Ricardo the Bull’s PATH to Freedom Ran Through Newark Penn Station

If you fight hard enough for something righteous, you will win.

This maxim is rarely true, and there are plenty of crummy causes out there, but those of us living in the tri-state area received a useful reminder of the power of direct action on Thursday morning, when a bull escaped confinement and made his way onto the train tracks of Newark's Penn Station.

While it's unclear where exactly the bull came from (the New York Times reported there was a "meat wholesaler" nearby), the tags on his ears made it abundantly obvious what it was escaping: death at the hands of humans who wanted to chop him up and devour his flesh. 

The bull first appeared on Newark Penn's tracks at 10:30 a.m., trotting back and forth, causing New Jersey's long-afflicted rail system to grind to a halt (yes, there's a metaphor for that too, this bull contains multitudes).

Video of the bull approaching Penn Station shows an animal with a determined gait. There's nothing frenzied or careless here.

"I thought maybe it was a Red Bulls PR stunt or something like that, considering the stadium was right there," one train rider told WABC. "But yeah, he was just trotting along."

After 45 minutes, police captured and sedated the bull, and apparently did not spend very much time trying to locate who had lost it. Because at 1:48 p.m., the Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue in Wantage, New Jersey, posted a photo of the animal, which it named Ricardo.

And then a few hours later, proof of life.

Here are some links itching to break free:

• "I don’t know anything about my wife holding hands with Bill de Blasio" is an incredible quote and not something you ever want to tell the New York Post.
• The City's Independent Budget Office says Eric Adams's $7 billion deficit is more like a $1.8 billion budget gap.
• New York Republicans have chosen their nominee to run for the Long Island congressional seat held by former Rep. George Santos and it's Mazi Melesa Pilip, an Ethiopian-born Jew who served in the IDF. Pilip will run against former Democratic representative and Kathy Hochul primary opponent, Tom Suozzi.
• Something happened at a Con Ed plant in Brooklyn, and New Yorkers experienced a brief blackout on Thursday evening.
• More legal cannabis dispensaries are opening around the city.
• After a standoff that lasted hours, in which the NYPD used two robots and a drone, police officers shot and killed a man who barricaded himself in a Chinatown apartment on Thursday afternoon. Police said the standoff ended when the man, 43-year-old Kent Edwards, came out of his apartment firing gunshots at officers.
• More than 11 years after Superstorm Sandy inundated the neighborhood, Red Hook is finally getting some actual flood protection systems.
• Fifty months for feeding secrets to the Russians? Not bad!
• The NYPD is trying to shuffle police reporters out of police headquarters.
• Cars for Kids vs. Kars 4 Kids.
• "He Was Set to Play Santa. His Views on the Middle East Got in the Way."