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Articles by Alvin Bessent
Stars could align for New York Democrats in Washington
New York is poised to take over Washington. Well, not quite yet, but it could happen. The state's own Sen. Chuck Schumer is the heir apparent to Senate Minority Harry Reid (D-Nevada), who announced Friday that he won't seek re-election in 2016. And New Yorker Hillary Clinton so far has no real competition for the Democrat presidential nomination. So the stage is set for New York ascendant. Of course, neither is a sure thing.
Eric Schneiderman looks to end mass incarceration
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman weighed in on a host of important issues, including mass incarceration, frayed relations between blacks and police and combating drug overdose deaths, in a meeting Wednesday with the Newsday editorial board. A veteran of battles to repeal the state’s Rockefeller drug laws and their long, mandatory prison sentences, Schneiderman has shifted his fire to beating back the folly of mass incarceration.
Islamic State latest act is horrifying
In this undated file image posted on Monday, June 30, 2014, fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria. Photo Credit: AP/Raqqa Media Center of the Islamic State group The depravity of the Islamic State group has no limit. It seems to have a boundless appetite for ever more shocking ways to kill. Its latest horror was burning alive caged Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh on video made public Tuesday.
Bessent: Why aren’t members of the NYPD facing an ultimatum?
NYPD data for the week that ended Sunday, Jan. 4, shows arrests were down 55.9 percent compared to the same week last year. The decline was 95.7 percent for transit arrests, 67.1 percent for drunk driving... There is powerful statistical evidence that a large fraction of NYC’s finest are engaged in a work slowdown. Where’s the outrage over New York City police officers not doing their jobs?
Tension is also cause for police soul-searching
Alvin Bessent joined the Newsday editorial board in 1993. He writes about national government policy and politics. ... In the wake of the senseless deaths of two police officers, a police union leader and the NYPD's political supporters have blamed everybody in sight whose views differ from theirs on the poisonous relationship between cops and blacks. They need to get real. That's the only way things will get better.
Law for mentally ill ex-cons would help protect public
Mayor Bill de Blasio and first lady Charlene McCray, accompanied by Pastor Michael Durso, right, place flowers at a makeshift memorial for slain NYPD Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014. Durso leads Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens, where a wake for Ramos will be held Friday. Photo Credit: Charles Eckert Mentally ill ex-convicts roaming the streets without medication or treatment is a nightmare scenario nobody wants.
A $15.3 billion profit for taxpayers
The official death and injury totals from defective GM ignition switch accidents has risen, according to Attorney Kenneth Feinberg. This is GM headquarters in Detroit on Jan. 14, 2014. Photo Credit: AFP-Getty Images / Stan Honda Washington closed the books last week on the wildly unpopular bank and auto bailouts that gave rise to the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements. The goal back in the scary days of 2008 and 2009 was to stabilize an economy in free-fall. Things were really bad.
Loretta Lynch has the right stuff for AG
Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney for Long Island and parts of New York City, is President Barack Obama's choice to be the next U.S. Attorney General. He’ll make it official Saturday, according to a White House statement. Credit him with a brilliant move. Lynch is superbly qualified for the job. And her low-key profile, two stints as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and lack of long, personal ties to Obama bode well for a bloodless confirmation by a Republican-controlled Senate.
Move over Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, pick New York for new Congress leadership
Despite being voted off the island in the recent election, congressional Democrats are set to sail into the future with the same leaders at the helm. That seems like a moment missed. The party lost its majorities in the Senate and the House on the watches of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif). The Senate flipped this week, the House in 2010. It’s time for new leadership. It’s not so much about the job performance of Reid and Pelosi.
Don’t confuse a Republican Senate win with a mandate
President Barack Obama meets with Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. on June 18, 2014. Photo Credit: Getty Images / Alex Wong According to people who study elections for a living, voters are poised to hand Republicans control of the U.S. Senate. If that happens, the GOP will read it as a conservative mandate.
Democrats try to have it both ways with black vote
President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event for gubernatorial candidate Tom Wolf at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa., Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014. Photo Credit: AP Can Democrats run away from President Barack Obama and then count on black voters to drag them over the finish line? That’s the bet the party made this year in key states like Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana and North Carolina as the party fought what looks like a losing battle to retain control of the U.S. Senate.
Quarantine courageous Ebola medical workers
One lesson to take from the case of Dr. Craig Spencer, who was stricken with Ebola after treating patients in West Africa, is that medical workers returning from the front-lines should be quarantined for the 21 days it takes to ensure they’re disease free. Volunteers like Spencer risk their lives fighting the worst Ebola outbreak in history. What they do is noble, courageous and critical.
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