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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.

Federal Surge in D.C.: A Lesson for America’s High-Crime Cities

DAMON K JONES
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Federal Surge in D.C.: A Lesson for America’s High-Crime Cities

When President Trump authorized a federal law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C., critics wasted no time. They called it federal overreach. They warned about masked agents. They cried about home rule. What they failed to mention is that Ward leaders in D.C. had already asked for help under the Biden administration. Nothing was done.

So Trump delivered what they requested — and the results speak louder than the rhetoric.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

  • Carjackings down nearly 90%.
  • Robberies down about 60%.
  • Overall violent crime down more than 25%.
  • Gun crimes dropped sharply.

Mayor Muriel Bowser herself called these “precipitous declines,” crediting the 500 additional federal officerssupporting MPD. In neighborhoods hit hardest — particularly Black communities in Southeast — residents didn’t complain. They welcomed it. Why? Because when crime is out of control, safety matters more than politics.

The Misconception About Black Communities and Police

One of the biggest misconceptions in America is that Black people don’t want police in their neighborhoods. That is false. Black residents want police — but they want professional, competent, and respectful police.

The problem in many cities, often under Black mayors, is not that police are “unwanted.” It’s that departments are dysfunctional, understaffed, and overworked, with little meaningful outreach to the community. Residents are left with the worst of both worlds: not enough officers to keep them safe, and not enough leadership to make policing accountable and effective.

D.C.’s surge revealed the truth: when professional policing is visible and crime falls, people feel relief. The opposition came from politicians, not from the residents who have to live with daily violence.

Outcomes vs. Excuses

This is the lesson every high-crime city should pay attention to. For years, leaders in Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and St. Louis have delivered speeches about “root causes” while their residents bury loved ones. In D.C., the surge showed what happens when you stop talking and start enforcing the law: crime falls.

The excuse that enforcement “doesn’t work” collapses when you look at the numbers. Enforcement works. What fails is leadership that cares more about appearances than results.

The Politics of Hypocrisy

Let’s be honest. Under Biden, local leaders asked for federal help and got silence. Under Trump, they got action — but suddenly, action became “overreach.” That’s not logic. That’s politics. And the victims of violent crime don’t have time for political games.

When people are afraid to walk home, when carjackings make national headlines, when parents can’t let their kids play outside, they don’t care if help comes from city hall, the state, or the federal government. They care that it comes.

The Trust Factor

Of course, there are real issues to manage. Masked agents, ICE involvement, and blurred lines between local and federal police fueled mistrust. Any city considering a surge must learn from this: enforcement must be transparent, targeted, and accountable. Fear of police should never replace fear of criminals.

The Broader Lesson

What D.C. proves is this:

  • A surge can bring immediate stability.
  • Federal support can act as a force multiplier.
  • But long-term safety requires local investment in police, prosecutors, and courts.

For cities drowning in violence, the choice is clear. You can argue about jurisdiction, ideology, and appearances — or you can prioritize outcomes. D.C.’s experience shows that when the will exists, crime can be reduced. Fast.

Final Word

America’s high-crime cities should take note: results matter more than rhetoric. Black communities don’t hate police. They hate bad policing. What they want — and deserve — is safety, professionalism, and respect. If local leaders won’t deliver that, then they can expect residents to welcome whoever does.

Is Section 8 the Business of Keeping Black America Poor?

DAMON K JONES
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Is Section 8 the Business of Keeping Black America Poor?

Section 8 was never meant to be permanent. When Congress created the program in 1974, it was billed as a bridge — a way to help struggling families afford decent housing until they could get on their feet. But half a century later, that bridge has become a trap. For far too many Black families, Section 8 has not been a pathway out of poverty but a cycle that manages poverty, monetizes it, and recycles it for the benefit of developers and politicians.

Let’s be clear: this is not about older people or people with disabilities who rightfully need permanent assistance. They deserve the protection of a social safety net. What we are confronting is something very different — the generational dependency that has taken root in Black America, and the political hustle that keeps it alive. Section 8 has been transformed from a temporary bridge into a long-term strategy for managing poverty, and too many politicians, developers, and so-called leaders profit from keeping people dependent rather than empowering them to rise.

The program sounds compassionate. Families pay 30 percent of their income toward rent, and the government covers the rest. In theory, this gives the poor access to better housing and safer neighborhoods. In practice, it creates a system of dependency. Each year, families are re-certified. If their income rises, their rent share increases, and their subsidy decreases. This “benefits cliff” punishes ambition and rewards stagnation. HUD’s own numbers show that non-disabled adults often stay on vouchers six, eight, or even ten years. And children raised in these households frequently return as adults to apply for assistance themselves. The cycle repeats.

Read: The National Urban League’s The State of Black America Report Shows Why We’re Still Dependent — and Still Losing

However, the story doesn’t end with people of low income. The real winners in this system are landlords, developers, and politicians. For landlords, Section 8 means guaranteed rent checks backed by the U.S. Treasury — a steady revenue stream with no risk. Developers, meanwhile, have perfected the art of double-dipping. They pair Section 8 vouchers with the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, providing both tax benefits and guaranteed rental income. For them, poverty is the safest investment in America.

Then come the politicians. Developers who profit from subsidized housing are also major contributors to political campaigns. In return, politicians push more projects and cut more ribbons, selling the illusion that they are “fighting for the poor.” In reality, they are feeding a machine. Black neighborhoods become the sites of concentrated low-income housing, which depresses property values, weakens schools, and fuels crime. The community sinks deeper into dependency, while developers profit and politicians secure re-election.

Meanwhile, in these same cities, the schools are dysfunctional. They are not training children for the modern workforce. They have become feeder systems for the Section 8 machine — or worse, for the local jails. Why are so many generations locked in this cycle? How is it that young men smart enough to organize a million-dollar drug enterprise are never put in the mindset to run a million-dollar corporation? The answer is not ability — it is conditioning. We must be honest: this is not a war on people with low incomes. It is a war of the mind.

Read: Mount Vernon’s Future Is Being Sold—One PAC Donation at a Time

Here is the bitter irony: Black leaders complain about poverty while our communities remain the nation’s largest consumer base. We are told we have nothing, even as trillions flow out of our neighborhoods into corporate pockets that give us nothing in return. The shortage of Black-owned businesses is a hidden driver of our ongoing reliance on Section 8. With nearly $1.5 trillion in annual spending power, our communities should be employing our own people and creating jobs that lift families out of poverty. But when only 2 to 3 percent of businesses with employees are Black-owned, we lack the institutions to hire, train, and elevate our people. The result is expected: instead of working in enterprises we own, too many are stuck cycling through government programs, trapped in a state of survival rather than mobility. Until we build businesses that can absorb our labor and recycle our dollars, Section 8 will remain less a safety net and more a replacement for the economic power we have yet to develop.

Read: The Paradox of Black America: The Largest Consumer Base Without Business or Generational Wealth

That is why we must be practical and plan. For now, Pharaoh has let Black America go. Yet as the nation shifts its economic strategy, it is white disadvantaged communities in the Midwest that are not crying out, but planning to retrain, retool, and educate themselves for the workforce of tomorrow. The question is: where is Black leadership? While others seize the opportunities ahead, too many of our leaders remain stuck in the past — clinging to grievances, dependency, and symbolic victories instead of charting a path toward absolute independence.

Read: Westchester’s Wealth, Black Westchester’s Crisis: Only 3% of Businesses Are Ours

Malcolm X warned us decades ago: “If you live in a poor neighborhood, you’ll get a poor education. With a poor education, you’ll get a poorly paying job. And with a poorly paying job, you’ll be forced to live again in a poor neighborhood.” The cycle is political. And today, we see it more clearly than ever. The sin is that Black leaders in Black America do not want to change it. They would rather preserve the dependency machine than build a blueprint for independence.

We cannot afford to mistake dependency for compassion any longer. Section 8 is more than a safety net. It is a business model — one that ensures poverty is never solved, only subsidized. Until Black America demands policies that build independence rather than manage dependence, we will remain locked in a system designed not to lift us, but to keep us in place. 

Contaminated sewage could seep into Mount Vernon’s drinking water, putting the entire city in danger by Gabriel Thompson

Black Westchester
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Contaminated sewage could seep into Mount Vernon’s drinking water, putting the entire city in danger by Gabriel Thompson

I am writing to report several extremely troubling and unresolved issues regarding Mount Vernon’s compliance with its Consent Order and the ongoing discharge of sewage and contaminated stormwater into local waterways. These problems are not only administrative failures, they are directly threatening the health, safety, and welfare of my neighborhood, Hunt’s Woods.

  1. Failure of Arcadis Engineering to Provide Required Data
  • I have received multiple reports that Arcadis, the city’s consulting engineer under the Consent Order, is refusing to provide Mount Vernon with maps, GIS data, and other critical information, despite being paid handsomely with taxpayer dollars.
  • Representatives of the City of Mount Vernon have stated they may have to sue Arcadis to obtain this information, which is outrageous given their role as official compliance consultants. Their refusal is delaying urgently needed solutions.

2. Illicit Discharges and Bronxville’s Noncompliance

  • The Village of Bronxville continues to discharge fecal coliform into Mount Vernon’s Vernon Parkway Outfall (61). This discharge flows directly into the Hunt’s Woods Nature Preserve, where I and my neighbors live. Despite repeated concerns, we have not received any updated fecal coliform sampling results, data that Arcadis was obligated to collect and disclose under the Consent Order. City representatives have stated that even they cannot obtain this information from Arcadis.
  • This failure strikes at the very core of the Consent Order. Bronxville has refused to acknowledge or take responsibility for its ongoing discharge, nor has it provided any updated reporting. To make matters worse, even though this discharge was documented and filed in federal court as part of Arcadis’s own submissions, neither Arcadis nor Bronxville has addressed it.
  • In 2024, Mount Vernon issued a cease-and-desist order against Bronxville after I alerted the city to an attempt by Bronxville to connect a massive increase in discharge into Mount Vernon’s MS4 system. That order was effectively ignored, as none of its requirements were ever complied with. Shockingly, I have since learned that in January 2025, permission for this project was quietly granted on a Saturday, by a non-engineer deputy commissioner with the Mayor’s involvement, and with no proper technical or environmental review. Roughly half to two-thirds of this project is already completed, and those of us downstream will bear the inevitable flooding, contamination, and destruction caused by the permanent loss of capacity in the MS4 system we depend on.
  • Bronxville has since added numerous catch basins and new connections that now discharge into the same outfall serving both my neighborhood and the Bronxville Field Club. These flows converge just blocks from my home, compounding already dangerous flooding and contamination risks. The Bronxville Field Club’s unauthorized connection to the MS4 also remains unresolved. My understanding is that there are ongoing “back door” negotiations between the City and the Field Club, seemingly aimed at burying this issue rather than enforcing proper violations or accountability.

3. Public Health Hazard in Hunts Woods / Laurel Brook

  • Under Hunts Woods, a sanitary sewer is in a state of dereliction: broken covers, cracked lines, and cross-contamination between sewage and stormwater. This water flows out through Scout Field and into the Bronx River.
  • The area reeks of fecal matter. Pets who enter the water often become sick as any of my neighbors will attest too. No parent should let their child near this stream.
  • I have attached photos and documentation of these conditions, which amount to an open sewer in a public park.

4. Collapse of Local Oversight

  • Mount Vernon’s City Engineer is retiring in a matter of weeks, and the city has not even advertised for a replacement or assistant engineer. This leaves no technical leadership in place at a time of escalating crisis.

These issues are not isolated, they are systemically connected failures that are compounding each other. The refusal of Arcadis to provide data, Bronxville’s unlawful discharges, and Mount Vernon’s lack of engineering oversight have combined to create a full-blown environmental and public health emergency.

I am demanding a clear response as to what EPA/DEC/SDNY and our elected officials are going to do to protect residents and enforce compliance. Our community deserves immediate action, transparency, and accountability. I have included the press, River keeper, The Bronx River Alliance, as well as Pace environmental law clinic on this email along with dozens of concerned neighbors to Hunt’s Woods, left off this email are the thousands who use it as a nature preserve with their animals and for relaxation, as well as those downstream at Scout Field and the Bronx River.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Thompson

Democratic Attorneys General Cry Retaliation — But What About the Facts?

DAMON K JONES
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Democratic Attorneys General Cry Retaliation — But What About the Facts?

When it comes to politics, there is one constant: accusations of “retaliation” and “weaponization” are thrown around so often that the words lose their meaning. Now, as federal prosecutors investigate New York Attorney General Letitia James for possible civil rights violations and mortgage fraud, a chorus of Democratic attorneys general has rushed to her defense, issuing an open letter condemning the investigation as an abuse of power.

The problem is not that James’s defenders are speaking out. The problem is that their defense conveniently ignores the substance of the charges. The Department of Justice has convened a grand jury to determine whether James violated Donald Trump’s civil rights in her high-profile fraud lawsuit, and whether she misrepresented her residency on a Virginia mortgage application. These are not minor clerical disputes. They are serious charges—charges that could end the career of any ordinary lawyer, much less the state’s top prosecutor.

Instead of addressing the evidence, James’s defenders cry “retaliation.” But as Thomas Sowell often reminds us, arguments that hinge on motives or feelings distract from the core question: what actually happened? Did James break the law, yes or no?

Consider the irony. The very same political leaders who applauded James for aggressively pursuing Trump now insist she is above scrutiny. They celebrated her when she used the full weight of her office to investigate a political opponent. Now, when the weight of federal scrutiny turns toward her, they demand special treatment. This is not a principle. This is partisanship. And it undermines trust in the rule of law.

At Black Westchester, we have had forensic accountant Sam Antar, a Democrat with no love for Trump, on our show to examine these claims. Antar—the man who exposed the infamous Crazy Eddie fraud—did not deal in rhetoric. He dealt in receipts. His analysis found that the mortgage allegations against James are credible, rooted in documents that cannot be explained away by political spin. If a forensic accountant with a track record of exposing fraud sees evidence, should we really dismiss it as “retaliation”?

The larger issue here is not James herself. It is what happens when politics becomes a shield against accountability. When public officials are treated as untouchable because of their party affiliation, the public loses faith in the very institutions that claim to defend them. Sowell once wrote that “The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.” When political insiders decide that accountability applies only to their opponents, not to themselves, they have already answered that question in the worst way possible.

The rule of law is not a weapon. It is a standard. If Letitia James has broken the law, she should face consequences just like any other citizen. If she has not, then the investigation will prove that. But to reduce everything to “retaliation” is to substitute emotion for evidence, and politics for principle. The public deserves better. Justice is not about who you like or what party you belong to. Justice is about facts. And right now, the facts against Letitia James demand a serious answer—not political theater.

Baltimore’s Own Reggie Carroll Remembered After Tragic Shooting

DAMON K JONES
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Baltimore’s Own Reggie Carroll Remembered After Tragic Shooting

When it was announced that Reggie Carroll, the Baltimore-born comedian known for elevating the ordinary, had been shot and killed in Mississippi, the pain felt familiar. Once again, we mourn a man whose gift was laughter, taken too soon.

Carroll was more than just a comedy club regular. He started on Showtime at the Apollo, brought smiles to The Parkers, and toured nationwide, most recently with Katt Williams’ Heaven on Tour. At 52, Carroll was in his prime—a working-class comedian who built his career the hard way: on the road, stage by stage. He belonged to a generation of comics who turned struggle into humor and laughter into a means of survival.

A Life Cut Short

Carroll’s life was defined by perseverance, laughter, and the ability to bring light to others, even in the darkest times. His story is a testament to how talent and heart can elevate not just a career, but an entire community.

Reflecting its courtly origins, this drama presents a sophisticated Renaissance philosophy of love in rational and irrational forms. It shows the disparity in expectations for men and women. Hermia embodies this struggle by defying her father Egeus’s wishes to marry Demetrius, revealing her desire for autonomy and true love—rather than merely fulfilling her duty to society.

Conversely, men enjoy a broader range of achievements and aspirations. They are encouraged to pursue careers, adventures, and recognition. Demetrius, for instance, initially pursues Hermia out of entitlement, believing he can claim her because society expects it.

Another example is the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. Their relationship is rooted in conquest and power, reflecting a hierarchical society. Theseus, the Duke of Athens, represents authority, and his marriage to the conquered queen Hippolyta suggests marriage can be about control, not always purity.

On August 20, 2025, Carroll’s life came to an end in Southaven, Mississippi. The suspect, Tranell Marquise Williams, 38, has been arrested and charged. Police call it an “isolated incident,” but the pain will linger for years.

More Than a Headline

Too often, the news reduces lives to statistics. But Carroll was more than a victim; he was a cultural bridge. He represented Baltimore grit, Black resilience, and the healing power of laughter. To peers like Mo’Nique, who called him a “brother in comedy,” he was family. To his hometown clubs, he was the guy who gave chances before making it big himself.

When Carroll is killed, we don’t just lose a performer. We lose the next show, the next laugh, and the next lesson in a joke. That loss ripples through Baltimore, Southaven, and Black America as a whole.

A Legacy of Laughter

There’s bitter irony here. Comedians like Carroll travel city to city to offer relief from life’s pressures. Increasingly, they can’t escape the dangers in the very communities they serve. Carroll’s death reminds us of the precious and fragile nature of those voices.

Final Thought

Reggie Carroll made people laugh, but today, his absence makes us cry. His passing is more than a personal loss; it is a cultural wound. We honor Carroll not just by remembering his jokes, but by recognizing the power of his presence — a presence that will be missed every time the lights dim and the stage goes quiet.

New York Baseball Dominates: Mets Crush Phillies, Yankees Overpower Nationals

DAMON K JONES
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New York Baseball Dominates: Mets Crush Phillies, Yankees Overpower Nationals

New York, August 26, 2025 — It was a memorable night for New York baseball as both the Mets and the Yankees scored convincing wins, displaying offensive firepower and clutch pitching that lit up Citi Field and Yankee Stadium.

At Citi Field, the Mets crushed the Philadelphia Phillies 13–3, led by a relentless lineup that refused to let scoring opportunities slip away. Luis Torrens drove in five runs, including a three-run homer that opened the game. Mark Vientos added an important two-run double to ignite a fourth-inning rally, while Jeff McNeil and Tyrone Taylor contributed clutch hits. The Mets finished an impressive 11-for-19 with runners in scoring position. Although starter Kodai Senga gave up three runs in the early innings, the bullpen shut them down with five scoreless innings. The win brought the Mets within six games of the Phillies in the NL East, hinting at a possible late-season push.

Across town in the Bronx, the Yankees crushed the Washington Nationals 10–5, driven by the long ball and an impressive performance on the mound. Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and Jasson Domínguez all homered, while a five-run fifth inning sealed the game. Rookie right-hander Cam Schlittler stole the show, tossing six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts, showing the control and velocity that could make him a regular in the rotation. With the win, the Yankees boosted their standing in the American League Wild Card race, holding a slim lead as the postseason race heats up.

For one night, at least, both boroughs had reason to celebrate. The Mets and Yankees not only won big but also reminded fans why New York remains the capital of baseball power.

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