Cross-Examination

• The politics of a slain cop: “The city is mourning a cop … but Stephanie and Ryan are mourning their everything.” So said Father Michael Duffy, the priest who led the funeral service of Jonathan Diller, 31, the New York City cop who was murdered last week by a Democrat-enabled recidivist dog with 21 prior arrests and a homemade shiv hidden in his rectum. Father Duffy was speaking of Diller’s wife and baby boy, and he would know: He married the couple in August 2019. Against this backdrop of grief and anger, the New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association strongly advised the city’s anti-cop politicians to stay away from the funeral service. “They detest cops and have no appreciation for what they do,” said SBA President Vincent Vallelong. “They have caused enough heartbreak and destruction.” Were New York Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul a bit more self-aware, she’d have stayed away, too. Instead, she sought out a photo op, appearing at the service despite not having been invited. It didn’t go well. Hochul and her entourage were confronted by a mourner who appeared to point them back from whence they came. This is in stark contrast to a politician who was welcomed at the service — former President Donald Trump, who had earlier flown to Long Island to meet with grieving relatives and hundreds of Diller’s fellow officers. “In life, some things just capture a moment, and this captured a moment,” Trump said after leaving Massapequa Funeral Home. “This particular great officer, top of his class — he captured a moment. The perfect family has been so tragically altered, forever altered.” Trump added that something must come from Jonathan Diller’s death. “We have to do a lot of things differently,” he said, “because this is not working.” Meanwhile, just 38 miles away at Radio City Music Hall in downtown Manhattan, three Democrat presidents — Biden, Obama, Clinton — were yukking it up and raising millions to defeat Trump in November.

• Pro-Hamas protesters disrupt Easter Mass: One thing has become increasingly clear with the Left: Nothing is sacred to them except the supremacy of a Godless state. We saw another example of this over the weekend when the Easter Mass at Manhattan’s iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral was disrupted by a handful of pro-Hamas rabble. As the New York Post reports: “A trio of attention-seeking protesters — one of whom previously glued his feet to the stands at the US Open as part of a climate-change stunt — were cuffed and hauled out of St. Patrick’s Cathedral after disrupting Easter Mass with shouts of ‘Free Palestine’ on Saturday night, cops say.” Three protesters were rightly taken into custody, but we aren’t holding our breath for a stern sentence. After all, what’s a little innocent disruption of the holiest event on the Christian calendar? “Not inside the church,” said one churchgoer who attended the service, which was led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. “Outside, they can be as free as they please. Gaza is a really bad situation, but this is a place of sanctuary for us. Have a little respect, please.”

• Despicable: Image of Hamas parading dead Jewish woman gets top prize: Those who are protesting Israel’s efforts to smash the barbaric Hamas hordes who butchered some 1,200 innocent Israelis on October 7 are to this point suspiciously silent about the awarding of a prestigious photo-of-the-year prize to a sickening Associated Press image of Hamas terrorists in a pickup truck showing off the unconscious and mostly nude body of 23-year-old German-Israeli tattoo artist Shani Louk, who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while attending a music festival and whose body was later found beheaded in Gaza. Critics rightly called the photographic award “an outrageous desecration of Jewish life.” As the New York Post reports: “The grim photo featuring Shani Louk’s body was among a collection of 20 images that helped the Associated Press secure first place in one of the Pictures of the Year International award categories earlier this month. The awards, which are run by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism, are self-described as the world’s oldest photojournalism competition.” Typifying the outrage was this comment on X: “I am DISGUSTED, SHOCKED and ENRAGED that this AP image of a murdered Shani Louk from October 7th was given picture of the year. This is the value of Israeli women to you?”

• Mayorkas trashes Texas in Guatemala: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to the Central American country of Guatemala last week, where he was ostensibly working to tackle the problem of illegal mass migration to the U.S. During the visit with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo, Mayorkas took the opportunity to slam Texas over its efforts to do what the Biden administration has refused to do: stop the flow of illegal aliens into the country. During a press conference, Mayorkas stated, “It is our strongly held view as a matter of law that SB4 [the Texas law] … is unconstitutional and it is our hope and confidence that the courts will strike it down with finality." He added, "Should SB4 be permitted to proceed, we are very concerned about the effect it would have and the chaos that it could bring to the challenge of border migration.” The truth is that SB4 allows local law enforcement in Texas to arrest illegal aliens for being in the Lone Star State illegally. One would think that anything that would dissuade anyone from considering illegally entering the U.S. would be welcomed by a government concerned about enforcing border security. However, stopping that flow of illegal migrants is not something the Biden administration can abide by, ergo Mayorkas’s ridiculous doublespeak against SB4 while he is supposedly in Guatemala seeking to address the problem of illegal immigration.

• Illegals over military families: It’s one thing for a government to prioritize the interests of noncitizens over citizens, but it’s a whole other level of despicable for that government to prioritize illegal aliens over military members and their families — Patriots who have given their lives to serve, protect, and defend our nation’s very existence. Yet this is the reality in New York City, where a $53 million program grants upwards of $1,440 a month to illegal alien families of four. According to a recent report from the Military Times, the NYC program gives seven times more money to illegals than to the families of deployed troops. So, an illegal migrant family gets $1,440 a month through NYC’s debit card program, whereas a deployed soldier receives $399.90 a month. Illegal migrants are given free money for entering the country illegally, while American military service members are earning their bread with their blood. How is this even remotely equitable, never mind just?

• Crime-fighting in New York It’s hard to fall off the floor, and that’s precisely where hapless New York City Mayor Eric Adams finds himself these days, as the city struggles with a wave of frighteningly violent criminality brought about by his Democrat Party’s soft-on-crime policies. On Thursday, Adams announced the city will start using gun scanners in its subway stations, and he spared no hyperbole in breaking the news. “This is our Sputnik moment,” he said. “Like when Kennedy said we’re going to put a man on the moon … let’s bring on the scanners.” As The Washington Free Beacon reports: “Adams noted the new technology would allow NYPD officers to monitor on a screen as commuters walk through the scanners. A weapon’s location would show up as orange on the screen, enabling officers to conduct an immediate search.” A legislative technicality, however, means that the scanners won’t be deployed until late June at the earliest — which also means that the city’s law-abiding citizens, as well as visitors to the Big Apple, will continue to be terrorized. We’re happy that the city has seen fit to try to disarm those who are carrying weapons in violation of local laws, but we’d like to know what the city’s plan is for keeping the citizenry safe from being robbed, stabbed, bludgeoned, punched in the face, or shoved in front of a speeding subway train. Mayor Adams? We’ll wait.

• SBF sentenced: Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-debunked cryptocurrency trading firm FTX, was found guilty of stealing over $8 billion from customers. Last Thursday, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. In his sentencing, Manhattan Judge Lewis Kaplan blasted Bankman-Fried for his “apparent lack of any real remorse.” Kaplan said that Bankman-Fried “presented himself as the good guy” and in favor of “appropriate regulation of the crypto industry,” but it was all an “act.” Kaplan noted that Bankman-Fried “did it because he wanted to be a hugely, hugely politically influential person in this country.” The Democrat mega-donor claimed that FTX’s implosion was entirely due to “bad decisions” and not any criminality, a claim the court rejected. “[Bankman-Fried] knew it was wrong,” Kaplan said. “He knew it was criminal. He regrets that he made a very bad bet about the likelihood of being caught.” Following the sentencing, the 32-year-old Bankman-Fried stated, “My useful life is probably over.”

• Good news: Win for election integrity in PA: Last week, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s law requiring the correct date on mail-in ballots does not infringe on an individual’s right to vote. The issue was whether mail-in ballots that were received in time but failed to include a date or had an incorrect date under the voter’s signature should be counted. The Republican National Committee brought the suit and argued that counting those ballots violated state law. Democrats countered, claiming that the Materiality Provision from the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits the use of “error or omission” as a reason for the denial of a vote if the mistake is “not material in determining whether [an] individual is qualified” to vote. The RNC responded by arguing that the state’s date requirement “does not impinge on the right to vote” and that the Materiality Provision “only prohibits immaterial requirements affecting the qualification and registration of a voter.” The Court agreed with the RNC, explaining the distinction between determining an individual’s right to vote versus following a state’s guidelines for casting a ballot. The Court wrote, “To cast a ballot that is valid and will be counted, all qualified voters must abide by certain requirements, just like those authorized to drive must obey the State’s traffic laws like everyone else.” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley welcomed the decision, calling it “a crucial victory for election integrity and voter confidence.”

Headlines

• Biden declared Easter Sunday “Transgender Day of Visibility” (Daily Wire)

• Leftist churches celebrate “Transgender Day of Visibility” on Easter this year (Fox News)

• Religious-themed designs banned from White House Easter egg art contest (New York Post)

• Biden faces fresh political peril with latest student loans lawsuit (Washington Examiner)

• Biden, Obama, Clinton try to boost Dem enthusiasm with NYC spectacle (Roll Call)

• EPA imposes strict pollution standards for buses and heavy-duty vehicles (National Review)

• U.S. changes how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity (AP)

• Texas judge releases illegal immigrants who rioted and clashed with National Guard at southern border (RedState)

• Alejandro Mayorkas impeachment headed to Senate for April 11 trial (Roll Call)

• Thanks, Biden: Taliban vows it is returning to stoning women to death in public (Daily Wire)

• Satire: Biden condemns Jesus for rising again on “Trans Day of Visibility” (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.