Someone could have saved themselves a lot of trouble and time

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3 Finney Knoll, Balducci/NoPo, has sold for $3.150 million.

I wrote about this house back in May, 2024 when it took its first price cut from $3.999 to $3.795: “Somewhere closer to $3.2's going to take it…”

Price cut on Finney Knoll

May 02, 2024Chris Fountain

3 Finney Knoll, “new” construction, from $3.999 million to $3.795. This was a 1840 house in deplorable condition when a local builder purchased it for $800,000 in 2006. He proceeded, verrry slowly, to add on a modern house attached to the original, but by 2023 that project was still unfinished — I believe the builder was living and bathing in the kitchen, for example, and there were numerous code violations in the work that had been done. A years-long effort to complete a short sale failed and the title was eventually turned over to the lender.

That bank put it on the market in January 2023 at $750,000, a low price designed to attract higher bids, and it did. Two of my clients looked at it separately and passed; they were each of the opinion, as was I, that the property was fairly priced at $750,000, especially given the unknown of how much of the original builder’s work would need to be replaced and redone (almost all of it) and neither wanted to play a part in a greater fool adventure.

But many did, and this owner was the lucky winner. He might get this price — it’s a frenzied market, and the ability to hop over the fence and shop at Balducci’s may prove a strong draw — but I’m guessing somewhere closer to $3.2’s going to take it, eventually.

This is becoming quite the inter-city ( and inner city) battle

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No sooner did I post on the Boston Haitians’ determined efforts to overcome and surpass the Somali Minneapolisians (so you coin a phrase) in Food Stamp fraud than the Somalis have roared back: estimates of their ripoffs are now estimated to be $10 billion — out of the $18 billion shoveled into Minnesota (so far) not the paltry $1 billion previously announced.

Fraud tourism

That’s $10 billion, with a “b.”

As Scott discusses below, we all learned a new phrase from the lead federal fraud prosecutor in Minnesota, Joe Thompson.

He was referring to a couple of gentlemen from Philadelphia who traveled to the North Star State to allegedly defraud Minnesota’s welfare program and perhaps take in a little ice fishing.

The other big news is that we’ve added another zero to our estimate of fraud in Minnesota, now reaching the $10 billion (with a “b”) mark since Gov. Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison took office.

Producing more news than can be consumed locally,

  • Newsweek: Minnesota’s “industrial-scale” Medicaid fraud may top $9 billion—prosecutor

  • The Hill: DOJ charges 6 more in growing Minnesota fraud scandal

  • Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philly men accused of ‘fraud tourism’ in a Minnesota scandal

  • AP: Half of $18B in federal funds for Minnesota-run programs may have been defrauded, official says

  • Newsmax: FBI Raids Minnesota Business in Fraud Investigation

  • Washington Post: About half of Medicaid’s $18B in claims paid to Minnesota programs may be fraudulent, official says

  • New York Times: Several Billion Dollars Were Lost to Fraud in Minnesota, Prosecutors Say

That last headline from the Times, which appears on Google search, cuts the deepest. President Trump had mentioned earlier that the Minnesota fraud reached into the billions, plural, with a “b.”

Because Trump said it, the local Minneapolis Star Tribune has consumed oceans of ink trying to “prove” that the fraud is merely in the hundreds of millions, with an “m.”

FWIW: Here’s a portion of the Scott Johnson referred to above:

The fraud this time…

is staggering. So said First Assistant United States Attorney Joe Thompson at an intense press conference at the federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis. It concluded at 12:45 (Central) this afternoon. I walked in with the cameraman from KARE 11 who told me it would be live streamed and then uploaded to the KARE 11 YouTube channel. I have posted the video below. If you have been following our coverage of the Mountains O’ Fraud committed by a large cast of almost exclusively Somali perpetrators under the averted gaze of Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison, please take it in.

Mr. Thompson announced charges against six defendants in cases arising from fraud on Minnesota’s “waivered” Medicaid programs. The best is yet to come, so to speak, as the United States Attorney continues to investigate frauds that he estimates may total half of the $18 billion spent on these programs since 2018.

At the end of the press conference I asked Mr. Thompson if the ethnic cast of perpetrators in the uncharged cases matches that of the charged cases — i.e., overwhelmingly Somali. His answer was “Yes.” Not a word was heard on this crushing point from anyone other than your humble correspondent. Mr. Thompson is an ucommonly straightforward public official. It should be noted that he is a hometown hero.

The United States Attorney has posted a detailed press release covering today’s events. Two of the defendants charged today are implicated in a case of Fraud Tourism:

[Anthony Waddell] Jefferson and [Lester] Brown devised and carried out a scheme to defraud Minnesota’s Housing Stability Services Program. Jefferson and Brown live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jefferson and Brown heard that Minnesota’s HSS Program was a good opportunity to make money. Jefferson, Brown, and three of their associates decided to become Minnesota HSS Providers, despite living on the other side of the country and having no network in or connections to Minnesota or its communities. Ultimately, their sole connection to Minnesota was their fraudulent participation in the Housing Stabilization Services Program.

Word that the getting was good reached all the way to Philadelphia, but supposedly not to the offices of Walz or Ellison in St. Paul. What a complete and utter farce.

In the package of documents supplied to us at the briefing, by far the most important is an unsealed search warrant executed today in one of the cases under investigation. The suspected fraud in this case involved Minnesota’s Integrated Community Supports Medicaid program.

The ICS program has seen explosive growth over the five years since it began in 2021. After paying out a total of approximately $4.6 million in 2021, the program has grown to cost more than $170 million in 2024. In all, claims data shows that the Medicaid system has paid out more than $400 million for ICS services since 2021. This follows the model of the fraud uncovered so far in Minnesota’s waivered Medicaid programs.

Boston’s going to have to really up their game if it’s to retake the lead. As a reminder, we’re talking about competion between just two cities. According to Google, “there were 19,502 incorporated places registered in the United States as of July 31, 2019.” Fortunately, we’re assured by all our best Democrats that these unpleasant incidents are confined to the Twin Cities and Beantown: certainly, there’s no evidence of anything untoward going on in, say, California or Detroit, or Hartford, or D.C. or ….

55 years on, who knew these guys were still in business? (Updated)

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Moon Boots; $240 at Amazon

I was on Amazon’s front page just now and saw that someone is still selling Moon Boots, a pair of which I bought at Outdoor Traders in 1970. I don’t recall what I paid for them, but nothing was cheap at “Indoor Raiders”, so I probably paid more than $29.92, which, according to the handy inflation calculator provided by our government, would have been the equivalent of $240 today. My guess is that I paid at least $50 back then. So they’re quite the bargain today!

I don’t intend to buy a new pair because as I recall, although they were very, light, and incredibly warm, they were also incredibly clunky. But a fun trip down Memory Lane, for me — they rest of yoiu can just suffer this irrelevancy.

UPDATE

Susie was prowling through the Fountain Boyz Himalayan Expedition archival album, and has sent along this picture she found of me in my Moon Boots near the summit of Mt. Everest. Thanks, Susie — of all the mementoes awarded me for that conquest, the boots and snowshoes given me by Tenzing were my favorite, and the ones I was most proud of.

And then there are the private equity vulture capital folks

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“Look how many we’re firing! Look how much we’re saving by switching to plastic wrap!”

Ironic that one of these models posing as SVP cost-cutters is wearing a vest from an employee-owned competitor that also sells fishing waders, Patagonia. I suspect that the casting director had used and compared both brands and succumbed, however briefly, to a fit of honesty.

It’s a deal doubtless cooked up around a campfire and brandy snifters at Jackson’s Hole, and consummated in Greenwich at 100 W Putnam Avenue, with predictable results. I’ve owned a pair of Simms waders since somewhere around 2010, and they’ve been great; I’ll buy another brand when these finally wear out.

Private Equity Is Ruining a Beloved Fly-Fishing Brand, Retailers Say

Fly shops across the US are publicly dropping Simms after a private equity roll-up and broader turbulence in the outdoor industry.

December 18, 2025 at 11:00 AM UTC

Soon after opening his fly shop in Colorado in 1983, John Flick started stocking Simms Fishing Products. The brand was only a few years old, but its chest waders were already synonymous with quality. For decades, Flick and his co-owner watched as their store, Duranglers, which is blocks from the Animas River in Durango, grew alongside Simms as its waders, boots and accessories flew off their shelves.

But Flick’s loyalty was sharply tested by recent ownership and strategic changes at Simms that he says had eaten into his profit margins. In July he and his business partner made the tough decision to drop the brand from his store. “This is the direction we need to go to keep us healthy, but I didn’t want to because I felt so devoted,” Flick says. “But it got to a point where these people didn’t give a f—.”

…. Simms was sold again in January 2025, this time to private equity firm Strategic Value Partners (SVP) as part of a $1.1 billion purchase of Revelyst, a spinoff of Vista Outdoors that included Bushnell and Fox Racing brands.

About that time, Simms shifted its approach to marketing and distribution. The brand expanded its presence at big-box retailers such as Bass Pro Shops and Sportsman’s Warehouse, and it pushed licensing deals such as a partnership with the Grateful Dead, featuring a $169 hoodie embroidered with angling skeletons, which left some industry observers scratching their heads. Some of these changes aligned with recommendations on how to expand the brand from consultants at McKinsey & Co., according to former Simms employees who spoke to Bloomberg Businessweek on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. (McKinsey didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

An exodus of Simms employees that was already underway accelerated after the SVP deal closed. Some say the brand had forgotten its soul. “Things were so screwed up in early 2025, I just couldn’t deal with it anymore,” says Scott Harkins, a former sales rep who left Simms in April after 13 years of working with once-loyal retailers in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Smaller, specialty fly shops struggled to compete on pricing with larger sellers and Simms itself, which had already been a challenge. In May, Simms sent out a new contract to some of its authorized independent retailers that set nonnegotiable terms on pricing. Several owners say they felt betrayed. The relationship with Simms used to feel like a “partnership,” says Charlie Craven, owner of Charlie’s Fly Box in Arvada, Colorado, which dropped Simms this summer after more than 20 years of carrying the brand. “But these days it’s ‘the Simms way.’”

Angling International has more on that January 2025 sale from Vista Outdoor, that had purchased the company in August 2022:

Leading global fly fishing brand sold for second time in two years

The sellers at Vista were certainly pleased.

Vista Outdoor co-CEOs Eric Nyman and Jason Vanderbrink said they were excited about both deals in a memo to employees.

“We are thrilled to have concluded the extensive process our Board and management undertook over the past two years to unlock the value of our Outdoor Products and Sporting Products businesses,” they said in the memo. “We are confident these transactions maximize stockholder value while also pursuing the best path forward for our company, stakeholders and valued employees.”

“The Board has worked tirelessly to deliver maximum value to its stockholders and we are pleased to have reached agreement with SVP to help us achieve that objective,” said Michael Callahan, Chairman of the Vista Outdoor Board of Directors

Nyman and Vanderbrink will receive $1.2 million in bonuses upon the completion of Vista’s strategic review. Four other executives at Vista Outdoor were granted $500,000 retention bonuses.

Not bad for two years’ ownership.

And another perspective:

Brand Dead: Is private equity ruining fly fishing gear?

A surefire sign your favorite outdoor brand is doing the old private equity shuffle? A Grateful Dead collaboration.

Sep 22 2025; Simms announces a Grateful Dead collab

Simms, the most storied and trusted brand in fly fishing waders, splashed out this fall. It's trying to bring a different kind of funk. Simms did a licensing deal with the Grateful Dead and launched the "Dead on the Water" collection of waders, shirts, and hats.

Simms' flagship wader model, the Grateful Dead G3 Guide Waders, will run you $1,000. They command a $250 premium over the standard G3, Simms' top-of-the-line guide wader. For that extra $250, here's what you get: "Grateful Dead pocket and trim elements" and "a Grateful Dead fly patch". The collection also includes T-shirts and hats.

…. Ultimately I'm concerned because I've heard this jam before. Enough times for it to feel familiar, in an economic sense. For some outdoor brands, a Grateful Dead tie-in is a marketing effort that signals private equity is fully in control. It's an easy tune that's part of the unofficial PE songbook, to reach a mass of buyers who might not mind if the waders don't last. For a brand like Simms, I worry this means its vaunted product quality may be headed down the river for good.

… The PE playbook is simple

The playbook is pretty simple, with a few variations: A private equity firm buys a company it considers undervalued, cuts costs, gooses growth, and then sells it along to someone else, sometimes bundled up with similar assets, sometimes after stripping out the valuable parts and selling those off.

Temporarily off the MLS, but the feds should have it back on the market on the not-so-distant future. "Hold my Beer — who says Haitians and Somalis have anything over us Old Greenwich residents?”

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14 Highview Avenue has been pulled from the market, for now.

The zebra and,Mr. Giraffe! if the marshalls leave them, this one won’t last.

Old Greenwich Investment Advisor Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion

David X. Sullivan, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Thomas Demeo, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in New England, and P.J. O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, today announced that JEFFREY ARSENAULT, 63, of Greenwich, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden in New Haven to tax evasion.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Arsenault was the managing member and majority owner of Old Greenwich Capital Advisors LLC (“OGCA”), which is the investment manager of Old Greenwich Capital Partners LP (“OGCP”), a private equity fund of funds.  From 2013 through 2022, OGCP received investment distributions of at least $9.1 million, which should have been distributed to OGCP investors, reinvested, or used to pay authorized expenses.  Instead, Arsenault used approximately $5.2 million of the total to pay his personal expenses or other unauthorized expenses, including payments for college tuition and golf club dues.

From 2019 through 2022, Arsenault, through OGCA, also received approximately $2.2 million in net income for performing consulting services for third party investment firms.  Although he knew that he was entitled to only 70 percent of the net income based on his OGCA partnership agreement, he kept all of it and used that money for his personal expenses.

From 2013 to 2016, Arsenault failed to report the proceeds from his embezzlement scheme on his individual federal income tax returns, resulting in income tax due and owing of approximately $1,160,161.  From 2017 through 2022, Arsenault failed to file any individual tax returns, resulting in total tax due and owing of approximately $1,002,709.

As part of his embezzlement and tax evasion scheme, from 2017 to 2020, Arsenault booked false intercompany loans between OGCA and OGCP to conceal his misappropriation of investor funds, which caused OGCA and OGCP to file false Forms 1065 and provide Arsenault false Schedule K-1s.  From 2019 to 2022, Arsenault mischaracterized and concealed from his accountants financial activity, including deposits and wire transfers into his personal bank account, which caused them to prepare false accounting records and tax returns for OGCA.

$2,162,870 here, and $4,668,523.75 there: pretty soon it adds up to real money

Arsenault has agreed to pay restitution of $2,162,870 to the IRS.  He has also agreed to pay restitution of $4,668,523.75 to victims in a related civil case, Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jeffrey Arsenault, 3:24cv1633.

Arsenault is released on a $50,000 bond pending sentencing, which is not scheduled.  Tax evasion carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years.

Tax fraud, meh — half of Rogue Hill’s residents have probably dabbled in that, but a good part of my legal practice long ago was dedicated to pursuing Wall Street crooks, and I saw the ruination they brought into people’s lives; the man has five children, and it’s too bad that they’ll be embarrassed by all this publicity, but Arsenault stole and defrauded the clients who trusted him; he should have remembered that the sins of the father are visited on the children.

Jeffrey Arsenault et al.

U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Litigation Release No. 26160 / October 11, 2024

The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed charges against Jeffrey Arsenault of Greenwich, Connecticut and two investment advisers he controls, Old Greenwich Capital Advisors, LLC and OGCP Management Co, LLC. The SEC’s complaint charges the defendants with conducting a fraudulent scheme to misappropriate at least $4.1 million from two private funds they advised and ultimately from the investors in those funds.

According to the SEC’s complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, between October 2014 and the present, Arsenault and his co-defendants misappropriated the assets of two private funds the defendants advised and controlled to pay for Arsenault’s personal expenses and to make unauthorized payments for the defendants’ benefit. The complaint further alleges that, to conceal their misappropriation from investors, the defendants falsely overstated the value of the funds’ investments in investor account statements and tax documents, including by falsely claiming that one of the private funds defendants controlled held substantial investments in the other private fund under their control even after the lat

And this puff piece from 2014 is amusing:

Jeffrey Arsenault, Old Greenwich CT: From Business to His Various Interests

It is a common misconception that people who have made it big in the realm of finance and business world don’t have lives at all. Even though they’re experts in what they do, they also engage in various areas of interests outside of business. Some take on sports, while some take on the arts. And, like most executives and other people, they have families of their own, and likewise perform their duties and responsibilities as spouses and parents to their children. One man who has all of these is Jeffrey Arsenault, from Old Greenwich CT.

Mr. Arsenault is well-known in the American business circles, especially in the industry of hedge funds. In fact, just like many other executives hailing from Greenwich, Connecticut, he has a company that provides investment, portfolio, and risk management services, in which he is the founder and its principal partner. ….

His expertise in business and finance is all thanks to his acquired education in Boston University, where he graduated in 1985 earning a degree in Business Administration. Before establishing OGCP, he has excelled in every stop his been, from Gordon Capital where he worked in institutional sales for five years, to CIBC World Markets, Merrill Lynch where he become a Director of Institutional Sales, and to Paradigm Capital, Inc, a Canadian investment boutique, where he successfully established a U.S. presence for the firm.

[Certain of these pastimes — golf comes to mind, and, probably squash — may soon be deferred — Ed]

What makes Mr. Arsenault exceptional in life is his engagement in other various interests. Apparently, he is a known patron of the arts. He appreciates modern art such as the work of Robert Dutesco, who captured the beauty of nature through photography in “The Wild Horses of Sable Island”, in Nova Scotia. Also, he’s a great advocate and supporter of education, widely sponsoring educational initiatives and programs for language and literacy. Not surprisingly, he’s also an avid sportsman, who plays squash, tennis, and most especially, golf. And, when not in the office or in any engagements, is a loving husband to his wife, as well as a caring and supportive father to his five children.

(The “loving husband’s wife divorced him in 2008 — Ed)

National pride was at stake — who are these Somalis, anyway?

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If you wonder why Blue State AGs like CT’s William Tong, or Massachusetts’ Andrea Campbell are suing to block the federal government’s demand for food stamp recipient information, here’s why. All 22 states claim that their only motive is “to protect the privacy” of the food stamp recipients; it’s actually a defensive tactic to hide their own graft, in some states, and the embarrassment of all of them as their lack of oversight and collaboration with thieves is exposed.

Note that this is just two tiny stores on one block, in one city. What are the chances that this might be going on other blocks, in other cities and in other states? If Tong et al have their way, we’ll never know.

Two Massachusetts Haitian Men Charged in $7 Million SNAP Benefits Fraud Scheme

Massachusetts federal prosecutors charged two Haitian men with allegedly running a $7 million SNAP benefits scam.

Antonis Bonheur, 74, is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti, and owner of the Jesula Variety Store (JVS) in Mattapan, MA, located about 7.5 miles south of Boston.

Saul Alisme, 24, is a lawful permanent resident, but still a citizen of Haiti. He owns the Saul Mache Mixe Store (SMM), which has only been a SNAP Authorized place since February 2025.

JVS allegedly trafficked over $6 million in SNAP benefits over three years. SMM allegedly trafficked over $121,890 in benefits since May of 2025.

They also allegedly stole and sold food meant for the nonprofit organization Feed My Starving Children:

It is further alleged that both stores sold MannaPack meals, a donated food product manufactured by the nonprofit Feed My Starving Children. These meals are paid for entirely by charitable donations intended for shipment and distribution to food-insecure children overseas and are never authorized for retail sale. The defendants allegedly sold donated MannaPack meals in their stores for approximately $8 per package, profiting from food intended for humanitarian relief.

From the charging documents:

JVS began accepting SNAP Benefits in September 2021. Over the course of the investigation, investigators have become familiar with JVS. Based upon the investigation of JESULA VARIETY STORE including my investigation of the documents reporting the physical premises of 1549 Blue Hill Avenue, and multiple instances where purchases have been made from JVS, I know that the actual footprint of JVS is comprised of approximately 150 square feet of space.

In addition to trafficking SNAP Benefits for millions of dollars in cash through JESULA VARIETY STORE, BONHEUR also fraudulently applied for SNAP Benefits himself in 2022, claiming to have zero income and failing to list JVS. Since 2022, BONHEUR has been collecting SNAP Benefits based on this fraudulent application, often conducting transactions at JVS in amounts exceeding $95. Effectively, BONHEUR himself was receiving SNAP Benefits, despite owning a business, and that business itself conducting millions of dollars in SNAP redemptions in the past calendar years.

The charging documents explained that their tiny bodegas did not appear to be typical stores or fit into the neighborhood due to their size and inventory, given the amount of SNAP benefits they received.

“These were not supermarkets,” said Leah Foley, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. “They were not full-service groceries. It would be a huge stretch to even call them convenience stores. In fact, the only thing convenient about these stores was how easy it was to commit SNAP benefit fraud.”

The investigation found that both stores conducted “numerous transactions for over $95 in a single day, and hundreds of such transactions per month.”

SSM’s total per month was $30,000, and JVS racked up $300,000 per month.

How was this possible despite having nothing for customers to carry their products, empty shelves, one register, and no barcode scanners?

“Simply put, Jesula Variety Store and Saul Mache Mix Store simply do not have sufficient SNAP eligible food inventory to support the number and value of the transactions,” according to the documents.

The agent who wrote the document described JVS as “a closet with shelves and a register.”

Surveillance helped back up the claims because people would leave after making big transactions…without any merchandise in their hands.

Here’s the thing. How did these two men become eligible to participate in SNAP?

Did anyone check on the store? Yes. Yes, they did.

JVS has participated in SNAP since 2021. The agent reviewed those documents, and, well, JVS never even tried to spruce up those stores for officials. Undercover transactions even revealed the truth:

Investigators know from the undercover transactions taking place since the most recent store visit, which are discussed below, that JVS still does not have any refrigerators on its premises and does not sell refrigerated meat, refrigerated seafood, or any refrigerated produce. JVS also does not sell refrigerated beverages, dairy products, or eggs or milk. Of the SNAP eligible foods, it appears that JVS primarily sells dry foods, such as beans, rice, corn, potatoes, and spices. JVS stocks very few packaged food items that are SNAP eligible. At most, I would estimate a few hundred items to be in inventory at any given time.

Investigators have reviewed the reports of the FNS store visits to JVS in June 2021 and March 2024. The reports of the store visits to JVS show little difference from the March 2025 store visit, including: the physical premises of JVS is in the same location; the physical premises of JVS is the same square footage; the same single cash register with no optical scanner; no handbaskets and no carriages; the amount and type of food available at JVS is generally consistent; and JVS has no refrigerator.

“What were missing from the financial records were the things you would expect in any real grocery store, such as charges for wholesale invoices or large purchases for food inventory,” said Foley. “Instead, the accounts reflected round-trip transactions, cash movements, and internal transfers to launder the snap proceeds. This case exposes a serious breakdown in oversight.”

….

“I believe that Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance apparently did not compare the income Bonheur actually received from JVS to the income, which he certified he received ‘$0.00’ on his application,” added the agent. “During the period of Bonheur receiving SNAP benefits, investigators located dozens of instances where Bonheur redeemed SNAP Benefits at JVS, the store he owned.”

It’s not over yet.

“We are planning to continue to investigate other stores and businesses where anomalous volumes of EBT transactions that are happening on a daily and monthly basis is completely untethered from the realities of what those stores legitimately could ever possibly redeem,” Foley told the media.

Can't beat David Bernstein's headline, so I won't try

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At the risk (well, it's a near-certainty) of further offending the most rabid MAGA supporters on this blog, oh, just give it a break, Donald

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I support every policy decision Trump’s made this year — every one of them — and I dread the possibility that we’ll lose the House next fall and witness the end of his ability to rescue this country, but the man’s megalomania has grown tiresome.

I wouldn't want to be one of those social services responders

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threat, or just a run-of-the-mill leftist having a bad day?

NYC Council pushes bill to create Zohran Mamdani’s $1B ‘safety’ agency that would pull cops off some 911 calls

A progressive City Council member plans to push a bill on Thursday to create a controversial bureaucracy pushed by Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani that would reshape the way the city responds to 911 calls.

Brooklyn lawmaker Lincoln Restler is set to introduce the legislation that he claims already has the majority of support among the council and would create a Department of Community Safety – which would send civilian mental health professionals instead of cops to respond to many emergency calls.

“With a majority of Council Members, I introduced bill to create Dept of Community Safety – core plank of Zohran Mamdani’s platform,” he wrote on social media.

“Public safety is more than policing. This agency will establish 24/7 offices focused on mental health, outreach & deescalation to keep NYers safe.”

Mamdani campaigned on creating the agency as a way to remove police from responding to 911 calls for a person in emotional distress.

The far-left mayor-elect put the price tag for the new department at $1.1 billion.

The plan has been hailed from the progressive wing of the party, however, opponents have argued it would add more bureaucracy to the complex response system.

Few details have been put forward by the Mamdani team about how they would ensure the calls would be redirected properly with an antiquated 911 system and staffing shortages among dispatchers.

Currently, mental health calls where there is no threat to the public or others are already supposed to be directed to a set of mental health professionals under the B-Heard program.

But the pilot program launched by ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio and continued by Mayor Eric Adams has struggled to ensure all those calls are redirected away from cops.

I understand the sentiment: there are plenty of stories about mentally-ill-but-harmless individuals have been shot by panicky cops, but there are just as many, if not more stories of an individual experiencing a psychotic breakdown has suddenly turned violent and killed our wounded his would-be rescuers; who determines which is which, a 911 dispatcher?

I’m sure NYC cops would be delighted to relinquish the role of mental health professional, for which they’re not trained, but pity the poor social worker who arrives at an apartment in response to a call from a concerned family member who assures the operator that her relative is harmless — when that person pulls out a knife and attacks, the social worker may regret his mayor’s “compassion”.