Mayor Eric Adams has once again added invaluable insight to the criminological cannon. After video emerged of a fruit and candy vendor in the subway, a middle-aged Hispanic woman being dragged away in cuffs, Adams defended the officers by warning that allowing fruit vendors on trains is the first step in a slippery slope—to… barbecue?
"The next day it's propane tanks being on the subway system, the next day it's barbecuing in the subway system," he declared. And then what!? Racks of halal lamb? Pots of fondue!?
First of all the sole customer base for an illicit train station steak is the city’s rat community. And there are self-evident reasons that preclude the use of open flame on the train. But beyond that, Adams is absurd because … it hasn’t happened before! Unless there’s a whole new strain of ruthless criminal carnivorous cooks to worry about in our current era, nothing in New York City’s past suggests we have to worry about it in the future.
It reminds me of the idiotic crackdown on the train dancers during the de Blasio administration. Many people hated them, a posture to signify their gruff New Yorkness. Others disliked them because they could be a little overwhelming after a long day. I loved them! Like chatty bodega guys, they could cheer you up on the days the city makes you feel lonely.
But during the campaign to bully teenaged dancers from the trains, you saw tons of alarmist headlines about train passengers getting kicked in the head—but no one could ever cite an example, not a single one!—of this actually happening. The NYPD did what the do best (busting Black teens) and now I haven’t seen a performance in so long it took me five minutes to remember their signature shout of “Showtime!”
This week, a 25-year-old man hung himself in Rikers, the 4th suicide this year. It is beyond insane to police so-called “quality of life” crimes, which really mean somebody was arrested for being poor. These disproportionally affect poor people of color (I could throw a beer in a cop’s face without getting arrested). This is also the population least likely to afford bail, leading to dangerous — deadly — conditions in New York’s jails.
Note: This post is free because it’s just me ranting, but we’d really appreciate your support—$5 a month or $50 a year. Zach has a great post coming up about narratives of drug and alcohol use and violence in the Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial.
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