San Franciscans finally woke up to the stupidity of their wokeness. This week, they recalled District Attorney Chesa (“I prosecute nobody”) Boudin, on whose watch the city’s crime rate skyrocketed and clusters of predatory “homeless” proliferated.
Many of our local political leaders need the mitten, too. All espouse zany theories. Some are anti-capitalism, others effectively pro-crime (whether they’ll admit it or not), and all devoid of common sense. We don’t have California’s recall mechanism, but they need to be voted out of office before they do any more damage.
ALVIN BRAGG, Manhattan District Attorney
Calling for his head is almost too obvious. Bragg didn’t sneak into office by concealing his intentions. He said in his campaign he would “decline [to prosecute] and divert minor offenses.” He didn’t mean only “broken windows” enforcement, but reducing armed robberies to misdemeanors if no one was shot. Oh, he’d “end mass incarceration.”
Is it any wonder city crime is up 43 percent over last year on his watch? It’s what happens when shoplifters, vandals, predatory beggars and even stickup men know they’ll be turned loose. It demoralizes cops who know it’s a waste of their time to get “minor” and even not-so-minor offenders off the streets.
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, US Representative, 14th Congressional District (parts of central Queens and south Bronx)
Fidel Castro-idolizing AOC needed a hook the minute she first took office in 2018. She uniquely packages ignorance, stupidity, incomprehensibility, hypocrisy and ideological lunacy in a single congressional seat. Virulently anti-Israel, she refused to vote for funds to bolster that nation’s Iron Dome anti-missile system, which is a strictly defensive weapon to shoot down rockets aimed at civilians.
She said, “I wept at an institution choosing a path of maximum volatility and minimum consideration for its own political convenience.” Translation, anyone?
AOC wants to defund the NYPD, close Rikers Island and release its inmates into the streets. The self-professed, two-faced socialist has modeled fancy duds by designers like Loewe, Carolina Herrera and Christian Louboutin. Let’s hope voters in her redrawn district send her back to tending bar.
ANDREA STEWART-COUSINS, State Senate Majority Leader
CARL HEASTIE, State Assembly Speaker
The damage these powerful, “progressive” legislators have done to criminal justice in New York State — and especially in the Big Apple — is Homeric in scale. They pushed through “bail reform” laws in 2019 (which former Gov. Andrew Cuomo disgracefully signed) that all but eliminated cash bail, even for many violent felons — allowing innumerable criminals to be back on streets in a matter of hours.
Unlike in every other state, the new rules denied judges discretion from taking into account a suspect’s past record and likelihood of posing a danger to the community. The result? Evil-doers have the run of the town. They’ve included armed gang members who killed rivals and hit innocent children in crossfires, psychotics who shove people onto subway tracks and molesters of 12-year-old girls.
Heastie and Stewart-Cousins shrug off Mayor Eric Adams’ pleas to take into account the havoc their laws have caused. They are beholden to a woke agenda in service of mollycoddling mostly black and Latino lawbreakers while ignoring the carnage they’ve wrought in mostly black and Latino communities.
BRAD LANDER, City Comptroller
Far-left Lander wants to chop at least $1 billion from the NYPD budget. His job blessedly doesn’t allow him to do that, but it’s bad enough that he bases his stewardship over $248 billion in city pension funds partly on priorities involving climate, sustainability and social justice – which have little to do with getting the highest return for cops, firefighters and other municipal unions.
As a Council member, he voted against rezoning a sliver of Flushing waterfront – which has been off-limits to the public for decades – to allow apartment and retail construction. Even the left-leaning Council overwhelmingly approved it.
KRISTIN RICHARDSON JORDAN, Council member, Central Harlem
Jordan single-handedly killed a project at West 145th Street that would have replaced empty lots with new apartments, half of which would have been affordable to moderate- and low-income families. This was after the developer, who needed a zoning change, had made concession after concession to appease her.
The plan known as One45 would have harmed no one while bringing the neighborhood desperately needed new housing. It required no evictions. It was such a no-brainer that even left-leaning Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine was dismayed over losing it.
MICHAEL GIANARIS, New York State Senator, 12th District (western Queens)
The rabidly anti-development legislator delivered the killing blow to Amazon’s dream of setting up a large regional headquarters in Long Island City. His opposition to state and city subsidies for Amazon prompted the company to pull the plug on the proposal in early 2019, thus depriving the city of thousands of jobs and tax and other revenues far greater than the value of the subsidies.
Gianaris’s power was courtesy of state legislator Andrea Stewart-Cousins (see above) who appointed him to the Public Authorities Control Board, which oversees state subsidies. At least some of his animus towards the Amazon deal was personal: sources told The Post that his feelings were hurt because former Gov. Cuomo’s didn’t consult him.
BILL DE BLASIO (retroactively)
The former mayor’s eight-year tenure should be recalled as only a bad dream.
