A yet-unidentified 55-year-old man did what countless other New Yorkers have done: he accidentally bumped into someone in the subway. Unfortunately, that someone was 21-year-old New Jersey man Nassadir Tate, who responded to the bump by punching the 55-year-old man in the head. That man died.
Tate was released with a ticket and an order to appear in court on April 1. Perhaps it's fitting that's April Fool's Day, because you're a fool if you think Tate will show up to that court appearance, and an even bigger fool if you think Tate will face any consequences for his actions. It's true that the cause of death for the man is still under investigation, but I distinctly remember how New York authorities, specifically District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office, treated Daniel Penny after he stopped Jordan Neely from threatening straphangers a couple of years ago. Neely was alive after Penny restrained him on the subway and later died with the drug K2 in his system and of other health issues, including Sickle Cell trait.
Bragg charged Penny with manslaughter, which marks only a handful of times the office actually charged someone with a serious crime, and likely because of the racial dynamic of the case. Penny is White; Neely was Black. Penny was later acquitted on all charges, the only acceptable outcome for such an unjust prosecution.
New York takes crime seriously only if you're the right kind of offender or the right kind of victim. Less than two weeks ago, career criminal Damon Johnson was arrested — again — after setting a homeless man on fire on the NYC subway. Johnson has 131 prior arrests, including for criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Penny wasn't the only victim of Bragg's office. Bodega worker Jose Alba was arrested on second-degree murder charges after Alba fatally stabbed a man who was attacking him. Alba was actually stabbed by the man's girlfriend during the altercation. Bragg had Alba arrested and sent to Riker's on $250,000 bail. That was reduced following public outcry and charges against Alba were eventually dropped.
Bragg's office also routinely reduces felony charges to misdemeanors, too, as he did with the abortion activist who punched pro-life journalist Savannah Craven Antao in the face. The punch was caught on video, but Bragg's office simply let the case get dismissed on speedy trial grounds after "accidentally" failing to file a certificate of readiness
This is all deliberate, of course. Democrats thrive on the chaos that comes from lawless societies, and they know that refusing to put the small percentage of repeat, often violent, offenders behind bars is necessary to help them advance their agenda: the downfall of our nation and its laws.
But they have to be seen as doing something, under the guise of safety, so frustrated voters don't pull out the tar and feathers. In New York City, that "something" is lowering the speed limit to 15 mph in school zones, around the clock, and lowering the city's speed limit to 20 mph.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani will lower speed limits to 15 mph in school zones. Read today's cover here: https://t.co/eO9Cvp77P3 pic.twitter.com/ZY9LdRehsu
— New York Post (@nypost) March 17, 2026
The speed limit will be lowered to 15 mph around all the city’s thousands of schools by 2029, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday – as insiders quietly revealed the slow-as-dirt zones will be enforced 24/7.
The mayor will invoke Sammy’s Law – a 2024 measure allowing city officials to set speed limits below the state minimum – in his executive action to lower the speed limits and fulfill a goal long-sought by street safety advocates.
Mamdani also said he wants to lower the speed limit citywide to 20 mph, although he contended doing so would require action from the City Council – a stance that drew finger-pointing from Speaker Julie Menin.
In 2013, Samuel "Sammy" Cohen-Eckstein was struck and killed by 24-year-old Luis Quizhpi-Tacuri after Quizhpi-Tacuri failed to stop for a ball that rolled into the street. Quizhpi-Tacuri was never arrested, although he was cited for several traffic offenses, including failure to use due care, passing another vehicle unsafely, and driving with an expired license.
The safety issue was so pressing that I'll note it took New York 11 years to pass Sammy's Law.
On one hand, I fail to see how a city that refuses to put violent criminals in prison will bother enforcing these new speed limit laws. It's entirely reasonable to expect and believe that the speed limit rules — like other laws — will be selectively enforced against certain groups. Blacks, illegals, and other Democratic Party constituents will likely be given a pass, while those who don't fit into those demographic groups will see the full weight of the state's hammer come down on them. That, or the fines will be scaled based on income, as they're proposing in San Francisco. If those fines are meant to act as a deterrent, they should hurt all economic classes equally. That authorities don't want that tells us it's not about safety or deterrence.
Or all these new laws will be ignored outright, especially if those most frequently penalized are part of any of those aforementioned groups. In Milwaukee, a task force dedicated to stopping street takeovers in the city was quietly dismantled, in part because the police were needed elsewhere and also because the task force was considered racist by some.
On the other hand, it's easy to imagine NYC handing out hefty fines like Halloween candy to people going 16 mph in a school zone at 10 pm on a Saturday night because, you know, it'll protect the schoolchildren. New York City has a pretty massive budget shortfall to make up for, and it can't do that only by stealing half of New Yorkers' estates when they die.
This all also reminds me of all the gun control laws Democrats push for after each shooting, despite the fact that the laws they demand would have done nothing to stop the shooting, nor do anything to stop the next one. The funny thing about criminals, whether they use a gun, a knife, or a car, is that they just don't give a damn about our laws. And, thanks to Democrats, they have little reason to fear or expect consequences for their criminality.
Democrats, in New York and elsewhere, don’t actually want to fix crime. Fixing crime would require confronting the people causing it, holding them accountable, and locking them up away from civilized society. But that doesn't serve their agenda, so it’s much easier—and far more politically and economically profitable—to crack down on the people who aren’t violent criminals. So expect more of this: fewer consequences for violence, more penalties for normal people trying to live their lives, and plenty of politicians congratulating themselves for “doing something.” Just not the thing that actually matters.