The NYC Throne of Affliction

“Do our politicians want to see us all suffer?” sounds like a fringe and conspiratorial question to ever ask aloud. Yet at this point in time, it is a completely reasonable question, and a discussion we must have if we want to understand the motivation of NYC’s elected officials.

A recent article by Seth Barron explains:

“New York is now run by progressive militants who appear to believe that their vocation is to “afflict” their constituents by disrupting their undeserved calm and comfort. Mass immiseration is not a side effect of bad policy; it is the policy.”

Interactions with our councilmembers on Twitter seem to reflect these points all too often, such as the normalization of our shared increase in misery. When longtime-resident of the Upper West Side Julia Vitullo-Martin recently tweeted about seeing needles, feces, and dime bags littering the streets of her neighborhood, she was shouted down by homeless advocates for spreading false truths. Councilman Stephen Levin then went on to lecture her (and I) about how the opioid epidemic was responsible, claiming that he’s been seeing syringes around NYC for the last eight years.

Julia’s response should resonate with all New Yorkers:

“We understand. We're saying you're wrong. Sorry for being so direct, but we know our neighborhoods, walk our neighborhoods daily, and know for a fact that we did not have needles and bags. We didn't have people shooting up on UWS streets until July of this year. Now we do.”

While our elected officials continue to gaslight us; denying the increased suffering all New Yorkers are experiencing, we know the truth, we live here, and none of this is normal.

The social media accounts of our most progressive politicians tend to wax upon the same common themes. When confronted with questions of quality of life and rising crime, the cries of the New Yorkers themselves are completely ignored. Support for legislation that’s softer on criminals remains paramount, along with defunding the police, paring their personal immunity, and reducing their scope of responsibilities.

Is no one in power noticing that we have a massive, escalating crime problem?

This being an election year, and one would think there would be a clear mandate to reverse course and restore rule of law. Instead, many political hopefuls are running on similar platforms or worse. One can’t help but notice the horrific and immediate results these policies have had on our city, and wonder if our elected officials actually want to see us all suffer for the sake of “equity.”

Not long ago, Mayoral candidate Eric Adams made thinly veiled anti-white statements against New Yorkers, telling them to “go back” to Iowa and Ohio. During a year when our city feels intensely divided, one can’t help but wonder if electing someone who already made such statements in public might further inflame racial tensions if he becomes mayor? He also advised Brooklynites having issues with their neighbors to go and talk to them, sparing them from unnecessary interactions with police. After a long sleepless night of illegal fireworks, one brooklyn resident was shot and killed for taking his poor advice.

In a recent forum with VocalNY, Dianne Morales stated that she is in favor of legalizing both crack-cocaine and heroin, arguably two of the most devastating tragedies to affect NYC’s communities of color. Morales also seeks to end the Gifted and Talented Schools because schools focused on the gifted are not fair to all kids, which is somehow considered racist while having nothing to do with race. One might ask: How can squandering the talents of gifted children actually lead to a better society? It doesn’t. It just squanders the opportunity of our gifted children.

Sara Lind, the darling candidate of the developer PAC Open NY for All, proposed “pedestrianization” on Broadway on the Upper West Side, which would effectively ban cars in those areas. This makes life more difficult for the elderly and disabled, as well as for emergency vehicles to respond effectively. It appears Sara’s top priority is selling the goals of private developers under the guise of wokeness. The UWS is a coveted historic district with a large elderly population, long known for being a friendly place to raise families. It appears the only people who insist it isn’t fair, isn’t diverse enough, and needs to be rezoned is Sara and her developer buddies.

No neighborhood has seen a fall from grace quite as dramatic as the beloved Upper West Side. Despite the Upper West Side being dense with homeless shelters for many years DHS did not hesitate to pack the local hotels with homeless people, including level three sex offenders. This brash decision threw both caution and state law to the wind, by violating proximity to local children’s parks. Need I remind you, level three sex offenders are described by the NY State Division of Criminal Justice as “high risk of repeat offense and a threat to public safety”.

Helen Rosenthal did not understand why her UWS constituents did not appreciate her facilitating this transition from Lucerne Hotel to Lucerne Homeless Shelter. Gale Brewer, the current Manhattan Borough President who is running to replace Helen Rosenthal, also shamed her potential constituents.

Current Councilman Ben Kallos displayed tendencies of affliction when he recently proposed to put up a homeless shelter in his own Upper East Side district, after many months of forcing shelter after shelter in other districts. These new shelters lack the crucial supportive services needed to keep unintended crime at bay, a crucial detail that Kallos seems to have missed. Increasing shelters in the current dysfunctional model is consistently unpopular across all neighborhoods in the city, regardless of demographics.

Council Members Brad Lander who is running for Comptroller invariably is found at the forefront of dysfunctional policies that reduce safety and prevent effective policing. Even as violent crime continues to spike, Lander continuously finds new ways to disempower our police force. Lander is still complaining there weren’t enough NYPD budget cuts, boasting just a couple of weeks ago that, “I voted against that budget because it did not do enough to transform public safety, reduce the bloated NYPD budget and invest in communities.” In reality, it is the defunding of the NYPD that has transformed NYC’s communities by rising crime rates, and lower quality of life for all.

Dan Quart doesn’t want to prosecute criminals, which is the core tenet of the position he is currently seeking -- Manhattan District Attorney. Any district attorney has one job - to prosecute criminals, and Quart is running on the promise to not do it. To give him credit for his honesty, Quart actually let us know he didn’t care what the repercussions would be for his own policies:

After a year of increased and unnecessary suffering, the nickname “Afflicters'' now seems to be the best way to describe the majority of our local politicians. It has become increasingly apparent that many of their beliefs translate into policies that would do harm to their own districts, in order to please their inner circle. For anyone following these people, it is abundantly clear that the “politics of affliction” is the true party for today’s progressives.

As Brad Lander stated himself:

“We must comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.”

-Written by Jason Curtis Anderson in collaboration with David Kelsey