Miami 2014 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)

The news from New York keeps getting worse:

The gunman who fatally ambushed two police officers in their squad car had a long criminal record, a hatred for police and the government, and an apparent history of mental instability that included an attempt to hang himself a year ago, authorities said.

Moments before opening fire, Ismaaiyl Brinsley approached people on the street in Brooklyn, He also asked if they had any gang affiliation and asked them to follow him on Instagram, then told them, “Watch what I’m going to do,” Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said.

Brinsley reminds me of Jared Lee Loughner, another deeply disturbed individual who used politics (or perhaps in Brinsley’s case, religion) as an excuse to act out his murderous fantasies. The important difference between these two men isn’t in their actions or their supposed politics or in the color of their skin — but in the political climates of their home states.

What happened in Arizona in 2011 led to a brief and failed attempt by the Left to try and pin Loughner down as a typical right winger. Life in Arizona returned quickly to normal. New York City won’t be so lucky, because Brinsley’s grisly double murder is bringing that city’s political and cultural divisions into sharp relief. Jazz Shaw explains:

I’m not going to beat around the bush here. It is time for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to resign. Yesterday’s assassination of two of New York City’s finest was only the latest and most devastating brush stroke on a canvas which has been coming into focus for months. When you are the mayor of a city you have many responsibilities, but one of the most vital (in terms of maintaining a functional societal structure) is the mandate to enforce the laws and maintain social order. It is the same for mayors everywhere, as well as governors and presidents. But currently, the state of relations between City Hall and the New York Police Department has devolved to the point of complete dysfunction, and criminals are well aware of this state of affairs. The fault for the creation of this toxic atmosphere is essentially found solely at the feet of Mayor de Blasio.

So caustic is the current state of relations between the Mayor’s office and the police that a shocking and dismaying scene took place in the wake of the horrific assassinations. When de Blasio arrived at the hospital yesterday, the uniformed officers literally turned their backs to him as he walked by. And this was at a moment when, in more normal times, they should have been rallying to the leadership of the executive.

Brinsley was a madman who acted alone, but the aftermath is the bitter fruit of the Left’s divide-and-conquer politics. Now I hope I’m wrong about this, but my friend Jazz is nuts if he thinks for one minute that de Blasio will do the right thing and give up power — and Jazz isn’t nuts.

New York City is getting the government it asked for, but I’ll never believe this is the government anyone deserves.