NY progressives have spawned a bloody war on the streets — and innocents are paying the price
New York’s progressives have spawned an ugly war that’s taking place not just on the ideological fronts but in the streets — and it’s claiming real casualties. Yet what the progressives fail to admit is that these casualties aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet; they’re real people.
On Aug. 13, New York added another name to its casualty list with the killing of taxi driver Kutin Gyimah. Gyimah was a real person — a father of four and loving husband. He died after he was brutally attacked by riders for daring to collect his fare for his driving services.
And his merciless death came just a day after another innocent, Jesus Cortes, was blindsided by a sucker punch to the head, in an unprovoked attack allegedly by parolee Van Phu Bui. The out-of-the-blue wallop caused fracturing to Cortes’ skull and bleeding in his brain.
Alas, in this very hot war, the humanity of innocents like Cortes and Gyimah is utterly lost. To the progressives, casualty numbers can never be high enough to change their course, because their mission is more important than a few dead bystanders.
And they are waging their battles from within all sectors of the government, which are being increasingly occupied by ideologues who create policies that sound good but create hell for civilians.
As Jesus Cortes lay in a hospital recovering from his injuries, New York’s occupying forces downgraded Bui’s charges from attempted murder to assault and harassment and promptly released him from jail. Why? Because their ideology dictates that they reserve compassion for the criminal element, not the innocent who are preyed upon.
That insanity brought a national spotlight down on Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was shamed into stepping in to see that Bui was locked up. But Hochul is set on leaving the system that led to the travesty entirely in place.
It leaves the only people who are fearful today in New York to be law-abiding citizens; meanwhile, those, like Hochul, who’ve manufactured and sustained this war zone will never admit their responsibility for it. Their progressive doctrine states they must never give in, keep up the battle and dominate every part of the system, no matter how much suffering they cause.
They justify it by claiming they’re pursuing “equity,” and too bad if it entails casualties. They pretend the public is plenty safe even as they make sure not to punish predators.
The horrific yet unsurprising result: Rising crime rates. A lack of justice for the innocent. Demonization of those who try to protect themselves (e.g., bodega worker Jose Alba). Slain taxi drivers. Hospitalized bystanders.
Progressives continually lecture about how they seek to aid the poor and working class but when the poor and working-class start to bleed, thanks to their policies, their bleeding hearts suddenly heal.
Fact is, when the systems begin to fail, it’s the people at the bottom who suffer, while those who reign from above insulate themselves from the pain others feel. Lenient district attorneys actually allow for violent sex-offenders like Van Phu Bui to be released back onto the streets to potentially add to the ever-expanding casualty list.
Efforts to defund and demoralize the police have contributed to an environment where someone like Kutin Gyimah is brutally, fatally assaulted, without making his would-be assailants second-guess their criminal acts in fear of being caught.
Let’s stop pretending: New York’s casualties aren’t numbers; they’re real people who deserved protection and advocacy, certainly more than the emboldened predators who choose to terrorize the innocent but are championed by the progressives.
People like Kutin Gyimah and Jesus Cortes aren’t expendable; they’re vital to their loved ones. Yet elitists don’t see them that way; to them, they’re numbers that can be ignored, lest they be deterred from their ideological goals.
All New Yorkers are now suffering enormous anxiety, because they are becoming aware of how progressive policies are producing a hell they must survive in. They know that if they were to become one of these unfortunate victims, their city would simply add their name to a casualty list while doing nothing to prevent it from occurring again and little to ensure justice on their behalf.
It’s a needless war. And it’s beyond pathetic.
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing.
