Kristian Williams - Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America

people is ordinarily so high as to make informal social control effective." Wilson and Kelling,"Broken Windows," 36.95 Broken Windows theorists point to New York's statistical drop in crime during the 1990, asthe empirical evidence. See, for example: William Bratton (with Peter Knobler), Turnaround:How America's lap Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic (New York: Random House, 1998), 259,289-290, and 294-295.There are several related problems with this argument. First, it should be remembered thatcrime is a complex phenomenon; its prevalence or decline is likely the result of multiple (andoften, poorly understood) factors. (For a brief overview, see: James Lardner, "Can You Believethe New York Miracle?" New York Review o/Books [August 14, 1997].)Second, crime is notoriously difficult to measure. Third, available statistics are subject tomisinterpretation and manipulation. Fourth, a managerial system that rewards "good stats" (andpunishes "bad") builds in an incentive for intentionally distorting the figures. (Officials in boththe NYPD and the New York Transit Police were forced to retire after they were caught skewingtheir numbers to fabricate drops in the crime rate.) And finally, tbe most reliable statisticsavailable-those based on crime victim smveys-showed no change in the crime rate duringGiuliani's reign. Sec: Parenti, Lockdown America, 83; Sidney L. Harring and Gerda W Ray,"Policing a Class Society: New York City in the 1990s," Social Justice (Summer 1999), 69-71;and William J. Chambliss, Power, Politics, and Crime (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999), 43.96 There is. in fact. empirical evidence to support the idea that improved welfare services helpreduce crime. See: Elliott Cllfrie, Crime lmd Punishment in Ameriw (New York: MetropolitanBooks, 1998).97 Klockars, "Rhetoric of Community Policing," 428.98 This gets to the core of what is wrong with Wilson and Kelling's view, ethically speaking. Theydon't take rights or jllstice seriously. For instance: "Arresting a Single drunk or single vagrant whohas harmed no identifiable person seems unjust, and in a sense it is. But failing to do anythingabout a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants may destroy an entire neighborhood." Wilson andKelling, "Broken Windows," 35.99 Skolnick and Bavlev, New Blue Line, 160-163; 167-170.100 Skolnick and Bayley, New Blue Line, 175, 178. Noting the NAACP's complaints, Skolnick andBayley recommend that the police there engage in Santa Ana-style community organizing toreduce the friction.101 Skolnick and Baylcy. New BlueUne, 135-137.102 Skolnick and Bayley, New Blue Line, 138-139.103 Skolnick and Bayley, New Blue Line, 40.104 See chapters 3 and 5.105 Wilson and Kelling, "Broken Windows," 33.106 Samllel \x7alker, "'Broken Windows' and Fractured History," Policing Perspectives: An Anthology.cd. Larry K. Gaines and Gary W Cordner (Los Angeles: Roxhury Publishing, 1999), 110. Walkergoes on to explain, quite rightly, that Wilson and Kelling exaggerate the depersonalization of policingin the twentieth century, over-state the cops' foClls on crime control, ignore the controversythat has always surrounded the police, and idealize the nineteenth-century patrolman. Walker,'''Broken Windows ' and Fractured History," 117.107 "The soldier boy for his soldier's pay obeyslthe sergeant at arms, whatever he says.lThe sergeantwill for his sergeant's pay obeylthe captain till his dying day.lThe captain will for his captain'spay obeylthe general order of battle play.lThe generals bow to the government, obey/the charge,You must not relent." The Clash, "Inoculated City," Combat Rock (New York: Epic, 1982).108 Parenti, Lockdown America, 107.109 Bratton asks rhetorically, "Why 'Glazier?' How do you fix a broken window?" Bratton, Turnaround, 159.110 Bratton. Turnaround, 159, 161.III Parenti, Lockdown America, 74.112 Bratton, Turnaround, 173-174.113 Quoted in Bratton, Turnaround, 177.114 Bratton. Turnaround. 228.115 Bratton called the squeegee workers "a li\'ing symbol of what was wrong with the city." Bratton,Turnaround,212.116 Bratton, Titrnaround, 213-214.117 Parenti, Lockdowl1 America, 77. Bratton's overhaul of the Transit Police had prepared him wellfor such one-sided class warEne. Because of his work with the transit cops, hundreds of homelesspeople-people who out of desperation sought refuge in the dark, wet, rat-infested subway tunnels-weredriven out, onto the street, into the cold. Parenti, Lockdown America, 74.118 Bratton reasoned that "if you stop kids who aren't in school, you're probably stopping kids whoare no good .... " Quoted in Parenti, Lockdown America, 77. He must have decided that the kids293