First of all, to answer the question posed by commenter no. 1: I do not wonder. Regrettably, there are murders every day in New York, and the Torah tells us that each human life is infinitely valuable, whether it is Menachem Stark or Mike Jones or Mustafa Jackson or Julio Sanchez. It is not the New York mayor’s job to say kaddish for every murdered citizen, or to criticize every piece of outrageous nonsense that gets printed by the New York Post. That would be a full-time job all by itself, and not one that taxpayers should pay for.

As for the Post’s misinterpretation of Ms. McCray’s remarks and the headline it published trumpeting that misinterpretation, I would cut any politician some slack when a serial piece of junk like the Post defames his spouse or other member of his family.

As for commenter no. 2′s continuing failure to understand (a) that a passenger (Bill DeBlasio) is not responsible for the speeding and other traffic violations of his driver (police officers specially trained in high-speed driving on low-speed roads), or (b) the security requirements of the mayor of a major US and world city, I suspect that his/her failure of understanding is not honest ignorance but unfounded dislike of the mayor. There is nothing hypocritical about a mayor who follows the instructions of his security detail.

Now for the halachic question: Can one daven in the presence of a copy of the New York Post? And does the answer depend on the content of the particular edition that is present at davening, or should we “build a fence” and never daven in the presence of the Post?

Who is spinning? I didn’t even vote for him!

“something that is totally off topic.”

The topic is what to do about the New York Post, a truly evil newspaper. But apparently nobody else cares to stand up for Menachem Stark z’l.