(08-08-2010, 05:15 AM)kandrathe Wrote: Mostly, on a given block they would tear down about a dozen strip bars, pawn shops, and adult establishments. There were some run down seedy rooms for rent upstairs as well, that mostly dealt in another illicit trade. Managed and legally operated, such as in Amsterdam, or Las Vegas it maybe works, but this type of illegal free for all becomes a cesspool of human misery. It was Guliani's success perhaps that inspired the changes here, but more the broken windows theories than merely the "get tough" zero-tolerance attitude. Although, you need both carrots and sticks. But, I feel we've gone too far. In the USA, we have far too many people incarcerated.
It's tough to separate out the role Giuliani played from other potential causative factors. I think he did less than people think he did, and instead is receiving credit for the overall decline in crime, seen in many cities, at the end of the crack boom. (Or possibly the first legalized abortion generation, if you believe Levitt.) But the extra boots on the ground involved in harassing squeegee guys and arresting people with tattoos and weird haircuts no doubt reduced crime.
What makes me somewhat skeptical of this kind of "swamp draining" is that its unit of analysis seems to be the territory, rather than the crime itself. Simply moving crime from point A to point B by demolishing point A is not a net advantage, but if you were only looking at the one neigbourhood, it might well appear to be a success.
-Jester
(08-08-2010, 06:00 AM)kandrathe Wrote: I think I wrote about the trial I was on the jury for a while back. The guy they wanted to convict of a 1st degree felony, was really a heroine addict who stole his own van and slept in it because the law had him barred from sleeping in his own bed (restraining order by the land lord). He was charged with felony witness tampering (a phone call from jail to his common law wife of 10 years), possession of heroine (he was loaded in the back of the van), grand theft for the van (he paid for in her name), and about a half a dozen other misdemeanors.
He should go to jail for possession of the heroine. Kidnapping is illegal!
-Jester