This past weekend a funeral was held for Officer Jonathan Diller, who was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Far Rockaway, Queens, in March.

The event was attended by hundreds of police officers and a few politicians.

Some of those politicians, among them New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, weren't exactly warmly welcomed. That shouldn't be a surprise, as the top officials in New York seem more consumed by their ideological, banana republic-style crusades against former President Donald Trump and his supporters than in dealing with escalating chaos in the city.

One of Diller's alleged assailants, Lindy Jones, a man who goes by the street name "Killa," according to the New York Post—yes, really—had at least 14 prior arrests and was out on bail on a gun-possession charge last year. The man who police say fired the gun, Guy Rivera, had more than 20 prior arrests, according to Mayor Eric Adams.

That highlights a perverse problem that increasingly plagues New York and other big, Democrat-run cities: repeat offenders being released from jail, committing more crimes, and creating more victims.

It's no accident that Daniel Penny, who inadvertently killed a homeless man while trying to protect subway passengers, faces prosecution but countless, repeat criminals end up back on the streets. 

That is leftist "social justice" in action.

Oh, but our media gatekeepers of left-wing narratives say that the surge in crime is all fake news, a right-wing conspiracy.

People with two eyes and common sense aren't buying it.

"New York City is in the midst of a surge of violent behavior," wrote City Journal editor Seth Barron on Wednesday. "An NYPD officer was murdered this week on the same day that a man was pushed to his death in front of a subway car. The same day saw multiple, unrelated stabbings in the subway system."

You have to be willfully blind not to notice that more brazen, violent incidents are taking place, often in broad daylight.

Barron explained how New York, which became one of America's safest big cities thanks to the adoption of anti-crime policies a few decades ago under then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is now sliding backward. The city is now seeing the "steady and methodical decomposition of the machinery of public order," Barron wrote.

It's worth quoting Barron at length on how New York is slowly disavowing the policies that allow it to maintain order:

The City Council has passed legislation effectively legalizing public drinking, littering, graffiti, and urination. The Council has interposed itself between police and the public with a host of reporting requirements, the intent of which is to dissuade cops from interacting with people in the first place.

Stop-and-frisk, a constitutionally permitted practice, has been virtually eliminated, and the NYPD has been placed under federal monitorship.

That's not all. The city also has passed so-called bail reform and reduced penalties for shoplifting.

How is that working out? New York has had the largest increase in shoplifting of any city since 2019. And most of those crimes are being committed by the same small group of people.

"According to NYC Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, nearly one-third of the city's shoplifting arrests last year involved just 327 people," Outkick reported last April. "Collectively, those same 327 people were arrested, released and rearrested more than 6,000 times. That's more than 18 arrests per person. In a single year."

The problem is not just that crime is increasing in the aggregate sense. It's the general feeling of anarchy and lawlessness that people now feel because of wrongheaded policies.

The crime that perhaps most symbolizes the rapid disintegration of public safety is women getting randomly punched in the face, often while they're looking down at their cellphones. (Screengrab image: via X, TikTok)

"I was literally just walking, and a man came up and punched me in the face. Oh, my god, it hurts so bad, I can't even talk," said 23-year-old Halley Kate in recent video that went viral. She had a massive lump on her head.

Now, I must admit that I secretly harbor fantasies of shoving young people slowly ambling along the sidewalk, looking down at their phones in a state of obliviousness.

But as a civilized man, I keep my heart of darkness under control. Not so with a growing number of men who have decided to just unleash haymakers on defenseless, unsuspecting women.

Incredibly, it seems that some of the men who have committed these violent assaults have been released without bail, despite prior arrests for violent assault.

New York City is becoming sucker punch city, where illegal aliens and criminals come first, and law-abiding citizens and police officers come last.

This issue isn't going to be fixed by having National Guardsmen rifle through women's purses in the subway system. It gets solved when the people committing crimes are seriously punished for committing crimes. It gets solved when the district attorney holds people responsible for their actions. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Unless and until that change happens, New York and plenty of other cities that have been at the forefront of the "progressive" justice movement will suffer increasing anarchy, fear, and violence.

Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of the book "The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past."

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