On a cold October day in ’93, an 11-year-old boy brought a piece of birthday cake to his mother.
The Queens neighborhood, less than two miles from former President Trump’s childhood home, had seen better days. Giuliani was still a year away from taking office and under Mayor Dinkins, a racist pro-crime hack, New York City had hit lows that it would not see again until the return of Dinkin’s pro-crime protege, Bill de Blasio.
As Travis Lilley headed off with cake from a birthday party downstairs to the New Look Beauty Salon where his mother was working, the street was overrun with drug dealers fighting turf wars. New York Boulevard, renamed Guy R. Brewer Boulevard, after one of the first black politicians in the borough because it was where Brewer opened the Democratic Club that still bears his name, with its fast food joints, auto repair shops and beauty salons, was dangerous.
The beauty parlor that Travis’ grandmother owned was on an intersection favored by drug dealers. Local business owners had complained to the Dinkins administration with no results.
Travis, who would forever remain eleven on that day, went downstairs to the beauty parlor that his grandmother owned. Drug dealers opened fire. The bullets, the prosecutor would later describe, “tore away the back of Travis Lilley’s head.”
Travis died in his grandfather’s arms surrounded by broken glass.
“It was his only grandchild — the baby died in his arms,” a neighbor said.
What happened on October 30, 1993 was an evil act. But it was the ordinary kind of evil that men have done throughout human history. What happened next was the extraordinary kind of evil that defines societies.
The pro-crime Left fell in love with the man convicted in the 11-year-old boy’s death.
At the sentencing of the first shooter, Travis’ mother scathingly dismissed the bawling gunman’s claims of innocence with, “he knows he’s going to spend the rest of his life in jail. That’s all he’s concerned about.”
At the sentencing of the second man, his pal, the judge declared, “It is my hope that you never again have access to decent, innocent people.”
That hope has proven to be false.
Gov. Hochul decided to commute his sentence, noting that, “Mr. Bryant has earned an Associate’s Degree and Bachelor’s Degree, and recently earned a certification through an entrepreneurial training program.” And what is the life of a little boy dying in his grandfather’s arms worth compared to his killer’s entrepreneurial training program?
“Why NY’s ‘Poster Child For Clemency’ Is Still Behind Bars,” a social justice reporter, who had written a similar agitprop piece for CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, funded by the leftist Craigslist billionaire, complained.
Bruce Bryant, 53, a former crack dealer, is anything but a child. The child was Travis.
“Bryant isn’t the only one confused as to why he continues to be overlooked for clemency. Steve Zeidman, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at CUNY School of Law, has helped over a dozen New York state prisoners successfully gain clemency, and he said there’s no one more deserving of freedom than Bruce Bryant,” she wrote.
“Even if Bruce was as guilty as a human being can be, he still warrants clemency, because of all he’s done inside,” Zeidman insisted.
Zeidman, who records show earns over $180,000 from the publicly funded City University of New York, has been an articulate spokesman for the assorted monsters rattling the bars of their cages, eager to get out and maim, rob and kill all over again. Who speaks for Travis? No one.
“Say Their Names — The People Deserving Clemency,” the law professor demanded in one screed, urging Gov. Hochul to let out Bryant, along with Stanley Bellamy, now also freed by Hochul, who had shot a man in the head at close range during a robbery in 1985.
Who will say Travis’ name?
It’s a pity that the New Yorkers who are regularly robbed, beaten and killed by thugs aren’t paying someone $180,000 a year to say the names of the victims, just of the killers.
“Rotten Social Background and Mass Incarceration: Who Is a Victim?” Zeidman wondered in the Brooklyn Law Review. It’s easy to spot the victims. They’re the ones who don’t have $180,000 law professors agitating for them and who die forgotten in the arms of their loved ones.
It is also just as easy to spot evil.
There are two tiers of evil. On the first and lesser tier of evil are the men who commit horrifying acts and on the second and greater tier are those who transform their evil into a societal norm.
Almost 30 years after Travis died in a beauty salon on New York Boulevard, and shortly after a sickened city finally fought back against not only the drug dealers, the rapists, robbers and other thugs, but the pro-crime political culture that had enabled them, criminals are victims again.
In a CUNY puff piece written on Bryant’s behalf, the man convicted in Travis’ killing claimed that he turned to crime because he “saw white, wealthy customers mouth off to his father.” A customer is rude to a waiter. What else can his son do except start selling crack?
White leftists love sob stories like that. But the ultimate victims of mythologizing crime as a reaction to racism are the little black kids like Travis whom it kills. And at some point it needs to be asked why white leftists have so much love for black killers, but none for black victims?
Gov. Hochul, who refused to bring back bail and stop the crime, survived her election due to dirty tricks, election rigging and a lack of empathy by the Zeidman class, the wealthy upscale leftists who have once again destroyed New York City, for the victims of crime.
Crime continues to terrorize New Yorkers and pro-crime leftists continue to lie about it. And the victims, stabbed in the neck, teeth smashed out on an evening walk, raped, beaten and killed, are shut out of the cheerful conversation about the need to free criminals and end policing.
“Individual traits are not the driver of criminal behavior,” Zeidman insisted.
It’s an old argument. The loudest voices arguing that we have no choice in our actions are those who defend the worst possible crimes. The difference between a moral and immoral society is human agency. The atrocities of the twentieth century were committed by men who believed that human beings were little more than animals or social variables. We defeated them in Europe, but tragically we never defeated them in America. And now they’re calling the shots.
The world has moved on since the murder of a little boy bearing a piece of birthday cake. The corner where the New Look Beauty Salon once stood has been occupied by the Al-Baraka Islamic Halal market. A pro-crime governor and legislative leaders occupy Albany.
Gov. Hochul is taking her victory lap by commuting the sentence of an 11-year-old boy’s killer.
Over 3 million people in New York voted for this. In 1993, two men pulled the triggers on the bullets that likely took Travis’ life. In 2022, 3,030,712 people pulled the trigger.
That is the difference between individual evil and societal evil.
Just one Dominion machine programmer was all it took not 3 million voters.
The public’s complacence and unquestioning acceptance of computerized cheat machines is more proof of just how stupid the public has become. Those machines are here to stay and will proliferate. The leftist have insisted……
It took Westchester and Upper West Side voters being the liberal idiots they’ve been long before voting machines of any kind were an issue.,
It also took massive demographic change of the kind created by bringing massive numbers of third world voters, including Muslims, into NYC where they now have massive enclaves in Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn.
These people are real, they exist and they’re not hard to find.
Let’s not lose sight of the demographic threat or the indoctrination threat. They’re far more dangerous than voting machines.
This is why the death penalty for murder is needed too, I used to think that one innocent person being put to death was one too many and opposed the death penalty. I don’t hold that view anymore.
However only one of those evil criminals actually committed the murder, the one involved who didn’t kill the little boy deserves repentance if he acts in a way that shows he will put right, where possible, his wrong.
Reintroducing the death penalty will enable a more just society.
The death penalty can not be morally justified unless there is 100% proven certainty that the individual committed the crime. To apply the death penalty with the lower standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” is immoral. That’s the bottom line.
If you proceed to apply the death penalty with a lower standard than 100% proven certainty not only are you acting immorally but you are playing with fire. What’s to prevent the government, or the powerfully connected to the government, to set someone up with rigged evidence, and demand the death penalty?
Agreed, but the liberals have used this uncertainty to have it banned.
I don’t know Zeidman but I know people like him.
Their slogans, whether they sincerely believe them or not, give them a lot of social panache and connections. And in some other (legal) cases there are millions of dollars to be made . Race and other leftwing causes, can be very lucrative.
the self-righteousness is a brand and a tribal identity, and yes lucrative too
This story brought to mind Jack Henry Abbott.
Liberal Norman Mailer took pity on Abbott believing that he could be…well…the next Norman Mailer; so good were his writing skills.
Abbott was serving a stretch for murdering a fellow inmate. Mailer convinced the right people to release Abbott on parole. Abbott relocated to NYC to work for Mailer as a researcher. Within six weeks Abbott murdered a waiter in Greenwich Village. Abbott was eventually captured, sentenced to a long stretch and committedy suicide in prison on February 10, 2002.
exactly and yet no one learns anything from history
That’s because the leftards have been re-writing it since the 60’s.
And what little they can’t re-write, they ignore.
Yes, We can all see that the Woke left is re-writing history, tearing down historical monuments, and shoving the constitution under the rug. THEY MAKE THEMSELVES THE LAW. They are doing the same thing to Israel’s biblical history, denying Judaism and Christianity too. We never expect reason and common sense from the left, they are upside down on every decision.
Isaiah 5:20 says in the last days Good would be called Evil, and Evil Good. Men would substitute darkness for light and light for darkness.
Isaiah 10: :1 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice.
I think there are other leftist authors who also tend to condone criminals. The novel Ragtime by Doctorow seems to fall in this category. Or am I wrong?
a whole lot of celebrities rallied for Caryl Chessman
https://www.danielgreenfield.org/2007/04/caryl-chessman-and-triumph-of-evil.html
They rallied for Chessman to stay in jail rather than be executed. Their grandchildren would have wanted him freed from prison.
While there likely is fraud, every person I ever met from New York City and it’s suburbs is a hard core Democrat. Many of them either moved to North Central PA or have a vacation home here. Of course they think of the locals as country bumpkins too stupid to govern themselves while they are sophisticated intellectuals and brilliantly know that the Democrat party is the greatest bunch on politicians ever assembled- at least since Socrates and Plato.
You an talk until your blue in the face that Democrats and Communists share the same values and Democrats are leading to the ruination of America. They all just brush it off as rantings of “The Uneducated MAGA”.
So, bottom line, the liberals of New York and especially New York City are in total agreement with the Democrat party and their Communist/Satanic governor.
I believe you’re correct.
This is the same click of fools that clamored for the “Central Park Five” to have their sentences vacated.
The street-trash were turned into cause-celebs and written million dollar checks. (The Innocence Project took a large cut of it)
Trisha Meili (the central park jogger) is never approached with the reverence Christine Blasey Ford is. She is basically ignored, while New Yorkers cheer that they’ve combated racism by freeing five scum and shoveling $250 million in their direction.
A stone is going to be put in place along a wall to the entrance of Central Park in honor the Central Park Five Rapists-Muggers-Thugs. On that stone will be carved the words “For The Exonerated”. Even though they still stand guilty, Comrade De Blasio vacated their sentences. They have never been and never will be exonerated.
It’s similar to the whole BLM riots and looting and total overhaul of every business in America to kiss ass for a certain race due to creepy, fentanyl addict George Floyd dying.
Yet DNA evidence proved someone else committed the crimes.
Yes! Thank you.
Democrats unfortunately exist. More so, idiot lefties with Ivy League degrees and zero insight into human nature.
These people exist and they are a huge problem. Reaching them is nigh impossible until they experience real crime themselves.
And sometimes not even then.
Can’t resist sharing an old quip in light of your wry observation.
Q] What’s the definition of a Republican?
A] A Democrat who’s been mugged.
Thanks Daniel, excellent coverage of what’s going on in New York.
Any chance that Trump supporters who strolled through the Rotunda will get any clemency? Hell no!
They didn’t burn or attack others, in spite of being barraged for half an hour, while quiet and static in the ellipsis. (BLM member Sullivan called for burning the place down, so he’s out free.)
They eventually responded to the violence inflicted on them, and were slandered with a bullshit murder of Sicknick.
And Nancy got the damning photo-op she had set the stage for.
It’s unfathomable that Leftist’s continue to blatantly rig elections. Where the F is everyone else? You know it’s happening, but you just stand by and turn your head away? Or, are you in on it? I’m talking to the Republicans.
Prison used to be somewhat of a deterrent in society. If you didn’t get the death penalty you’d get what was called “hard time.” You spent your days shackled to other prisoners as you picked up trash along the highways for hours, or were used for hard labor. There were no luxuries in prison. Of course, that changed when all the white liberals complained that it was inhumane for a murderer to be sentenced to hard time.
Now, prisoners get to be involved in art, drama, and music while behind bars. This is to build up their “self-esteem.”
Prison was for punish offenders. Now, it’s used to “rehabilitate.” And you wonder why crime is out of control.
My son was murdered 21 years ago in SC and his killer was convicted, but has had other chances to go free. Very thankful the law is on our side and we have defenders of justice fighting to this day for my sons death.
What kind of Governor is this?
Ask the little boys family and friends!
You should deeply question this woman’s beliefs and the election results. This is an absolute injustice!!
I’m so sorry for what happened to your family. It is a good thing that you have the system on your side as it should be.
Unfortunately tens of millions of people who live in places like New York and California have systems that fight for killers, not their victims.
I’ve decided it takes a special breed of person to elect officials like Hochul; there is no excuse for it.
That breed of person is called a “Dumb-o-crat.” The problem isn’t simply with Hochul — coddling, enabling and lionizing criminals has been part of the Dumb-o-crat political ethos since at least the 1960’s. Every Dumb-o-crat apparatchik in the country, at the municipal, state and federal levels, treats criminals exactly the same way, with total leniency. Because, prosecuting and incarcerating criminal sociopaths “of color” is allegedly “racist,” don’t you know?
Vile Dumb-o-crats’ perennial, reflexive and decades-old coddling, enabling and lionization of criminals is indefensible and morally contemptible. That said, a majority of New Yorkers voted for the politicians who support this ethos. The only people I feel sympathy for are those who voted for Lee Zeldin.
I don’t care how many degrees a convicted felon earns while in jail, nor, how many books he/she writes, nor, how many religious conversions he/she professes — jail time should be served in full. Anything less is an insult to the victim of the crime, and, to the victim’s family.
the fundamental question that voters need to be asked is do they support criminals or crime victims
pick one
they can’t pick both
“Over 3 million people in New York voted for this.”
Yup, and most of them reside in NYC. The rest of the state wants no part of pro-criminal Gov. Hackul. But the lefty morons who did vote for her will soon get what they voted for. And it won’t be pleasant. So, if you voted for Hackul and then get sliced up with a carpet knife on the subway, thank yourself and don’t complain. You had your chance to change things, and you flushed it away voting democrat. Again.
a whole bunch of Westchester voters came out for Hochul while Asian and Orthodox Jews in NYC voted for Zeldin
unfortunately it’s not just NYC, it’s a wealthy leftist elite that infests the state and keeps hiking property taxes to create its own areas that are ‘safe’ from the conditions they create
Yes, but wait – “Asian and Orthodox Jews” reads like two types of Jews. Asians would make it clearer.
Isn’t it AMAZING how some people SERVING LIFE IN PRISON just “turn their lives around”?? Has anyone asked “why didn’t you do that BEFORE you MURDERED a little one”??? NO!! I guess it’s a lot easier to be a “model prisoner” when you have little choice. I know people can change, but , unfortunately, their VICTIMS are UNCHANGED! And as such, their MURDERERS deserve no more than they were given! A BETTER use of these “turnarounds” would be to serve as EXAMPLES for young kids! Imagine a well spoken, highly educated person speaking to them about HOW they earned degrees and knowledge followed with WHY they were in prison and then end their talk about how they must return to their PRISON CELL to await the end of their life! And for sure deliver the message that ACTIONS have CONSEQUENCES – sometimes DEVASTATING ONES!
and their lives don’t necesarily stay ‘turned’
it’s easy to rack up some educational credits and join a social justice cause since there’s an entire machine dedicated to making convicts look good so they can be sprung
You’re telling the truth.
My mom would aid Tony the biker (armed robbery) with his appeals since she knew him from childhood and his parents.
She had to give him tough love, at time saying she’d give him glasses with bars painted in front to remind him of prison, if he regressed.
He realized she’d walk away if he didn’t cut the crap. Took 7 years, but he finally did.
“White leftists love sob stories like that. But the ultimate victims of mythologizing crime as a reaction to racism are the little black kids like Travis whom it kills. And at some point it needs to be asked why white leftists have so much love for black killers, but none for black victims?”
The moral code of altruism and sacrifice. Justice and altruism are incompatible, it’s either one or the other. Where do the words “Forgive them father for they know not what they do” and ” Judge not, that ye be not judged” come from? Altruism and self-sacrifice.
What would an innocent man like Jesus do? He would sacrifice his innocence and his life to save the guilty sinner.
You see, the Leftist may or may not be an atheist, and he may or may not be religious, he may or may not be an avowed socialist, but his fundamental and essential moral code remains altruism and self-sacrifice. As it is for 99.9% of all Americans.
Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent, but altruism demands pity for the guilty. “Mercy” means an unearned forgiveness, but altruism demands unearned forgiveness.
“The precept: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” . . . is an abdication of moral responsibility: it is a moral blank check one gives to others in exchange for a moral blank check one expects for oneself.” – Ayn Rand
Expects for oneself, there is the key to the whole altruist evil.
And if they are not locked down on a death row isolation unit then they often kill other inmates that only deserve to do their time and be released. Or they kill a guard. And they cost tens of thousands of dollars to keep in prison. Death sentence permanently deters a murderer from EVER killing anyone again. Do it IS a deterrence.
killing killers saves lives
What is the Meaning of”JUSTICE”if it’s Not carried out???
Exactly. The criminal becomes the ‘victim and the politicians use them for votes, the attorney’s move in and start the unending process of delay and sing of self accomplishments and rehabilitation all at the very taxpayers expense that the system was designed to protect.
“Individual traits are not the driver of criminal behavior,” Zeidman insisted.
It’s an old argument. The loudest voices arguing that we have no choice in our actions are those who defend the worst possible crimes. The difference between a moral and immoral society is human agency. The atrocities of the twentieth century were committed by men who believed that human beings were little more than animals or social variables. We defeated them in Europe, but tragically we never defeated them in America. And now they’re calling the shots.”
Hitler was defeated but collectivism-socialism is still alive. You cannot defeat collectivism-socialism if you do not defeat the moral code on which it is based on, the moral code of altruism by discrediting it and replacing it with Ayn Rand’s moral code of rational selfishness.
Leave it to the Democrat Bleeding-hearts to once again free a a convicted killer that’s one reason we need to vote out all liberal Democrat Bleeding-hearts
Greenfield never considers the fact that before the drug war dealers didn’t shoot up neighborhoods.
If there was no drug war then kids wouldn’t be getting shot in the crossfire.
The drug war is evil.
See Szasz, Thomas: Our Right to Drugs
See Spooner, Lysander: Vices Are Not Crimes
These shootings are happening in places that decriminalized drugs. NYC is putting drug dealers first in line for marijuana licenses. No sign that legalization is reducing crime or violence
Deregulation is NOT a Free Market. The government is now rewarding violent felons with the license to sell marijuana, that’s not a Free Market. Even if marijuana had never existed the violence in the black and Latino ghettoes would still exist. It’s the ghetto, Hip-Hop, culture that’s the problem not the marijuana.
The violent felons are violent because of who they are, because of their character, their mentality, and their sub-culture. Imagine the government rewarding Italian Mafia ex-cons with licenses to run casinos, unions, carting companies, construction companies, and the docks on the ocean fronts, how well would that work out?
Many many drug dealers in NYC already have licenses:
Doctors
Pharmacists
Coffee merchants
Bars and restaurants
Trump hotel
All these entities sell drugs in NYC, yet for some reason they’re not shooting up the streets. Go figure.
Convicted Killers should never be eligible for release No Parole, No Pardons keep them in until they die or are exicuted
Excellent reading. And no mention of the victims family by Gov. Hochul? Disgusting.
I used to feel so bad for the people of NYC. My heart was breaking for all the tragedy they had to go through. No MORE honey! They get exactly what they voted for a deserve!
Good luck to Ya!