Mayor Bloomberg's final State Of The City address is underway (watch it here), but there already is some seriously questionable fanfare going on there. Most prominently, there are "sports banners" hung around the Barclays Center touting various crime stats. It's one thing to be self-congratulatory and to proclaim in an email that you'll be stepping onstage to "Empire State Of Mind" after a children's dance performance set to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby.” (this really happened). It's another thing to treat "Fire Fatalities" and homicides like they're retired basketball superstars. To be sure, the NYPD and FDNY have done a commendable job keeping NYC safe, but every number on those triumphant banners represents people who are now dead.
The NYPD was proud enough they also Tweeted a photo of one of the banners. It's really too bad about their tone-deafness, considering the fact we were really starting to get into the pre-event DJ set, which included cutting-edge tunes such as "Jamboree" by Naughty By Nature, "Sexual Healing" by Shaggy ft. Marvin Gaye, and "Where My Girls At" by 702.
