Broken Windows 101
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The Coalition to End Broken Windows rallied near 1 Police Plaza in January. Photo: EPA
Good thing cops weren’t listening to Melissa Mark-Viverito when they arrested Damien Brunson for jumping a Brooklyn subway turnstile.
The City Council speaker is a big critic of the Broken Windows strategy that helped bring crime in New York down to record lows. She’d rather police treat so-called minor crimes, like evading a subway fare, with a summons or a desk-appearance ticket.
But Brunson’s recent arrest demonstrates just why Broken Windows works — and why it’s still needed.
Cops on patrol nabbed Brunson, 32, after he jumped a turnstile at the High Street IND station. He blamed a MetroCard that wasn’t working, but the officers didn’t just write a ticket, as the speaker would have them do.
Good thing: They found that Brunson was carrying quantities of crack and marijuana, along with a loaded Smith & Wesson .38.
Then they ran his priors — and found seven previous arrests. That’s when the feds stepped in; they’re now prosecuting him on drug and gun-possession charges that could land him behind bars for 10 years.
That’s a textbook case of how Broken Windows is supposed to work.
As cops discovered during Bill Bratton’s first stint as commissioner in the ’90s, many of those arrested for fare-beating weren’t first offenders. In fact, they had criminal records or outstanding warrants — and stopping them got career criminals off the streets.
The fact is, “serious” criminals rarely limit themselves to major, violent crimes. That’s one reason why cracking down on seemingly minor quality-of-life offenses yielded such a trove of dangerous thugs.
As the case of Damien Brunson proves yet again.
As we’ve noted many times, Broken Windows is a key difference between a proactive police force and a reactive one — between just working to solve crimes and moving to prevent them.
The strategy hasn’t just kept crime lower citywide, it’s left the most underprivileged New Yorkers far safer than their peers in cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
That Mark-Viverito and her allies nonetheless target Broken Windows is a stain on their progressive cause.
I sometimes wonder if the anti punishment crowd is really the lobbying arm of the criminal segment of society plus some anti social liberals. Within a no-snitch culture following the law is not a prime concern
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