Broken Windows is Not Policing

...it's harassment.

Broken Windows policing is the concept that by citing, arresting, and taking enforcement action on small crimes, Police Officer presence deters bigger crimes.

The term itself comes from the idea that when you see one broken window in a, usually dilapidated, building "criminals" feel empowered to break them all.

Charles Murray emerged from his crypt to opine in the Washington Post that Crime is Up because Broken Windows as a policing strategy was stopped, abandoned, and discredited.

Charles Murray gained his reputation by authoring the infamous Bell Curve, in 1994, which postulated the groundbreaking theory that Blacks are genetically inferior to superior smart Whites (and Asians but don't tell them because Asians are the model minority).

We get the general idea of where Murray is going with his attached headline picture accompanying the story, a homeless encampment in LA with some red flag which advertises the "Devil's Lettuce".  

How grotesque.  How so very on brand for this Reaganite Bigot. (Incidentally I see Reagan Era Bigots are getting a last hurrah, as William B. Allen co-authored the Florida Slavery is Great curriculum).

Murray then references the utter falsehood about Defund the Police in the wake of George Floyd's extrajudicial killing.  Murray has to amend his invocation of Floyd, BLM, and the Republicans lies about Defund by stating crime had supposedly already been going up for a decade before, thus invalidating bringing it up until you realize the reason Charles Murray brings up Floyd, BLM, and Defund the Police is to reiterate Republican agitprop and repetition, repetition, repetition. 

What this leads to is the policy of Police misconduct and harassment in Ferguson, Missouri;

Our investigation has shown that distrust of the Ferguson Police Department is longstanding and largely attributable to Ferguson’s approach to law enforcement. This approach results in patterns of unnecessarily aggressive and at times unlawful policing; reinforces the harm of discriminatory stereotypes; discourages a culture of accountability; and neglects community engagement. In recent years, FPD has moved away from the modest community policing efforts it previously had implemented, reducing opportunities for positive police-community interactions, and losing the little familiarity it had with some African- American neighborhoods. City officials have frequently asserted that the harsh and disparate results of Ferguson’s law enforcement system do not indicate problems with police or court practices, but instead reflect a pervasive lack of “personal responsibility” among “certain segments” of the community.

But this the outcome that Charles Murray wants and sees as a positive good.  Like all bigots, Murray is only interested in this being applied to Big Cities, which are overwhelmingly represented by minorities.  What Murray and his ilk want are Police Forces to be an occupying army, in which white Police Officers who live in the suburbs or certain urban conclaves ride into the Urban Jungle and enact Justice.

What this doesn't do is stop Domestic Violence.  What this doesn't do is stop Drunk Driving or distracted drivers who will Instagramming LOL run over and kill world-class bicyclists in their urban assault SUVs. What this doesn't do is stop kingpins who hire juvenile offenders to steal catalytic convertors in areas where no Broken Windows exist.  What this doesn't do is stop areas with high crime rates per capita like say when the Democratic candidate for Governor in Oklahoma, correctly points out their violent crime rate was higher than New York City.

But, none of this matters to Charles Murray, whose job as a rightwing propagandist is to craft a narrative to sell to Americans.  And for 50 years Murray has made sure to tell white people "Crime", like gun violence, is a thing that only happens in DemocRAT run cities.