N.Y.’s broken promise to victims

This month, we witnessed a targeted assassination on New York City’s streets. It was a heinous act and the reaction has been equally alarming.

In normal times, this would have brought outrage from all corners. Today, we’ve seen a more sinister response — a barrage of internet memes, and some shockingly going as far as to celebrate this cold-blooded murder. We must look in the mirror, ask how we got here, and figure out how we can fix it.

The flippant response to the assassination of a health care executive is a symptom of a far deeper societal wound — a systemic failure that threatens the very foundation of our democratic promise. Americans have lost trust in our institutions.

I see it firsthand in my work as the founder of the Coalition for Just and Compassionate Compensation (CJCC) — where we have pushed for months to ensure that survivors of childhood sexual abuse receive full restitution under New York’s Child Victims Act (CVA).

Our work has positioned us at the epicenter of institutional betrayal. We have witnessed firsthand how complex systems can grind down the most vulnerable among us. The CVA was meant to be a beacon of hope, a mechanism of justice. And while it has offered hope, it has become a labyrinth of legal obstruction, with the vast majority of survivors still fighting for the most basic acknowledgment of their suffering.

Survivors and advocates have uncovered an alarming pattern. Insurance companies like Chubb have led the way in deploying sophisticated legal strategies designed not to adjudicate claims, but to exhaust survivors’ resolve — not just in New York, but around the nation.

It’s these types of actions that our elected and regulatory leaders are supposed to defend against. Instead, they’ve thrown their hands in the air, and taken absolutely no initiative to solve the problem. It’s no wonder the people have lost trust.

The New York Department of Financial Services for example, has transformed from a regulatory guardian to a corporate shield. Despite hearing pleas from survivors across the state, the department has refused to enforce its own guidance calling on insurance companies to comply with the intent of the CVA.

Instead, the agency and its leader give cover to the insurance industry, with the excuse that there is ongoing litigation and therefore they can’t do anything. Where once we envisioned an agency committed to protecting citizens, we now witness an institution that seemingly exists to protect the insurers — co-conspirators who for decades pocketed billions in premiums and helped to conceal abuse by quietly paying off claims.

Our work with survivors has shown us that the pain is not just individual, but systemic. Artificial intelligence now determines when medical treatments can end, reducing human suffering to algorithmic calculations. Health care has transformed from a human right to a profit-driven enterprise.

Let me be unequivocally clear: Violence is never the answer, and we must condemn it in every form. We can’t be a nation where one individual can play judge, jury, and executioner.

But when a murder in New York City’s streets is met with memes instead of mourning, it’s a condemnation of where we are as a society. When the government becomes a co-conspirator with corporate interests, we create a powder keg of social tension.

The moment we’re in today isn’t about insurance, or health care, or any one issue — it’s about the failures of our institutions to maintain the trust of those they serve. It is a reflection of a society pushed to its breaking point, where institutional mechanisms of justice have been compromised until individuals lose faith in them entirely. We can’t just look away.

It’s on leaders to take action to restore people’s belief that our government serves their interests, not the interests of the wealthy and the powerful. To reclaim the promise of representative government — a government that serves the people, not corporate ledgers.

Gov. Hochul’s swift rebuke of Anthem’s attempt to strip coverage from New Yorkers under anesthesia serves as a great example of elected leaders’ power to affect change.

Hochul should use that power to not let her own state agencies serve corporate interests over the people who elected her. She needs to use that power to give long overdue justice to the survivors of child sexual abuse.

The alternative — a society where frustration metastasizes into violence — is unacceptable. We are better than this. We must be better than this.

Catalfamo is the founder of the Coalition for Justice and Compassionate Compensation.