ravi wrote: >Devine, James wrote: >> Today, the Los Angeles Times reports that L.A.'s mayor picked a new >> police chief: William Bratton, former top cop at the NYPD. >> >> Does anyone in NYC or elsewhere know anything about his fellow? >> > >isn't he the gent who thought up the "broken window theory" (sweat the >small stuff and the big stuff will disappear. white collar crime not >included).
No, that was James Q. Wilson. But Bratton put it into action - and the rest of the Rudy Giuliani crime control agenda. The key to it all, it's said, was regular meetings with precinct commanders centering on computerized maps of crime hotspots. Commanders were under pressure to get crime down in their areas - which resulted in the relentless harassment of black and brown people. Along with that came a crackdown on previously ignored "crimes" like peeing on the sidewalk, drinking beer on the bus, or hopping over subway turnstiles to beat the fare. People arrested for such "quality of life" crimes were then investigated to see if they had a record or outstanding warrants or anything like that, and if so, were packed off to jail. The LAPD has many fewer officers per capita than does the NYPD, so it may be hard to translate the Bratton strategy across coasts. Bratton and Giuliani used to be pals, but now they can't stand each other. Bratton resents Rudy for taking all the credit for the decline in crime. Doug PS: Rudy's new memoir was ghostwritten by Ken Kurson. Former punk rocker and pseudo-hipster Kurson made himself famous by turning an investing zine for Gen X'ers - Green - into a punditry conglomerate. He was brutally profiled in a Baffler from about 5 years ago by Josh Mason.
