New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) has commissioned the city to paint "Black Lives Matter" in gigantic letters on major thoroughfares in all five boroughs. Following in the steps of Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D), the massive virtue signaling messages will be paid for by the taxpayers of New York, who get no say in the matter.
Each Borough will also rename that street with the mural to "Black Lives Matter," just as Bowser did in D.C. The first of the NYC murals was painted on Fulton Street in Brooklyn but De Blasio is particularly proud of his choice to put the Manhattan edition of his sanctioned graffiti directly in front of Trump Tower along Fifth Avenue.
"The President is a disgrace to the values we cherish in New York City,” said de Blasio spokeswoman Julia Arredondo. “He can’t run or deny the reality we are facing, and any time he wants to set foot in the place he claims is his hometown, he should be reminded Black Lives Matter."
Meanwhile, as de Blasio is funding vandalization of New York City with taxpayer money and attempting to troll the president, crime rates in the Big Apple have soared, with exponential increases in violence and shootings. Following the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day, protests and unrest have gripped the city, drawing looting and anarchy to every borough, particularly Manhattan and Brooklyn.
As crowds and activists have massed nearly every day for the better part of a month in NYC, storefronts and restaurants in tourist centers accustomed to high foot traffic have boarded up their windows and remained closed. Looters ravaged the high end shopping districts of Manhattan earlier this month, laying waste to the prestigious SOHO neighborhood and vandalizing the famed Herald Square.
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As police have clamored to maintain order in the city of more than 9 million people, Mayor de Blasio chose to side with the protesters and vowed to defund the NYPD to the tune of more than $1 billion. A plain-clothed, anti-violent crime unit was almost immediately disbanded in response to the rising anti-police sentiment.
In recent days, New Yorkers have filed countless complaints about fireworks sounding off in all parts of the city through the day and night. The city 911 system reported an increase of approximately 12 times last year's fireworks complaints.
This week, a toddler was burned by a rogue firework that entered a Bronx apartment window. Last week, unidentified suspects threw a lit firework at a sleeping homeless man, causing severe burns to the victim's back.
(Warning: Violent and graphic images)
Earlier yesterday morning, a homeless male was sleeping on the sidewalk in front of 67 Lenox Avenue, in the confines of the 28 pct, when he was attacked. The male pictured above threw a lit firework on him, which exploded causing burns to the victims back. pic.twitter.com/gUZhbLznGT
— Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) June 23, 2020
Despite his vow to crack down on policing in New York City, however, de Blasio claimed he would be forming a fireworks task force, consisting of members of the NYPD, the NYFD, and other "investigators." But to those residents concerned that police might actually do some honest-to-God policing, de Blasio promised that they would not be pursuing the criminals actually setting off the fireworks. No, he said, his assembled team would instead only be pursuing the "big fish" fireworks dealers.
De Blasio's half-hearted attempt to fix a dangerous issue drew criticism from all sides with the most radical progressives insisting that police be defunded entirely. Concerned residents, on the other hand, didn't really understand the point of a fireworks task force that wasn't going to be trying to actually stop the people setting off the fireworks.
But for de Blasio, misuse of city money and annoying every person in NYC has been his mayoral style throughout his incumbency. Even after his attempt to virtue signal to protesters was heartily booed in Brooklyn earlier this month, de Blasio has continued to besmirch the NYPD and posture himself as a hero of racial justice and progressive causes.
Even with the city's continued problem with attracting civil unrest and violence, de Blasio's chance to dunk on Trump by painting on the street was just too good to pass up. As the city still remains largely throttled from Wuhan coronavirus pandemic shutdown orders and millions remain out of work, at least Hizzoner can still think up virtuous ways to deface the city at the citizens' expense.
Rather than praise for his noble gesture and total ripoff of Mayor Bowser in D.C., activists had instead said that the murals are not enough. Supporters of the NYPD have criticized the mayor for siding with Black Lives Matter, an overtly Marxist and destructive organization. It is not clear who is meant to be impressed by the giant murals but it is not likely to be the retailers and residents of those areas.
On Wednesday, the head of the New York Chapter of Black Lives Matter said that the country must be changed, violently if necessary.
"If this country doesn't give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right?" Hawk Newsome said on Fox News Wednesday night. "And I could be speaking ... figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It's a matter of interpretation."
Neither de Blasio nor his office have commented on whether the murals indicated an official association with Black Lives Matter or a promise to "give them what they want."
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