NYC still hasn't psychologically recovered from the NYPD City Hall Riot, even though it was 30 years ago. I'm not sure if any mayor will be brave enough to take on the police again.
I honestly don't know what any of us could do. Bill De Blasio made one tiny peep against NYPD and they doxxed, arrested, and threatened his daughter in retaliation. And instead of firing the Commissioner, de Blasio crawled back into a hole. That's the most a NYC mayor has done. Who can take them on?
Nearly every US municipality is in this situation. And our members of Congress & presidents also bend to police pressure. This country has a serious gang problem, & the gangs are taxpayer-funded law enforcement departments.
while I realize it has been an incremental process of abusers continually pushing the line, Bloomberg took the post-9/11 funding and made it not just permanent, but also the continual increasing bite. He wanted a private army and got himself one. But they only answer to themselves
That's a big problem but I don't think that's what happened with congestion pricing. The consensus seems to be that Jefferies and/or Schumer told Hochul that congestion pricing would hurt Dems in House races in the Hudson Valley/NY suburbs.
Police groups definitely opposed this, but the process of developing this plan took years and that wouldn’t have been new information. Congressional leaders saying ‘Kathy, this might cost us the House’ would’ve been more of an emergency.
My point is *the cops’ narrative & pressure (with help from the NY Post’s recent coverage)* is what convinced those (foolish) members of Congress that congestion pricing would cause Dems to lose seats in the upcoming elections.
