Cy Vance and the Fear of Power

Why aren't Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump's daughter and husband in jail?

After all, there's overwhelming evidence that both committed crimes (in Harvey Weinstein's case, against women; in Donald Trump's kids case, for fraud, since they mislead buyers of the Trump Soho building about how many units were actually sold). 

Thanks Manhattan DA Cy Vance for not prosecuting these miscreants. Not only did the lawyers of these people contribute heavily to his campaign, but Vance apparently has an MO for vigorously prosecuting low level offenses committed by poor and powerless people but letting the rich and powerful skate. 

The reason is easy to see: it's scary to prosecute people who have money and connections. They will fight you with everything they have, they will smear you in the press, they will sue you personally and try to get you disbarred, they will prevent family members and people who work for you from getting jobs, they will hire private investigators to terrorize your life, they will do whatever it takes to stop you and stay out of jail. So why bother? The fear of that is enough.

Part of me is angry at Vance for letting these people get away with their crimes but another part of me understands. It's all about power. That's what power is, after all -- literally getting people to do, or not do, what you want. This is something that the Harvey Weinsteins and the Trumps of this world fully understand. 

Like the character Varys says in Game of Thrones: "Power is a trick, a shadow on the wall." And the big question is, where does the power come from? Who performs the trick, who casts the shadow? Every few years we go to the polls and elect to give certain people "power" over our lives for certain periods of time. But let's face it -- when people have power over those people, when the supposedly powerful and accountable are at the mercy, perceived or real, of the even more powerful and unaccountable, what hope is there for the rest of us? How can justice truly prevail?

In the case of Cy Vance, not often. The fear of power, the real power, is too great. 

     

Cy Vance is a Tool

The Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance continues to be an utter tool.

He didn't prosecute Harvey Weinstein in 2015 when he had clear evidence of the movie producer assaulting women.

He didn't prosecute Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump when he had clear evidence of their real estate fraud.

He loves prosecuting small-bore, powerless people but the rich and powerful, under his reign, always skate.

And now he refuses to the review the cases of former prosecutor Linda Fairstein -- or current prosecutor Elizabeth Lederer -- who wrongfully prosecuted and convicted the so-called Central Park Five. This is outrageous -- if they railroaded these kids, who knows how many others these two also wrongfully sent to jail?  

Vance isn't up for re-election until 2021 and, if he's smart, he won't run again and instead leave office and go into obscurity. I predict that, if he does run, a lot of people will challenge him -- but hopefully one very strong reformist candidate will emerge and beat him. 

Manhattan needs its own Ken Thompson/Eric Delgado/Tiffany Caban like DA ASAP! 

By the way, The New York Times and Senator Elizabeth Warren have endorsed Tiffany Caban for DA so, I beg you, people of Queens, please vote for her on June 25!!

Primary Day in NYC

It's Primary Day! Today is the last day for registered party voters to decide who will be the candidates for mayor, comptroller, public advocates, the borough presidents, all 51 city council seat, as well as the District Attorneys, in the November general elections.

All of these elected offices are important but the two most important races are for mayor (obviously) and for Manhattan District Attorney. They easily wield the most power, the most influence, over the city, and their policy and prosecutorial decisions can have ramifications for years -- even decades -- to come.

The next mayor will determine how this city is policed, how the public schools are run, what gets built or doesn't, how legislation from the city council gets signed-off on, and how basic services are delivered. The NYC mayoralty used to attract big personalities like LaGuardia, Koch and Giuliani but are two most-recent Boston-born mayors have been much more low-key and some, like the author of this article, bemoan this fact that even if, in my opinion, blowhard chief executives are a nightmare that we're well rid off. 

But Manhattan DA is just as powerful but nowhere near as high profile. That said, the current Manhattan DA refused to prosecute the Trump family for their corruption or Harvey Weinstein for his predations years ago when he had the chanc. Imagine if he had? Much of recent history would be very different. And while mayors come and come every 4, 8, or 12 years, DAs can stay in office for decades (and most do). Manhattan has only had three elected District Attorneys for the last ... drum-roll ... 80 years! Frank Hogan, Robert Morgenthau, Cy Vance Jr. Whoever wins this race today will probably be in this office for a very long time and determine how criminals are prosecuted for decades. This will shape and influence prosecutorial law for the whole country -- the stakes couldn't be higher.

History has its eyes on us.

Election Night Live Blog

11:32  PM - Here's the run down thus far:

NYC elected its first Democratic mayor in 20 years. 

NYC elected a new Comptroller and Public Advocate, both Democrats. 

Four new borough presidents were elected in Queens, Manhattan, Brooklyn (3 Democrats) and Staten Island (1 Republican). The Bronx borough president (1 Democrat) was reelected. 

The City Council still has still competitive races in Howard Beach (Queens), Brighton Beach (Brooklyn), and Bayside (Queens). Otherwise there are 2 safe Republican seats and 46 safe Democratic seats. I'll update these races tomorrow.

The Manhattan DA Cy Vance (Democrat) is a safe bet for reelection. And it looks like Ken Thompson (Democrat) will finally oust Charles Hynes (Democrat turned Republican) as Brooklyn DA. 

That's the conclusion of Mr NYC's first election night live blog. Hope you enjoyed it. See you again in four years. 

11:01 PM - Referendums that has passed thus far: Civil Service Credits, Debt Limit, Land Dispute. 

11:00 PM - Ruben Diaz re-elected as Bronx Borough President. 

10:58 PM - District 32 city council race is back to being a nail-biter. Simon is leading by about 2 points. 

10:57 PM - "We all rise together." De Blasio has concluded his victory speech. 

10:55 PM - De Blasio says that inequality in NYC has been "decades in the making" but "we stand united by a shared optimism ... our toughness is unmatched, our will is unbreakable ... the road ahead will be difficult but it will be traveled."

10:52 PM - De Blasio vows to fight hospitals from becoming luxury condos. 

10:49 PM - De Blasio declares that people's success should be due to their hard work and dreams and not "their zip code."

10:48 PM - Democrat Chaim Deutsch now leading Republican Storobin in District 48. 

10:45 PM - De Blasio gives a shout out to his Italian ancestors and thanks Joe Lhota for a spirited race. Says he wants to earn the trust of those people who didn't vote for him. 

10:43 PM - De Blasio thanks his supporters.  

10:41 PM - De Blasio declares "our work is just beginning ... the people of this city have chosen a progressive path ... together as one city." Then repeats this part in Spanish. 

10:38 PM - Bill De Blasio taking the stage to deliver his victory speech.

10:37 PM - James Oddo elected Staten Island Borough President (first Republican victory of the night).

10:35 PM - Bill De Blasio's wife is introducing her husband at the victory party in Brooklyn. 

10:34 PM - Gale Brewer elected Manhattan Borough President. 

10:23 PM - In the Brighton Beach City Council race (District 48) Republican David Storobin is currently leading his Democratic and Working Families Party opponents. Scary. This will be an interesting one. 

10:18 PM - Exit polls show De Blasio winning Queens by 65%. Along with a Democrat leading an incumbent Republican in a conservative City Council race, this election is bearing out my previous blog post about Queens being "the Ohio of NYC." Looks like Queens went hard for Democrats this year, thus giving De Blasio a huge margin - and a real mandate for his agenda.

10:12 PM - More results in Howard Beach (District 32) race in: Simon is leading 54% to 46%. 

10:06 PM - Kenneth Thompson leading Charles Hynes in Brooklyn DA's race. 

10:01 PM - Some City Council results are coming in: closest race is in Howard Beach, with Republican Eric Ulrich and Lew Simon currently splitting the vote 50/50. This will be an interesting one. 

9:57 PM - Scott Stringer declaring victory as Comptroller-elect. 

9:46 PM - All NYS ballot initiatives are leading. 

9:45 PM - Republican Joe Lhota is conceding the race for mayor. Guess De Blasio is polishing his victory speech. 

9:35 PM - Tish James making her victory speech, declaring herself Public Advocate-Elect. No real results in but she had no Republican opponent. Becomes the first black woman elected to city-wide office. 

9:33 PM - With 1% of vote reporting, De Blasio leads Lhota 72%-27%. 

9:19 PM - On NY1 caller attributes De Blasio victory to Occupy Wall Street movement. 

9:10 PM - Uncontested city council races (in districts 1, 9, 21, 25, 26, 35) all won by Democrats. 

9:02 PM - NY Times publishes exit poll: De Blasio elected mayor. But real results not in yet so it ain't official (obviously).

9:00 PM - Polls have closed across the city. Game on! 

8:40 PM - It's election night in NYC! In 20 minutes the polls will close and results will start pouring in from around the city. This is an experiment: Mr NYC will blog election results as the races are called in real time. I'll try post as many as humanly possible. Off we go!

NYC Democratic Primary Endorsements

So tomorrow is Primary Day here in NYC. That's when candidates vying for the various political offices will either win the blessing of the Democratic party electorate or be told to look for work elsewhere. There are so many offices and so many candidates, its impossible to keep track of them all.

Some candidates don't have primary challengers so they won't be on the ballot tomorrow (they're just killing time until the General election in November). However, the Primary tomorrow is still important because most of those who triumph tomorrow are 99.9% guaranteed to win in the General.

The one glaring exception is the Democratic primary for Mayor. The winner of that race is almost 99.9% certain to be steamrolled by Mike Bloomberg's Republican wallet into a defeated pancake. Such is life.

Mr NYC has various reasons for the following endorsements but the big one is this: I will NOT endorse anyone who either voted for and/or is running for a third term to the same office. I am one New Yorker who is still super-pissed about the term limits change last year. Lest we forget ...

So here they are, the first Mr NYC primary endorsements (I'll give my other reasons, if any, as well):

Mayor: Bill Thompson. Been a great Comptroller these last eight year, met him a few times and he's a good guy. He should be Mayor.

Public Advocate: Eric Goia. Really good guy and a very hard worker. He's a kid from Queens who's done good and never forgotten his old neighborhood. When he could have been earning a fortune at a high-priced law firm, he instead dedicated his career to public service. We're lucky to have him.

Comptroller: John Liu. Another dedicated public servant who've I met a few times. Good guy. Recently I saw him at a forum on an 85 degree night where he took questions for quite a while in a room without air conditioning. He's got my vote just for that.

Manhattan District Attorney: Richard Aborn. This has been probably been the most entertaining election this year. Ninety-year old Robert Morgenthau is retiring after 35 years in office and the three-way race to succeed him is tight. Leslie Crocker Snyder (who challenged him four years ago) is running again and making all sorts of wild and fallacious attacks against her opponents. Cy Vance Jr is running and seems to have no real qualifications for this job other than his father was Jimmy Carter's Secretary of State and was pals with Bob Morgenthau. Aborn, on the other hand, is the only one behaving like an adult in this race and I've liked what I've read about him. So I say, vote the grown-up!

Queens Borough President: Marc Leavitt. The incumbent Queens Borough President, Helen Marshall, is running for a third term. Case closed.

Brooklyn Borough President: Whoever isn't Marty Markowitz. I don't know if anyone is challenging this idiot who's running for a third term but Markowitz is so obnoxious and such a dope that anyone who's living in Brooklyn and reading this and voting tomorrow, just please vote against him if you can. PLEASE!

If you need any more info, please visit the New York City Board of Elections website.

Election Night Live Blog

9:00 PM - Okay, here we go! Polls are closed and now we await the results ...

9:11 PM - Right now De Blasio has a 40+ lead but with only 2% of precincts reporting.

9:26 PM - NY1 calls election for Mayor De Blasio, first Democratic to win a second term since Ed Koch in 1981.

9:30 PM - Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Tish James both re-elected. Expect their rivalry for 2021 to begin ... now ... 

9:36 PM - City Council incumbents all ahead in their races or already declared winners. 

9:41 PM - There will be one more very important election in NYC after tonight -- for City Council Speaker. Who will it be? We'll find out in January when the newly-elected Council takes office.

9:44 PM - Manhattan DA Cy Vance re-elected (he had no opponent).

9:57 PM - Nicole Malliotakis, GOP candidate for mayor, is conceding. She talks about conitnuing to "fight" for what she believes in. Problem is, she doesn't appear to believe in anything. Unless I'm mistaken, she didn't congratulate De Blasio in her speech which is totally classless.

10:09 PM - Mayor De Blasio is being introduced by his wife at victory celebration.

10:16 PM - De Blasio giving his victory speech, saying that the people who predicted doom when he was elected four years ago were wrong.

10:28 PM - Well, that's it. The status quo rules. And in this case, that's a good thing.