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    Monday Bulletin: Bias Crime; Police Vaccination Controversy; Harlem Recreated in Central Park

    August 30, 2021 | 8:32 AM - Updated on June 5, 2022 | 11:31 PM
    in COLUMNS, CRIME, NEWS
    17


    Florist Michael Haston created an arrangement and left it outside the 72nd Street subway station last week “to create something to share with my neighbors to bring a little lightness and beauty to their day.”

    August 30, 2021 Weather: Rain expected, with a high of 84 degrees.

    Notices:
    Our calendar has lots of local events!

    News:
    “A Brooklyn woman was arrested Friday for an attack in which she allegedly told an Asian woman to ‘speak English’ before pulling her hair and spitting on her,” the New York Post reported. The 26-year-old victim, who had moved to the city from L.A. three weeks before, said “she was speaking to a friend in Mandarin at West 60th Street and Broadway when the suspect confronted her.” Yvonne Yehudah, 31, was charged with aggravated harassment. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force was called to investigate.

    There is discord around vaccine mandates among NYPD leaders. Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Tuesday that he was “100% behind” mandates for police officers and personnel, while, on Wednesday, Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s  Benevolent Association, the largest police union, told its members that they would “sue the city” if cops were required to get vaccinated, the Post reported. “‘If the City attempts to impose a vaccine mandate on PBA members, we will take legal action to defend our members’ right to make such personal medical decisions,’” he said. To date, only 47% of the entire NYPD is fully vaccinated.

    “…simultaneously exuberant, true to Shakespeare, and shrewdly New York,” is what Untapped New York called the Public Theater’s production in Central Park of Merry Wives. What they focused on, however, was the set. “‘Oh my God, it’s my neighborhood,’ said Harlem resident James Ervin as we emerged from the Delacorte’s ramp into the sunlight of a lovely Saturday evening. There before us in Central Park was a classic row of late 19th-century buildings, still handsome but aging, slightly askew, cornices intact but shaky, multi-colored bricks mixed with concrete blocks. We knew where we were, which was set designer Beowulf Boritt’s goal.”

    A Riverside Drive Converted Studio. A West End Avenue Alcove Studio. An Amsterdam Avenue Converted One-Bedroom. Which would you choose? asks The New York Times in an interactive feature, and which did the first-time Upper West Side buyer take? “He had been saving to buy a place of his own and was aching to return (to the city). ‘My heart is on the Upper West Side,’ he said. ‘It’s my oasis….’ An expensive oasis, he discovered while searching StreetEasy to see what his budget of up to $500,000 would buy.”

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    17 Comments
    Victor
    Victor
    5 years ago

    Patrick Lynch is the reason bad cops stay employed in NYC.

    0
    Reply
    Leon
    Leon
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Victor

    Agreed. Unlike many New Yorkers, I am very supportive of NYPD. I think the vast majority are good people trying their best to help us. And I generally support unions.

    Lynch thinks that his belligerence is helping police officers but it actually hurts them – it turns them into the enemy. All police officers are entitled to due process but he refuses to ever admit that one has done something wrong. And at this point, now that Pfizer is fully approved, the ship has sailed on refusing to be vaccinated. He is totally tone deaf.

    0
    Reply
    m.pipik
    m.pipik
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Victor

    Or perhaps bad cops are the reason Lynch keeps his job. They continue to elect him.

    0
    Reply
    good humor
    good humor
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Victor

    this is true of all unions.

    0
    Reply
    NOT-a-cop
    NOT-a-cop
    5 years ago

    Re: the above comments
    1. someone wrote “Patrick Lynch is the reason bad cops stay employed in NYC.”
    And the reason GOOD cops (the majority) also stay employed because they know Lynch will protect them from all the fringe crackpots screaming “Defund the police”.
    2. someone else wrote “Or perhaps bad cops are the reason Lynch keeps his job. They continue to elect him.”
    As do the GOOD cops); he has been elected FIVE times. Must be doing something right.

    0
    Reply
    EdNY
    EdNY
    5 years ago
    Reply to  NOT-a-cop

    Lynch does a good PR job for the rank-and-file officers, but his cops-do-no-wrong at all costs attitude alienates him from a large portion of the public. His response to even the smallest slight is totally predictable and usually accomplishes little with the public.

    0
    Reply
    DavidS
    DavidS
    5 years ago

    I’m fine with NYPD personnel being able to choose if they wish to decline a safe, effective vaccine for a deadly disease. But, if an unvaccinated individual does get COVID, any downtime should be unpaid, and any medical expenses should not be covered by their city-funded health insurance.

    0
    Reply
    Dawn Moore
    Dawn Moore
    5 years ago
    Reply to  DavidS

    Should we extend to when overweight people get Type 2 diabetes from lack of exercise, poor diet? Sexually transmitted diseases? Smoking? The flu from not keeping up their immune systems, not washing their hands enough? Are we going to punish people for making any “their bodies, their choice” decisions?

    0
    Reply
    Nathalie
    Nathalie
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Dawn Moore

    Dawn-Couldn’t agree more. People have a right to decide what gets injected into their bodies. And what about those with severe allergies to PEG & Polysorbate 80 in the vaccines? But, I do think that unvaccinated should wear masks everywhere. The vaccinated can also pass the virus (yes, to a somewhat lesser degree) but they act like a vaccine is a free pass to throw all caution to the wind. They are part of the reason cases went up after July 4th when restrictions were lifted. They completely abandoned any protective measures whatsoever.

    0
    Reply
    Josh
    Josh
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Dawn Moore

    There is a difference when you are talking about an approved vaccine during a worldwide pandemic. It is not forcing lifestyle changes, like your other examples. And more importantly, their refusal to get a vaccine is not just a choice they are making for themselves – it puts my life at risk too. Their choice to not get vaccinated can, and will in the aggregate, cause other people to die. Now if everyone was vaccinated in the US, we would be having very different discussions around the virus.

    0
    Reply
    Dee
    Dee
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Josh

    Josh, absolutely!

    “… defend our members’ right to make such personal medical decisions.”

    Quite an ignorant statement unless you are living on an island isolated from other humans.
    Honestly, this is why this virus is thriving and mutating!
    A global pandemic makes us all responsible for one another and ourselves.

    0
    Reply
    Nevets K
    Nevets K
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Josh

    Thank you, Josh.
    You expressed the critical distinction with clarity.
    Keep posting!

    0
    Reply
    Jude
    Jude
    5 years ago

    Glad another deplorable racist, Yvonne Yehudah, is at least facing some consequences for their action. My god, the human race is dispicable.

    0
    Reply
    Erica
    Erica
    5 years ago

    Gorgeous flower arrangement. Thank you for sharing it with us, Michael and WSR.

    0
    Reply
    Phoebe
    Phoebe
    5 years ago

    people should absolutely have a right to make personal medical decisions but if it’s going to detrimentally impact others, it’s no longer personal.
    The police interact with the public and oftentimes in close contact and indoors as well. If I recall, a lot of them didn’t want to wear masks either.
    It reminds me of all the self-righteous logic around the smoking ban years ago. Knowing that second-hand smoke endangers others, some smokers continued to say it was their right to smoke in places that put others at risk. What type of person comes up with that type of logic???

    0
    Reply
    Cyn
    Cyn
    5 years ago

    People who bash police officers would last approximately 30 seconds after they put on the uniform. Look at NYC right now. Defund the police? Welcome back to the 80’s. So nostalgic!

    0
    Reply
    Michele
    Michele
    5 years ago
    Reply to  Cyn

    Look up the policy behind “defund the police” before having your trigger reaction.

    How many officers have you seen in stores without masks when the mask mandate was in full swing? Those whose job it is to enforce the laws but don’t follow them (or mandates) error the trust of the community they serve.

    Vaccines are science not politics.

    0
    Reply

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