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In demanding change, the protesters are forcing the public discussion about policing and race to catch up to the reality of a New York in which crime is no longer much of a threat and it is the state’s often blithe attitude toward black lives that is the problem.

Four alleged members of rival gangs launched a hunger strike 30,000 strong from the isolation of their Supermax cells. Was the prison system that corralled them not strong enough, or is solitary confinement an impossible idea?

Is there anything Bill de Blasio can do to make the city affordable again? Maybe. But we have to want to pay for it.

In De Blasio’s election the shape of class warfare shifted.

From the JFK assassination to weather control and the New World Order: 50 years of conspiracy theory.

He’s a cartoon. A megalomaniac. An irresistible Hollywood subject. And a crucial historical figure.

He’s hugely popular in a state way to his left. He’s unafraid to take on a national party considerably to his right. And he’s most adored when he’s acting reprehensibly.

What if everything we’ve come to think of as American is predicated on a freak coincidence of economic history? And what if that coincidence has run its course?

Up in Ramapo, the immigrant community and the growing population of Hasidim had eyed each other with increasing wariness. Then the Orthodox took over the public schools and proceeded to gut them.

The guns he carried embody the nation’s evolving relationship to freedom. And fear.