SAFE ZONE SIREN
Editorial
Quentin Frady, Editor-in-Chief
NEW YORK — On Monday, June 10th, everything in the New York City Safe Zone will change forever. That sounds like hyperbole, but when you look at the bigger picture it's anything but.
June 10th marks the formal inception of the second generation of the NYPD, a law-enforcement organization effectively dismantled by the Second American Civil War. But the NYPD isn't just a name, it's a more than century old institution build on the backs of systematic racism and corruption. Before it collapsed during the height of the civil war, the NYPD was arguably the most corrupt organization in New York City. It was led by now-fugitive Samuel Irons whose blood ties to the terrorist group Humanis First allowed violent extremism to flourish within the department.
Irons' corruption extended into the deepest ranks of the NYPD, with detectives, internal affairs, and even patrol officers counting among Humanis First's loyalists. They spread their anti-expressive propaganda internally and became de-facto enforcers of the murderous will of the Petrelli Administration.
To reinstate the NYPD in the aftermath of such tragedy is a bold statement. But it is hard to tell if Mayor Caroline Short is making a bold statement about the resilience of New Yorkers to recover from tragedy as we did from 9/11, 11/8, and its reprise five years later. Or, if Mayor Short is making a bold statement about poor optics, and how the past repeats itself.
It's hard to say whether the "new" NYPD will be anything new at all, or if the same pattern of racism and corruption that plagued the US legal system for centuries will manifest itself once more.
What I do know is that the American people won't lie down and tolerate it again.
And we saw what happened the first time.
- Quentin Frady, Safe Zone Siren Editor-in-Chief