Yes! It’s finally arrived — New York’s latest cultural addition is a museum dedicated solely to the Defund-the-Police movement (now that will bring the tourists roaring back).

But before we get to the details, some quick housekeeping:

First, our latest podcast has just dropped. In an effort to again clear up confusion around a murky topic, this week we do a simple breakout of why it is that New York (and so many other cities) are suddenly obscured by clouds of marijuana smoke — most of it illegal. None of the promised benefits of the “cannabis revolution” have arrived, or are likely to.

 

New York, as usual, sets the pace for complete dysfunction. But in this case, it’s far from alone. Essentially: We’ve created a new age of bootlegging, with all its attendant ills. Can the Al Capones be far behind?

Next, another clarifying piece: as discussed last podcast, our Hunter Biden roundup has dropped. If you’ve ever found Hunter’s story a bit tough to keep straight, here’s a one-stop shop — including the current charges he (reportedly) faces, a timeline of his many misadventures, and the ultimate implications for “The Big Guy.”

It’s a handy (and ongoing) reference — but not for the faint-of-heart (he’s been a busy guy!).

The Museum of Over-Policing

Courtesy of the NYCLU — and a list of donors they keep decidedly under-wraps — New York now boasts a unique addition to its cultural firmament: the “Museum of Broken Windows.” Your narrator ventured into the very belly of the Defund movement to see what it was all about.

The Museum — located in downtown Manhattan — bills its mission as demonstrating “how you can take action to reduce the size, scope, and power of the NYPD” (the PD’s recruitment issues are doing a pretty good job of that already).

Upon entering, things begin even-handedly enough:

 

Yesterday was Monday, right? Did I miss something?

The museum then gets quickly to the point:

 

 

Aside from questioning the accuracy of those numbers: there seems no cognizance of the fact that the NYPD has roughly 50,000 members (including civilian support personnel). Which is far larger than any of these other agencies.

But let’s play along. So: take the first banner hanging there — the Citizens Complaint Review Board (CCRB). It’s the agency set up to field low-level complaints against cops (many of which are filed for revenge anyway).

Now according to their own website, CCRB has around 100 personnel. Using the numbers here, those personnel get two cents to every NYPD dollar — or 2% of what the NYPD receives. But that’s with roughly .2% of the personnel.

In other words: CCRB is funded, by headcount, at about ten times the level of the NYPD.

There’s then a film projecting on a wall of a rapid-fire cartoonist doing masterworks like this:

 

The cops are always drawn as white rodent-like creatures, the subjects of their “harassment” always “black or brown.”

Of course, the NYPD has been majority minority for over a decade, at least. And most of the executive heirarchy is black — including the Police Commissioner.

But why ruin the narrative that secures your funding?

It goes on like that — you get the picture. I felt like standing out front and handing out copies of this — but I have a life (sort of, anyway).

Most of the museum’s second floor is dedicated to the depredations of NYC’s jail, Rikers Island, and demands for reform there. Nobody seems to have told the curators that Rikers is closing, and with the replacement “borough-based jail” system, the jail headcount will go down 40%.

As I said: Why ruin a narrative that….

The best part, however, might be some of the accompanying written materials. The post-Floyd riots — which caused at least $2 billion in damage to our cities, and numerous deaths — are passingly described as “the 2020 uprisings.”

These pseudo-intellectual musings go on to assert that the exhibits “lean into the use of scale as a way to reinforce an idea that culture and physical space are not neutral.” (I’ll spare you any more quotes — it’s the usual twaddle that perfumes art and academia these days).

Someone — adults — spends money for stuff like this. Really. And the police are a funding problem?

The point is driven home at the end in lettering so large I couldn’t fit it all on-camera:

 

But of course, we exit through the gift shop!

 

Defund merch. Is this still a great country or what?

See you later in the week, gang. Meantime, stay safe! (And go to a real museum — it’s good for the soul. My fave in New York is here) (they even have a speakeasy-sort-of bar on the second floor, that almost no one knows about) (let’s keep it between us, shall we?).