New York City Bodega Owners Strap Up
25% of bodega owners are now packing heat, estimates report
Bodega owners in New York City are fed up with our permissive criminal justice system and are taking things into their own hands.
“Anyone that’s out there, looking to rob us, hurt us, kill us, beware: you may be walking into the wrong bodega because now we have the same firepower you have,” said Fernando Mateo, communications director of the United Bodegas of America (UBA), at a recent press conference.
The NY-based advocacy organization announced that they’ve assisted in helping least 230 bodega owners obtain concealed carry licenses.
“You see the necessity because the city is getting out of hand with the crime rate,” said one supermarket owner, who purchased a 9mm SIG Sauer handgun two months ago, after thieves cut a hole in the roof of his Ridgewood, Queens, store to steal $3,000 and smash up the registers and camera system.
“I feel safer having a . . . weapon with me,” the 50-year-old said, especially when going to the bank.
CBS News spoke with one bodega owner in Harlem who said he works late nights and doesn’t feel safe, saying “we actually need a weapon.” About an hour before, a 30-year-old smoke shop worker was shot and killed a few doors down.
Since the landmark Supreme Court decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, New Yorkers have been able to apply for concealed carry licenses, which have historically been tightly restricted. Since that decision, New York State begrudgingly had to comply, but did so via the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA), which many have deemed to be unconstitutional and unreasonably burdensome.
But, that apparently hasn’t stopped UBA from shepherding its members through the process and making sure they’re on a level playing field with criminals.
Bodegas, smoke shops, and the like have been flashpoints for New York’s violent crime surge. Most famously, Jose Alba, a 61-year-old worker was initially charged with murder and jailed after defending himself in an altercation at a Hamilton Heights bodega last year. Only after intense media scrutiny and public outcry in support of Alba did Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg drop the case.
Last month, Bronx smoke shop worker 26-year-old Fares Alhazmi was arrested and charged with criminal possession of a firearm after shooting and killing 23-year-old Romel Carey, who police said was trying to rob the store.
The shop’s owner, Fatehi Kassim, said Alhazmi, his cousin, had reason to feel threatened. He said Carey got angry because Alhazmi was busy trying to help another customer.
“The guy come to him … he told him ‘I’m coming back, I’ll kill you.’ And he coming back after 35 minutes, he got the gun,” Kassim said. “For no reason.”
Kassim said he wasn’t sure if Carey was trying to steal anything from the store, but he was adamant that his cousin had acted in self-defense.
“You have a gun in the store, you take care of yourself. If he didn’t have the gun, he [would have] died, my cousin," he said.
Even if Alhazmi truly acted in self-defense, if the gun he possessed was illegal, the charge of criminal possession of a firearm will likely stick. As of publication, he has a scheduled court appearance date of December 13th at Bronx Criminal Court.
After both the Alba and Daniel Penny cases, it’s clear that our criminal justice system is biased against New Yorkers who try to defend themselves. Store owners should work with organizations like UBA to strap up legally. But, because of the CCIA, as it stands, New Yorkers that legally obtain concealed carry permits become felons the moment they step onto the subway, into stores that don’t explicitly allow concealed carry, or at other CCIA-designated “sensitive locations.”
The lawfare around Bruen is still making its way through the courts, obstructed by Hochul at every turn.
Taken together with congestion pricing, including for passenger vehicles, and forecasted dramatic cuts to the NYPD, our official overlords are strongarming New Yorkers into taking public transit, keeping it radically unsafe, and penalizing you for attempting to defend yourself. Until we can change this with comprehensive political upheaval (it’s possible, folks — NY is reddening), act accordingly and always keep your head on a swivel.
MTA tests out new subway gates designed to keep fare-jumpers out (New York Post)
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has installed its first harder-to-jump fare gates at a Queens station as part of a test of potential designs aimed at stanching the fare-beating crisis that stole $690 million from the agency’s coffers last year.
The new array at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue station replaces the decades-old turnstiles with barriers that feature taller paddles that make them harder to jump or crawl under, which swing open and then close after tapping in via OMNY or swiping a MetroCard. […]
The 8th Avenue-Penn Station A/C/E will be the second station to get the new setup, which is due to be installed next week, officials said. The cost to outfit the station was $700,000.
You need to understand that the progressive worldview sees crime as natural phenomena, like the weather or migration patterns. They do so because they deny the agency of the “oppressed people” who cannot help but commit crimes because of their poverty, upbringing, and lack of opportunity. Therefore, the progressive city seeks to operate around that “fact,” rather than address blatant criminality. Prosecuting criminals is the lowest priority for them and must be avoided at all costs.
The bellwether that could determine which party has the upper hand in 2024 (Politico)
George Santos’ eviction from Congress on Friday kicks off a special election that could be an early indicator of which party has the upper hand in the battle for the House next year.
The race will play out on Long Island, the site of Democrats’ most excruciating 2022 faceplant and the place where Republicans effectively weaponized rising crime rates. The outcome could portend Democratic strength in 2024 — or signal that Republicans’ ascendance there is not a fluke and that the pall of Santos won’t threaten their gains. Democrats, at least, are expected to pour tens of millions into efforts to win back the seat and earn redemption. […]
Republicans tore through Long Island, picking up Santos’s seat and that of Rep. Anthony D’Esposito and cementing total control of the congressional districts there. Three more GOP candidates captured Democratic-leaning territory upstate. All ran heavily on crime-themed messaging.
The special election for Santos’ seat will be held on February 13th. The race will be a bellwether indeed. With Nassau County voting in Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman in 2021, following up with a GOP congressional sweep in 2022 (which included Santos’ election), the special election will show how solid the right-ward drift is, at least in Congressional District 3. Before Santos’ election, the district — among the country’s wealthiest — was solidly blue, going back to 2012.
MTA approves next phase for congestion pricing in New York City (News 12)
Congestion pricing in New York City moved forward today as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) took a crucial vote, marking a significant step in the process.
The MTA board's decision to proceed initiates the plan's advancement to the next phase – public hearings. However, there's still a considerable distance to cover before implementation. […]
Public hearings are set to commence in February, with the final MTA vote expected in the spring. Nevertheless, legal hurdles loom, as the state of New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against the plan, and Rockland County officials are considering similar action.
I want to see the public hearings packed to the brim, with lines outside around the block. They can try to ram this down the public’s throat, but it must be made politically costly for NY officials. In fact, I would say it is a grave tactical error for Dems as we head into 2024 (general election) and 2025 (mayoral election), but don’t tell them that. Keep it up and Make New York Great Again.
I want to mainly highlight New York aesthetics in this section, but it will also be necessary from time to time to highlight non-art. “But wait, art is subjective… anything can be art!”
No.
Bad art is not art, the same way that a table without legs is not just “avant-garde carpentry,” or how an arrow completely missing the target is not just “freestyle archery.” If it sounds self-evident with the latter examples, so too should it be in the realms of art, which are historically inextricable from actual craftsmanship in every period except our present postmodern husk of an art scene, whose primary features are virtue signaling and/or money laundering.
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Awesome take