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    Monday Bulletin: Abject Anti-Semitism; Cutting the Line; Proposed Central Park 5 Exhibit

    January 18, 2021 | 4:43 PM - Updated on June 5, 2022 | 11:40 PM
    in CRIME, NEWS, POLITICS
    15


    Mallards huddling in Central Park. Photo by Nancy I.

    January 18, 2021 Weather: Mostly cloudy, with a high of 45 degrees.

    Notices:
    Our calendar has local and virtual events.

    News:
    The father of a family he describes as “conspicuously Jewish,” writes of their encounter with anti-Semitism on the way to the Barnes and Noble on West 82nd Street and Broadway, in the algemeiner. An imposing man in a black leather jacket approached them.“‘I have a question,’ he started innocuously. ‘Is it true that the Bible says Jews must live in Israel? Are you not Jewish?’ ‘We are,’ my son responded defensively. ‘Go away,’ I said more forcefully. ‘Go to Israel!’ he shouted back. And then, furiously: ‘Heil Hitler!’ I could see the burning hatred in his eyes. My two young sons could see it too. I pulled out my cellphone and dialed 911…”

    Althea Lingeman, 89, and her husband Richard, 90, got their first COVID-19 vaccines at the newly opened mega-vaccination site at the Javits Convention Center last Friday. They were originally scheduled for Mt. Sinai, “but when they found out Thursday that the hospital had to cancel appointments due to limited vaccine supply, they grew fearful about the fate of their own appointments,” explained the New York Post. “That prompted the couple to leave their Upper West Side apartment early Friday morning and hop in a yellow taxi to the Javits Center with the hope of getting jabbed, despite not having an appointment.”

    A permanent exhibit in Central Park honoring the “fortitude and resilience” of the five teens convicted then exonerated in the infamous “Central Park Jogger” rape case is making its way through the bureaucratic process with the support of the mayor and the borough president. But it is not without controversy,” the Daily News wrote. “Paul DiGiacomo, who heads the Detectives’ Endowment Association, said the push to honor the Exonerated Five is a slap in the NYPD’s face.”

    On Sunday, the Columbia-Barnard Young Democratic Socialists of America rallied in support of their tuition strike, the Columbia Spectator reported. “A movement that began last summer and has now amassed more than 4,000 student supporters, the YDSA strike has expanded on its initial tuition reduction messaging—which at first included a 10 percent reduction in tuition and a 10 percent increase in financial aid allocation. To create a larger platform to support social justice issues, the new demands include the recognition of the graduate student workers’ union, a police defunding effort, divestment from fossil fuels, and an investment in affordable housing,”

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    15 Comments
    s. feinerman
    s. feinerman
    5 years ago

    In what America is justice for the Exonerated Five a slap in the NYPD’s face? Paul DiGiacomo
    seems to have learned nothing.

    0
    Reply
    EdNY
    EdNY
    5 years ago

    “Paul DiGiacomo, who heads the Detectives’ Endowment Association, said the push to honor the Exonerated Five is a slap in the NYPD’s face.”

    Yes, anything that challenges the overzealousness of police in the questioning of suspects is unconscionable. Especially when they’re intimidated into confessing to something they didn’t do.

    0
    Reply
    West Side lifer
    West Side lifer
    5 years ago

    Very nice for the Lingemans, but I just had my appointment cancelled for lack of supply. Not quite fair, is it.

    0
    Reply
    ben
    ben
    5 years ago
    Reply to  West Side lifer

    Maybe head to Javitz to try your luck there as well? Surely commenting on here doesn’t get you your shot back.

    0
    Reply
    Honest Abe
    Honest Abe
    5 years ago

    It’s well established that some of the “exonerated five” were in the park to commit assaults. While I think what happened to them was horribly unjust, I am still on the fence about celebrating them.

    0
    Reply
    Otis
    Otis
    5 years ago

    The five teens “exonerated” in the Central Park Rape Case were – by all accounts – guilty of causing mayhem and attacking others that night.

    They weren’t hanging out in CP that evening for a nature hike.

    They were not heroes and they were not martyrs. It would be a disgrace if a statue is erected in their honor.

    0
    Reply
    Liz
    Liz
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Otis

    Agree entirely and posted on this before–what a colossal waste of money.

    0
    Reply
    Jerome36
    Jerome36
    5 years ago

    An exhibit for the Central Park five? Sure, put it right next to the Steven pagones statue. Honestly, this is ridiculous. If we put a statue up for every person wronged by the criminal justice system, the city would have thousands upon thousands of statues. Just another pander move.

    0
    Reply
    babrarus
    babrarus
    5 years ago

    Columbia-Barnard Young Democratic Socialists of America – sounds so nice and mellow –
    But – their demands (!!!) are a police defunding, divestment from fossil fuels, and an investment in affordable housing…
    What have you done in your young lives to have the right to DEMAND?
    Stay in school, graduate, get a job, raise a family, fight for your rights and communities, and then, and only then may you demand anything.
    But first – demand it from yourself before you demand from society.

    0
    Reply
    Brandon
    Brandon
    5 years ago
    Reply to  babrarus

    “Fight for your rights and communities”

    Is that not what these students are doing through this activism?

    Also LOL to the idea that young people should sit down and shut up when they are the ones that must reckon with the consequences of their elders’ policy decisions.

    0
    Reply
    babrarus
    babrarus
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Brandon

    I did not say that they should sit down. I said that basically they have not accomplished anything in their young lives yet, and other than repeating what they heard from older socialists, they are but parrots blowing in the wind. By graduating, getting a job and starting a life of self means they can indeed help the society and themselves, and if things don’t improve, their demands can be heard, later in life, and not while they are in school, being kept alive by either their parents or the state funding their studies.

    0
    Reply
    Tussa McGinn
    Tussa McGinn
    5 years ago

    It would be no disrespect to the Central Park 5 and the injustice they experienced at the hands of the NYPD if we did not erect a statue in their honor. This is political pornography. It serves no purpose other than to titillate and to widen the divide between the police and the citizens of New York City. Now that trump is gone in 24 hours, let us please start to reach out for one another in word and deed. Let’s give each other a chance to be better people.

    0
    Reply
    Juan
    Juan
    5 years ago

    It is unfortunate that it seems that the Central Park 5 unnecessarily spent so much time in jail. That being said, I don’t think they deserve a “permanent exhibit.” If anything, the victim deserves a “permanent exhibit” if she wants one.

    The police make plenty of mistakes, but the vast majority of the time they are hard working people putting their lives at risk trying to help us. So let’s stop trying to stick it to them. This race to the extreme left is not helping to unify us.

    0
    Reply
    Peter
    Peter
    5 years ago

    It has been reported that the cancellation of appointments at Mt. Sinai was due to the vaccine being redirected for the opening of the Javits Center resulting from an order by Governor Cuomo. When asked, by a reporter if this was true, during one of his news conferences, Cuomo evaded answering. Which makes me believe that it is true. As a result this 80 something no longer has a an appointment and has been unable to get a new one. Outrageous!

    0
    Reply
    Susan
    Susan
    5 years ago

    It took a seven-year massive political and fundraising effort to get approval for the first statue of historical women in Central Park-Susan B. Anthony. Sojourner Truth, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton—women who dedicated their lives to equality and freedom. It seems a tad unbelievable that a monument to five men, who did nothing of historical import, could be honored in Central Park. This is just one more, in a “monumental” list, of the mayor’s misjudgments.

    0
    Reply

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