Applying 'Broken Windows' to the Police
Applying 'Broken Windows' to the Police
In poorer neighborhoods, overly aggressive officers are too often a source of community anxiety. Their misbehavior contributes to disorder.
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[J]ust as neighborhood thugs could once break windows with impunity, police can generally kill with impunity. They can shoot unarmed men and lie about it. They can roll up and execute a child with a toy as casually as one might in Grand Theft Auto. They can bumble around opening doors with their gun hand and kill bystanders, like a character in a dark farce, with little fear of serious consequences. They can choke you to death for getting a little mouthy about selling loose cigarettes. They can shoot you because they aren't clear on who the bad guy is, and they can shoot you because they're terrible shots, and they can shoot you because they saw something that might be a weapon in your hand—something that can be ... any fucking thing at all, including nothing.
... We're not pursuing the breakers of windows. If anything, we are permitting the system ... to entrench their protected right to act that way. We give them ... third and fourth chances. We pretend they have supernatural powers of crime detection even when science shows that's bullshit. We fight desperately to support their word even when they are proven liars. We sneer that "criminals have too many rights," then give the armed representatives of our government stunning levels of procedural protections when they abuse or even kill us.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/applying-broken-windows-to-the-police/383490/
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