COURIER L 18 IFE, SEPT. 18-24, 2020
OPINION
What the ‘Broken windows’ theory has to do
with the attempted murder of two LA cops
Pinning crime on Democrats is predictable,
hypocritical and a little crazy
There’s a lot to get to this
week, and it’s all about
the State Senate race between
freshman Democrat
Andrew Gounardes (who also
belongs to the Working Families
Party) and Republican
challenger Vito Bruno (also of
the Conservative Party).
As my colleague in this opinion
section but across the ideology
aisle Bob Capano put it last
week, “Bruno, an independent
businessman, has focused his
campaign on restoring order
to our streets, while also partly
blaming Gounardes for a recent
rise in crime.”
Bruno is doing his best to
make this entire election about
crime, a move that is predictable,
hypocritical, and a little
crazy, which is really the distinct
and brazen blend of the
modern Trump-era Republican
Party.
Predictable because the Republican
playbook has been
to attack Democrats on crime
for over 50 years now, though
the appeal gets a little more aggressive
and nakedly racialized
each year. Bruno joined Republican
Assemblywoman Nicole
Malliotakis and Gounardes’
Republican predecessor Marty
Golden at a pro-police rally
this summer in Dyker Heights,
where rally-goers chanting
“Blue Lives Matter” spat on
protestors, called Black lives
“garbage,” and told one woman
to “get raped.” It was an ugly
scene.
It’s a little crazy because
policing is a municipal issue
that Gounardes as an individual
state senator has very
little control over. Year after
year, as crime rates continued
to drop, Republicans continued
to warn that our cities
were headed into a criminal
hellscape. President Donald
Trump makes the same claim
about the suburbs, though
those claims are interpreted
by many as desperation
moves.
Yet crime does appear to
be up this year, for the fi rst
time in almost three decades.
There are almost certainly
lots of causes, and surely our
sky-high unemployment is
one of them. Bruno is trying
to claim that the sole cause of
the uptick is the bail reform
Gounardes voted for, or possibly
the bail reform and Mayor
Bill de Blasio, who Gounardes
is somehow connected to in a
way never quite specifi ed.
Most of all, it’s hypocritical
because Gounardes is a literal
Eagle Scout and as straight an
arrow as I’ve ever met in politics.
I don’t drink anymore, but
back when I did, I spent a lot of
time in nightclubs and afterhours
bars, and while Andrew
is my friend and someone I admire,
he’s pretty much the last
person I would bring to one.
I bring up nightclubs and
after-hours bars because
those are the “independent
businesses” where Bruno has
made his life’s work! Trust
me, there’s a whole lot of petty
crime of the sort Vito is now
decrying going on in nightclubs
and especially afterhours
bars, which are by-definition
illegal.
In the past, Bruno has admitted
to reporters that he
scored drugs for celebrities
and that he bribed cops. In
1987, while managing Club Inferno,
he told SPIN magazine,
“If we’d go through a night and
no one got shot, that was a success.”
The next year, his club
1018 in Chelsea had 20 shootings
in one year.
You know what his tagline
in his mailers is? “Vito Bruno
is a leader who will make our
safety his priority.”
Nick Rizzo is a Democratic
District Leader representing
the 50th Assembly
District and a political consultant
who lives in Greenpoint.
Follow him on Twitter
@NickRizzo.
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo
This week we saw evidence
of how the “broken windows”
theory applies to
addressing no-so peaceful protests
and rioting with the assassination
attempts on two
Los Angeles County Deputies
on Saturday, Sept. 12. Heinously,
demonstrators then
blocked the entrance and exit
to St. Francis Medical Center,
the hospital these offi cers were
taken to, chanting, “We hope
they die.”
Broken windows is a criminological
theory which holds
that visible signs of crime, antisocial
behavior, and civil disorder
create an urban environment
that encourages further,
and worse crime and disorder.
In other words, law enforcement
must stringently address
and enforce all crimes to create
an atmosphere of law and order
in communities. Otherwise,
criminals will be emboldened
to commit more serious crimes
fi guring there will similarly
be little or no consequences for
their actions.
Can anyone doubt that there
is further crime and disorder
in cities run by Democratic offi
cials who have not yet cracked
down on violent protests and riots?
Here in New York City,
Mayor Bill de Blasio, with the
City Council, began ending
“broken windows policing”
long before this summer of riots
began. This crime-fi ghting
strategy, implemented in the
1990’s by Mayor Rudy Giuliani
and Police Commissioner Bill
Bratton and continued during
the Bloomberg administration,
made New York the safest
big city in America. Not
anymore.
For months on the streets
of New York, and in cities
across the country like Portland
and Seattle, we have
seen looting, arson, assaults
on innocent civilians, and
bricks, bats, and lasers used
as weapons to cause physical
harm to police. Despite this,
Democrats continue to insist
these are “peaceful protests.”
In fact, not a single speaker
at the recent Democratic National
Convention, including
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,
acknowledged — never mind
condemned — the increasing
violence across the country.
In addition, Democratic
mayors and governors refuse
to allow local law enforcement
to do their jobs, or dispatch
the National Guard, to end
this chaos.
All of this has led some
criminals to feel they can loot
and burn down businesses, harass
innocent Americans, and
attack police at will. Therefore,
it should be no surprise
that two deputies were shot
at point blank range as they
sat in their patrol car. Per the
broken windows theory, more
serious and deadly crimes
— such as this — are now being
attempted against law enforcement.
These emboldened “protesters”
had no qualms with risking
more lives by blocking the
hospital doors that these two
rookie deputies were at, all the
while shouting for the death of
the two offi cers — one 31-yearold
woman with a young son at
home, and a 24-year-old man.
Most Democrats will probably
condemn these heinous
actions; however, if they had
acted responsibly months ago
when peaceful protests fi rst
moved toward criminal activities,
perhaps we would not be
in this boat today.
Bob Capano has worked
for Brooklyn Republican and
Democrat elected officials,
and has been an adjunct political
science professor for
over 15 years. Follow him on
twitter @bobcapano.
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano