DE BLASIO’S NEW YORK: Worse than war: My night besieged by looters and thugs in NYC.

Related: Cuomo and de Blasio are refusing to face what rioting means for New York. “The thing with anarchists, with rioters and with looters is that if you give them an inch, they’ll take your city’s soul. And it has been the policy of New York City for several nights now to give them as many inches as they demand. . . . Let’s be frank: The notion that the actions of four cops in Minnesota on Memorial Day in any way justifies the continued fracturing of New York City’s social order 10 days later is nonsense on its face. And the willingness of Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Cuomo to tolerate what has been happening in New York since last Friday — violence is rampant upstate as well — is scandalous beyond words. For the two of them, it’s always been better to do nothing than to alienate an interest group — but effectively accelerating municipal mayhem through studied inaction is something altogether new.”

Between pandemics and unfettered violence, America’s big blue cities are undoing three decades of image rehabilitation in just a few weeks.