The scene was comical and unnerving. High summer in Manhattan, the entire island under a furnace, the tourists red-faced and antsy and not far from Carnegie Hall, a street vendor switching from sales to flight mode. He had handbags and purses laid out on a rug and spoke in a strong African accent. An associate of his came sprinting down from the next block and within seconds, the wares were scooped up in the rug, bundled into a nearby trolley even as a car with officers inside came crawling down the avenue. <\/p>\n
The vendor ducked behind parked cars and played a game of cat and mouse with the police car before making a dash up the avenue and disappearing into the crowd. He was laughing, as though avoiding the threat of arrest, incarceration and deportation had become just another part of his day.<\/p>\n
The scene came to mind watching the coalition of political faces and voices gathered in New York<\/a> on Thursday night in advance of the court appearance of the state\u2019s attorney general in Virginia on Friday morning. <\/p>\n Letitia James is facing two felony charges<\/a>, of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution relating to a home purchase in Virginia. The indictment claims she intended using it as a rental rather than residential property, and avoided a higher interest rate. Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, said the case against James is \u201cthe culmination of one man\u2019s revenge tour. And that man is Donald Trump<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMy question is this,\u201d she continued. \u201cIf they can do this to an attorney general of a state like New York, heaven help the rest of us. Because they can come after anyone. And they\u2019re coming after people \u2013 they came after people on Canal Street just hours ago. They are coming after people who came here in search of a better life, people who are part of our own family. It has to stop. But also: what kind of country do you want to live in? A country where the president can jail his political opponents? Where government is used as a weapon against adversaries?\u201d<\/p>\n