Broken Windows. Broken People. Is this 'Quality of Life' Policing?
Prior to the adoption of 'Broken Windows' policing there were 'Safe and Clean Neighborhoods'…Residents beamed and 'seemed to take fewer steps to protect themselves from crime.'

By Betsy L. Angert | Originally published at EmpathyEducates February 3, 2015 — Updated April 30, 2015 | Photographic Credit; The Art of Molly Crabapple

You can see the fear on our children’s faces. Parents and grandparents too wear the pain. For the families of color times have not changed. The “talks” are many. For the most part, it is all the same. Except there is a difference. Decades ago, we adopted Broken Windows policing policies. [If you have never read the theory, go ahead, have some “fun!” After all that is what “respectable whites” do when police on patrol dislike a policy.]

Prior to the adoption of “Broken Windows” policing there were “”Safe and Clean Neighborhoods,” at least that was the Program in place in Newark, New Jersey. While crime did not significantly wane, innocent law-abiding residents and indeed, police were not blamed. Foot patrolled neighborhoods, if not verifiable by the numbers, seemed to feel more secure. Residents felt safer than persons in other areas. People tended to believe that crime was less of a problem. Residents beamed and “seemed to take fewer steps to protect themselves from crime.” People felt free to partake in local activities. People were out and about. People sat on their front porches and chatted away for hours. Children played. Block parties were not uncommon. Doors went unlocked. And “moreover, citizens in the foot-patrol areas had a more favorable opinion of the police than did those living elsewhere. Officers walking beats had higher morale, greater job satisfaction, and a more favorable attitude toward citizens in their neighborhoods than did officers assigned to patrol cars.” But then, there were those pesky numbers and the “evidence.”

As Criminologist George L. Kelling and Sociologist James Q. Wilson observed, “the skeptics were right- foot patrol has no effect on crime; it merely fools the citizens into thinking that they are safer. “ Being fooled or not there might be something to say for a sense of safety security. The assurance that we, the community and police, are working together to preserve and protect the peace could be a comfort, were it not for the numbers.

But no. As nation we have our priorities. A reduction of crime gets politicians elected. As Mayor Giuliani exclaimed in his 1995 State of the City Address “By enforcing the laws against aggressive panhandlers, squeegee operators and graffiti vandals, we’ve made our city more liveable, improving the quality of life.” In New York City, there is a war on ostensible crime, drugs, and Artists.

Giuliani’s [and now again DeBlasio’s appointee] William Bratton understands the mission. . Indeed as recently as April 30, 2015 NYPD Commissioner William Bratton Defends ‘Broken Windows’ Policing . He said he was doubling down” on his defense of what the New York Police Department characterizes as ” quality-of-life policing,” After all, it is all about the numbers. Desk Appearance Tickets (DAT) versus making defendants go immediately before a judge for an arraignment? Raise the number of wrongful arrests, let alone the number of unjust, unlawful deaths.

There is no talk of the latter, except on the streets. Protesters have read the analysis . They live it!

What about those numbers? According to The New York Civil Liberties Union “Roughly 81% of the 7.3 million people hit with petty infraction violations between 2001 and 2013 were black and Hispanic.” Is the policy and or execution of it racially biased?

Let us look at the faces, the places, and also the races. A white officer, Officer Daniel Pantaleo denies culpability in Eric Garner’s death. A sexual lawsuit Mister Garner filed seven years earlier from Riker’s Island Prison is dismissed. Stop and Frisk continues. It is permitted and practiced!

A Harlem teen is stopped. When asked why he was being arrested, he was told because You are a“F**king Mutt“, not a person, just another of the many out on the streets.

An eighty-four year old New York City man was beaten, bloodied, and ticketed for jaywalking. A New York cop put a seven-month pregnant woman in a chokehold. He cited her for illegal barbeque grilling. After an Officer wittingly fired his gun blindly into a darkened housing project stairwell he and his partner squabbled over whether to tell their superiors about the shot. Later, once charged with the killing of Akai Gurley. the Policeman confesses.

This is America. This is where we live. Will we forget what we did?

We Broke Windows. We Broke People. We tore communities asunder. Now the question is will we do?

Will we remember the people lost? Will we honor their lives or only record them as hashtags that pass in the night? Perhaps, we might recall when people and neighborhoods felt safe. When doors were left unlocked. Might we remember the friendly neighborhood cop?

What will we do? Will we, individually and or collectively, do all we can to ensure untainted Community Policing?

Related Read and Video Journalism; How ‘Broken Windows’ Policing Harms People of Color

Reference and Resources…