Pubdate: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 BROKEN WINDOWS, BROKEN LIVES How terrible it would be if Eric Garner died for a theory, for the idea that aggressive police enforcement against minor offenders (he was a seller of loose, untaxed cigarettes) is the way to a safer, more orderly city. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton responded swiftly after Mr. Garner was fatally assaulted by officers on Staten Island. They reached out to his family, promising to retrain every officer about the rules against using chokeholds. Two officers have been put on desk duty pending investigations. The mayor and the commissioner should also begin a serious discussion of the future of "broken windows" policing, the strategy of relentlessly attacking petty offenses to nurture a sense of safety and order in high-crime neighborhoods, which, in theory, leads to greater safety and order. In reality, the link is hypothetical, as many cities and towns across the country have enjoyed historic decreases in violent crime since the 1990s, whatever strategies they used. And the vast majority of its targets are not serious criminals, or criminals at all. Mr. Bratton is a pioneer of broken windows policing and Mr. de Blasio is a stout defender. The tactic was embraced in the crime-plagued New York of 20 years ago. But while violence has ebbed, siege-based tactics have not. The Times reported on Friday that the Police Department made 394,539 arrests last year, near historical highs. The mayor and the commissioner should acknowledge the heavy price paid for heavy enforcement. Broken windows and its variants - "zero-tolerance," "quality-of-life," "stop-and-frisk" practices - have pointlessly burdened thousands of young people, most of them black and Hispanic, with criminal records. These policies have filled courts to bursting with first-time, minor offenders whose cases are often thrown out, though not before their lives are severely disrupted and their reputations blemished. They have caused thousands to lose their jobs, to be suspended from school, to be barred from housing or the military. They have ensnared immigrants who end up, through a federal fingerprinting program, being deported and losing everything. The city should be making a turn. When Judge Shira Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan ruled a year ago that stop-and-frisk policies were unconstitutional, she ordered a pilot program for officers to wear cameras that record interactions with the public. The program will be in precincts with the most stop-and-frisk cases, including the North Shore of Staten Island, where Mr. Garner lived. That is a promising development. So was the announcement this month by the Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth Thompson, that he would no longer prosecute most minor marijuana cases. More than 70 percent of people arrested for marijuana have no convictions of any kind. Though whites and minorities don't differ much in marijuana use, more than 85 percent of people arrested for marijuana in New York City are black or Hispanic. Mr. Thompson's shift was a perfect opportunity for Mr. de Blasio to recalibrate the aggressive and discriminatory police stance toward marijuana users and other minor offenders. But he deferred to Mr. Bratton, who insisted that department policies would not change, in Brooklyn or anywhere. Mr. Bratton should not be a once-innovative general fighting the last war. Mr. de Blasio was elected on a promise of being a transformative mayor who would recognize the times we live in and respect the communities whose residents fear the police. Now is the time to show it. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt