays together, right? And it’s only (your) money — even if it is quite a lot of it.

How Profiling Saved My LifeBy Nicholas StixToogood Reports | December 16, 2003 Gettin’ PaidIt was just after 9 p.m. on a school night, and Dennis, Steve, Michael, maybe another guy and myself were on the corner, by the parking garage of a fancy apartment building a block away from our slummy neighborhood. Dennis, the ringleader was 14, Steve was 15, I was 13 and Michael was 12.Along comes an unmarked car, and Det. Kevan and some other plainclothes guys jump out, and hassle us. Stupid Det. Kevan, the jerk. Father of Jimmy, the bully, who was my age, and Jimmy’s...

Gettin’ Paid It was just after 9 p.m. on a school night, and Dennis, Steve, Michael, maybe another guy and myself were on the corner, by the parking garage of a fancy apartment building a block away from our slummy neighborhood. Dennis, the ringleader was 14, Steve was 15, I was 13 and Michael was 12. Along comes an unmarked car, and Det. Kevan and some other plainclothes guys jump out, and hassle us. Stupid Det. Kevan, the jerk. Father of Jimmy, the bully, who was my age, and Jimmy’s oldest brother, who was an even crazier bully. (The two...