We're Focused! We're Not Distracted!

we're grinding! #95

One thing I’ve learned as a reporter is to not complain when there is too much news. Late nights, early mornings, chaos — this is why I do this, I remind myself. To report here, in the greatest city in the world, is a gift. It’s exciting and exhausting when there’s a lot of news, and you can’t have one without the other. You have to embrace both and keep it moving and you have to work. To quote that one guy quoting Andy Warhol: “All that matters is work.”

This week started on Monday with the mayor in Bellerose talking about hurricane and flood preparation. Marcia Kramer got the only off-topic question, and her question to him was this:

Question: Mayor, I wonder if we could talk about another kind of hurricane, a hurricane of rumors that the police commissioner giving this investigation that's been going on is about to resign. Do you think he should resign? If you don't, if you still have faith in him, and if you can guarantee that two months from now, he'll still be your police commissioner?

The mayor answered philosophically: You know, I don't think anything in life is guaranteed.

And then he said: You can never keep up with the rumors that you hear.

I know the feeling. I’ve been trying to keep up with the rumors since the feds raided his top fundraiser’s home last November! Then the mayor abruptly canceled his evening events, and we all thought the federal investigations had reached a fever pitch. It turned out it was just a fever; the mayor had COVID.

On Tuesday we saw the mayor’s once-a-week briefing happen over WebX, which always gives me de Blasio-era PTSD. That day POLITICO reported Police Commissioner Caban would resign in a matter of days. The mayor denied he was being pushed out but also wouldn’t say he had confidence in him. He told us the Banks father was his mentor in the police department, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright (whose phones were also seized) said her own version of staying focused and grinding, a member of the press asked about community boards and another one said we should vote on congestion pricing.

Even through the Sept. 11 anniversary on Wednesday, the articles kept coming:

About Terry Banks and his consulting firm, about paranoid city and police officials meeting in parking lots, about Randy Mastro withdrawing his nomination to be the city’s top lawyer, about what Tim Pearson — another top Adams aide whose phones were seized — did last year to shelter guards, about who exactly James Caban is and what the IRS is looking at, about how the Caban twin had a police detail because people might think he was the police commissioner, about the mayor placing cops in city agencies to work on enforcement.

On Thursday the news broke that Police Commissioner Edward Caban would step down. He’s been replaced by Tom Donlon, a former FBI guy. The Adams administration fired a community affairs staffer, Ray Martin, after this NBC New York story showed his involvement in an apparent shakedown of a Coney Island juice bar owner by the former police commissioner’s twin brother.

On Friday news broke that the feds searched the private firm owned by Terry Banks, brother of deputy mayor for public safety Phil and schools chancellor David — who held a press conference that morning and said the feds still have his phones. He’s also tragically a Jets fan. One of Caban’s final acts was watering-down NYPD punishment. State Sen. Jessica Ramos is running for mayor. The mayor is still in quarantine. And apparently Boar’s Head will no longer sell liverwurst??!!???!!!! (unrelated to probes)

I know this is a lot, and it’s not letting up. Here’s some background on the nepotism in the Adams administration, a guide to who’s running for mayor, and a “who’s investigating who” story.

📺WATCH📺
There was a primary election on Sept. 11, 2001 and mayoral candidate Mark Green’s son made a documentary about the day and everything that happened after. I watch it around this time every year.

🎧LISTEN🎧

↣ We talked about all the investigations on FAQ.
↣This is another good podcast on the probes
↣ Kareem & Tiny Gun’s newest single, featuring my friend Dale on drums.
↣ In honor of an Irishman back at the top of the NYPD, here’s “The Streets of New York” by The Wolfetones

Thanks for reading!