Our family’s loss deserves more than ridicule
Bronx: Re “Escaped from Correx in ’24” (Sept. 2): My family is devastated by the loss of my brother James Mossetty, who was struck and dragged for more than two miles by a taxi driver who admitted he was at the end of a 12-hour shift and did not realize what he had done. This tragedy was preventable.
James struggled with mental illness and homelessness. He once spent seven months on Rikers Island for nothing more than fare evasion — a punishment that did not heal or help him, but instead deepened his struggles. Just hours before his death, he went to a hospital for mental health care, only to be discharged at around 3 a.m., with no place to go and no support.
We reject any attempt to define him by his past. He was more than his record. He was a son, a brother, a father and a human being who deserved dignity, compassion and safety. His death is the result of systemic failures at every level: criminalizing poverty, unsafe hospital discharge practices, inadequate mental health services, and fatigued driving that our laws still do not treat as a crime.
We are calling for change. We urge lawmakers to pass Assembly Bill A6638, which would finally recognize fatigued driving as an offense and hold drivers accountable when exhaustion results in fatalities. We also call on city and state leaders to strengthen hospital discharge protections and expand housing and mental health services so that no other family endures the preventable loss we now carry.
James Mossetty’s life mattered. His story should not end in tragedy — it should drive reform. Jessica Hernandez,
Wild West Indian parade
Brooklyn: Despite a large NYPD presence, bigger than New Year’s Eve, there were six people shot and one person stabbed after the West Indian Day Parade. It is a disturbing trend, where there is violence always around the parade. It’s about time the city looked at giving this parade a permit. If the NYPD can’t control the violence, especially shootings and stabbings, then the parade should no longer be allowed. Joseph V. Comperchio
Successor to failures
Manhattan: Re “Why I am endorsing Zohran Mamdani” (op-ed, Sept. 2): Looks like Bill de Blasio, one of the most incompetent mayors our city has had to suffer, is trying to resurrect himself from deserved obscurity by endorsing Mamdani, a BdB mini-me whose policies are even more boneheaded and unrealistic than his. Defund the police and send in the social workers — sure, that’ll make residents of crime-ridden neighborhoods safer. Tax the hell out of billionaires who supply the city with half its tax revenues so they all move to Florida — brilliant! Free bus rides and frozen rent-stabilization levels — pure genius! Who cares if the city’s and MTA’s dwindling revenues hemorrhage the lifeblood of our transportation system and drive landlords to skimp on needed repairs and maintenance of low-income housing? It’s so progressive! Naturally, de Blasio wants Mamdani in City Hall so his own failed “progressive” policies are revived by a successor who’s even more clueless than he was. Ephraim Savitt
Public perception
Malverne, L.I.: To Voicer David Melvin: My letter never denied crime statistics. I said to be careful in strictly counting on them, as “figures lie and liars figure.” Statistics can be spun to the narrative wanted. The true statistic is the sentiment of the people. In other words, do they feel safe, and in NYC, we were able to do that starting with the leadership of Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Rudy Giuliani. It was furthered by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, but all that was only possible because of state leadership. This all changed under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s policies of “Raise the Age,” bail reform and very strict discovery rules, which allowed for the spike we have seen and the revolving-door justice we’re experiencing. Police do a great job and make the necessary arrests. However, it means nothing if the perpetrators can’t be prosecuted and jailed. This led to people not feeling safe! Dave Kalin
Not right for anyone
Forest Hills: Re “All Americans need the right to work” (op-ed, Sept. 1): As radio host Thom Hartmann used to say, the only thing “right to work” laws provide is the right to work for less. Alan Hirschberg
Depressing economy
Manhattan: I’m no money expert, but like most of us these days, I hear a lot of high-tone terms kicked around, most of which I don’t understand: price hikes, tariffs take tolls, inflation gauges, personal consumption expenditures index, higher interest rates. All I know is everything from pharmacy needs to grocery staples costs more. Recently, I ran out of printer paper. In an emergency, instead of running eight and a half blocks to the stationery store, I went across the street to a package-mailing business and was surprised to pay $10 for a 500-sheet ream of ordinary copy paper. Factoring in the cost of the printer and its cartridge, that means it costs two cents-plus a page to print. On the bright side, I could chalk it up to saving an hour’s travel time to and from, in and out, of the nearby office supply outlet. Somehow, that doesn’t make it any less appalling. James A. Fragale
More Orwellian
Ridgewood, N.J.: President Trump’s consideration of renaming the Defense Department the “War Department” would have more power and be more symbolizing by calling it the “Peace Department.” Ed Houlihan
How far will it go?
Hoffman Estates, Ill.: I always wondered how the people of Germany allowed a man so intrinsically evil to become the leader of their country during the 1930s. Why didn’t they recognize it or prevent it? Now I see it firsthand. Nearly half the country must lack moral conscience. Nearly half the elected officials must be so depraved, so thirsty for power, or exhibit such cowardice that a man so obviously lacking in skill, honesty or integrity could ascend to a position of ultimate leadership. Once in power, how did they let him stay? Will it take another cataclysm to remove him? Will it take tens of millions of lives? Are we so self-absorbed, so distracted by the trivialities of the internet and on our big-screen TVs that we allow this sham of a rector a place on top of our society? Would the gods of our holy writs allow this wickedness? Jim Arneberg
In dire need
Brooklyn: Sudan is the site of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today. Famine was officially declared there last year. The United Nations reports that 25 million Sudanese face extreme hunger and 12 million have been displaced because of the two-year civil war between the Sudanese armed forces and a militia called the Rapid Support Forces. Tom Perriello, former U.S. special envoy for Sudan, estimates that the death toll has exceeded 400,000. Cindy McCain, executive director of the UN World Food Program, states that a convoy of its trucks carrying food was destroyed last month by drones. The Arab Rapid Support Forces are perpetrating racist massacres against Black ethnic groups, reminiscent of the genocide that occurred in Darfur in Western Sudan in 2004. The UN has not sent a peacekeeping force and has failed to stop countries from supplying arms to the opposing sides. Wendy Jackson
What’s the angle?
Bronx: Re “It’s a genocide: scholars” (Sept. 2): One of the many obscure evils I once learned about Nazi Germany is that social workers who promoted mercy killings, not to mention nurses and doctors who outright committed them, were all highly educated and respected experts who were more than able to justify their depraved views and acts. So when we have a group of genocide scholars publish trash like saying Israel’s acts meet the legal definition of genocide, it interests me not who the expert authority is; I want to know their excuse, that it may be exposed. Jorge Sierra
Over their heads
Carle Place, L.I.: I’ve taken Mike Lupica to task on these pages in the past, but he deserves kudos for his “How many home runs did Babe Ruth hit without a bat?” comment on Sunday (“Jones shows game has passed him by with Parsons trade,” Aug. 31). Few will get its meaning, and it’s unlikely to have any effect on those it was aimed at. Very sad. Rudy Rosenberg
