The Safest Big City by Joel Chaffee
The Safest Big City
 by Joel Chaffee
 Friday, June 4th, 2010
 New York, NY
 Views: 10,364
 
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  	 The Mayor's office announced recently that New York remained "the  
safest big city in America." Taking their notes from the FBI's  
preliminary 2009 report, Crime in the United States, the Mayor's  
office boasted, "The NYPD and their partners in law enforcement  
continue to prove they can find ways to further drive down crime."  
Elsewhere there is talk of "suppress[ing] crime." Crime, like some  
sort of yeast or phoenix, rises - and must be pushed down.
 
        According to the NYPD's most recent numbers, murder and rape are up  
over 10% from 2009, while there are small increases in burglary and  
robbery, but overall crime is down. According to Reuters' story on the  
FBI's report, "Crime in New York has been falling for several years in  
a decline widely attributed to a 'broken windows' strategy of no  
tolerance for even the smallest infraction." This explains my open  
container ticket for a beer in a bag on St. Patrick's Day.
 
 
 
The "broken windows" strategy means, as the University of Chicago Law  
Review stated, "More aggressive enforcement of minor misdemeanor laws,  
also known as 'order maintenance' policing." What any authority knows  
is that to allow one to disobey (however slight the offense) is to  
allow all to cavort and misbehave at will. It is what, in  
international affairs, Noam Chomsky calls "The mafia principle," that  
every offense must be quickly and harshly punished, "so that others  
understand that disobedience is not an option."
 
 
 
It is difficult to imagine much disobedience in neighborhoods as  
thoroughly policed as most of Manhattan and much of Brooklyn.  
Gothamist recently reported (admittedly unsubstantiated) that the NYPD  
referred to hipsters as marshmallows, as the privileged are often very  
sweet....
 
 
 
Meanwhile, The Daily News is reporting that much of the upsurge in  
murders and shootings is taking place in East New York, where the  
infant mortality rate (IMR) is 10.5%; as opposed to Manhattan's 4.4%;  
and Williamsburg-Greenpoint's 4.1%. Only Brownsville and East Jamaica  
top East New York in the statistics from the Department of Health and  
Mental Hygiene.
 
 
 
Maybe the privileged are not desperate and disparate enough for the  
necessity of  or vulnerability to crime. Or, like a beautiful yeast or  
phoenix, their rising is preferential, and needs no suppression.
 
 
 
New York is, of course, often paradise in comparison to say,  
Afghanistan, where the IMR is 151.5%, while a recent report from  
Citizen's Council for Public Security ranks Ciudad Juarez, Caracas,  
and New Orleans (respectively) as the murder capitals of the world,  
the U.S. city at 95 murders per 100,000, outranking Baghdad.
safest big city in America." Taking their notes from the FBI's  
preliminary 2009 report, Crime in the United States, the Mayor's  
office boasted, "The NYPD and their partners in law enforcement  
continue to prove they can find ways to further drive down crime."  
Elsewhere there is talk of "suppress[ing] crime." Crime, like some  
sort of yeast or phoenix, rises - and must be pushed down.
 
        According to the NYPD's most recent numbers, murder and rape are up  
over 10% from 2009, while there are small increases in burglary and  
robbery, but overall crime is down. According to Reuters' story on the  
FBI's report, "Crime in New York has been falling for several years in  
a decline widely attributed to a 'broken windows' strategy of no  
tolerance for even the smallest infraction." This explains my open  
container ticket for a beer in a bag on St. Patrick's Day.
 
 
 
The "broken windows" strategy means, as the University of Chicago Law  
Review stated, "More aggressive enforcement of minor misdemeanor laws,  
also known as 'order maintenance' policing." What any authority knows  
is that to allow one to disobey (however slight the offense) is to  
allow all to cavort and misbehave at will. It is what, in  
international affairs, Noam Chomsky calls "The mafia principle," that  
every offense must be quickly and harshly punished, "so that others  
understand that disobedience is not an option."
 
 
 
It is difficult to imagine much disobedience in neighborhoods as  
thoroughly policed as most of Manhattan and much of Brooklyn.  
Gothamist recently reported (admittedly unsubstantiated) that the NYPD  
referred to hipsters as marshmallows, as the privileged are often very  
sweet....
 
 
 
Meanwhile, The Daily News is reporting that much of the upsurge in  
murders and shootings is taking place in East New York, where the  
infant mortality rate (IMR) is 10.5%; as opposed to Manhattan's 4.4%;  
and Williamsburg-Greenpoint's 4.1%. Only Brownsville and East Jamaica  
top East New York in the statistics from the Department of Health and  
Mental Hygiene.
 
 
 
Maybe the privileged are not desperate and disparate enough for the  
necessity of  or vulnerability to crime. Or, like a beautiful yeast or  
phoenix, their rising is preferential, and needs no suppression.
 
 
 
New York is, of course, often paradise in comparison to say,  
Afghanistan, where the IMR is 151.5%, while a recent report from  
Citizen's Council for Public Security ranks Ciudad Juarez, Caracas,  
and New Orleans (respectively) as the murder capitals of the world,  
the U.S. city at 95 murders per 100,000, outranking Baghdad.
 The Mayor's office announced recently that New York remained "the  
safest big city in America." Taking their notes from the FBI's  
preliminary 2009 report, Crime in the United States, the Mayor's  
office boasted, "The NYPD and their partners in law enforcement  
continue to prove they can find ways to further drive down crime."  
Elsewhere there is talk of "suppress[ing] crime." Crime, like some  
sort of yeast or phoenix, rises - and must be pushed down.
 
        According to the NYPD's most recent numbers, murder and rape are up  
over 10% from 2009, while there are small increases in burglary and  
robbery, but overall crime is down. According to Reuters' story on the  
FBI's report, "Crime in New York has been falling for several years in  
a decline widely attributed to a 'broken windows' strategy of no  
tolerance for even the smallest infraction." This explains my open  
container ticket for a beer in a bag on St. Patrick's Day.
 
 
 
The "broken windows" strategy means, as the University of Chicago Law  
Review stated, "More aggressive enforcement of minor misdemeanor laws,  
also known as 'order maintenance' policing." What any authority knows  
is that to allow one to disobey (however slight the offense) is to  
allow all to cavort and misbehave at will. It is what, in  
international affairs, Noam Chomsky calls "The mafia principle," that  
every offense must be quickly and harshly punished, "so that others  
understand that disobedience is not an option."
 
 
 
It is difficult to imagine much disobedience in neighborhoods as  
thoroughly policed as most of Manhattan and much of Brooklyn.  
Gothamist recently reported (admittedly unsubstantiated) that the NYPD  
referred to hipsters as marshmallows, as the privileged are often very  
sweet....
 
 
 
Meanwhile, The Daily News is reporting that much of the upsurge in  
murders and shootings is taking place in East New York, where the  
infant mortality rate (IMR) is 10.5%; as opposed to Manhattan's 4.4%;  
and Williamsburg-Greenpoint's 4.1%. Only Brownsville and East Jamaica  
top East New York in the statistics from the Department of Health and  
Mental Hygiene.
 
 
 
Maybe the privileged are not desperate and disparate enough for the  
necessity of  or vulnerability to crime. Or, like a beautiful yeast or  
phoenix, their rising is preferential, and needs no suppression.
 
 
 
New York is, of course, often paradise in comparison to say,  
Afghanistan, where the IMR is 151.5%, while a recent report from  
Citizen's Council for Public Security ranks Ciudad Juarez, Caracas,  
and New Orleans (respectively) as the murder capitals of the world,  
the U.S. city at 95 murders per 100,000, outranking Baghdad.
The Mayor's office announced recently that New York remained "the  
safest big city in America." Taking their notes from the FBI's  
preliminary 2009 report, Crime in the United States, the Mayor's  
office boasted, "The NYPD and their partners in law enforcement  
continue to prove they can find ways to further drive down crime."  
Elsewhere there is talk of "suppress[ing] crime." Crime, like some  
sort of yeast or phoenix, rises - and must be pushed down.
 
According to the NYPD's most recent numbers, murder and rape are up  
over 10% from 2009, while there are small increases in burglary and  
robbery, but overall crime is down. According to Reuters' story on the  
FBI's report, "Crime in New York has been falling for several years in  
a decline widely attributed to a 'broken windows' strategy of no  
tolerance for even the smallest infraction." This explains my open  
container ticket for a beer in a bag on St. Patrick's Day.
 
 
 
The "broken windows" strategy means, as the University of Chicago Law  
Review stated, "More aggressive enforcement of minor misdemeanor laws,  
also known as 'order maintenance' policing." What any authority knows  
is that to allow one to disobey (however slight the offense) is to  
allow all to cavort and misbehave at will. It is what, in  
international affairs, Noam Chomsky calls "The mafia principle," that  
every offense must be quickly and harshly punished, "so that others  
understand that disobedience is not an option."
 
It is difficult to imagine much disobedience in neighborhoods as  
thoroughly policed as most of Manhattan and much of Brooklyn.  
Gothamist recently reported (admittedly unsubstantiated) that the NYPD  
referred to hipsters as marshmallows, as the privileged are often very  
sweet....
 
 
 
Meanwhile, The Daily News is reporting that much of the upsurge in  
murders and shootings is taking place in East New York, where the  
infant mortality rate (IMR) is 10.5%; as opposed to Manhattan's 4.4%;  
and Williamsburg-Greenpoint's 4.1%. Only Brownsville and East Jamaica  
top East New York in the statistics from the Department of Health and  
Mental Hygiene.
 
 
 
Maybe the privileged are not desperate and disparate enough for the  
necessity of  or vulnerability to crime. Or, like a beautiful yeast or  
phoenix, their rising is preferential, and needs no suppression.
 
 
 
New York is, of course, often paradise in comparison to say,  
Afghanistan, where the IMR is 151.5%, while a recent report from  
Citizen's Council for Public Security ranks Ciudad Juarez, Caracas,  
and New Orleans (respectively) as the murder capitals of the world,  
the U.S. city at 95 murders per 100,000, outranking Baghdad.

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Last updated by Joel Chaffee - Friday, June 4th, 2010 -  New York, NY

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