Quote:
Originally Posted by BackInTheNewYorkGroove
I disagree (and I voted for Comrade de Blasio). I think what bothered New Yorkers enough to elect a guy who was number 11 in a 10 candidate poll at the start of the campaign was the abuse of stop and frisk (one of the tools in the broad concept of broken windows).
The focus on quality of life issues (squeegee men, turnstile jumping, open container/open drug use, etc.) helped stop more dangerous crimes - the turnstile jumper who had a .45 in his backpack, the pot smoker who had an open warrant for assault, the squeegee guy serving as distraction for robbery, etc.
But the continued focus on precincts meeting goals and numbers led to harassment and under reporting more recently. Street cops had a quota (denied by the NYPD but confirmed on recordings) and captains were hassled if they had too many higher level crimes in their precincts.
This current brouhaha is underlined by a combination of the union trying to strong arm the mayor on their contract talks (the cops have done this sort of thing to every mayor since Peter Stuyvesant), anger that the guy who campaigned as a police reformer won, and the people who hate de Blasio (the Post, Rudy, the 1% who didn't like his tax proposal).
And as to Adder's question, I think that the police union may be overplaying their hand - ignoring the request of the family of the second murdered cop not to turn the funeral into a political protest was bad enough, but the slowdown is pissing people off. I think the union's request to have Bill Clinton mediate is a sign that they realize that, too.
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Stop and frisk is indefensible. Quotas are indefensible. But technically, their emergence does dovetail with a drop in crime. Other factors are of course part of that decrease, but Adder's suggestion that broken windows has been proven not to have been a contributing factor is not true. However much I want Adder to be right on this point, that debate is not settled.
The Union's behavior came off as that of petulant children -- bitching and whining because they were being reprimanded. Turning their backs on DeBlasio did nothing but reinforce the public's suspicion far too many cops are far too many rungs down the IQ and maturity ladders than public servants carrying pistols ought to be.
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