Tag Archives: Broken Window Theory

The Broken Windows Theory And How It Applies To The Current Political Climate

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According to Psychology Today:

The broken windows theory states that visible signs of disorder and misbehavior in an environment encourage further disorder and misbehavior, leading to serious crimes. The principle was developed to explain the decay of neighborhoods, but it is often applied to work and educational environments.

Carroll Quigley once wrote:

The Carroll Quigley quote explains why the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was such a problem for the uni-party in Washington, D.C. The broken windows theory explains some of what has happened to our political rhetoric in the past four years.

The disorder and misbehavior began when Donald Trump came down the escalator and announced that he was running for President. That was the root.

On January 21, 2017, during the Women’s March protesting the election of President Trump, Madonna stated that she “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” Later she claimed that was simply a metaphor. There was a time when that statement would have alerted the Secret Service.

In 2017 Kathy Griffin posted a picture of herself holding what appeared to be the severed head of President Trump. Again, in another time the Secret Service would have been called.

In 2017 a Trump look-alike was stabbed to death in a New York City Shakespeare in the Park production. Again, where was the Secret Service?

In the past, the Secret Service would have been called in these incidents simply to make clear that this is unacceptable behavior. Instead, a large section of Americans accepted it as routine.

In June of 2018, Maxine Waters stated, “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents.” Again, there was no penalty for this statement.

In June of 2018, Sarah Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant because she was a member of the Trump administration. When did this become acceptable?

The most recent example of unacceptable rhetoric comes from Michigan Democratic State Rep. Cynthia Johnson. Representative Johnson recently stated, “So this is just a warning to you Trumpers. Be careful, walk lightly, we ain’t playing with you. Enough of the shenanigans. Enough is enough. And for those of you who are soldiers, you know how to do it. Do it right, be in order, make them pay,” Her current term of office ends on December 31, 2020. She has been removed from her committee assignments. However, since she only has three more weeks to serve, that seems a rather lame response.

So now that the broken windows crowd has eliminated political civility, what do we do to remedy the situation? The first thing we need to do is recognize that the current mainstream media is a combination of lies and cover-ups. Those lies and those cover-ups need to be exposed and there need to be consequences for the liars. There are already some consequences for those lies–viewer are migrating to NewsMax in droves from Fox News after having migrated in droves to Fox News from CNN and MSNBC. While we are at it, we need equal enforcement of our laws. Why are the people who violated the civil rights of many of the people in the Trump campaign and the Trump transition team still walking around free? Why did Hillary Clinton walk free after doing something multiple times that a submarine sailor got put in jail for doing once? Why is lying to Congress okay if you are a Democrat?

America can go back to being the civil society many of us grew up in. It just takes being willing to stand up and fight when statements are made that cross the line of civility. We need to stop the broken windows before we have total disorder.

San Francisco Has A Language Problem

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When you drive through the streets of much of San Francisco, you see tents of homeless people. You have to step over things you would find in a third-world country. There are rats, needles, etc. There is definitely a problem. Many of the homeless have mental issues and drug problems. Many of them are well-known to local law enforcement. The Gateway Pundit posted an article today noting the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ solution to these problems–the are changing the language used to describe many of the people involved.

The article reports:

San Francisco has a lot of problems: Rampant drug use on the streets, homeless defecating everywhere, medieval diseases like typhoid and bubonic plague engulfing the once-great city.

But fortunately, elected officials are tackling the most important problem: Politically incorrect language.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is busy rewriting “language guidelines” for what to call certain people. For instance, a convicted felon or an offender released from jail should be called a “formerly incarcerated person,” or a “justice-involved” person. A person who commits another crime — once called a “repeat offender” — should be called a “returning resident.”

 People on parole or probation should be referred to as a “person on parole” or  a “person under supervision.”

In addition, a juvenile “delinquent” should become a “young person with justice system involvement,” or a “young person impacted by the juvenile justice system.” And drug addicts should become “a person with a history of substance use.”

“We don’t want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done,” Supervisor Matt Haney told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We want them ultimately to become contributing citizens, and referring to them as felons is like a scarlet letter that they can never get away from.”

The article concludes:

The Chronicle points out the resolution makes no mention of victims of “justice-involved” people, and constructs a sentence to show the absurdity of the new language: “[U]sing the new terminology someone whose car has been broken into could well be: ‘A person who has come in contact with a returning resident who was involved with the justice system and who is currently under supervision with a history of substance use.’ “

San Francisco needs a history lesson that provides an example of how to deal with runaway lawlessness (which is what they are dealing with). A website called ThoughtCo.com explains the concept of ‘broken window theory’:

In 1993, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and police commissioner William Bratton cited Kelling and his broken windows theory as a basis for implementing a new “tough-stance” policy aggressively addressing relatively minor crimes seen as negatively affecting the quality of life in the inner-city.

Bratton directed NYPD to step up enforcement of laws against crimes like public drinking, public urination, and graffiti. He also cracked down on so-called “squeegee men,” vagrants who aggressively demand payment at traffic stops for unsolicited car window washings. Reviving a Prohibition-era city ban on dancing in unlicensed establishments, police controversially shuttered many of the city’s night clubs with records of public disturbances.

While studies of New York’s crime statistics conducted between 2001 and 2017 suggested that enforcement policies based on the broken windows theory were effective in reducing rates of both minor and serious crimes, other factors may have also contributed to the result. For example, New York’s crime decrease may have simply been part of a nationwide trend that saw other major cities with different policing practices experience similar decreases over the period. In addition, New York City’s 39% drop in the unemployment rate could have contributed to the reduction in crime.

While other factors may have played a part, there is no doubt that the ‘broken window policy’ made New York City a much more pleasant place to be. My middle daughter attended Cooper Union from 1992 to 1996 and lived in New York City for a number of years after that. The change under Mayor Giuliani was noticeable. It was a pleasure to visit the city during the time he was Mayor.

San Francisco needs to deal with their problems–not rename them.

This Is What A College Is Teaching???

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American laws are based on a Judeo-Christian ethic–the Ten Commandments form the basis for our legal standards. They are rather simple–don’t steal, don’t kill, honor your parents, etc. Admittedly they are old standards, but they have served humanity fairly well over the years. However, every now and then someone comes along who thinks they have a better idea. Generally they don’t, but they think they have.

Yesterday the Independent Journal Review posted an article about a statement made by Everett D. Mitchell, the Director of Community Relations at the Madison campus of the University of Wisconsin.

Mr. Mitchell stated:

“I just don’t think they should be prosecuting cases for people who steal from Wal-Mart. I don’t think that. I don’t think that Target, and all them other places – the big boxes that have insurance – they should be using the people that steal from there as justification to start engaging in aggressive police behavior.”

Let’s just stop a minute and take this statement to its logical conclusion. Such as, “I don’t think people who steal from houses in X neighborhood should be prosecuted. The people in those houses have insurance–there is no reason to aggressively pursue the people who steal things there.” Doesn’t that make you feel safe?

The article goes on to explain that there have been cases where shoplifters who fled have been pursued and the shoplifters have been injured by the police. Again, what responsibility does the shoplifter bear for their own injuries sustained while fleeing police?

Theft is theft. It really doesn’t matter what is stolen (other than the jail sentence will be decided based on the value of the item taken). If someone consistently is not prosecuted for shoplifting, what incentive do they have to stop stealing things? Will they graduate to bigger and better things? What about jewelry stores, banks, etc?

When he was mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani instituted what has been known as “Broken Window Theory.” The basic concept of the theory is that if you deal with the minor crimes, the major crimes will decrease. There is a whole lot more to the theory–if you deal with the minor crimes, people will care more about their community, they will be outside more, and the crime rate will go down. If you ignore the minor crimes, the criminals will continue to commit them, and crime will become a standard feature of the community.

I don’t like the idea of police shooting people for any reason, but all of us need to understand that if you don’t obey a police officer, you run the risk of having force used against you. Failing to prosecute shoplifters at Walmart or Target does not move society in a positive direction–it takes us many steps backwards.