So the below video (click on the image to go to it) is all over social media, and apparently shows a tussle between two men on the NYC subway — resulting in the shooting of a man with his own gun.

 

Getting beyond the facile, “hey, where is Daniel Penny when we need him?” commentary, here’s some context for the subways these days:

1. The NYPD is short thousands of cops, due to the anti-police atmosphere that pervades New York and pretty much all of our blue cities. As a result, there are now mandatory overtime shifts for non-transit cops to try to flood the zone, as well as voluntary shifts, daily.

   This is tremendously expensive — and will continue to be (this OT is “pensionable,” as the cops say; that is, it augments cops’ pensions). Now, more power to them; I begrudge no cop anywhere for making a better living. But the bottom line is that many of these officers are working round the clock. You can’t expect them to be alert and at their best.

2. Governor Kathy Hochul’s addition of 250 New York State Police also comes with a price tag — and limited efficacy. While her office has responded to my emails by stating that these officers have been deployed “at no additional cost” — the bottom line is that they must’ve been pulled from elsewhere. Meaning: somewhere in NYS, things are less safe than they were. And NYS Police — professional as they are — are not transit cops. They don’t know the system, and they don’t know the terrain. This is window dressing.

3. But for window dressing, nothing beats the 750 National Guard members that Hochul has deployed. Her office won’t respond to my questions regarding whether these Guard members were activated to full-time duty by Hochul — so you can be the judge of whether that means they’re now getting full-time pay. Further, as they are not cops and have no training or expertise in the laws and policies of police work — just as cops are not trained in the mission of the Guard — they are apparently there just to look in people’s bags. (Funny how the NYCLU doesn’t have a stroke over this version of stop-and-frisk when it’s instituted by a fellow progressive).

   Now, I spent a lot of time in the subway today. I was all over town, including through Grand Central Station. I saw no Guard members. What I did see is broken MetroCard machines, token booths without attendants, automated announcements indicating the wrong station, and at least 1/4 of travelers walking in the out door without paying.

4. Hochul still won’t rescind the state’s “sanctuary” status — meaning New York still can’t communicate with the feds regarding illegal aliens. And as the Chief of Transit himself stated, there are migrant pickpocket and robbery crews working the NYC subways.

   That said — you can’t entirely blame Hochul. Because we all know the feds in this administration wouldn’t be listening anyway.

5. Oh, and also: nobody stays locked up. While Alvin Bragg in Manhattan gets all the notoriety, NYC has four other District Attorneys. With the exception of Staten Island, they’ve all been trying to out-woke each other from the get-go.

It’s really not that hard — we know what works, because it’s worked before. Support the cops in their mission, rescind the panoply of laws designed to undermine them, and keep the genuine bad guys locked up so they can’t keep preying on people.

Oh — and rebuild, not retire, the Rikers Island jail. If it closes, we go down to half the prisoner beds from where we are now.

Half. You think things are bad now?

Laken Update

A short update on the homicide of Laken Riley, and her alleged killer, Jose Ibarra.

I’ll let the video speak for itself. Suffice to say — we’re not letting this one go, if we can help it. There are numerous questions remaining here.

This administration has much to answer for.

(Here, by the way, is the program under which Ibarra was likely admitted. Is anyone even attempting to verify these so-called “sponsors”?).

Unsurprising News Dept.

Via Bloomberg News:

 

Wow — wonder why?

And finally…

Please welcome the addition of A.F. Branco’s cartoons to The Ops Desk platform! We’re long-time admirers of his work — and his thinking.

Case in point:

 

As I said — this administration has much to answer for.