The Young Lords, the left-wing organization of the 1960s and '70s that fused the revolutionary agenda and grassroots community organizing of the Black Panthers with a Puerto Rican nationalist project, are known today for their work calling attention to the racist neglect of Spanish Harlem by the Sanitation Department with community clean-ups and garbage-dumping protests, and fighting institutional medical neglect with a campaign that culminated in the takeover of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx.
Inevitably, they were targeted for illegal surveillance, infiltration, intimidation, and disruption by the NYPD and FBI through the notorious COINTELPRO program.
Does this story of a radical, populist, explicitly anti-cop movement being illegally suppressed by state forces remind you of anything? How about private-club and crypto enthusiast Mayor Eric Adams, and his prosecution for selling favors to foreign governments in exchange for luxury travel perks and illegal campaign donations?
It's a natural historical parallel, according to Adams, who drew it in an interview Monday on the Spanish-language radio station Mega 97.9.