Street Takeover in NYC in Name of Palestinians

This article first appeared in Times of Israel Blogs.

Isn’t it amazing just how arrogant and brazen the pro-Palestinian movement has become in America? It is now not enough that groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and their anarchist allies on the left have wreaked havoc on countless campuses across the nation, particularly after the Hamas massacre of October 7, 2023, which these people celebrate; now they are starting to engage in taking over major city intersections and driving donuts in their vehicles, endangering everybody present. We have seen this practice before by other groups of young people, but now it has been adopted by the pro-Hamas elements in our society.

Early Saturday morning, dozens, if not hundreds, of young people took over an intersection in the Queens borough of New York City. At least one car drove donuts around the intersection, waving the Palestinian flag as others on the street cheered and started fires. When police arrived, some even jumped on the hood of a police car, shattering the windshield before running off. It is unclear how many, if any, were arrested.

From what we can see on the videos, it appears most, if not all, of the rioters were white or Middle Eastern. If that is the case, it is time for the Homeland Security and possibly the Justice Department to get involved. If anybody engaging in this activity is not a US citizen, they should be processed for deportation in addition to any criminal charges.

The New York PD, under normal conditions, is well equipped to deal with this kind of nonsense, and their intelligence unit, again, under normal circumstances, is fully capable of investigating these groups.

However, New York today is not living under normal circumstances. The days of Rudy Giuliani and Ed Koch have long since passed, and in recent years, the city has suffered under poor leadership, especially under Bill de Blasio, a man who detested his police department, who detested him in turn. The reign of Eric Adams was mediocre at best, but now the city has Zohran Mamdami, a far-left socialist and Islamist to boot.  I can only speculate how his ascension to Gracie Mansion is impacting the NYPD’s ability to respond to these kinds of incidents and the ability of its intelligence unit to sniff them out before they happen.

There is little doubt that the mopes who engaged in this disgusting incident are greatly emboldened by the fact that one of their own is now the mayor. I fear we are witnessing what is just the beginning of the further downward spiral of New York.  I predict the exodus out of New York will continue, resignations and early retirements among police will increase, and if the current trend continues, New York will wind up being populated pretty much by people who think like Mamdani and act like those who take over intersections, either for the fun of it or to support a rotten (Palestinian) cause.

It all reminds me of the old Kirk Russell movie, “Escape from New York”, which should now be reclassified as a documentary.