Lexis Figuereo, the leader of Saratoga Black Lives Matter, during a news conference at City Hall in October 2024.

There are two ways of looking at activist Lexis Figuereo and his regular interactions with law enforcement. Those who view him as a social justice warrior exercising his First Amendment rights might accuse the authorities of targeting him for his views, and might see racism as a potential contributing factor in that pursuit. Others who see Mr. Figuereo as an irritant to public order might, with equal fervor, accuse the authorities of persistent incompetence in their attempts to hold him to account.

It is, of course, possible for two things to be true at the same time: Authorities have targeted Mr. Figuereo for his speech, as the state attorney general concluded in a 2024 report; and local authorities have displayed a level of incompetence that should enrage city residents, both for its injustice and for its potential taxpayer price tag.

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