Disillusionment Caused by Violent Crime

Regarding PAW’s April 2024 column “One Man’s Experience Taking Down Trump,” both Ms. Bordonaro, the interviewer, and Mr. Snell, the interviewed author of the book Taking Down Trump, started from a shared conclusion of “the importance of restoring faith in the American judicial system.” Mr. Snell opined that this restoration is needed to counter the “pessimism, if not outright cynicism, about whether justice is possible.” Mr. Snell’s reference was to “a certain class of super oligarchs who are above the law” such as Mr. Trump, in his opinion. But Mr. Trump was apparently held accountable, as described in Mr. Snell’s book.

Isn’t the current disillusionment with the American judicial system much less a consequence of Mr. Trump’s doings than the far more prevalent and devastating cases of brutal crime, such as the recent murder of New York City police officer Jonathan Diller by Guy Rivera, who, according to The New York Times, “had been arrested nearly two dozen times before, mostly on drug-related and assault charges”?

One can only wonder where was Mr. Snell, a former New York State assistant attorney general, when Guy Rivera was threading his way through the New York judicial system to emerge on the street, ready, willing, and able to kill Jonathan Diller? Where is Mr. Snell’s professed commitment to hold Guy Rivera to account for his many heinous crimes and where is Mr. Snell’s expressed sympathy for Jonathan Diller’s widow and 1-year-old child? There has been no mention on Mr. Snell’s X (formerly Twitter) site. Why is that?