One of the more disturbing truths I’ve begrudgingly accepted is there’s a class of individuals who will never get appropriately punished for their crimes or their negligence that destroyed lives.
Regular people like me can’t go without getting a ticket because we parked on the wrong side of the street on the wrong day — but these people can leave behind a trail of human devastation and sleep comfortably at night knowing nothing will come of it.
This tier has been smothered in the nectar of affluence, gallivants amongst America’s commercial aristocrats and government royalty and sneers at grieving commoners’ trivial concerns.
Andrew Cuomo, prince to the former King of New York Mario Cuomo and former holder of the throne himself, recently had his ivory tower disturbed by members of Congress probing his handling of the pandemic’s most vulnerable population and the deaths that resulted from his decision to place COVID-positive patients back in nursing homes.
“Your testimony is important to uncover the circumstances and policies which led to the death of more than 15,000 New York nursing home residents during your tenure,” House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) wrote the ex-gov.
“The victims’ families deserve to know the truth.”
In response to this request for testimony, documentation and communications related to the nursing-home mandate, Cuomo’s spokesman told The Post, “This is nothing more than another transparent political attempt to weaponize people’s pain to further a craven partisan agenda.”
He blathered, “The inconvenient facts left out is that New York’s health department was one of at least 11 that issued similar guidance — including Utah, Florida and Indiana — which itself was modeled on CMS guidelines. If this wasn’t another Trump-style Blue State deflection, they’d be looking at Ron DeSantis and every other state as well.”
The response from Cuomo’s team is not a denial of his actions but a rationalization of them because other governors were doing it too. (Except DeSantis didn’t.)
Remember, regular people: When you get pulled over by a cop for speeding, saying other people were speeding too isn’t a valid defense.
But for the top of the upper crust like Cuomo, that’s a sufficient tactic to escape responsibility.
Politicians are allergic to accountability anyway, so this type of deflection is no surprise.
Cuomo even declared in an interview this week he doesn’t regret his pandemic policies — including the deadly nursing-home mandate.
Nor does he regret writing a book for $5 million about his “leadership” during the crisis while people died due to his decision-making.
Asked point blank whether he’d testify to Congress, he gave a slippery response: “I’m not going to play any more political games that exploit people’s pain,” he said.
“There are no questions that haven’t been studied and answered by prosecutors and health organizations over and over and over.”
I’ve accepted that people like Cuomo reside on a different tier of legality and liability than me — but this also means I am forced to accept that no form of real justice will ever be given to the families of some of the 15,000 who passed away due to Cuomo’s negligence.
Politicians like Cuomo during the pandemic stood mighty tall in front of the cameras while flexing their government muscle and vehemently demanding obedience to their whimsical dictates to supposedly save lives — but they cower behind excuses of flawed protocols and manipulate data sheets when instead people died.
His top adviser admitted the state hid the true death toll fearing it would “be used against us” by federal prosecutors.
If I were to “Keep it real,” even if Cuomo participated in his own prosecution, nothing would ever come of it.
Cuomo could personally hand over the smoking-gun document showing how he covered up the numbers and was well aware of what was happening but chose to continue: Nothing will happen.
Cuomo could write an O.J. Simpson-style book called “If I Did It” and he wouldn’t suffer any repercussions — but it would make The New York Times Best Seller list.
Cuomo is far too powerful, connected and wealthy to face any lasting consequences for his decisions as the ruler of New York.
I stopped expecting our oligarchs to get the same justice as the rest of us because I realized the more power someone has, the more grace they’re given for their misdeeds.
They’re the most powerful people in the world but simultaneously the most unaccountable when their arm of power extends too far.
When commoners die from the actions of the upper crust, the latter might get sued.
When commoners die from the actions of their peers, the latter lose their freedom.
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on Substack: adambcoleman.substack.com.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
