The NYPD purchased two of the drones, these “Digidogs”, for $739,000 using funds outside the official city budget through a program that incentivizes the NYPD to seize cash and other property from the community to be used for their own purposes. They call this “asset forfeiture,” and it is standard practice for the armed militias serving and protecting private property in every corner of the United States.

The police are empowered to seize property through forfeiture simply by claiming that the property was involved in criminal activity whether or not you’ve been convicted, or even charged with a crime. In fact, unless they are challenged, the police don’t even have to present evidence that the theft is justified; when the cops seize property in order to auction it off and keep the cash for themselves, the burden is on the victim of this stickup to show up to court and argue that the property was not used in a crime or acquired through crime. This is a very difficult process that often requires a lawyer and frequently results in the property staying in the hands of the police. With the cost of legal fees, you might even be better off trying to buy your own property back at the police auction.

Adams hosted this charade barely a week after announcing his plans to cut funding 4% city-wide in the new budget. While New Yorkers wait to find out what essential services are slated to be ripped out of our hands, we are presented with this unabashed mockery. Of course, we never expect the Landlord-Cop comfortably reigning over us to care about our needs, our rights. But it seems he is also incapable of basic human shame! Well, the budget is now released. So while he and his goons in the NYPD get shiny new drones to harass us with, what do we get?

We get a $1 billion cut to education! With all the glaring flaws of our school system, they must have done a rigorous study of NYC schools and determined that our children were $1 billion too educated last year. Never mind the underpaid and overworked educators who are forced to personally buy supplies for their overflowing classrooms; Adams is attacking the heart of the issue!

We also get a 4% cut in the Department of Buildings! These are the people responsible for staffing and inspecting construction projects throughout the city. Surely, the parking garage that just collapsed in lower Manhattan, and the 4-year high in construction site deaths are due to the DOB having too much money for hiring construction workers and safety inspectors.

And more good news! The Pig-In-Chief heard all of our complaints about NYC libraries being open too much, and has proposed cutting $53 million out of their budget so that they can reduce Saturday hours and be rid of Sunday hours entirely.

So where is all of this money going? Along with boasting about the record amount of funds this budget will keep in the reserves, the Mayor also reached a deal with the NYPD police “union” that will raise salaries across the board, some as much as 40%. This deal includes back pay all the way to 2017, as well as more flexible overtime hours just to tie a neat bow on it all.

Every time they ignore our demands that our money go towards vital social services instead of the NYPD it’s a crime. Year after year, they shift more money to the NYPD’s obscene budget at the expense of New Yorkers’ education, healthcare, housing, and infrastructure. And when that extortion is not enough for them, they also rob us in the streets at gunpoint and head to midtown to show off the cutting-edge surveillance tech they buy with the new funds. Tech that will, as always, be weaponized against the people who paid for it.

The NYPD exists to protect the landlords and all others who live on the income of their private property, or more accurately, live on our backs. Until the working class takes the reins of power from the exploiters, our taxes will always be used to protect these private property interests at the expense of our wellbeing. An organized working class fighting for all of our collective interests is the first step towards ridding ourselves of the parasites and their armed thugs forever.

Less than 48 hours after the second largest bank collapse in U.S. history, a consortium of central bankers, regulators, and presidential appointees decided that the risk of another institution going the same way as SVB was so likely, and brought a risk to the entire financial system that was so severe, that—for the sake of the economy—they needed to cause the third largest bank collapse in U.S. history. Along with the news that they would be shuttering Signature Bank, they also announced that all deposits in the failed banks, even those that were uninsured, would be accessible to depositors, and that the FED would begin overvaluing collateral for loans in order to make cash more freely available to banks. These actions are only possible if the Treasury Secretary, FED, and FDIC all unanimously agree that there will be serious adverse effects on the economy or financial stability if they are not taken.

The original story that SVB’s collapse gave no cause to think the problem could spread was already disbelieved by many, and the dissolution of Signature Bank confirmed the doubts of those still on the fence. Unable to deny the problem completely, the political party in power began to play the blame game. Biden and congressional Democrats, now forced to admit that there is major risk to our banking system, tell us that it is entirely the fault of the Republicans, specifically the previous administration. As evidence, they point to a 2018 bill that rolled back bank regulations and set the reserve requirement to 0%.

Like every effective lie, this one contains elements of truth. It is true that in 2018 a law was passed that permitted banks to operate with no cash available for depositors to withdraw. It is true that this is a major liability for the financial system. It is true that the bill was passed by a majority-Republican congress and signed by a Republican president. What is also true is that the bill would never have made it to then-President Trump’s desk  without the sixteen Senate Democrats who voted to support it! The reporting at the time described the bill as a “rare bipartisan accomplishment” and an “unusual moment of political unity.” The Democrats who are currently in power would like you to forget this. Don’t worry! You’re in safe hands! But we remember the truth: this reckless deregulation was bipartisan. When it comes to putting workers’ livelihoods at risk for the sake of abundant loans and easy profits for the owning class, the owning class will always find bipartisan support in the state.

They repeated another message in every corner of the media that was covering the regulator’s responses to these bank collapses: taxpayers would not foot the bill for these “solutions.” Another sleight of hand by the economists who make a living with their forked tongues. As previously mentioned, one of these so-called “solutions” is to make cash even cheaper for banks by overvaluing the assets they offer as collateral. At a time of record inflation, the “regulators” charged with delaying this upcoming collapse have decided to make our money worth even less. Now to be clear, in a system doomed to periodic crises and showing us the first fits of its next, there are no good options that can prevent what is coming. But who can be surprised that they chose one that cheapens the dollar in your pocket so these empty banks can limp on just a little longer?

Someone always has to pay. As the capitalists are so fond of saying, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. We know that. We’ve seen it. The question isn’t whether lunch will be free, but whether we’ll all bear our fair share of the cost. There is nothing fair in putting the cost of reckless deregulation and risky lending on people who had no say in either.

“This will not spread.” Days later, another bank falls.

The banking system is “safe and well capitalized.” Even as these words leave their mouths, they authorize unprecedented actions—actions that are only legal in a time of a major systemic risk.

They tell us “it was those guys not us” and think we are too ignorant to remember the bill they point to as evidence was heralded as a wondrous bipartisan achievement.

They tell us “the taxpayer won’t foot the bill” as they print even more money during the worst inflationary crisis we’ve seen in decades, devaluing taxpayer savings and income.

As they skip and jump from trick to deception to lie, the message they really would like us to hear is: “Don’t worry. Everything is fine. Keep placing your faith in us, and please, we beg of you, do not begin questioning whether things really are as fragile as they seem.” And on this point, they actually provide a shred of hushed honesty. While never their loudest message, here and there they have made it known that the drastic actions they are taking are primarily meant to “reassure depositors” and to lower the chance of people making runs on other empty banks. Biden even goes so far as to try to speak it into existence, as if by magic incantation, saying “Americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe.” They care about what we think of all this. They care what we think because our trust in these lies is the last thread holding it all together.

The U.S. economy is bleeding, it’s hurt. It’s stumbling along on stilted steps, and the Federal Reserve needs to keep up the faith. That’s how all this works, right? Faith that the slip of paper, or the mark on the computer, means you have money somewhere that will be honored when you try to take it out.

Well, the working people are out of faith, and the capitalists are proving yet again that they never deserved it anyway.