SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – OVERNIGHT:

NEW YORK'S AGONY CONTINUES – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Hate crime in the city is way up, skyrocketing by 139 percent this year, NYPD data show.  Cops say they’ve investigated 320 reports of possible bias attacks through June 27, up from 134 incidents during the same period in 2020.  Offenses against Asians surged by 400 percent, to 105 reported cases this year from 21 last year.  Anti-Semitic assaults went up 69 percent, to 113 incidents this year from 67 last year.  The NYPD reported 28 attacks on Blacks this year, nearly double last year’s 15.  There were also 11 hate crimes against whites, an increase from four in 2020; five incidents involving Muslims, up from two last year; and four offenses against Hispanics after none last year, the data shows.  In addition, the NYPD reported 31 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation this year versus nine last year, a 244 percent increase.  This year’s tally includes 13 cases motivated by gender, four by ethnicity and six by religion, cops said.  “There’s no law and order anymore,” said a 26-year-old Upper West Side woman, who told The Post she and a group of fellow Jewish students were targeted outside Central Park on June 12.  The woman said she suffered a concussion after unidentified masked thugs hurled eggs at her group — “three modestly dressed women” and “three young men with yarmulkes” — at 92nd Street and Central Park West around 8:30 p.m.  “We were walking, everything was fine. We turned onto 92nd and right under the scaffolding of this building [at 322 Central Park West], I just felt like a rock hit the back of my head.  Six years ago, New York was the safest large city in America.  Look what's happening to it.  And, in the midst of a mayoral campaign, no one seems to have any answers.  I often urge people to leave New York and move to the exciting and vibrant smaller cities of the heartland.  Many seem to be doing just that.

July 4, 2021