A lot of people are making this about how unfair New York is, as if the issue is New York (or other liberal cities). Its not. The issue is our government has been hollowed out by big business interests and their political supporters; it's gotten to the point where there's no recourse for individuals. We need to write laws that have actual protections for individuals, and actual penalties. If a law guarantees a right, but has no recourse if that right is taken, well then the law doesn't actually guarantee anything at all.

Chomsky has an interesting take that seems relevant too:

> And the other leading propaganda theme — and I don’t mean by that, you know, like, just what you hear in the newspapers- read in the newspapers and so on, like the entertainment industry and television and everything else — is anti-politics. Meaning, setting up a picture — it’s called anti-politics — the picture — but a very specific kind of anti-politics — you have to establish the image, you know, get into people’s heads, that the Government is the enemy- the Federal Government. State Governments are okay, because they can be sort of controlled by business anyway, so it doesn’t matter. But the Federal Government is sometimes a little too big to be pushed around, so it’s the enemy. And it cannot be, nobody can dream of the possibility, that the Government is of, by, and for the people. That’s impossible. It’s an enemy to be hated and feared.

https://chomsky.info/19960413/