Wednesday’s Headlines: V is For Vendetta Edition

In journalism, it was what we’d call a “clean hit”: The NYPD had received a warning letter from the Department of Justice to halt its illegal, unsafe parking around precinct houses. The NYPD ignored the letter. We made a hilarious video calling out the department.

First, enjoy Deputy Editor David Meyer’s video here:

Like we said, no harm, no foul, journalistically speaking.

Well, not to Council Member Vickie Paladino (who, by the way, was not even mentioned in the video). Hours after Meyer’s Streetsblog filmic debut was posted to Twitter, Paladino summoned her thugs:

And when one of her followers wished violence on Meyer (and, full disclosure) me, Paladino responded, “Good things can happen through the power of positive thinking.”

That’s a psychotic reaction to a journalist posting a story about dangerous conditions around every precinct house in the city. A reasonable response from a law-and-order Council member could have been, “Well, David, the NYPD protects us day in and day out, so let’s give them a break on parking…” or “This is a serious safety issue all over the city and I appreciate you bringing it to my attention because I’m an elected official who could actually do something about it.”

But, no, Paladino basically said that Meyer should be beaten … for doing his job. (And it’s not the first time she’s done that!)

It’s no surprise that Paladino targeted a Streetsblog reporter for violence, given that we broke a story in the midst of the “ghost car” epidemic in 2023 that her son — who runs her Twitter account — had an unregistered car with a forged temporary license plate on it.

So she still bears a grudge. But lately, she’s been ramping up her calls for violence against the various progressive efforts, including her recent call to vandalize congestion pricing cameras, her screed against life-saving speed cameras, her call for one of her Council colleagues to be deported for expressing support for the people of Gaza, her lies about the “15-minute city,” and, of course, her famous attack on our colleague Jackson Chabot for having the temerity to want to improve road safety in the city even though he’s “only” lived her for eight years.

But remember, the latest salvo started because we called out police for dangerous parking. But whatever the reason, for Paladino (or, more accurately her unemployable son who needs his mother to hire him), it’s more important to own the libs than to actually serve constituents, as this guy pointed out:

And others, including some in our profession, said Paladino had gone too far:

Well, Paladino’s reign of error may someday end. After she called on people to punch my deputy editor, I asked the Council press office if Speaker Adrienne Adams had a comment about the Council member’s ongoing assault on basic civility and norms. She sent over a statement:

“This type of violent rhetoric is unacceptable and can lead to a dangerous escalation that undermines public safety. This is not behavior that the Council expects of its members.”

Of course, the statement stopped short of promising any action, only saying that “any action related to this would have to go through the review process established for Council members,” which would require a member of the Standards and Ethics Committee to look into Paladino’s threats and take action under Council rule 10.80, which includes “violation of the Speaker’s policy or policies against discrimination and harassment.” There’s apparently no way for the public to submit a complaint.

(We reached out to the committee Chair Sandra Ung, but heard crickets. We also asked Paladino to comment, but she didn’t call us back.)

In other news:

• In a related story, the Department of Investigation ruled that several social media posts by NYPD Chief of Department John Chell and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry were “irresponsible and unprofessional.” (NYDN, NY Post, NY Times, Gothamist and Hell Gate, with the best headline)
• Talk about irresponsible, President Trump has nominated congestion pricing foe, former upstate Rep. Marc Molinaro, to run the Federal Transit Administration. (NY Post)
• President Trump will have a hard time ending congestion pricing once the MTA starts selling bonds off the toll revenues. (Real Clear Markets)
• Here’s a fact-free column by Michael Goodwin about why Gov. Hochul is so bad at her job (ok, he got one fact right!). (NY Post)
• Like Streetsblog, amNY and Hell Gate covered Transportation Alternatives’ report detailing just what a bloody year 2024 was on New York City streets.
• If it ain’t fixed, it’s Hobroken. We mean the PATH train. (amNY)