General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGiuliani popularized "broken windows" policing. Pantaleo was the poster boy 4 this type pf policing
Hence Guiliani's recent racial meltdown. The protests are an indictment against his policies (and Bratton)http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/12/the_big_idea_that_killed_eric_garner.htmlThe broken windows theory was introduced by two social scientists in a 1982 magazine article and gained traction in New York. It posits that poorly maintained urban environments with dirty streets, abandoned buildings and the like attract crime, while well-kept communities are more law-abiding.
Giuliani, who is largely credited with popularizing the strategy, could not be reached for comment on Friday. He said on Fox News on Thursday that the police response to Garner was justified because he did not cooperate with law enforcement.
But critics say police have stretched the theory beyond its original intent into an indiscriminate zero-tolerance policy.
If the problem is a broken window they should fix the window, said City University of New York law school professor Steve Zeidman. But somehow we dont fix the window, we just arrest people who start hanging out by the broken window.
https://bangordailynews.com/2014/12/05/news/nation/ny-chokehold-death-focuses-public-attention-on-controversial-police-tactics/
--------
As WNYCs Robert Lewis reported back in September, Pantaleo is a poster boy for broken windows policing. Hes been on the force since 2007, and in that time records show him as the arresting officer in 259 criminal court cases. They are overwhelmingly for minor crimes like pot possession; just 24 of them were for felonies. Two-thirds of Pantaleos cases that made it to court ended with a dismissal or a guilty plea to a disorderly conduct violation, Lewis reported, which is a little more serious than a speeding ticket. He is one of the most active cops on Staten Island.
This is what broken windows cops are supposed to do. They beef up their ranks in priority neighborhoods and get in folks faces over anything and everything. Ive lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, for about a decade. Our neighborhood has for many years been on NYPDs list of target spots for broken windowsimpact zones, as theyre called. Its unexceptional here to swap stories of run-ins with bizarrely unreasonable copstelling us stop lingering by the subway entrance, to get out of the street, to move along. Eric Garners frustrated response to that constant harassment will appear routine to anyone whos lived in neighborhoods like ours. Hed just broken up a fight, and now here was NYPD in his face, again. Every time you see me you wanna arrest me, Garner snapped. Im tired of it. It stops today.
NYPD brass had ordered the 120th precinct to make a priority out of interrupting the sale of untaxed cigarettes, according to a Daily News report just after Garners death. It was a recurring quality-of-life issue, a spokesperson told the paper. Garner had been arrested for violating New Yorkers quality of life in this way eight times. So Pantaleo and his colleagues were doing their job and doing it well. And when Garner pushed back on their outsized response to his petty alleged crime, they escalated further. After all, that is the oxymoronic premise of broken windows policing: the cops should escalate things in order to keep things under control, and that will keep us all safe.
The contradictions within this idea beg unpleasant questions: Who is us and what is danger? Commissioner Bill Bratton gave some indication of the us and them of New York City crime and safety not long after he took the departments helm. In a March speech at the Waldorf-Astoria, Bratton reassured business leaders that hed stand firm behind broken windows policing.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)What a monumental bullshit claim on their part.
Recommended.
Response to Liberal_in_LA (Original post)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)You should be ashamed to be paying taxes to support cops murdering young black males.
I am.
Well, except I'm retired on SS so don't really pay much tax anymore.
Response to 99th_Monkey (Reply #4)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
A Simple Game
(9,214 posts)Even if it hadn't ended in a death, what is the cost/benefit analysis on that arrest? I will not accept any intangible BS. If a jurisdiction can allocate that many cops to a petty infraction they have too many cops or aren't utilizing them efficiently. Time for a serious study on force deployment and/or amount of cops on the job.
The least that should be done is to weed out the known liabilities. You cost a municipality X number of dollars or have X number of proven infractions, you should be automatically terminated.
But I digress, I don't want the cops to be treated any worse than I would be if I choked a person to death on the street. After taking their badge and gun they should be placed in a cell until it is all sorted out, preferably by a trial. Just like any other person on the street, no better, no worse.
Response to A Simple Game (Reply #12)
Warren DeMontague This message was self-deleted by its author.
former9thward
(32,000 posts)When Giuliani took over there were about 2300 murders a year. He brought that down to about 500. Go tell people in Harlem and Brooklyn it didn't work. See what your reception would be...
Yes,I know there were other factors that played into it. But to suggest it did not work is ridiculous.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)on Wall Street had been punished just like the broken windows elsewhere.
What is more serious to our society?
Selling pot on the corner of the street or selling worthless derivatives all over the world?
Which really does more harm?
If we passed and then enforced laws that gave us the ability to fix the broken "windows" and fraudulent mortgage documents and fraudulent derivatives and bank practices that are slick and dishonest, then think how much trouble we could avoid.
I'm not a fan of pot-smoking much less pot-selling, but there are more serious misdeeds that are not punished and even some that aren't against the law.
napkinz
(17,199 posts)former9thward
(32,000 posts)The fact that we did not, does not invalidate the theory.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)It was almost like being in a Mad Max world. Pretty sad and disgusting. I was glad they finally cleaned it up and started this broken windows community policing idea to clean it up. Stopping the small crap to prevent the serious stuff. Maybe the cops need more training for working with the residents rather than against them.
A Simple Game
(9,214 posts)To credit Giuliani for that would make no sense.
Clinton's COPS program probably had some impact also.
The economy probably had more to do with it than any police programs or actions.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Their business. Literally, white guys see black/brown get the humiliating treatment while they are left untouched. The unspoken is that all black/brown males are criminals - just haven't been caught yet. Pull them aside for patdowns. Pull their cars over for searches until you find evidence. Or maybe they will react angrily to their 30th patdown of the year and they can be arrested for resisting police.
nilesobek
(1,423 posts)to arrest minor street crime offenders occurred. He was taking credit for all this but he really just transferred the problem across the river to NJ. Its a "quality of life," issue with bozos like Ghoul Boy. The rest of us humans interfere with his, "quality of life."
Cha
(297,196 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)When we used it in the areas of my county we did so using just state law. Crime went way down.
Of course it was a multi-pronged approach where it wasn't just enforcing the laws, it was coming down on landlords with substandard rentals via building and fire codes, cracking down on zoning violations, working with schools and programs for kids when we identified the at-risk kids to get them real support, and working with churches and non-profits to bring job training, food assistance and lots more.
But when you have a city like NYC with huge, huge volumes of laws they expect to be enforced, along with more laws at the state level in NY than we had in NC, and any focus on crime goes far deeper into how people are acting and how many violations there are.
Quite literally had I seen anyone selling loosies when I was a deputy it wouldn't even cross my mind that was illegal. Local officers didn't have a thing to do with enforcing any kind of local taxes like that. I wouldn't have even known where to start, and had I researched it and written a ticket or made an arrest the sheriff and DA probably would have both called me in for an ass chewing.
The problem in NY is less about the Broken Windows theory and far more about how the laws there are some voluminous and far reaching into almost every aspect of human activity that the city pretty much creates a mess where law enforcement of one form or another is deep into almost everything you do.