
It’s been a year since New York City adopted Local Law 71 with the enthusiastic support of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who is now mayor of the city. Local Law 71, the so-called Community Safety Act, used the possibility of endless civil-rights litigation to gut the city’s “stop, question, and frisk” procedure for dealing with street-level crime, and Mr. de Blasio campaigned energetically on the issue, charging that the New York Police Department had “unfairly targeted young African-American and Latino men.”
I have a theory that criminals keep up with the news, perhaps by osmosis.
Monday before last, I was the subject of a half-hearted assault in front of National Review’s midtown Manhattan offices — a crazy old bum was begging and lost his temper when I did not produce the desired goods. I wasn’t hurt and do not think I was in real danger of anything worse than a possible lice infestation, and the episode, while indicative, did not surprise me. The rapid deterioration of New York City during and after Mr. de Blasio’s ascent to power is plainly visible for anybody with eyes to see.