On Friday morning, crowds gathered outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City to pay their last respects to NYPD officer Jason Rivera.

It was only last Friday night that the 22-year-old, newlywed Rivera and his partner Wilbert Mora, 27, entered a Harlem apartment building in response to a call of a domestic disturbance by a mother in conflict with her adult son. When Rivera and Mora arrived at the scene, they were confronted by 47-year-old career felon LaShawn McNeil, who seemed to have been spoiling for a fight. Rivera died at the scene. Mora survived on life-support until Tuesday. His funeral Mass will be held at St. Patrick’s next week. McNeil was confronted by another officer arriving at the scene and fatally wounded. See One NYPD Officer Killed, Another Fighting for His Life.

Given the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams is a retired police captain; we had the right to expect just a bit of anger from him over a system that works 24-7 to protect criminals and turns police officers into targets. Fortunately, most of us had much lower expectations from Adams. Unfortunately, we were not disappointed; see If You Thought NYC Mayor Eric Adams Would Offer Anything Other Than Excuses for Gun Violence, You Need Your Head Examined.

He immediately fell back on the leftwing tropes of blaming inanimate objects, that would be guns, for the event and demanding that the feds DO SOMETHING to remove illegal firearms from New York City. In other words, it was the same evasion of responsibility and shifting of blame that Bill de Blasio made his hallmark.

As Rivera’s young wife was preparing to lay her husband to rest, another drama was playing out in a Brooklyn courtroom.

A 16-year-old, up-and-coming rapper charged with shooting an NYPD cop in the Bronx walked free on bond Thursday — and cops are fuming over it.

Camrin Williams, who is also known by the rap name C Blu, posted his $250,000 bond after being locked up at a Brooklyn juvenile facility on gun and assault charges in the shooting of a 27-year-old cop in Belmont.

“C Blu” was already on probation for one weapons violation from 2020. During this incident, he fought with a cop and shot him, not fatally, with yet another illegal weapon. But never fear:

Williams reportedly planned to use an advance on his contract with Interscope Records to post the $15,000 in cash needed to secure the bond.

To summarize the story, we have a kid who has been arrested twice with illegal handguns and shot a cop, and he’s free on bond.

Unfortunately, the “C Blu” story is not a unique event. Springing felons who go on to re-offend seems to be a hobby, if not an obsession, of the judge, in this case, a guy named Denis Boyle. I’ll be quoting liberally from a November 2021 NY Post story titled Judge Denis Boyle’s leniency may have cost New Yorkers’ lives.

The most recent proof: the arrest last week of 17-year-old Darryl Burnett with a loaded .38-calibre handgun. He was free to terrorize New Yorkers because Boyle rolled back his bail last summer after the teen was nabbed for attempted murder. Boyle cut the bail from $100,000 cash or a $200,000 bond to just $50,000 cash or bond.

Now cops say Burnett got caught with a loaded gun. That arrest might’ve saved lives — but if not for Boyle, he might not have been out on the streets in the first place.

…In May, he sprung reputed gang member Steven Mendez, granting him probation for participating in an armed robbery and shooting last year; prosecutors had asked for up to four years in prison. Mendez is now accused of killing college student Saikou Koma, 21, last month.

…

In June, Boyle shaved bail — from $75,000 to just $10,000 — for another reputed gangbanger, Alberto Ramirez, who quickly hit the streets and, cops say, killed a 34-year-old father of two

I’m sure Boyle is a nice guy who loves him some puppies and children…though not in a Lincoln Project kind of way. But to look at what he’s doing with violent felons as anything but being an accomplice in their crimes is just wrong.

I’m sure Boyle is not alone. I would bet good money that if one went looking, one would find dozens, at least, of judges who are much more interested in playing “white savior” to the underclasses than they are in protecting law-abiding New Yorkers from armed sociopaths who have developed a taste for blood.

Mayor Adams doesn’t have a gun problem. He has a sanity problem. Nothing he does to “get guns off the street” will work if he doesn’t take steps to ensure the people caught carrying those guns do hard time. Guns don’t just “get on the street,” they require a partner, known in most big-city police forces as “a criminal,” to carry them about and use them in “crimes.” Adams may not have the political authority to remove judges like Boyle and prosecutors like Alvin Bragg. Still, he has the media profile and the political capital to name-and-shame them so they can’t happily go about their hobby without anyone noticing. To do that, Adams must ally himself with the people of New York City and not with the progressive elites who have turned a fabulous city into a Third World sh**hole. To do that will take courage and bring risks. It remains to be seen if Adams can do anything other than being a lapdog and playing the victim in a scenario where he is a significant perpetrator.