Wikimedia
What’s happening in America’s capital city is reminiscent of Russia’s turbulent ‘90s.
The metropolis, whose core is sandwiched between the navigable East River and the Hudson River, once whispered about by urban idealists as «the city that never sleeps», has become the supplier of endless crime stories in the media, often with political undertones.
Mayor Eric Adams, a staunch Democrat, is now the subject of four simultaneous investigations. These include awarding a $150 million city-funded contract to a friend («Well, why not take care of a buddy?»). In addition to this rather routine mutual enrichment scheme, Adams has not shied away from taking bribes from Turkish business lobbyists. Meanwhile, investigators are also looking for evidence that he received contributions from other interested parties holding passports from Qatar, Israel, and South Korea.
Adams’s aide has also been targeted by intelligence agencies on suspicion of potentially dubious interactions with Chinese contacts, who are often perceived by impressionable Americans as giant extraterrestrial reptilians.
The irony, with elements of farce and the grotesque, lies in the fact that as soon as the morally compromised mayor got caught in the wheels of justice, he immediately began calling the American justice system «crooked» justice. He also claimed that the investigation was the result of revenge by a powerful faction in the Democratic Party unhappy with his criticism of Joe Biden and his team.
One cannot ignore the fact that Adams is a former police officer who promised New Yorkers he would restore law and order and uphold those principles as strictly as he upheld the integrity of his uniform. It seems, however, that the mayor’s tattered uniform will serve as yet another disappointment to loyal supporters of the Democratic Party, which may affect the balance of power between the party of the donkey and the party of the elephant.
The misfortunes of the ruling Democrats in the «yellow devil» (read: Wall Street) city did not end there. NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban was disgracefully removed from office, accused of nothing less than systemic racketeering. His twin brother, James Caban, terrorized local restaurants, cafes, and bars, demanding payments in exchange for «protection» from the city agencies empowered to inspect them.
Edward and James were akin to «enforcers» who, for a fee, used their connections to smooth out problematic situations with law enforcement and authorities. In essence, under Commissioner Caban, New York witnessed rampant criminal lawlessness akin to Russia’s unruly 90s. Though perhaps the level of racketeering didn’t quite reach that of the Al Capone era, when, according to local folklore, money laundering got its start by shaking down Chicago laundromat owners.
Almost simultaneously with the downfall of the high-ranking «wolf in uniform», an arrest warrant was issued for the top officials of the Fire Department. These firefighters, whose image has often been romanticized by Hollywood storytellers, were extorting money from small and medium-sized businesses. The method was simple but effective: fire safety inspections that allowed them to nitpick on minor issues, or deliberately delaying inspections until the previous business permit expired.
Such widespread self-discrediting by those in power in a single, albeit significant, American metropolis takes place amidst an unprecedented degradation of both urban infrastructure and prevailing morality.
Ramses Frias, a resident of Queens, made a video about everyday life in New York, compiling scenes from the reality of the city. Here is a street where items stolen from stores or scavenged from dumpsters are piled right on the asphalt and sold without shame. There is a boulevard named after President Roosevelt, a local red-light district where sex workers are closer than lampposts. In New York, prostitution is classified as a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to three months in jail and/or a fine of up to $500.
What’s the result? Mountains of trash. Homeless addicts. Hostels full of unemployed newcomers. Illegal migrants, indentured to the Latin American syndicates that smuggled them across the southern border like contraband, are now demanding that their «debt» be repaid.
Gunfights in subways and dark alleys (far from Bunin’s idyllic vision) have become routine. In the last five years, the total number of murders in the United States has increased by 40 percent. With liberal urban courts releasing criminals without bail, there are fewer people willing to uphold law and justice. Last year alone, 2,500 law enforcement officers in New York chose to resign and pursue other professions.
The crime situation is exacerbated by an undeclared civil war between Democrats and Republicans, where coercion and blackmail, previously considered legally void and morally unacceptable, are becoming common tactics.
New York prosecutors are demanding that Donald Trump pay $460 million, accusing him of overvaluing his real estate assets. It is quite possible that the U.S. presidential candidate could lose his symbol of success — Trump Tower, as well as his golf club.
The use of lawsuits and the threat of asset seizure to settle scores between political rivals has prompted many to relocate. Already, 158 companies with a combined market capitalization of $1 trillion have chosen to relocate from New York to more predictable jurisdictions. In addition, 550,000 former loyal residents of the Big Apple have left the city, which now appears bruised and rotten.
There is no reason to compare the New York of the past with what it has become. I remember that in the summer of 1997, a DuPont employee accompanying our delegation looked out the airplane window at the brightly lit steel and glass stalagmites of Manhattan and burst into a tirade: «Dirty, stinking, crazy New York! How I love you!»
Today, few would take that phrase as the veiled compliment that it was. The repulsive signs of decay have become the norm for a city that was once unique, one of the first to welcome Old World settlers seeking freedom of expression, religion, and enterprise.
The fact is that the eight-million metropolis is no longer what it used to be, and in terms of its atmosphere, it barely resembles the cinematic image created by director Martin Scorsese in the 1977 musical drama «New York, New York». Today, the associative rhyme comes involuntarily to mind: No Merits Left!