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Pandering to Voters with $400 Checks Won’t Fix New York’s Real Problem

DAMON K JONES
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Pandering to Voters with $400 Checks Won’t Fix New York’s Real Problem

$400 Checks Won’t Fix New York’s Real Problem

Let’s cut through the noise. New York politicians are patting themselves on the back for sending out “inflation refund checks.” Two hundred here, four hundred there. Meanwhile, the state is staring at a $10.5 billion budget deficit, with billions more projected in the years ahead. At the same time, New York’s Corrections Department just blew $445 million on overtime pay — a glaring example of mismanagement that wastes taxpayer dollars while families struggle to keep their homes. That’s not leadership — that’s bad management dressed up as generosity.

Read: Job Too Dangerous: State Spends $445 Million on Overtime and National Guard in Jail

Political Pandering 101

This is classic political pandering. Albany knows people are hurting, so instead of fixing the reason why — overtaxation, runaway spending, broken priorities — they hand out a small check and hope you’ll say thank you at the ballot box. It’s an old trick: make people feel like they’re “getting something” while ignoring the bigger hole they dug in the first place.

How Black Communities Get Played

And let’s be honest: this has been the modus operandi of New York politics toward Black people for decades. We’ve been conditioned to believe that government “cares” when it gives us something — a rebate check, a temporary program, a ribbon-cutting photo op. But when you look at the outcomes, it’s really nothing.

Because while the checks are cashed, our communities are still stuck with the same problems:

  • High crime rates because public safety is managed, not solved.
  • Lack of Black-owned businesses because there’s no push for economic independence, just dependency.
  • Underfunded schools, because funding is tied to property taxes, we can barely afford.

And here’s the most brutal truth: Black homeowners suffer the most under New York’s property tax system. We fought hard to achieve homeownership despite facing redlining, discrimination, and rising costs. But those victories are hollow if property taxes strip the wealth right back out of our communities. Too many Black seniors are forced to sell their homes just to survive. Too many families can’t pass property down to the next generation because the tax bill eats them alive.

That $400 refund doesn’t even scratch the surface of that loss.

The Real Weight on New Yorkers

A $400 check doesn’t mean anything when families in places like Westchester are paying $13,000 to $20,000 every year in property taxes. That’s the real backbreaker. You can’t budget your way to affordability when the state treats homeowners like ATMs. And you can’t build long-term stability when your leaders spend more energy on gimmicks than on fixing the system that drives people out of New York in the first place.

The Bottom Line

New Yorkers are overtaxed, underserved, and misled. And the sad part is, as long as politicians can buy headlines with refund checks, they assume you’ll keep voting for them. For Black communities, it’s even worse: we’ve been conditioned to clap for crumbs while carrying the heaviest tax burden — watching our wealth drained, our homes lost, and our neighborhoods decline.

The question is: when do we break the cycle and demand policies that fix the problems instead of checks that paper them over?

What Real Help Looks Like

If Hochul really wanted to help, here’s what she’d be talking about:

  • End or cap property taxes for seniors so they’re not taxed out of their homes.
  • Fund schools through the state budget instead of tying them to local property values. That way Mount Vernon and Yonkers don’t keep falling behind while wealthy suburbs thrive.
  • Circuit breaker rules so your property taxes never take more than a set share of your income.
  • Shift away from property taxes altogether, spreading the tax burden fairly instead of punishing homeowners.

That’s real reform. That’s the kind of change that actually keeps families in their homes.

References

Job Too Dangerous: State Spends $445 Million on Overtime and National Guard in Jails

DAMON K JONES
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Job Too Dangerous: State Spends $445 Million on Overtime and National Guard in Jails

The prison staffing crisis in New York is not just a budget issue or labor dispute—it is a failure of state leadership. By ceding authority in its prisons, the state sets the stage for disorder and weakened control.

Authority and Responsibility Go Hand in Hand

A government cannot ensure order if it lacks the will to enforce rules in its own prisons. When correctional facilities are so short-staffed that county jails house state-sentenced inmates indefinitely, or when the state lowers hiring standards from 21 to 18 out of desperation, the message is clear: control has been lost.

As someone who served 33 years in the Department of Corrections, I can say with certainty: lowering the age to 18 is a grave mistake. At 18, a person has not yet developed the maturity or judgment needed to navigate an environment this volatile. To put teenagers in charge of monitoring grown men with violent histories is not reform—it is reckless.

Authority, once surrendered, is rarely regained without consequences. The inmates notice. The staff notice. And so does the public.

The Hidden Cost of Political Evasion

Instead of fixing root causes, Albany evades responsibility. Overtime spending, reaching $445 million, only hides the problem, breeding exhaustion and corruption. Forced overtime threatens safety and stability.

Worse still, the National Guard was pressed into service to plug staffing gaps, only to have one of its members arrested for smuggling contraband into a prison. This is not simply a breach of ethics; it is the inevitable consequence of patchwork solutions that prioritize appearance over competence.

Abuse Born of Mismanagement

Abuse results from a mismanaged, poorly overseen system. Understaffed prisons become breeding grounds for misconduct. Overworked and undirected officers make mistakes. The problem is systemic, not individual.

And now comes the cruel twist: the HALT Act, New York’s solitary confinement reform, has deepened that crisis. By sharply limiting segregation—a primary tool for keeping violent inmates separated—Albany has stripped officers of a vital means for maintaining order.

Here’s the fact: What do you do with a violent inmate who rapes, assaults, or stabs another inmate, officer, or civilian staff member? Do you keep him within the general population alongside those serving their sentences peacefully and seeking rehabilitation—or do you separate him? Common sense demands separation. But under the new law, that is no longer allowed.

The results speak for themselves: nearly 2,000 correction officers have walked away from the job in recent months, choosing their lives and their families over a workplace that feels more like a war zone. Many said plainly—they would rather be alive than serve in a system that values political optics over their safety. Conditions are so severe that in some facilities, one officer is left to monitor up to 120 inmates. No other law enforcement agency in America operates under conditions like those of correction officers, and since these hard-working officers are not in the public eye , it has become a politician’s little dirty secret. 

The hypocrisy of Governor Kathy Hochul cannot be ignored. She has no problem deploying the National Guard to do the job of correction officers because of the state’s severe staffing shortages, yet she openly chastised President Trump when he used the National Guard to curb crime and violence in Black communities in DC. When the Guard is sent into prisons to perform the duties of correction officers, Hochul calls it “necessary.” But when it was used to protect residents trapped in violent neighborhoods, she called it “authoritarian.” The double standard is clear: political convenience, not public safety, drives her decisions.

When You Lose Authority Inside, You Lose It Outside

Prisons mirror society. If the state cannot maintain order within its prisons, citizens lose confidence in its authority. Compromised standards erode both moral and legal authority at a steep cost.

The Lessons Ignored

This is not about whether prisons are “too tough” or “too lenient.” The issue is whether they function at all. A prison that cannot control its own population ceases to be a prison—it becomes a holding pen, one step away from chaos.

The lesson should be simple: The state must address underlying staffing issues, restore meaningful oversight, and equip correctional officers with effective tools to maintain order. Only real solutions—not temporary fixes or lowered standards—will restore authority, safety, and public trust.

  • You cannot outsource discipline to temporary fixes.
  • You cannot trade long-term authority for short-term political convenience.
  • You cannot ignore oversight without inviting abuse.
  • And you cannot strip officers of the tools they need to maintain order without driving them out of the system entirely.

New York’s failure to address these truths has created a prison system patched together by overtime and temporary fixes. This is not reform, but a gradual collapse of authority. Restoring lost authority will be far costlier than maintaining it.

Black Cities, Black Mayors, Same Broken Outcomes

DAMON K JONES
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Black Cities, Black Mayors, Same Broken Outcomes


This Labor Day weekend in Chicago, at least 52 people were shot, and seven were killed. Three separate mass shootings took place in Humboldt Park and Bronzeville. Parents buried children, teenagers fought for their lives in hospital beds, and families feared stepping outside. Yet the response from City Hall sounded more like a campaign rally than a plan for public safety.

Mayor Brandon Johnson took the stage and declared, “No troops in Chicago. No militarized force in Chicago.” He spoke at length about the labor movement, wages, paid leave, and resisting Trump. What he did not do was squarely address the blood on Chicago’s streets. The truth is that these problems were here long before Trump. They are not the creation of any one administration in Washington. They are the predictable outcome of failed leadership, year after year, decade after decade, in city after city.

Too many leaders replace results with rhetoric. Instead of facing the harsh truth—that violent crime is tearing apart Black communities—they shift to safer political topics. Wages, democracy, labor rights, and Washington are the focus. But good intentions don’t stop bullets. What truly matters are outcomes. If a child can’t ride a bike without dodging gunfire, no speech about democracy or wages counts.

Having sat with families who lost loved ones to crime and violence, I have witnessed the cycle repeat every summer. Another young life lost. Another mother’s tears. Another march. Another rally. Black politicians appear in dashiki shirts and Black Lives Matter gear, but once the cameras leave, nothing changes. Thomas Sowell warned us long ago: “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.” The trade-off here is clear. Cities can either keep focusing on ideology while crime worsens, or they can face tough decisions about policing, accountability, and community standards that can save lives.

For decades, the promise was that electing Black officials would bring change. Yet, in city after city, the results tell a different story. Baltimore has had decades of Black mayors and still ranks among the nation’s highest in murder rates. New Orleans had the highest per-capita murder rate in 2022, while leadership downplayed violent crime. St. Louis has been hollowed out by violence while leaders argued about defunding police. In Chicago, the National Guard is rejected, while residents in Bronzeville beg for safety. It’s not the race of the mayor that matters. It’s whether the mayor delivers results. Too often, Black leaders have adopted the same failing playbook: dependency policies, vague promises, and distraction from the very crises their people face.

You can even see this on the African American Mayors Association’s own website. Their Public Safety and Police Accountability Committee says it is responsible for developing “policy positions on crime prevention, gun control, corrections, reentry, substance abuse, juvenile justice, and police oversight and accountability.” Sounds impressive. But notice what’s missing. Nowhere does it mention restoring police presence in neighborhoods plagued by daily shootings. Nowhere does it mention ensuring that enough officers are on the ground to keep families safe. Instead, it reads like a press release designed for panels and conferences, not for the streets of Bronzeville, Baltimore, or New Orleans. While families bury their children, committees draft talking points. While bullets fly, they debate “reentry.” While mothers weep, they issue statements on “accountability.” But accountability without results is just another slogan.

For decades, we were told that electing Black officials would bring change. However, in city after city, the results tell a different story. Consider homicide rates per 100,000 residents in major Black-led cities (as of mid-2025 projections):

  • St. Louis: 69.4
  • Baltimore: 51.1
  • New Orleans: 40.6
  • Detroit: 39.7
  • Chicago: 24.0  

Baltimore, for all its recent progress, still recorded 201 homicides in 2024, down from previous years—but still a staggering number. New Orleans’s homicide rate remains among the highest in the nation. Chicago is far from out of crisis, despite recent reductions: in 2024, there were 581 homicides (21.4 per 100,000), down from 805 in 2021, but these numbers still represent hundreds of grieving families.

Just as with Section 8 housing or welfare dependency, crime policy in Black cities too often manages failure instead of solving it. More programs, more slogans, more marches—all while criminals operate unchecked. Residents are told to “be patient” while leaders blame outside forces. But patience provides no comfort to the grandmother who lost her grandson to crossfire. No comfort to the mother whose teenager was gunned down walking home.

The truth isn’t complicated. Law enforcement presence needs to be restored. Too many city police departments are short-staffed, and officers are spread thin, working excessive overtime. Communities require enough officers on the ground—well-trained, well-supported, and fully staffed—to prevent crime and respond quickly. Accountability is also important. Leaders must answer for results, not just words. If crime increases under their watch, they must step down.

And let me share this from personal experience. As someone who has lobbied in many city, county, and state positions in New York for law enforcement leadership candidates, it has become painfully clear that too many decision-makers do not want someone who will change the culture. They do not want someone who will work with communities, hold officers accountable for training and performance, and actually reduce crime. What they prefer instead is leadership that manages the problem, not fixes it. Or worse—political appointees with no experience at all, chosen because they fit an ethnic profile or because they’re connected to an organization that can deliver political brownie points come election time. That is not public safety leadership. That is politics. And people die while politicians play these games.

If leaders cannot protect their people from being shot, then what exactly are they protecting? Democracy is meaningless if the people themselves are not safe. Livable wages mean little if workers can’t get home alive. We are told that rejecting federal troops is about defending Chicago’s humanity. But humanity is already under attack—not from Washington, but from the shooters terrorizing Black neighborhoods night after night.

The crisis in Chicago is not isolated. It reflects failures across the nation in Black-led cities. Until leaders are judged not by the color of their skin or the passion of their speeches, but by the safety and prosperity of their communities, nothing will change. Black America deserves better than endless injustice, vigils, and empty slogans. We need leaders who prioritize outcomes over ideology, results over rhetoric, and safety over political theater. Until then, the cycle will persist: more speeches, more funerals, and more promises left unfulfilled.

Black elected officials can’t cry racism from the White House when crime and violence have existed in their communities long before Trump was president. It shouldn’t take the President to point this out. But it was never a secret—the funeral homes testify to the dysfunction. Instead of facing it and making changes, it’s always been easier to blame the white man, racism, or a Republican. But now the emperor has no clothes, and they’re all naked, trying to defend high crime in their districts.

References

  • Chicago Labor Day shootings (2024–2025):
    “Chicago shootings: At least 53 shot, 7 killed over Labor Day weekend.” ABC 7 Chicago, September 2025.
    Link
  • Chicago homicides:
    “Crime in Chicago.” Wikipedia, updated 2025. Data from Chicago Police Department and city records.
    Link
  • Baltimore homicides:
    “Crime in Baltimore.” Wikipedia, updated 2025. Data from Baltimore Police Department and city records.
    Link
  • National homicide rate comparisons (per 100,000 residents):
    “The good news about murder.” Washington Post, July 31, 2025 (citing FBI Uniform Crime Reports and city-level data).
    Link
  • Most dangerous cities list (including New Orleans, St. Louis, Detroit):
    “Most Dangerous Cities in America.” Security.org, 2024. Based on FBI and CDC data.
    Link
  • African American Mayors Association – Public Safety Committee description:
    African American Mayors Association, “Public Safety and Police Accountability Committee.”
    AAMA Website

OP-ED: Highlighting the Important Work of Mayor Patterson-Howard By: Dennis Richmond, Jr., M.S.Ed.

Dennis Richmond Jr
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OP-ED: Highlighting the Important Work of Mayor Patterson-Howard By: Dennis Richmond, Jr., M.S.Ed.

Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard is the Mayor of Mount Vernon, NY. She’s a woman who cares about helping others, doing what’s right, and always showing up for those in need. Despite many media outlets trying to muddy the waters with false narratives about her, it’s important that we look at many of the things that she’s done throughout her political career and stick to the facts. Here are just a small few.

From the beginning of her tenure, Mayor Patterson-Howard made public safety and accountability central priorities. In 2020, she launched the Mount Vernon Police Reform Commission, bringing together community voices to ensure fairer and more transparent policing. This was not just symbolic—it was the start of long-overdue change in how Mount Vernon approaches law enforcement. In fact, after the Department of Justice found unconstitutional strip-search practices within the Police Department, the Mayor stood firm, removed problematic staff, and committed to real reform.

Infrastructure is another area where she has delivered. For decades, Mount Vernon residents suffered with broken sewer lines and outdated systems. Mayor Patterson-Howard secured $6 million in state funding for immediate upgrades and helped bring a historic $150 million state investment to overhaul the city’s water and sewer infrastructure. These wins protect public health and will improve the quality of life for generations to come.

She has also fought for recreation and community spaces. In 2022, she and Westchester County Executive George Latimer proudly reopened the Memorial Field complex. Once a symbol of neglect, the new 3,900-seat stadium now boasts tennis courts, a skate park, and a state-of-the-art track. On top of that, she helped secure more than $3.1 million in state grants—funding that will not only renovate the Doles Recreation Center but also provide lifesaving equipment for the city’s Fire and Police Departments.

Safety is always at the forefront of her leadership. Mayor Patterson-Howard introduced a business camera program and distributed hundreds of free security cameras to residents, empowering the community to take part in protecting neighborhoods. These initiatives have worked hand-in-hand with law enforcement, contributing to a 14 percent decrease in violent crime and the removal of more than 100 illegal guns from our streets.

But Mayor Patterson-Howard’s impact is not only in policies and programs—it’s in her vision. From the beginning, she laid out a comprehensive plan for Mount Vernon that included better roads, stronger mental health and homelessness services, and a Civilian Police Review Board. Every year since, she has returned to that vision, checking off promises one by one.

The truth is clear: Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard is not just managing Mount Vernon—she is transforming it. Her work has brought in millions of dollars, rebuilt cherished community spaces, reduced crime, and restored a sense of accountability in local government. Leadership like this deserves recognition, not criticism.

Mount Vernon is stronger today because of Mayor Patterson-Howard’s tireless efforts. That’s tea, and it’s worth spilling.

Yonkers Native Dennis Richmond, Jr. Continues To Teach Our Young Scholars

AJ Woodson
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Yonkers Native Dennis Richmond, Jr. Continues To Teach Our Young Scholars

30-year-old Yonkers native, historian, advocate for education, and author of He Spoke At My School, Dennis Richmond, Jr., M.S.Ed., commenced instructing scholars in Mount Vernon for the upcoming academic year. Mr. Richmond is in his third year of teaching at Mount Vernon, where his love of history, literature, and writing continues to motivate students. He starts the 2025-2026 school year as the new Middle School English Teacher at Amani Public Charter School.

“I love teaching,” Richmond shared with Black Westchester. “In my opinion, it’s the best career in the world.”

Richmond has taken great delight in three main areas throughout his career: his ability to relate to academics, his enthusiasm for his work, and his close ties to his family. In addition to the students he personally instructs, he feels that the scholars he has the biggest influence on are those whose families he interacts with outside of the classroom.

“When I say family, it doesn’t have to be two parents—and it doesn’t have to be parents at all,” Richmond explained. “Family might be a grandfather, an aunt, or an older sibling. When a teacher connects with someone who is important to a child, it makes for a stronger learning experience. It truly does take a village to raise a child.”

Born February 11, 1995, Richmond has a long history with the kids of Mount Vernon. He assisted in guiding kids through the college application process in his early 20s while working with the Mount Vernon Youth Bureau’s S.T.R.O.N.G. program. He is the Founder of The New York-New Jersey HBCU Initiative and has been recognized for his contributions to education and his commitment to empowering young minds. He specifically encouraged pupils to apply to HBCUs. He earned the tagline “beating the drum for HBCUs” from Patricia H. Koger, a professor at Claflin University, for his support of HBCUs.

Today, Richmond’s presence in the classroom carries added weight. According to the National Teacher and Principal Survey (2020-2021), Black men accounted for 1.3% of all public school teachers. This percentage represents a significant decline from previous years, such as the 2017–2018 school year, when Black men made up 6.5% of teachers.

While Black men make up less than 2% of teachers, they represent a larger portion of the U.S. population and student body, indicating an imbalance in the teaching force. Diverse teachers are important for students of color, especially Black boys, who may benefit from educators who understand and can relate to their experiences, according to the National Education Association (NEA). 

Research shows that American students are far more diverse than their teachers. While public school enrollment is nearing a majority-minority status, the teaching workforce remains predominantly white. For Richmond, that data reinforces the importance of representation.

“Scholars need to see brothers in front of them teaching,” Richmond tells Black Westchester. “Especially in New York.”

Richmond is still dedicated to the classroom, even if he currently has no aspirations to enter the administrative field as an assistant principal, dean, or principal. He views teaching as a career rather than just a job.

Uncle Nearest Teaches a Black Business Lesson

DAMON K JONES
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Uncle Nearest Teaches a Black Business Lesson

When Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey burst onto the scene, it was more than just another brand. It was a victory for culture, for history, and for business. Built on the legacy of Nathan “Nearest” Green, the man who taught Jack Daniel how to distill whiskey, the company quickly became one of the most awarded in America, drawing worldwide attention. It showed us that Black excellence could not only enter the marketplace but dominate it. Yet today, the brand is making headlines for a different reason. A federal lawsuit accuses Uncle Nearest of defaulting on more than $100 million in loans, and a judge has placed it under receivership, stripping the founders of control.

The lesson for Black America is clear. We are fighting for more Black businesses, but if we do not have the right mindset, our victories will be short-lived. Growth must always be matched with financial discipline. Scaling too fast on debt may bring headlines and rapid expansion, but it leaves ownership at the mercy of lenders who can swoop in and take control when the numbers fall short. Black entrepreneurs must strike a balance between ambition and the discipline required to grow sustainably.

Transparency is another critical lesson. Allegations of missing business reports and misrepresented collateral—whether true or not—were enough to damage credibility. For a Black-owned business that carries cultural weight, even the perception of mismanagement can undo years of progress. We must understand that transparency in reporting, finances, and governance is not optional; it is a shield that protects both brand and legacy.

Another truth this story reveals is that the mission must be protected separately from the business. Uncle Nearest was not only about whiskey; it was about restoring a stolen history and giving descendants of Nearest Green their rightful recognition. Yet because the business and mission were tied so closely together, when the company stumbled, the foundation and legacy were put at risk. Black businesses must structure their ventures to ensure that community promises and cultural missions are safeguarded, even in the face of turbulence.

And perhaps the hardest lesson of all is about control. The founders of Uncle Nearest built a globally respected company, but the courts now decide its future. That is the cost of contracts that give lenders leverage to remove owners. Black entrepreneurs must learn to fiercely guard ownership, reading every line of every deal, negotiating terms that protect autonomy, and refusing to hand over the keys to the very businesses we fight so hard to build.

Community support remains powerful, as seen in the “Clear the Shelves” campaign, where loyal customers rallied behind the brand. But love and loyalty cannot override legal agreements. Community support must be paired with robust business systems, effective governance, and foresight, so that it serves as reinforcement rather than a last line of defense.

The story of Uncle Nearest demonstrates that we can craft world-class brands that are rooted in our culture and history. But it also warns that ownership without discipline is fragile, and a mission without protection is vulnerable. If we truly want to build lasting Black businesses, we must move from symbolism to systems, from ambition to accountability, and from short-term pride to long-term sustainability. The dream is not just to launch Black businesses—it is to keep them in Black hands for generations to come.

Institutions vs. Illusions: Trump’s Order, New York’s Mental Health Failure, and the Cost to Black Communities

DAMON K JONES
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Institutions vs. Illusions: Trump’s Order, New York’s Mental Health Failure, and the Cost to Black Communities

Compassion without results is not compassion. It is waste. And nowhere is that waste clearer than in New York’s mental health system.

For decades, New York politicians congratulated themselves for closing psychiatric hospitals and cutting inpatient beds. They called it progress. In reality, it was abandonment. Since 2000, more than two thousand psychiatric beds have been eliminated across the state. During COVID, New York City shut down nearly a fifth of its psychiatric beds and never brought them back. Entire counties—twenty in all, covering almost a million residents—now have no psychiatric beds at all. Families in crisis sit in emergency rooms for hours, hoping for care that often doesn’t exist.

What has been built in place of institutions is not a system of care but a system of recycling. The mentally ill are shuttled from shelters to case managers to emergency rooms, only to land back on the streets again. Our New York correctional facilities have become the state’s largest psychiatric institutions, with roughly forty percent of inmates suffering from mental illness. For Black and Latino New Yorkers, who make up the majority of the incarcerated population, this is not an accident of geography but a predictable outcome of bad policy. When hospitals closed, police became the default first responders. In Black neighborhoods, that meant a mental health crisis was more likely to be treated as a crime than as an illness.

As a Correction Officer for Westchester County, I have witnessed this failure firsthand. The number of young Black men and women entering our facilities on heavy medications for mental illness has increased year after year. It has gone beyond housing them in special mental health units; now it is common in the general population. Prisons and jails were never designed to be hospitals, but they have become the front line of New York’s mental health system. Instead of treatment before a crisis, the state waits until someone is locked up to medicate and manage them. This is not care. This is containment.

This is also why I had a problem with New York’s bail reform. Politicians claimed it was about fairness, but they overlooked the ecosystem they had already built. Many of the homeless and mentally ill who cycled through jails did so because it was the only place they could reliably access medication, treatment, and even a warm bed in the winter. Some committed minor crimes deliberately—trespassing, petty theft—not out of malice, but as a means of survival. Jail was their only doorway to health care and structure. Bail reform took that away without fixing the broken system that made jail their last option. Once again, it was the poor and mentally ill—disproportionately Black men and women—who paid the price.

The Criminalization of Mental Illness in Black Communities

The numbers make it plain. In New York City, nearly 30 percent of jail discharges are flagged with significant mental health needs, a share that has only grown in recent years. Among those flagged, Black and Hispanic individuals make up more than 80 percent, mirroring their disproportionate representation behind bars. Statewide, Black New Yorkers account for about 40 percent of all convictions despite being only 14 percent of the population. Even at the street level, Black residents are issued criminal summonses at more than eleven times the rate of whites.

These are not abstract disparities. They show how untreated mental illness and broken policies combine to criminalize entire communities. In Black neighborhoods, the lack of hospital beds and preventive care means more encounters with police, more arrests for survival-based crimes, and more families torn apart. Mental illness that should be treated in hospitals is punished in courtrooms. And the cycle continues.

The irony is bitter. In New York, the only law enforcement officers mandated to receive training in mental health monitoring, crisis intervention, and de-escalation are correction officers—men and women who encounter the mentally ill only after the handcuffs are on. On the streets, where these crises begin, the officers are rarely trained. The state does not intervene until a young Black man has been processed into the system. That is not a mental health system. That is a pipeline.

President Trump’s recent executive order on homelessness and mental illness takes a sledgehammer to this failed model. It restores civil commitment authority to address individuals who are unable to care for themselves. It directs resources to institutional treatment and step-down facilities instead of funneling billions to nonprofits that “manage” the problem without solving it. It makes housing assistance contingent on actual treatment and ties federal grants to enforcing laws against open drug use, squatting, and encampments. In short, it insists on outcomes.

Not surprisingly, the pushback has been loud. Governor Hochul promises a billion-dollar reinvestment in community programs, although decades of budget cuts make such promises appear like patchwork. Nonprofit executives cry cruelty because their budgets depend on a status quo of Housing First and harm reduction. Attorney General Letitia James pressures hospitals into restoring psychiatric beds, but resists the idea of federal enforcement. Everyone wants to look compassionate, but no one wants to measure results.

And the results are undeniable. Black neighborhoods carry the heaviest burden. Fathers and sons with untreated psychosis end up in jail instead of hospitals. Mothers wait in overcrowded emergency rooms with no beds available. Children grow up in communities destabilized by untreated illness, drug addiction, and the violence that follows. Nonprofits get their contracts renewed. Politicians get their donor checks. And the problem remains.

Critics call Trump’s approach harsh. But what is harsher: leaving a schizophrenic to freeze on a Harlem sidewalk, or giving him a bed in an institution? What is harsher: treating our New York correctional facilities as hospitals for young Black men, or funding real treatment centers? The cruelty is not in Trump’s order. The cruelty is in New York’s neglect.

Like or dislike Trump, if people put aside their emotions, they will see his policy for what it is: effective. If Trump is wrong, then why haven’t we fixed it?

References for Readers

  1. Trump’s Executive Order on Homelessness and Mental Illness (July 24, 2025) – Full text published by the White House.
  2. Office of the New York State Comptroller – Percentage of New Yorkers with Mental Illness Rose as Available Psychiatric Beds Declined (March 2024).
    Link
  3. New York State Nurses Association – Decrease in Psychiatric Beds Spells Disaster (2018).
    Link
  4. Data Collaborative for Justice (John Jay College) – Disparities Report: Mental Health and Jail Discharges in NYC (2023).
    Link
  5. NYCLU – Racial Disparities Across New York Are Truly Jarring (2023).
    Link
  6. ABC7 New York – Mental Health Crisis in NYC: Fewer Beds, More Patients (2023).
    Link
  7. The Washington Post – In the NYC subway: Rising assault, mental illness and a nurse who decides when to intervene (2025).
    Link
  8. The Atlantic – American Prisons Can’t Handle the Mentally Ill (2018).
    Link
  9. Wikipedia (overview with references) – Mentally Ill People in United States Jails and Prisons.
    Link

Why Marching on Wall Street Misses the Mark in Black Economics

DAMON K JONES
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Why Marching on Wall Street Misses the Mark in Black Economics

The National Action Network’s call for a March on Wall Street, led by Rev. Al Sharpton, is rooted in a tradition of protest that has long defined our struggle for justice. And let me be clear: I have the utmost respect for Rev. Sharpton and NAN. They have stood on the front lines of civil rights battles when many others remained silent. But as we enter a new era, we must be honest with ourselves — marching on Wall Street misses the mark. Our challenge today is not simply external oppression, but internal responsibility.

Rev. Sharpton is right to remind America of the painful truth — that Wall Street’s foundation is tied to slavery, and that Black bodies were once literally traded as commodities. That history cannot be denied. But history also teaches us direction. If our ancestors were sold on Wall Street, our response should not only be to march there, but to master what happens there today.

We went from being sold as slaves to becoming the country’s biggest consumers — slaves to an economy we don’t own. That’s not Wall Street’s fault; that’s a reflection of our lack of understanding of economics and what we have taught our children about ownership. We can’t afford to ignore the truth: if we only consume but never invest, we remain dependent.

We cannot stop at symbolism. Wall Street doesn’t write laws — politicians do. Wall Street doesn’t control our spending — we do. Black America commands $1.7 trillion in buying power. Yet, while White families own stocks at a rate of 66%, only 39% of Black families do. We march on Wall Street, but too few of us are shareholders in the very companies we protest. That contradiction matters.

The problem is not only oppression from the outside; it is also a lack of stewardship on the inside. We spend billions on fashion, fast food, and beauty, yet we own only 3% of the businesses in places like Westchester County. That’s not Wall Street’s fault. That’s a mindset we must confront. If we organized investment clubs in every church and redirected even a fraction of our consumer dollars into Black-owned institutions, we would not just march in front of Wall Street — we would sit at the table inside it.

This is why the politics of candidates like Zohran Mamdani are dangerous. His platform represents everything Black America and Black economics don’t need: more dependency, more redistribution, and more empty promises of government programs instead of ownership and self-determination. Mamdani has advocated for rent freezes, government-run grocery stores, and substantial corporate taxation — policies that may seem appealing in the short term but ultimately undermine incentives for entrepreneurship and private ownership. Black America does not need more political experiments that trap us in dependency; we need policies that encourage business creation, property ownership, and economic independence. His vision reduces us to permanent clients of the state rather than empowered stakeholders in the economy.

It would be far more productive to teach investment than to simply call Wall Street racist. Racism exists, no doubt, but labeling Wall Street as the enemy doesn’t change the fact that markets respond to knowledge, capital, and discipline. If only 39% of Black families own stocks compared to 66% of White families, the real issue is access, education, and mindset. Teaching people how to use Wall Street — instead of marching against it — is how we close that gap. If every church, fraternity, and community group ran investment workshops, if parents taught their children the basics of saving and compounding, we’d transform $1.7 trillion in consumer spending into a foundation of ownership. That’s not waiting on someone else to change the rules; that’s us learning how to play the game and win.

Our pastors and community leaders must guide us into new territory — financial literacy, cooperative investment, and business development. Imagine if a pastor encouraged a young Black couple in their early 30s to invest modestly each month. By retirement, they could have built hundreds of thousands — even millions — in wealth, creating a lasting legacy. That kind of teaching, rooted in faith and action, is what our communities need more than symbolic marches.

And we cannot forget the spiritual truth: the Bible never blamed the rulers of the earth for poverty — it confronted the people for their lack of faith, wisdom, and discipline. From Genesis to Proverbs, Scripture consistently shows that poor stewardship, laziness, and short-sightedness lead to lack. “The borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7), yet we normalize debt instead of practicing sacrifice. The parable of the talents makes it clear — God rewards those who multiply what they are given and condemns the one who wastes it (Matthew 25:14–30). “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6), and James reminds us, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). With Black America spending $1.7 trillion as consumers while owning so little, we are not just wasting resources — we are being judged by God for poor stewardship.

Protesting Wall Street may create headlines, but it will not fix our deeper issue. True power comes from collective responsibility — choosing to circulate our dollars in Black businesses, teaching our children how to invest, and building institutions that outlast us. If we continue to confuse spending power with economic power, we will remain consumers in someone else’s economy. It is time to honor the fight NAN represents by moving to the next level — from marching for recognition to building for ownership. Our path forward must be rooted in stewardship, investment, and collective responsibility. That is how we move from symbolic protest to lasting economic freedom.

Get Emotional Politics — Logical Failure is the book you need.

In this bold and unfiltered work, Damon K. Jones delivers the hard truths many are afraid to say out loud: Black America has been loyal to a system that has failed to deliver. We’ve mastered symbolism but forfeited strategy. We show up to vote, but not to fund. We speak out, but rarely build. And the result? Speeches instead of solutions. Visibility instead of victory.

This book is not about left or right. It’s about logic over emotion. Power over performance. It’s a call to wake up, re-strategize, and use our political currency with purpose.

If you’re tired of being used, overlooked, and sold out—this book is your blueprint for change. Your voice is powerful. Your vote is valuable. But your money, your mindset, and your political clarity are what will make the difference.

Read the book. Share the message. Challenge the tradition. And let’s finally start getting what we pay for.

New York’s Cruel Secret: Property Taxes Are Foreclosing on Your Home

DAMON K JONES
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New York’s Cruel Secret: Property Taxes Are Foreclosing on Your Home

Even after the mortgage is gone, families and seniors lose houses they worked a lifetime to pay for — all because the state won’t stop taxing them into oblivion.

There was a time when paying off your mortgage meant freedom. A family would work, sacrifice, save, and when the final payment was made, they could breathe easy. The home was theirs. But in New York today, that promise is a myth. Even if you pay off your mortgage, you never truly own your home. Property taxes ensure the government always has the final claim. Miss a payment, and the state can seize the very house you thought you had earned.

Westchester: The Nation’s Highest Burden

Across Westchester County, property taxes are not just high — they are the highest in the nation. The median annual bill tops $13,800, crushing families year after year. Zillow shows dozens of foreclosure listings in Yonkers, New Rochelle, and other towns. In Tarrytown, unpaid property taxes were recently sold at a lien auction. In Yonkers, delinquent balances can spiral under 12% interest rates, turning small debts into financial quicksand. Families who thought they had secured the American Dream now find themselves one tax bill away from losing everything.

The Moral Failure of Property Taxes

So what is the point of paying off your house if the government can still take it away? Property taxes turn owners into tenants. Seniors are hit hardest. After decades of labor and sacrifice, they retire expecting security. Their mortgages are gone, but the tax bill never ends. On a fixed pension or Social Security check, an annual tax of $10,000–$14,000 is impossible to maintain. Many lose homes they worked a lifetime to pay off — not to banks, but to the government.

And the burden falls even heavier on Black families in New York. For generations, Black homeowners were locked out of fair housing markets and forced to buy in neighborhoods where property values grew slower and taxes stayed high. Today, even when they manage to buy and pay off a home, they face the same punishment: never-ending tax bills that strip away equity and generational wealth. What should be an inheritance for children and grandchildren is too often sold at a tax lien auction.

Generational wealth vanishes. Family stability collapses. Communities hollow out. Defenders of the system talk about “revenue” and “services,” but they ignore the injustice. The same government that fails to control its spending punishes the very people who built the community with endless bills. Property taxes do not measure fairness; they measure the government’s appetite.

Florida vs. New York: A Tale of Two States

The defenders of property taxes insist they are necessary for government to function. But Florida proves otherwise. Florida now has 23.4 million residents — far more than New York’s 19.9 million — yet it manages to balance its budget every year without a state property tax and without a state income tax. Florida’s average effective property tax rate is 0.91%. New York’s statewide average is nearly double at 1.72%, and in places like Mount Vernon it reaches 3.2% or more.

Florida funds its schools, healthcare, and law enforcement with a mix of sales tax, tourism revenue, and fees, all while protecting homeowners through the Homestead Exemption, which caps annual assessment increases and shields seniors from being taxed out of their homes. Meanwhile, New York, despite sky-high property and income taxes, faces a looming $34.3 billion budget shortfall through 2029 — the largest since the 2008 financial crisis.

If Florida can sustain more people with lower taxes and balanced books, then New York’s problem is not a lack of revenue — it is reckless spending and bad policy.

The Case for Abolition

Eliminating property taxes would restore the meaning of homeownership. It would allow families to say with confidence: “This house is mine.” It would protect seniors from being taxed out of their homes. It would preserve generational wealth instead of feeding it into a bottomless government account. And it would make New York competitive again by stopping the exodus of families and businesses.

Skeptics will ask: how will the state fund schools and services? The answer is not to tax people out of their homes but to restructure. Shift school funding to statewide revenue models based on income or consumption. Close loopholes that favor developers and corporations while squeezing working families. Cut waste in bloated budgets. What cannot continue is the practice of treating homeowners as permanent renters of their own property.

Mount Vernon: The Local Proof

And if you think this problem belongs only to wealthy suburbs, look closer. In Mount Vernon, the median home is valued at about $472,600, yet the average property tax bill is $13,766 a year — more than $11,000 higher than the national median. The effective tax rate here, 3.21%, far exceeds both the state and national average. For working families and seniors on fixed incomes, that’s devastating. Even modest homes come with bills that feel like a second mortgage.

Mount Vernon proves the point: this isn’t just unfair, it’s unsustainable. No matter how much you sacrifice, as long as property taxes exist, you never truly own your home. That is not freedom. That is feudalism with modern paperwork.

Because if paying off your house doesn’t mean security, then what’s the point of paying it off at all?

When Government Breaks Its Own Rules, Taxpayers Pay the Price

DAMON K JONES
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When Government Breaks Its Own Rules, Taxpayers Pay the Price

In Mount Vernon, one homeowner’s fight against an eight-story building constructed just inches from her family’s house is more than a personal dispute. It is a case study in how government shouldn’t work for the people—and yet, it is the government people keep voting for.

The zoning board and planning board limited this project to a single lot. Those limits were clear and public. Yet just two months later, the Building Department issued a permit expanding the project to cover additional lots—without authorization. That was not a clerical error; it was government overriding its own rules. And when rules are bent for some, they are broken for all.

If this sounds familiar, it should. Dysfunction in Mount Vernon is not new—it is history repeating itself. The city has seen mayoral convictions, council–mayor gridlock, budgets left unsigned, and even garbage piling up on the streets when political fights paralyzed basic services. For decades, City Hall has operated as though accountability is optional. The result is predictable: when accountability is optional, abuse of power becomes inevitable.

The silence we see today is part of that pattern. Citizens complain on Facebook. Neighbors trade stories of frustration. But inside City Hall, little changes. Why? Because outrage on social media is not a substitute for civic engagement, and “liking” a complaint online is not the same as holding officials accountable at the ballot box. Thomas Sowell often reminded us that when the costs of decisions are not borne by those who make them, dysfunction thrives. Mount Vernon has been living proof of that truth for decades.

That is why I hope Dina Perriello follows through. She still has options—even if late in the game. She can file an Article 78 petition in state court to challenge the permit as unlawful, pursue a civil lawsuit for nuisance, trespass, or damages to her property value, seek federal relief under 42 U.S.C. §1983 if her due process rights were violated, or request a state investigation into how permits were issued beyond the scope of board approvals.

These are not easy steps. They take persistence, resources, and often years of litigation. But history tells us one thing: without citizens who press the law, bureaucracies do not correct themselves.

Mount Vernon’s Financial Trap: No Bond Rating + Self-Insured

Here is where the problem becomes bigger than one family’s yard. Mount Vernon no longer has a bond rating. A bond rating is a city’s credit score, the measure that allows municipalities to borrow money at affordable rates when emergencies arise. Because of years of missed audits, financial mismanagement, and political dysfunction, Mount Vernon has no credit. If the city tries to borrow, lenders either refuse or demand sky-high interest. In practical terms, Mount Vernon cannot borrow its way out of trouble.

At the same time, Mount Vernon is essentially self-insured. Most cities carry liability insurance: if they are sued and lose, the insurance company covers the cost. Mount Vernon doesn’t have that option. Because of its poor finances, every lawsuit settlement or judgment must be paid directly from the city’s operating budget — the same pool that funds police, sanitation, schools, and parks.

When you combine no credit with no insurance, the picture is dire. Every lawsuit drains the city’s core services or forces tax increases on already overburdened residents. There is no cushion, no safety net, no insurance pool to spread the risk. The city is one paycheck away from broke, and every court loss is another step toward collapse.

What Happens If Perriello Wins

If Ms. Perriello pursues her case in court and prevails, the cost will not be borne by the mayor, the building department, or the developer who benefited from the city’s broken process. It will be borne by the taxpayers. Mount Vernon can respond only in three ways: cut services, raise taxes, or plead for a bailout from Albany. Whichever path it takes, the people who suffer are ordinary residents.

This is how government should not work. But it is also the government voters themselves have tolerated. When citizens settle for personality politics, patronage networks, and last-minute Facebook rants instead of demanding competent leadership, they should not be surprised when the city goes silent in the face of injustice.

The lesson is not simply about one building project gone wrong. It is about decades of tolerance for mismanagement, corruption, and weak leadership. Until the people of Mount Vernon decide that silence is no longer acceptable—that complaints online must translate into consequences at the polls—the same cycle will continue.

If you want better government, start by voting for better people.

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