For more than a year now, an only-in-New York transportation nightmare has been caused by the case of Joaquin Guzman Loera, the Mexican drug lord best known as El Chapo.
In a highly unusual move, Mr. Guzman is facing trial in Brooklyn, but, because of his proclivity for breaking out of prison, he is being held in a high-security federal jail in Lower Manhattan.
Every few months or so, whenever he is called to go to court, something awful happens: The police must close the entire Brooklyn Bridge, stranding hundreds of motorists as the world's biggest drug lord is swept across the East River in a speeding motorcade of heavily armored cars.
And when the trial begins in November, the traffic could get worse because Mr. Guzman will need to be escorted over the span twice a day, for up to four months. These closures would happen, inconveniently enough, precisely during the morning and evening rush hours.
This temporary gridlock brought on by the criminal-justice system has not only annoyed those who use the bridge, but has given Mr. Guzman's lawyers ground to complain. Earlier this year they asked a judge to move the trial to Manhattan -- or even Philadelphia -- claiming the "spectacle" of shutting down a major traffic artery could prejudice a jury of commuters against their client.
