Carl Heastie removed any doubt he’s a political imbecile – and a driving force for all of NYC’s plight

Now he has done it.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, usually a man of few words, made the grave mistake of opening his mouth and revealing what lies behind the empty facade.

It’s not a pretty sight.

In doing so, Heastie proved the wisdom of the admonition that “it is better to remain silent lest you appear a fool, than to speak and dispel all doubt on the subject.”

Although suspicions about him have been confirmed, calling Heastie a fool fails to capture the importance of what he said and the political impacts on the lives of every New Yorker.

His statement that “I simply don’t believe that increasing sentences is a deterrent to crime” amounts to the holy grail of political imbecility.

Everything bad about New York – the chaos, the criminal coddling, the cold treatment of taxpayers – is at least partly the result of his strange thinking.

Heastie and his fellow travelers to Albany and City Hall have no idea of ​​human nature and therefore the need for a certain punishment to fit the crime.

His confession lays bare the fact that he is so out of touch with reality that he should have the decency to leave office and fade into oblivion.

He’s apparently from the Bronx, but might as well live on the moon.

Otherwise, how could he not understand the obvious fact that incarcerated people are deterred during their time behind bars from committing more crimes?

And has he never considered the possibility that they will be so chastised by their experience in prison that they will go straight once released?

This too is deterrence.

Left-wing talking point

Tragically, Heastie’s willful ignorance is commonplace on the left, where an entire generation of the best and brightest is proving to lack even a shred of common sense.

To them, society is nothing more than a racial counting game.

Yet Heastie is not just another radical radical talking about a Marxist revolution and power for the people.

Because he has life and death control over every piece of legislation that moves or does not move in Albany, his admission illustrates why lawmakers have enabled and even encouraged the waves of crime and public disorder that are destroying New York.

Lenient bail laws, handcuffs on judges, raising the age from 16 to 18 so young offenders are treated as adults — all play a role in coddling criminals and victimizing them the innocent.

The murder of police officer Jonathan Diller by a career criminal who, along with his partner, had made at least 35 combined arrests underscores the devastating impact of Heastie and his Democratic aides.

The demonization of the police, the ruinous pressure on taxpayers, the dumbing down of schools, the obsession with promoting transgenderism are the bitter fruits of the progressive agenda of Washington, Albany and City Hall.

This program includes the shocking levels of anti-Semitism that emerged on elite university campuses and on city streets after Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel.

Hatred of Jews is not unique to the far left, but it is much more widespread there.

Heastie made his surprising remarks in response to a push by Gov. Hochul to crack down on the explosion in retail theft, which is leading many stores to close and costing employees their jobs.

Despite the context, there is no reason to believe that the speaker’s distorted thinking is limited to a single category of crimes.

His record proves that he applied the same illogic to all kinds of crimes, even the most violent.

Does he really care?

“This is very close to our hearts,” he said of the epidemic of shoplifting at stores ranging from drugstores to high-end clothing and jewelry stores, many of which have involved assaults against workers.

Yet the more he spoke, the clearer it became that he didn’t really care about the victims.

His tortured logic makes it seem like he’s searching in vain for a social program that would keep people from turning to a life of crime — without penalizing those who do.

“If you continue to rely on sanctions, what happens once people are arrested? You always worry about what happens after something has already happened,” Heastie said.

Calling Professor Irwin Corey!

It seems that Heastie does not believe that the threat of serious consequences is a fundamental part of prevention.

If that is his position, I would like to hear him name a unique society that has long survived the days when there was crime without punishment.

There is none, and to believe in any kumbaya on earth is to be staggeringly ignorant about human nature.

The sad reality is that most people, even those who consider themselves honest, would rob a bank if there was no risk of punishment.

I might even be tempted to join them!

Meanwhile, thanks to extremists like Heastie, New York is already proving that crime actually creates poverty.

We are still relatively early in this left-wing revolution in our history, laws and culture, but some impacts are already clear.

More and more taxpayers are fleeing

Among them is the hemorrhaging of taxpayers, rich and middle class, who have decided that New York is no longer worth the price, the hassle and the danger.

Studies show that this exodus also includes black families, as the overall black population is declining.

A friend once pointed out that when a two-parent family with a combined income of about $300,000 leaves town, the impact on the neighborhood is comparable to that of a small business closing.

Supermarkets, delicatessens, pharmacies, dry cleaners and other stores where they shopped have lost good customers. Real estate lost a potential buyer or tenant and local schools lost students.

Multiply the departure of this family by tens of thousands and you will have an idea of ​​what has happened in recent years.

And there’s no end in sight, thanks to Heastie’s ilk in Albany and City Hall.

Because they’re so bizarre, Heastie’s lyrics could become legendary.

They capture the ethos of an era in the same way that George Washington Plunkitt captured the frenzied flight of the Tammany Hall crowd.

Plunkitt, also a Democrat and a longtime member of the state Senate, valiantly tried to argue that there is a difference between honest and dishonest corruption.

He left to posterity a book of his thoughts, entitled “Plunkitt of Tammany Hall,” in which he made his famous confession: “I saw my opportunities and I took them.”

Perhaps at this very moment, an ambitious agent or publisher believes there is best-selling potential in a collection of Heastie’s musings.

My suggested title: “An Idiot’s Guide to Politics”