For months, tens of thousands of (mostly) peaceful protesters have demanded that the NYPD halt its Broken Windows theory of policing — a theory that mandates the enforcement of low level crimes as a way to prevent major crimes from taking place — resulting in a disproportionate amount of arrests amongst black and Hispanics. Well, it looks like the police are listening to these appeals for justice… by not working as much.
For the second week in a row, as part of an unofficial slowdown after the murders of Officers Ramos and Liu, arrests citywide have dropped precipitously. According to the New York Times, cops wrote “90 percent fewer summonses than in the same period a year ago.” They’ve basically been kicking their feet up:
For the seven days ending Sunday, officers made 2,401 arrests citywide, compared with 5,448 in the same week a year ago, a 56 percent decline. For criminal infractions, most precincts’ tallies for the week were close to zero. Citywide, there were 347 criminal summonses written, compared with 4,077 in the same week a year ago, according to Police Department statistics. Parking and traffic tickets also dropped more than 90 percent.
Statistically speaking, that’s great news for minorities, a large majority of whom get caught up in the widely cast net that’s NYPD policing and for critics of Broken Windows. Crime continues to decline along with the number of stop-and-frisks, weed arrests and in the past two weeks, everything else.
(Photo: Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork)
