Once a year every summer, one of my neighbors a few houses down throws a backyard party that is so loud that even with my windows closed, it feels like I'm smack dab in the middle of the club. This is not great for me, someone whose ideal evening ends with me in bed no later than 10 p.m.
But guess what—I grumble a little bit before remembering that earplugs exist, and remind myself that part of the social compact of living in a great big city full of people who enjoy having fun is at times being a little personally discomfited, and being okay with that, because sometimes (rare for me, true) you are the person having fun.
Nextdoor's top posters, however, will be happy to hear that unlike me, the NYPD is determined to wage a war against fun this summer:
The NYPD confirmed to the New York Post that cops "will be beefing up enforcement of sidewalk barbecues this summer," and the NYPD is "asking people online to smoke out egregious grillers by calling 911." (Do not do that.)
In unrelated news, the federal monitor tasked with oversight of the NYPD found that the plainclothes cops that Eric Adams reinstated and renamed "neighborhood safety teams" continue to violate people's constitutional rights. Via the New York Times:
Almost all of the stops made by the rebranded "neighborhood safety teams" analyzed in the report—97 percent—were of Black or Hispanic people, and 24 percent of the stops were unconstitutional. Of 230 car stops included in the sample, only two appear to have turned up weapons, the report said.
The study found especially troubling numbers in a handful of precincts, including the 41st Precinct in the Bronx, where only 41 percent of the stops, 32 percent of frisks and 26 percent of searches were constitutional, according to the report.
And now for some fun and constitutional links:
- Representative Jamaal Bowman, when told that Eric Adams calls himself the "hip-hop mayor": "Hahaha that's a joke! Make sure you write I'm laughing my ass off, because that's a joke."
- So hip-hop, right?
- Andrea Stewart-Cousins is blocking a bill that would require ACS agents to let people know their constitutional rights.
- From the New York Times: "A security guard who worked at a federal building in Manhattan has been accused of forcing an asylum seeker to perform oral sex on him, violating the migrant’s constitutional rights, federal prosecutors said on Monday. On May 4, the guard, Jimmy Solano-Arias, 42, ordered the migrant, a man whose age and name were not released, into a locked room, where he sexually assaulted him, according to a statement released by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York."
- Donald Trump continues to be a jerk.
- George Santos continues to really want to go to jail.
- Aunties, take note!
- Finally, a good vending machine.
- Only 12 legal weed dispensaries have opened in New York, despite Governor Hochul promising 100 would be open by the summer.
- And meanwhile, this happened:
