New York City is heading in the wrong direction — and Rafael Mangual of the Manhattan Institute is here to explain exactly why.

In this episode, Lou and Rafael break down the real story behind the Washington Square Park snowball attack on NYPD officers, the media's deliberate misframing of the Gracie Mansion IED attack, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's dangerous blind spots on public safety, and why the city's revolving-door criminal justice system keeps putting violent repeat offenders back on the street.

Topics include:

• The Washington Square Park "snowball fight" — what really happened
• Anti-police disrespect and what it signals about NYC's future
• The Gracie Mansion IED attack and the media's shameful spin
• Mayor Mamdani's failure to name the perpetrators or their motivations
• Why disbanding the NYPD's Strategic Response Group is a dangerous idea
• The revolving door of criminal justice (the average prisoner has 10–12 prior arrests before incarceration)
• New York as a "luxury product" — and why people are leaving

Rafael Mangual is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of Criminal (In)Justice. His work appears in City Journal, the New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal.

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Lou Perez is a comedian, author, and producer. He's appeared on Gutfeld!, FOX News Primetime, and One Nation with Brian Kilmeade. He was Head Writer and Producer of the Webby Award-winning We the Internet TV, and his sketch "Wolverine's Claws Suck" has over 20 million views. He hosts The Lou Perez Podcast on the Lions of Liberty Network.