Dear ones,
I confess that I ranked the mayoral debate #2 last night, since I have been following the election closely. I caught enough of the latter half to feel that Wiley emerged more focused and credible than I’d found her in previous forums, though she never persuades me that she has the management chops of Morales or Garcia.
Adams was especially obnoxious, if that matters, while Yang never failed to thank his opponents for their attacking questions. Stringer made more mention of his wife than seemed appropriate, although none of the other candidates raised the Jean Kim allegations.
Garcia took a quick, sharp jab at Donovan for his ignorance of housing prices. Donovan always reminds me of the know-it-all student who condescends to his classmates. (Note: I was misinformed. McGuire was there, although on at least one occasion, the moderator forgot about him.)
Morales’s Education Equity Executive Order is the boldest commitment to desegregating public schools and addressing inequity. Garcia charms me with her unapologetic competence, but (along with Adams) clings to the ridiculous SHSAT as the sole criterion for admission to specialized high schools.
I’m sorry I missed the discussion of public safety. Policing continues to be the engine of criminalization of Black and Brown people, so this is an issue that will drive my rankings. Adams and Yang reject the idea of defunding police as a means to invest in safer communities, and this is problematic.
"Safety is not synonymous with policing," said Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive who has said she would cut half of the NYPD's $6 billion a year budget. "If the size of funding associated with policing correlates with safety we’d be the safest city in the country."
Maya Wiley, a former civil rights lawyer, said the debate between electing policing versus safety was a "false choice."
Stringer and Donovan also spoke about reallocating funds for mental health.
In the latter half of the debate, Wiley challenged Adams on his support for stop-and-frisk and Morales challenged him for calling the defund movement the work of “young, white affluent people,” an erasure of Black leadership. Students of restorative justice, they avoided ad hominem attacks, as did Garcia.
When I wheel back from the policy details and look for the candidate who will lead us out of the pandemic and into a better, fairer New York, I’m still stuck on Morales.
The People’s Plan NYC is scoring the major candidates against its progressive policy platform. This should prove to be helpful to multi-issue voters. The Housing Scorecard launched this week and the Education Scorecard is coming next week.
Check out the Housing Scorecard and find out who has a plan to invest in housing, protect vulnerable tenants, and address housing insecurity.
The death penalty is just one of many ways that Black lives are destroyed in the US. Ledell Lee was executed four years ago in Arkansas for a murder he insisted that he did not commit. In spite of legal appeals to test additional DNA prior to Lee’s execution, the state killed him anyway. Now, the exculpatory evidence points to another person, whose identity is still unknown.
Lee was convicted in the absence of physical evidence, and Governor Asa Hutchison was racing the clock against the expiration of the drugs required for a lethal injection. Upon learning of the new DNA tests, Hutchison maintains that it was his “duty to carry out the law.” I’m sorry. One doesn’t want to start the day with this sort of bullshit.
Support the Innocence Project.
Illinois outlawed the death penalty ten years ago and another seven states have since ended the practice. In spite of the overwhelming evidence of unfairness, the former president oversaw 13 federal executions during the final months of his term.
Use this ready-made action to call on US legislators to pass HR 262/SB 582, to end the federal and military death penalty.
One of the justifications that people offer in defense of the death penalty is that it is what the victim’s survivors want (an eye for an eye?). In the case of Quintin Jones, this is perverse. As a young man, he killed a family member.
Jones has spent more than half his life on death row, and has accepted complete responsibility for the murder he committed. His family acknowledges his remorse and has accepted his apology. They oppose his execution, scheduled for May 19, which would cause them more trauma and suffering.
Sign the petition to stop the execution of Quin Jones.
Have a good weekend!
with love,
L