The savage murder of four homeless men in Chinatown this weekend shocked New Yorkers and prompted anguished appeals for compassion. Mayor Bill de Blasio said that he was “horrified by this senseless act of violence against the most vulnerable members of our community.” Council member Stephen Levin, who has chaired the council's General Welfare committee for the past decade, noted, “our neighbors who are living on the street or in shelters are so vulnerable & need this city's compassion.” Local council member Margaret Chin demanded that the city “do more than the bare minimum to help the tens of thousands of New Yorkers in our homeless shelters and on our streets. . . . maximizing every resource to create more affordable housing now.” Council member Carlina Rivera of the Lower East Side and the Bowery said that the murders show “that we've failed as a city at building deeply affordable housing.”
None of the officials mentioned the most salient point about the confessed killer, Randy Santos, himself homeless: he is a violent predator and drug addict with a long history of arrests for attacking people. Last November, to cite one of four incidents in the last year, Santos attacked a store clerk on 35th Street—a notorious drug corridor—and bit him on the chest. De Blasio and his junior partners in the city council distort the problem by speaking in general terms about “compassion” and the need for more resources and housing. Santos's rampage was not caused by a housing shortage or lack of concern for the needy but by the city's failure to keep him off the streets. As a violent offender known to be mentally unstable, Santos should have been in jail or at least under psychiatric observation.
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