Readers sound off on Trumpian racism, Bowman’s defeat and funding MTA improvements

Backlash against Bragg goes beyond Trump’s case

Rockaway Park: I do not think that anyone who does not have his/her head buried in a hole should be surprised that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been bombarded with death threats resulting from his winning a jury conviction of Donald Trump for hush money fraud.

Trump has continually promoted a series of racist suggestions ever since he rode down the escalator in Trump Tower and declared his run for president. Besides the fact that Bragg brought the case against the former president, it can not be overlooked that the district attorney is a Black man. Trump and his MAGA cult are the worst that America has to offer. The rule of law means nothing. Facts mean nothing. Honesty means nothing. I am sure that some of his followers will deny being racist on the surface, but if they are honest with themselves — I believe they will not be — they will admit that they believe in white superiority.

My question to the cult members who are not wealthy: What has Trump done for you other than make you feel that you have been left out or ignored? What have you been left out of? Who has ignored you?

Racism has always been a part of the American landscape, but for the past four or five decades, this country has tried to right that wrong through laws and supportive leaders, both Republican and Democrats. Trump, through code words and his failure to denounce anything that has an attitude of racism, has emboldened those who may have thought like a racist to now act on those thoughts. Threatening Bragg is a direct result of that attitude and behavior. Anthony Johnson

Equalize treatment

Arverne: I am writing to express my concern over the stark disparities in how felony convictions affect the lives of ordinary citizens compared to high-profile individuals like Donald Trump. While Trump continues to run for the highest office in the country despite 34 felony convictions, countless individuals with far fewer or less severe convictions struggle to secure basic necessities like jobs, housing and other means of survival. This glaring inequity not only undermines the principle of equal justice but also perpetuates a cycle of disenfranchisement and marginalization for those who have served their time and seek to reintegrate into society. It is imperative that we address these disparities and advocate for policies that offer fair opportunities for all individuals, regardless of their past. Kenneth Jerome Brown

Coming for your rights

Jamaica: Wake up, America! The Republicans’ Project 2025 will ban females’ right to abortion, IVF and birth control, or let’s just say women’s health care and voting rights. Ship immigrants back to their countries and go back to slavery times for minorities. In other words, let’s go backward instead of forward. Oh, let’s not forget they want to take away Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. We need more Democrats in the House and the Senate to keep what was put into law. If Trump gets in, he could select two more Supreme Court Justices to replace Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, which means more laws will be reversed. Make sure you check out who you are voting for when it comes to what you and your family need. We need to keep our democracy and freedom. Charlene Black

Punished progressive

Purchase, N.Y.: With the legalization of abortion and other progressive transgressions, New York operates like a criminal state. The defeat of Jamaal Bowman gives hope to the idea that we can get rid of Gov. Hochul, Chuck Schumer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kirsten Gillibrand and other miscreants of their ilk and start the Empire State on a path to morality. Marlene Danoff

Too left

Manhattan: So glad Jamaal Bowman lost his reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives. He deserved to lose. He seems to hate everything about America and other Americans who do not look like him. The Democratic Party does not need more hate mixed into their misguided wokeness. Hopefully, Bowman will learn that hate is a recipe for losing and he’ll stop blaming everyone but himself. Hopefully, the Democratic Party will stop taking moderate Democrats for granted and pull back from their off-the-reservation woke agenda. Patricia Clark

Special place

Brooklyn: With all the empty lots and abandoned buildings, you have to pick on Little Italy’s Elizabeth Street Garden to build? Try this with any other group and see what happens. Stop picking on the Italians. Josie Oliveri

Early roles

Flushing: So, Donald Sutherland is now gone. The last surviving member of “The Dirty Dozen.” There is another movie Baby Boomers remember from those days that he was in before he became a star with “M*A*S*H,” and that was “Joanna.” Doesn’t mean that much today, but it attracted much attention in the day. But “The Dirty Dozen” was first. Jim Brown and Sutherland were the last surviving members. Brown died last year. Rest in peace, Donald. You were one of the best. Bernard Caine

Star’s fandom

Manhattan: Thank you, Voicer Gerard Rosenthal, for telling us of Donald Sutherland’s quiet ongoing support of the Montreal Expos baseball team. It is good to know he was a mensch. And as a Mets/N.Y. Giants fan, I fully appreciate Sutherland’s tenacity as a fan. Susan A. Stark

Overlooked economics

Ithaca, N.Y.: One big problem with how Americans understand why the Israel/Palestine conflict continues is summed up in a passage from the book “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” by Naomi Klein: “The extraordinary performance of Israel’s homeland security companies is well-known to stock watchers, but it is rarely discussed as a factor in the politics of the region. It should be. It is not a coincidence that the Israeli state’s decision to put counterterrorism at the center of its export economy has coincided precisely with its abandonment of peace negotiations, as well as a clear strategy to reframe its conflict with the Palestinians not as battle against a nationalist movement with specific goals for land and rights, but rather as part of the global war on terror, one against illogical, fanatical forces bent only on destruction.” Irina Makieva

Listen to stakeholders

New City, N.Y.: I am glad to see that Michael Mulgrew, United Federation of Teachers president, reversed his position in regard to the proposed new Medicare Advantage plan for retirees after seeing the results of the retiree chapter elections. The statement by the city Law Department spokesman Nicholas Paolucci that the new plan would be an improvement over the current plan is absurd. If it were an improvement, why are NYC retirees fighting it? I would also suggest that all Municipal Labor Committee leaders poll their retirees regarding the new plan. Dolph Rotter

Infrastructure setback

Brooklyn: Gov. Hochul’s about-face on congestion pricing is hobbling New York City’s public infrastructure. Now the MTA Board is forced to cut $16.5 billion from its capital plan, kneecapping all sorts of repairs and maintenance — before we even get to improvements like elevators and new subway cars. I’m old enough to remember the bad old days of the city’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s, with “deferred maintenance” on bridges, tunnels and subways. We are far from a fiscal crisis now, unless it’s the one Hochul is inflicting on the MTA. Stephanie Doba

Motive revealed

Manhattan: Ever since Gov. Hochul took the courageous step to indefinitely pause the ill-conceived and ill-planned congestion pricing program, all criticism seems to have been focused on the cost this might mean for the MTA. Even in your editorial of June 27, “Congestion pricing countdown,” you emphasized the loss of a potential “$16.5 billion in investment in the city’s lifeblood.” All this emphasis on what the pause in congestion pricing implementation would mean to the MTA, and the dearth of criticism of what it might mean for congestion, just goes to prove that the program was merely a cash grab for the MTA and had absolutely nothing to do with a reduction in congestion. It is about time that you and all supporters of congestion pricing admit that. Howard Babich