BP Ruben Diaz Jr. at One World Trade Center (photo: @rubendiazjr)
The people of the United States have stood strong with the people of Israel from the day that country was founded in 1947. As the only democracy in the Middle East, and as our key ally in the fight against terrorism, Israel holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Americans. This is especially true in New York City, which has shared a unique and significant relationship with the Jewish people and the state of Israel for decades.
On Saturday, January 17, I will travel to Israel with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, leading a delegation of our city's growing Latino population. This group, which includes business, civic and non-profit leaders, will spend a week discovering what Israel has to offer, learning about why Israel's continued strength is so important, and exploring the growing relationship between the people of the Promised Land and Latinos across the world.
This is of critical importance, given not only the continued vitality of the Jewish population at home, but the longstanding history of Jewish acceptance in countries like the Dominican Republic and growing Jewish population in places like Argentina, Brazil and Panama, as well. On this trip, I will lead a discussion about the future of Jewish/Latino relations, both here and abroad, and take the first steps toward cementing a lifetime bond between these two communities.
I have been to Israel before. I have seen, firsthand, the attacks the Israeli people face every single day. But the people of Israel persevere. Now, more than ever, their example deserves our praise and our support.
The horror of the attacks on the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket—and the subsequent exodus of Jews from Paris—show us just how critical our support of Israel is right now. As Martin Niemöller wrote, reflecting on the Nazi atrocities of World War II, "First they came for the Jews..."
Following these acts of terror, the Paris Grand Synagogue closed for the first time on Shabbos since World War II. The meaning behind such imagery cannot be understated. Israel is one of our strongest allies. Israelis and all Jews must know that our Latino community, and in fact the American people, are on their side during these troublesome times. As we saw world leaders standing arm-in-arm in solidarity following these attacks, we too stand arm-in-arm with Israel and the world's Jewish population.
Does a borough president have an interest in promoting Israel? Of course. At one point more Jews lived in The Bronx than in Israel, and our Jewish community remains vibrant and strong. Across the entire city, Jews and Latinos are already working hand-in-hand on the issues that unite us, be it economic development, housing, education and more.
Israel has produced and continues to work on some of the most amazing technological and scientific advancements the world has ever seen. Israel is a partner in our security, and what keeps their country secure helps keep our borough and our city secure. Israel is worthy of not only our respect, but our support.
As we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. next week, we must also remember his message that we are all God's children, including the people of Israel. "Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity," said Dr. King. "Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."
Both the nation of Israel and Jews everywhere around the world are under perpetual attack. Their peace today, as Dr. King so eloquently put it, requires our commitment to their continued security. I will work to join the Latino and Jewish communities together in new bonds of strength, and I will help create new friendships during difficult times.
Israelis do not let terrorism and hate keep them down. Neither do Americans, and neither do I.
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Ruben Diaz Jr. is Bronx Borough President. His office is on Twitter @rubendiazjr
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City Council Speaker Mark-Viverito applied Thursday for her IDNYC (photo: William Alatriste)
I moved to New York in August 2013 from India to pursue a master's in journalism at NYU, which I earned just last month. I am on an F-1 visa and my only forms of identification were my Indian driver's license and my passport. The license is valid here, I was even allowed to drive in the State of New York, but there was some understandable confusion whenever I produced it as proof of my age. In India, like many other countries, we use the day-before-month format. I've often faced a confused bartender wondering how I could have been born in the 22nd month of the year.
While most places accept my license, with some explanation required, others outright refuse to acknowledge its authenticity. I've been told several times that people are unable to accept anything but a State-approved DMV ID. That or my passport, which I don't regularly carry around in my back pocket for obvious reasons.
Frustrated by being turned away too often, I made a trip to that much dreaded institution of urban existence, the DMV (though I did find the branch at Atlantic Center in Brooklyn quite efficient). I had to brave long lines and produce nearly six different proofs of identity, including health insurance, debit card, and utility bill, before the application was valid. Two weeks later I received a New York non-driver's ID in the mail.
So, I have plenty of valid photo identification for my time in New York, which I'm hoping will extend. But that didn't stop me from immediately wanting one of the new New York City municipal identification cards, for which open enrollment began this week. And I tried to get one, to no avail thus far.
To me, it's about the perks. Like many New Yorkers, I haven't been so good about taking advantage of the cultural mecca that is New York. I've never seen the animals at the Bronx Zoo or enjoyed a performance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, for example. So, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in September that the city's new municipal ID program, IDNYC, would come with free one-year membership to 33 leading cultural institutions, I was sold.
On Monday, I watched the mayor's press conference officially launching the program, then spoke with City Hall sources and wrote a story about the budget for the IDNYC program and the details of the marketing campaign it will fund.
I didn't need to hear a radio ad or see a PSA in the back of a cab, though - I was already convinced to get my own IDNYC. So on Tuesday, day two of the rollout, I set out to get one.
Like many New Yorkers, my efforts to apply for the ID on Tuesday were met with disappointment. Sadly, at two separate Brooklyn locations I was unable to have my application materials processed. But, it wasn't that the program launch didn't work. It worked a little too well. On each of its first two days, IDNYC enrollment centers saw overwhelming demand from New Yorkers, forcing many centers to cut off their lines when they'd reached capacity for what they'd be able to process for the rest of the day. They simply couldn't handle the numbers.
I first went to Joralemon Street, where the Department of Finance's Brooklyn Business Center was hosting enrollment. It was only 2 p.m. and there were thirty-five or so people in line before me for the ID. Some had been waiting for hours. The standing racks holding application forms in numerous languages were half empty. All the forms in English were nearly gone. After I had waited a painful 90 minutes, the center announced it was at maximum capacity. In the time left (the center closes at 4:30 pm) they would only be able to process a certain small number of applications - not including mine. But, a helpful employee directed me to the Brooklyn Public Library, which would be open till 9 pm. Plenty of time to go get signed up, I thought.
I thought wrong.
At the Library, a police officer corralled the crowd to keep the entrance clear. At least a dozen people milled about, some in curious wonder and others in fuming anger because of the ID enrollment. A line snaked out from a nearby door with a large IDNYC logo above it.
Unfortunately, the line had closed long before I got there. By mid-afternoon, the amassed applicants had surpassed the center's ability to sign them up. The line of people, which had apparently stretched out the door as early as 6 a.m., was now at a manageable size. But it would be the last batch of the day. Stragglers were being told they could set up an appointment through 311, the city's helpline.
The mayor's team seemed prepared for this contingency. They confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that the City would switch to an appointment-based system - much to my relief since I'd already exhausted enough time - and extra volunteers would be brought on to assist with enrollment. Both 311 and an online portal would allow for appointments, it was said.
But, as I and others attempted to go that route, we were met with reminders of the initial healthcare.gov launch by the federal government, where a good idea got bogged down by bad execution. This is on a much smaller scale and of far less importance, of course.
The website did get going and though there are long wait times through 311, appointments can now be made - but they are being given for weeks into the future, leaving me less enthused and less determined to get my IDNYC. I didn't book one...yet.
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by Samar Khurshid
@SamarKhurshid
Council Member Mark Levine, the author (photo: @MarkLevineNYC)
Mayors and police unions have clashed for generations in New York City, conflicts which have often erupted in the form of work slowdowns by the cops in the trenches. But the scale and intensity of the current job action by rank-and-file officers is unprecedented. We're seeing dramatic drops not just in low-level ticketing but in nearly every category of arrest--including armed robbery and drunk driving.
It will require unprecedented action to pull our city back from this perilous precipice.
The level of vitriol in the public dialogue reached red hot levels in New York City following a grand jury's decision not to indict in the Eric Garner case and the heinous assassination of Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. We can't heal the profound divisions in our city until we begin to heed the call, made by Commissioner Bill Bratton in his eulogy to Detective Ramos, to "learn to see each other."
That means reform activists must cease referring to police in dehumanizing terms. This includes demonizing all cops as racists or making the absurd accusation that the NYPD is equivalent to the KKK. It shouldn't take the murder of two police officers to remind New Yorkers of the difficult, stressful, and dangerous conditions that cops labor under day in and day out.
By the same token, critics of the reformers must stop saying that anyone calling for change in the NYPD is anti-police. Or that fighting against unequal treatment of people of color is slandering all cops. New Yorkers certainly have a right to expect that those charged with protecting us must not kill unarmed civilians, and to have a right to speak out when such tragedies occur.
The fact is that the vast majority of people on both sides of this divide want exactly the same thing. We want cops to be safe. We want crime to continue to go down. And we want everyone treated fairly regardless of their skin color. And yes--we want the police to be active and engaged, and we understand that proactive, community-centric policing requires more cops not fewer (which is why my colleagues and I in the City Council proposed the addition of 1,000 new officers last year).
All of which make the current enforcement slowdown perplexing and alarming. Policing, much like teaching, is a job requiring judgment. Even a 200,000 page manual would not be sufficient to stipulate how each aspect of the the work should be carried out. Policing works in New York City because nearly all cops care deeply about their mission of keeping the public safe and don't hesitate to go above and beyond their contractual obligation. Officers Andrew Dossi and Aliro Pellerano exemplify this spirit--having been shot last week in the Bronx responding to a robbery, even though they had just come off duty.
The current work slowdown runs counter to that heroic ethic. And it endangers millions of New Yorkers, robs the city of desperately needed funds, and undermines civilian control of the force.
It also diverts us from critical policy work aimed at making the NYPD the best it can be--reforms that will benefit not only the general public but cops as well. When we deploy body cameras it will enhance accountability on both sides of the shield. As we roll back the over-criminalization of marijuana possession it will free up critical police resources so they can be deployed to fight more serious crime. As we train cops on how to de-escalate potentially violent confrontations it will make everyone safer.
It is imperative that all of us--cops, activists, regular New Yorkers--start to truly see each other, and to understand that only by building on our common goals and aspirations can we live together as one city.
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Mark Levine is the New York City Council Member for the 7th District, representing parts of the West Side of Upper Manhattan.
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