FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 1, 2022 • THE QUEENS COURIER 32
editorial
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Photo by Dean Moses
Mayor-elect Eric Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell outside of Queensbridge Houses.
Story: Chip City opens new brick-and-mortar store at Bay
Terrace Shopping Center
Summary: The newest Chip City cookie store opened
up at the Bay Terrace Shopping Center on Friday,
March 25. Dozens of excited cookie lovers lined up
outside for the grand opening, where the fi rst 100
customers received a free cookie with purchase.
Reach: 36,777 (as of 03/28/22)
Theory and reality
Th e “broken windows” theory, in essence,
prescribes that minor problems in a community,
left unaddressed, beget more serious
problems down the line — including felonies.
More than a quarter-century ago, during the
Giuliani administration and Bill Bratton’s fi rst
tenure at City Hall, the NYPD fully embraced
the broken windows theory in eff orts to turn
around crime across New York. It worked, as
crime fell to record lows within a few years —
but a heavy price was paid, as years later the
NYPD would be hit hard for its “stop-and-frisk”
and other proactive techniques found to violate
the inalienable rights of New Yorkers.
So criminal justice advocates bristled last
week when the NYPD announced a new eff ort
to tackle crime and enhance “quality-of-life
enforcement” that seemed to echo much of the
now-derided broken windows theory.
Uniformed offi cers, the NYPD indicated in
its announcement, would conduct “proactive
engagement with off enders who commit violations
that lead up to an act of violence.”
Among those violations are things which
community residents oft en complain about
to their local police: “the open-air selling
of narcotics, including marijuana; public
drinking; public urination; dice games that lead
to disputes and shootings; and the dangers of
unlicensed, unregistered or uninsured drivers.”
Th e new policy comes on the heels of the
NYPD sending “Neighborhood Safety Teams”
into precincts with heavy gun violence — a
move that, critics charged, amounted to the
revival of the former Anti-Crime Units that, all
too oft en, engaged in police shootings, brutality
and stop-and-frisk.
But Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell
said these new approaches do not mean the
NYPD was retreating back toward failed public
policies.
“To be clear,” said Sewell, “this is NOT a
return to Stop, Question and Frisk – nor is it
‘policing for numbers.’ Th is enforcement will be
responsive to community complaints and concerns,
and will address the violent crime patterns
offi cers and detectives are confronting.”
With the new policies inviting criticism and
renewed concern, it is essential that the NYPD
prove to every New Yorker that it can fulfi ll its
mission of protecting and serving the public
without crossing the line.
Sewell and the NYPD brass must uphold a
zero-tolerance policy when it comes to civil
rights violations, and publicly expose those offi
cers who breach the public trust. Anything less
would only reopen the still-healing wounds that
decades of bad policy and police overreach have
infl icted upon the Big Apple.
Because as essential as it is to protect the
rights of every New Yorker, it is also essential
that the NYPD does its job of making every
neighborhood livable, free of crimes large and
small.
“Broken windows” is merely a theory. Our
reality is our city must be made safer — and
police and community members must work
together to make it so.
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