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DETERIORATING CONDITIONS at Washington Square Park. Photo credit: Frank Quinn.

By Frank Quinn

WARNING: The following may contain misinformation. Reader discretion is advised.

Most of us in NYC interact with the police only when there’s an emergency, but a few go to public meetings, like the one I was at this past summer to review the situation at Washington Square Park.

It was captivating to see the serious disrespect for those who run toward trouble when everyone else runs away, and I appreciate the volunteers from Community Board 2 who hosted the meeting. They endured taunts and borderline violence from disaffected WSP users who the meeting was organized to speak with; but fortunately, the violence didn’t escalate because the police were on-hand as well. It was a wonderful event!

There is a large underserved community in NYC demanding structural reform with growing urgency. Trying to stay informed takes lots of time and effort searching the media for intelligent analysis while stepping around the word “vomit.”

It’s alarming when you consider what’s happening in America these days. In 2022 we might learn that Hillary Clinton played a colossal dirty trick during her 2016 presidential campaign that resulted in a corrupt investigation of her opponent by the FBI. The Manhattan DA thinks Trump cheated on his taxes even though folks at The NY Post say it’s a political prosecution. The NY Post has also done a lot of reporting, based on some digital artifacts they got from a former NYC mayor, and concluded that we all should contemplate whether the current president and his family have their hands in the cookie jar. But here in our democracy, the worst form of government except for all the others, we keep an open mind and give everyone the benefit of the doubt!

So, it’s important to educate yourself with information from the best sources available. For example, the venerable Washington Post recently broke news that the Manhattan DA convened a new grand jury to investigate Trump. WAPO says their sources “spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private legal proceedings.” That’s good, because it sounded like they might be anonymous because they did something wrong, like leaking a secret grand jury proceeding.

Interestingly, the current DA Cyrus Vance is leaving office along with Mayor de Blasio, and a new DA is taking over the Trump thing. His name is Alvin Bragg and he’s well-qualified with lots of marquee endorsements. He beat out a number of contenders in a hotly contested Democratic primary last summer. Then there was another election in November and Bragg had a Republican challenger, but nobody knew who he was and it didn’t really matter anyway.

With Mr. Bragg and a new mayor appearing in prime time this January, I’m looking forward to the new season and there’s a lot of ways to watch. Twitter is good for learning stuff easily, and you can tell the person is really saying it because they have this little blue checkmark next to their name. Unfortunately, there aren’t any basic cable type packages where you know what information you’re getting at a reasonable price, so you have to shop around. And beware, the actual cost includes your time separating fact from opinion and the hard work it takes to function with competing thoughts in your mind. 

Frank Quinn is a media executive, parent, and musician. Linkedin.com/in/frankjquinn. Thanks to Winston Churchill and F. Scott Fitzgerald for their help.

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