Broken Windows

Experts weigh in on Bill de Blasio, grade mayor on his successes and failures two years into his term

Experts weigh in on Mayor de Blasio's performance 2 years in to his term.
12/26/2015
New York Daily News
Policing is still unfair: Mayor de Blasio pledges to "end the stop-and-frisk era" and ensure fairness in the policing of our neighborhoods have gone unfulfilled. While at first blush the diminished number of reported stops suggests reform, tens of thousands of law-abiding black and Latino New Yorkers remain disproportionately stopped and frisked, with over 80% of those stopped found to have done nothing. That's a lower total, but discriminatory policing persists.

One Year After the Eric Garner Non-Indictment, Has Anything Changed?

12/04/2015
Vice

On Thursday exactly a year ago, New York City was practically on fire. The startling decision last December 3 by a grand jury to not indict Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer behind the videotaped death of Eric Garner, blew the lid off a razzled metropolis whose citizens were already familiar with police brutality and discrimination. By then, of course, protests had spread across the country, due to the nearly concurrent decision with Michael Brown's case in Ferguson. In New York, as in Missouri, the anger was palpable—like you could reach out and touch it. And it stayed that way, for a while.

Fixing Broken Windows

Bill Bratton wants to be America’s top cop. His critics say that his legacy is tainted.
08/30/2015
New Yorker

On a bitterly cold night in February, William Bratton, New York City’s police commissioner, joined several hundred uniformed officers for an informal memorial service at the corner of 107th Avenue and Inwood Street, in Jamaica, Queens. It was past midnight, and everyone was waiting for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was due to speak. Twenty-seven years earlier, on February 26, 1988, a twenty-two-year-old officer named Edward Byrne was shot and killed on that corner, on orders from a drug dealer, as he sat in his patrol car guarding the home of a witness.

De Blasio administration defends 'broken windows' policing after Daily News analysis, but says it should be 'respectful'

A spokesman for the mayor credited broken windows — which calls for aggressively enforcing quality-of-life offenses to prevent more serious ones — with driving down crime to historic lows. A Daily News analysis found black and Hispanic residents were over
08/05/2014
New York Daily News

Responding to a Daily News report that found minorities were overwhelmingly targeted for quality-of-life summonses, the de Blasio administration defended the “broken windows” crimefighting tactic Monday — but said it should be used in a “respectful” way.

A spokesman for the mayor credited broken windows — which calls for aggressively enforcing quality-of-life offenses to prevent more serious ones — with driving down crime to historic lows.

Bratton Dodges Questions About 'Broken Windows' and Dante de Blasio

07/31/2014
New York Observer

When it came to the mayor’s son and the “broken windows” theory, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton didn’t have much to say today.

The typically gregarious police chief declined to offer any extensive comment on Rev. Al Sharpton’s fiery charges at a round table hosted by Mayor Bill de Blasio this morning. Mr. Sharpton claimed that Dante de Blasio, who is half black, would have been the target of an NYPD chokehold if he weren’t the mayor’s son.

Bratton critics call for ‘reexamination’ of Broken Windows

07/21/2014
Capital New York

At a series of rallies over the weekend, the Rev. Al Sharpton cast the death of Eric Garner on Staten Island as another chapter in an ongoing battle against police brutality.

But some critics of police commissioner Bill Bratton say Garner's death, which came as he was being arrested for allegedly selling loose cigarettes, should instead prompt a "reexamination" of Bratton's core strategy of Broken Windows policing.

Pages