How the police tactic 'Broken Windows' encourages cops to prey on people of color
Last summer, a New York City police officer choked a black grandfather named Eric Garner to death. Garner was suspected of selling loose cigarettes. The arrests of people like Garner are part of a controversial policing tactic called 'Broken Windows.' Broken Windows claims to prevent large crimes by cracking down on small ones. But it’s really about controlling and punishing communities of color, through police encounters that can sometimes be deadly.

By Molly Crabapple | Originally Published at Fusion. February 3, 2015 8:12 AM

“Every time you see me you want to harass me.” The “Broken Windows” theory is not merely a theory but a policy that not only permits, but encourages “discretionary” arrests for “misdemeanors like subway misdemeanors like subway graffiti turnstile jumping or jaywalking. …”

“”Broken Windows” policing doesn’t mean cops will fix up poor neighborhoods. It means they will arrest poor people It only focuses on crimes done by the powerless. It’s really about controlling communities of color, arresting people for minor non-existent crimes then funneling then through courts and prisons.”

There is no evidence that “Broken Windows” policing makes community safer. Being searched and questioned by police is intrusive and demeaning….The stops are far from polite.” New York Police Commissioner William Bratton tells us the policy is needed. This begs the question. Is this what we call “quality of life policing?”

Molly Crabapple is an artist and writer living in New York. Her memoir Drawing Blood will be published by HarperCollins in November 2015. Her work has been described as “God’s own circus posters,” by Rolling Stone, but beneath the lavishly detailed surface, it engages injustice and rebellion.

Because of Molly’s 2013 solo exhibition, Shell Game, a series of large-scale paintings about the revolutions of 2011, she was called “an emblem of the way that art could break out of the gilded gallery” by The New Republic. She was shortlisted for a 2013 Frontline Print Journalism Award for her internationally-acclaimed reportage on Guantanamo Bay, and received a Gold Rush Award in 2014.
Molly is a contributing editor for VICE and has written for The New York Times, The Paris Review, Vanity Fair, The Guardian, CNN and Newsweek. Her published books include Discordia (with Laurie Penny; Random House, 2012) on the Greek economic crisis and the art books Devil in the Details and Week in Hell (IDW 2012).

Molly has been called “equal parts Hieronymus Bosch, William S. Burroughs and Cirque du Soleil,” by The Guardian; “THE artist of our time” by comedian Margaret Cho, and “a brilliant and principled artist” by BoingBoing. She spent four years as the staff artist of The Box, one of the world’s most lavish (and notorious) nightclubs. Molly has taken her sketchbook from burlesque halls to refugee camps, always with a skeptical eye for power.

Molly is the illustrator of Matt Taibbi’s New York Times bestseller, The Divide. She has collaborated with Spike Jonze to create backdrops for the 2013 YouTube Music Video Awards, and with Esperanza Spalding on projections for her concerts. She created art for Patton Oswalt’s DVD, Tragedy Plus Comedy Equals Time.

This piece was reprinted by EmpathyEducates with permission or license. We thank the Author, Artist Molly Crabapple for her kindness, observations, masterful artistry, and research. We think her work invites a much-needed conversation and action.