William and Kate hit New York: bad cops, bad vibes, bad timing

Will Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge’s jaunt to New York turn out to be a Marie Antoinette moment?

The timing of their arrival – at the super-posh Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side by cavalcade yesterday afternoon – was hardly their fault. But after days and nights of protest over the police killing of the unarmed black man Eric Garner, New York has rarely looked closer to the Dickensian model of the Tale of Two Cities.

And there could hardly be a more vivid demonstration of what that means in real life than a royal visit by the young couple who, in American eyes, are the true heirs of the beloved, ill-starred Princess Di.

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Just for a start, the small army of cops “guaranteeing” their safety at every move – siren-wailing escorts, traffic police shutting down junctions, snipers posted around the Carlyle – are the same cops who have been displaying their militaristic skills cracking skulls to protect the gilded streets of Manhattan since a grand jury decided last Wednesday that it was okay for a police officer to kill Garner with an illegal choke-hold while arresting him for the grave crime of selling single cigarettes on the street.

“They will have beefed up security, particularly after all the protests,” the police department told the New York Post. “You’ll have an intel unit working with the royals’ dignitaries. They’ll make sure that nothing happens when they’re here.”

While many of those – the young and the minorities - who have been demonstrating night after night, in cities all over America as well as New York, will be returning to lives familiar with the poverty illustrated by the buying and selling of single cigarettes on the street, the young royals will be exploring the absolute far end of the spectrum of power and wealth.

Last night’s kick-off was a fund-raiser for the Royal Foundation, the charity operated for the Cambridges and Prince Harry, at the mansion-sized Manhattan home of the British marketing and advertising tycoon Sir Martin Sorrell.

The evening was billed on official news releases as “private”, and the press were not wanted, but it’s been reported that 15 couples paid $50,000 each to shake hands and dine with the Cambridges.

But this “private” affair was nothing compared to the treat that awaits the royal couple tomorrow night, after they have visited the 9/11 memorial museum at the World Trade Center and shaken a few more hands around town.

They will be feted at a gala set within the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, held to raise funds for their alma mater, St Andrews University, where they met. Tom Hanks will give the speech, as his daughter also went there. The 450 guests have paid $100,000 a table to attend. Vanity Fair has posted a feature on its website advising on royal protocol.

If it gets any better than that, it could only be William and Kate’s trip to the Barclay Stadium to watch a basketball match, in the company of Jay Z and Beyoncé, hailed by the local tabloids as “New York’s own Royalty”. Groovy.

It is not all play. Today William flies to Washington to meet President Obama to talk about international wildlife conservation. It is remarkable that the second in line to the old throne across the pond still has access to the President of the United States.

Meanwhile in New York, the Duchess will be engaged in the most delicate “duty” of the trip. It could be a PR triumph, or disaster: she is setting out in the footsteps of Princess Diana to visit a child development centre for poor black children in Harlem. Even the Palace flacks are said to be anxious.

She is going with Chirlane McCray, the black wife of black city mayor Bill de Blasio. Will this be seen as a worthy gesture to include all New Yorkers in the glow of the Princess, or will it be greeted on the streets of Harlem as an insult?

It would be illuminating to know what de Blasio and McCray are saying over the kitchen table ahead of today’s gig. The eruption of rage against a police force, in New York and elsewhere, which has become visibly, alarmingly militarised and increasingly violent - with apparent impunity - towards black men, at the very least puts the New York City mayor in a delicate position.

He was elected as the “anti-elite” mayor who would represent change from the “one per-center” domination of the city, and whose first and last campaign pledge had been to get an overly aggressive police force off the backs of black and brown men.

Now, while the country reels from a succession of police killings which look very much like unpunished murder, and the penny drops that since 9/11 an America taught to live in fear of terrorism has allowed its police forces to become something akin to an army of occupation, the mayor and his wife are hobnobbing with the ultimate in international “elite”.

If there is one event on the royal calendar screaming for attention from the demonstrators, it is the Cambridges’ visit to Harlem.

The cops have assured all concerned that they will keep the royal party safe, and indeed with all the practice they have had of late, we need not doubt them.