New York City mayor Bill (I'm Not Done Ruining the City Yet) de Blasio proposed that Rikers Island Prison be closed and replaced with new, more "humane" jails.  This was not enough for students at New York University, however.  NYU's student government officially requested that the city of New York close Rikers Island with all due haste and promise not to open any new jails to replace it.  The school's Student Government Assembly released a statement averring that "jails do not make us safe," but "serve only to further harm Black and brown families, individuals, and communities and to perpetuate a racist and violent criminal legal system."  It also endorsed a plan by a group called "No New Jails NYC" that would mandate that the $11 billion de Blasio was to invest in new jails instead be used to fund "housing for all" and other (woker) public programs.

Rikers Island (photo credit: Tim Rodenburg).

 No New Jails NYC is committed to totally abolishing the city's jail system by "disrupting every level of power" and demands that de Blasio "responsibly release" the 1,000 or so prisoners at Rikers.  ("No New Jails NYC" appears to have much in common with the Jacobins, the famous and radical left-wing revolutionary group responsible for the Reign of Terror that saw more than ten thousand people executed in France during the French Revolution, most for political crimes.)  There is no way to "responsibly release" the 1,000 prisoners held at Rikers without wreaking havoc on Gotham.  But that is the point.  The group further alleges that de Blasio's plan is part of "the nationwide right-wing movement led by President Trump's push to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border."  Yes, I'm sure that the wildly progressive Democrat de Blasio, who is steadily erasing the achievements of the city's two previous mayors, is part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to...protect the country against violence, crime, and chaos?

And then there is Patricia O'Brien, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois's Jane Addams College of Social Work, who believes that women should never be put in jail for any reason, period.  In a recent op-ed published in The Washington Post, she contended that most women in prison are non-violent, poorly educated, unemployed, and abused...themselves merely victims of a bigoted, patriarchal society.  (Really, nobody should ever have to go to jail...unless, of course, he was caught wearing a "MAGA" hat.)

Who could argue?  I must admit, with cogent arguments such as these, they have convinced me they are right.  Let's have utterly open borders and welcome everyone in the world into America.  Let's also pay for their every want and wish.  Let's close down every prison and jail and release all the convicts.  I feel better already, just writing this!  Let's also dispense with the Second Amendment and do away with the people's so-called "right" to protect and defend themselves.  We should confiscate the firearms from every American citizen.  While we're at it, let's disarm the police as well.  And the military.  Let's defund the military!  What was that brilliant old saying that I've observed on the bumper stickers of so many Priuses and Subaru Outbacks?  Oh, yes, I remember now: "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need, and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

In closing, let me just remind all of you right-wing extremists of a cogent fact: "You Can't Hug Your Kids With Nuclear Arms."

But maybe you can keep them from going to college.