Giuliani popularized "broken windows" policing. Pantaleo was the poster boy 4 this type pf policing

[Lee-Lee]

16. Broken Windows type policing has to be balanced with a reasonable amount of regulation

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.