Security turns out to be a “luxury” which even liberals can’t live without. The iconic Greenwich Village provides upscale homes in it’s West Village neighborhood. They’re packed full of New York City’s progressive elite who were among the loudest “defund the police” voices. Now, they’re starting to see the error of their socialist ways. “Crime and quality-of-life complaints have gotten so bad in the West Village, a community group contracted armed guards to patrol their street and stop chronic drug dealing, crack smoking and public defecation.”
Liberals hire private security
The West 4th Mac/6th Block Association got everyone in the Big Apple gasping when they “hired security officers strapped with pistols.”
At least they hired classy ones “from Black Tie Protection Services of upstate Monroe.” Their assignment was to patrol “West Fourth Street between MacDougal Street and Sixth Avenue for the month of August at various hours of the day.” All too soon, it was over.
According to local citizen Brian Maloney, the neighborhood he lived in for the past 16 years “is suffering from an influx of emotionally disturbed drug addicts and an exodus of cops.” He’s not afraid to point the finger. The problem he said, was “made all the worse by bail reform and soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.”
? #BREAKING: #NYC block hires #Armed Security Guards to patrol against Crime-Ridden streets. If you keep Voting for the same Soft-On-Crime & Defund-the-Police Politicians the crisis will continue. https://t.co/oqxylukqRq #SoHo #TriBeCa #GreenwichVillage #EastVillage
— McGarrett (@McGarrett_1) September 12, 2022
It may not be socially hip but security makes residents a whole lot happier. Private guards were “the only logical way to combat the chaos of a revolving-door justice system,” he added.
It has him totally confused and he’s not alone. “We have residents saying, ‘We’re a liberal city. The Village is a very liberal area.‘ Well, I’ve lost my liberal-ness on this. It baffles me.” He’s almost ashamed to admit it but the “security certainly gave me peace of mind.”
He’s not alone in blaming the Manhattan DA for the crisis. Bragg favors the freedom of open drug use. The block Maloney lives in isn’t the only one to hire guards.
Shady characters come back
West Villagers told the New York Post that the Village Alliance business improvement district and the West 9th Street Block Association have also experimented with private security.
As Mr. Maloney relates, “in the first two weeks, the armed guards confronted 200 users, dealers and vagrants and rousted them off the block. But once a shift ended, the shady characters came back.” Just more of the same old catch and release tactics.
Ever since the beatnik days of Bob Dylan and Jack Kerouac, “there’s always been a certain grunginess and low-level charm to the Village, but now it’s just lawlessness,” another resident chimed in.
The streets of Soho and Tribeca, two of the wealthiest zip codes in the world, now littered with graffiti, knockoff goods, drugs, and criminals…pic.twitter.com/AQLWle3ARp
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) September 11, 2022
“With the security, It was such a relief to come home and not find anyone on my stoop. I was relieved to not find the same dealers and addicts on my block. It felt like 2018 again.” Homeless people love to hang out the entrances of West Village apartments. That’s not all that hangs out, either.
Cyndi Slater of Florida “moved her daughter Jessica into an apartment on West 4th Street in May and was immediately horrified.” They got an eye opening welcome to the neighborhood. “The first night we were there, a guy walked straight toward us, pulled down his pants and showed his penis,” she said. “There were people peeing on the stoop next door. We’re walking around and stepping over piles of s–t. There’s open drug use and dealing. And then there’s just the constant screaming and threats all night long. Everything was so blatant.” Democrats call that “paradise.”
Ms. Slater wants security. “A lot of that filth and grime went away when the patrols showed up,” she notes. “I would love to see year-round security but it’s unfortunately very expensive and not sustainable.” That’s why they pay taxes for police.
