Tiffany Harris |
After every antisemitic attack
on Jews, the talking heads tell us what we "must” do to combat antisemitism.
These all-knowing oracles run the gamut of political and religious beliefs and
this should be comforting. All these people, irrespective of their beliefs, know
just what we “must” do to end the killing, the attacks, the fear and hate.
It’s kind of hard, however, to
take any of them seriously in a world in which antisemitic attacker Tiffany
Harris is not only released without posting bail on her own recognition, but awarded a metro ticket, two debit cards, and a burner phone. For all we know it was the fare, free money, and phone
that inspired Harris to do it again: to assault an innocent victim. But what we know for a fact is that Tiffany
Harris was back on the streets in less time than you can say “bail reform,”
only to be arrested and re-released, 24 hours later (with another metro ticket, two debit cards, and a burner
phone), for punching a woman in the eye.
Tiffany's most recent victim of assault (as of this writing), subsequent to her slapping three Orthodox Jewish women while yelling, "F-U Jews," was not believed to be Jewish. It matters little. Tiffany Harris committed several violent, criminal offenses prior to the recent antisemitic attack which makes her a danger to society, and she does, in fact hate Jews. Violent and antisemitic? Not a good combination.
Tiffany's most recent victim of assault (as of this writing), subsequent to her slapping three Orthodox Jewish women while yelling, "F-U Jews," was not believed to be Jewish. It matters little. Tiffany Harris committed several violent, criminal offenses prior to the recent antisemitic attack which makes her a danger to society, and she does, in fact hate Jews. Violent and antisemitic? Not a good combination.
Tiffany Harris isn't and won't be the only violent antisemite to be affected by bail reform. And antisemitism existed before the new legislation. Still, it's a bad time to be implementing these reforms, given the current spate of attacks. What it all means, bail reform legislation, is that come January 1, a whole lot of criminal offenses will no longer qualify for bail,
though law enforcement officials are already complying with the spirit of the
law. According to WTEN,
(emphasis added):
On January 1, a number of criminal offenses will no longer qualify for bail. It’s something police and prosecutors are not happy about when it comes to public safety. The long list, courtesy of The District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, includes:
· Assault
in the third degree
·
Aggravated
vehicular assault
·
Aggravated
assault upon a person less than eleven years old
·
Criminally
negligent homicide
·
Aggravated
vehicular homicide
·
Manslaughter
in the second degree
·
Unlawful imprisonment in the first degree
·
Coercion in the first degree
·
Arson in the third and fourth degree
·
Grand larceny in the first degree
·
Criminal
possession of a weapon on school grounds or criminal possession of a firearm
·
Criminal possession of a controlled substance in
the first and second degree
·
Criminal sale of a controlled substance in the
first and second degree
·
Criminal sale of a controlled substance in or near
school grounds
·
Specified felony drug offenses involving the use
of children, including the use of a child to commit a controlled substance
offense and criminal sale of a controlled substance to a child
·
Criminal solicitation in the first degree and
criminal facilitation in the first degree
·
Money laundering in support of terrorism in the
third and fourth degree
·
Making a
terroristic threat
·
Patronizing a person for prostitution in a
school zone
·
Promoting an obscene sexual performance by a
child
·
Possessing an obscene sexual performance by a
child
·
Promoting a sexual performance by a child
·
Failure to register as a sex offender
·
Obstructing governmental administration in the
first and second degree
·
Obstructing governmental administration by means
of a self-defense spray device
·
Bribery in the first degree
·
Bribe giving for public office
·
Bribe receiving in the first degree
·
Promoting prison contraband in the first and
second degree
·
Resisting arrest
·
Hindering prosecution
·
Tampering with a juror and tampering with
physical evidence
·
Aggravated harassment in the first degree
·
Directing a laser at an aircraft in the first
degree
·
Criminal
possession of a weapon in the fourth degree
·
Criminal
sale of a firearm to a minor
·
Enterprise corruption and money laundering in
the first degree
·
Aggravated cruelty to animals, overdriving,
torturing and injuring animals
·
Failure to provide proper sustenance
·
Animal fighting
When you read this lengthy list of
crimes, you begin to see how an antisemitic attacker might be released without bail, even multiple times. Meanwhile, we had a total of 8
antisemitic attacks in New York City over Chanukah. That’s one for every
day of the festival. And then there was the Monsey
attack, which overshadowed all the other attacks, involving, as it did, a
machete in the close quarters of a rabbi’s home, during a holiday celebration.
Bail reform, coming precisely at this time, is helping to unleash this wild spate of antisemitic crime, for there are no longer any serious consequences to attacking Jews. At least in New York. There, the Jews may be attacked with impunity.
The light at the end of this
very dark tunnel is that leaders from every quarter were confident they knew just
what we “must” do about all this hate and xenophobia, which they say is the cause of the attacks. (Rather than, for example, state-sanctioned mayhem with our perennial favorite target, the Jews). On the left, for example, we have Rabbi Michael Adam Latz and Carin
Mrotz, toting their peerless, far-left JStreet social justice warrior creds in NBCNews, to tell us that in order to fight antisemitism, we must fight all sorts of other ugly things. Because, we are meant to understand, antisemitism is not unique or distinct from other hatreds.
“We must continue
our work to end racism and poverty, sexism and transphobia. We must grapple with the truth that the
very mechanisms we seek out to shore up our own safety might put others at risk
and push us further apart.”
That last little bit was a nice
touch. Translated, it means that if we don’t implement bail reform, we might
save a few Jews, but we would be putting others at risk. Those “others” are not named and it’s
all very vague, but perhaps the authors mean people like Tiffany Harris, who,
as a black woman, is from a population considered “underserved.”
As Jews, from the perspective of the authors, we are supposed to sacrifice our own safety for that of Tiffany Harris. This is because she is black and underserved which makes her oppressed, all of which makes her vulnerable. In order to keep Tiffany safe, it seems, we have to let this violent criminal back on the streets, but only, of course after making sure she has what she needs to get a fresh start: a metro card, two debit cards, and a burner phone, all on the house. Each time she does it: hits someone.
As Jews, from the perspective of the authors, we are supposed to sacrifice our own safety for that of Tiffany Harris. This is because she is black and underserved which makes her oppressed, all of which makes her vulnerable. In order to keep Tiffany safe, it seems, we have to let this violent criminal back on the streets, but only, of course after making sure she has what she needs to get a fresh start: a metro card, two debit cards, and a burner phone, all on the house. Each time she does it: hits someone.
If Tiffany Harris has learned that crime pays, embattled Speaker of the House Nancy
Pelosi has learned a different lesson. You will remember how Pelosi caved
in to The Squad on the antisemitism
bill, allowing it to be watered down to include every other kind of bigotry
and hate. Pelosi’s tweet after Monsey was all-inclusive, hence skewed far left, like the bill:
"We must
condemn and confront anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry and hate wherever
& whenever we see them.”
Heartbroken and deeply disturbed by the stabbing in Monsey and the many recent anti-Semitic attacks in the NY metro area, especially during this holiday season. We must condemn and confront anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry and hate wherever & whenever we see them.— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) December 29, 2019
The tweet itself, as you can
see, stands as Nancy’s “condemnation” of antisemitism by way of making a statement. “Confrontation” comes in the form of spinning antisemitism as nothing special, no different from any other hate. This is the mantra we are expected to absorb and repeat about antisemitism. The truth has nothing to do with it.
Unlike Latz, Mrotz, and Pelosi, the Conference
of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations comes close to
speaking about antisemitism as a singular phenomenon, by mentioning the lack of
serious consequences for attackers. The problem is the failure of the
Conference of Presidents to name the reason for this deficiency. That would be the new bail reform legislation. Instead, they go at the problem backwards, by describing what is needed as what the new legislation has taken away: the rule of law.
“There must be real measures by law enforcement, governmental
leaders, and judicial authorities at the city, state, and federal levels. …
There must be serious consequences
for perpetrators.”
We‘re outraged at the latest attack at a synagogue celebration in Monsey, NY that reportedly left 5 wounded, several very seriously. There have been many attacks in the past week. There must be real measures by law enforcement, governmental leaders and judicial authorities at 1/3— Conf Of Presidents (@Conf_of_Pres) December 29, 2019
As experts in antisemitism, the
more narrowly-focused Rabbi Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center, are better. Hier and Cooper understand the nature of antisemitism. They
know that antisemitism needs to be dealt with as a unique phenomenon, lest you
neutralize its impact by diluting the field with all manner of unrelated
things. They see the problem as a bigger picture thing: national rather than specific to New York. Their solution for antisemitism, therefore, seems to be to delegate the
problem to a different body: the FBI.
“Enough is enough! Jews should
not have to fear for their lives in America to go to their houses of worship.
The FBI must step up and take the lead in all recent violent hate crimes
targeting religious Jews.”
A Fox op-ed, “Rabbi
Abraham Cooper: Hanukkah stabbings show anti-Semitism thriving in US – Here’s
what we must do,” is more expansive. Here, thankfully, the bail reform issue is mentioned, along with BDS and college campus antisemitism, as different facets of a larger problem. We are told that the
fight against antisemitism must be bipartisan, and that African American leaders need to get
involved. This is certainly true. And there’s even a reference to social media: “We must demand that the social media giants do much more to cripple
the online recruitment and marketing of bigots and terrorists.”
The last feels like a dig at Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who has been expanding on his views on the subject.
At any rate, when it comes to what the FBI must do about antisemitism, Rabbi Cooper is short on details, saying only that “We need a more robust FBI-led response to the violent targeting of Jews.”
The last feels like a dig at Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who has been expanding on his views on the subject.
At any rate, when it comes to what the FBI must do about antisemitism, Rabbi Cooper is short on details, saying only that “We need a more robust FBI-led response to the violent targeting of Jews.”
Everyone, it seems, knows what
we must do about antisemitic
attacks. But no one seems to be able to identify exactly what that is. At the very least, Mayor Deblasio
was able to tell us what we will NOT do, which seems to involve not becoming complaisant (but perhaps instead to stand by and feel really, really bad as Jews are attacked--or at least to say so):
“We will NOT allow this to
become the new normal. We’ll use every tool we have to stop these attacks once
and for all. The NYPD has deployed a visible and growing presence around Jewish
houses of worship on the streets in communities like Williamsburg, Crown
Heights and Boro Park.”
We will NOT allow this to become the new normal. We’ll use every tool we have to stop these attacks once and for all. The NYPD has deployed a visible and growing presence around Jewish houses of worship on the streets in communities like Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Boro Park.— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 29, 2019
We cannot and will not let attacks on our Jewish community become the new normal. That means not only responding to attacks but preventing them.— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 29, 2019
No community should have to live in fear of the next act of violence or terror. We won't let that become the new normal for our Jewish neighbors — or ANY New Yorker. pic.twitter.com/Zs01IZaZRO— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) December 30, 2019
“The menorah symbolizes the positive, the light, the hope. Everyone should remember that hope and act to build it."— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) December 30, 2019
- @NYCMayor pic.twitter.com/tLlVCO3pnq
de Blasio speaks of using “every tool we have to
stop these attacks." But when "every tool" includes letting a Tiffany Harris back on the street times
two—each time with a metro card, two debit cards, and a burner phone in her hot little hands, New York has got no
tools. None at all.
Except, perhaps, for de Blasio.
Except, perhaps, for de Blasio.