How's that "broken windows" policing workin' for ya?

At Least 3 Shot As Gangs of Youths Run Wild in Midtown

"Overall, crime in the city is still at record lows despite an uptick in murders, felony assaults and rapes this year. Jittery lawmakers are worried about crime rising, especially as the ranks are decreased at the nation's largest police department."

So, don't worry. The only increase we've seen is in murders, felony assaults, and rapes. You know. The small stuff.

Don't worry. We'll add officers, maintain the same policy, and everything will be under control.

And when that doesn't work, we'll blame all the pussies in the department who coddled all those criminals.

Because it couldn't just be that more aggressive policing is limited in what it can do. And might be counterproductive when enforcing the small stuff. Like broken windows. Hence the name of the strategy. Because it undermines trust from the community, especially in getting information and collecting evidence to solve stuff like, say, murders, felony assaults, and rapes.

Because noone who has information on that stuff might be guilty of, say, drug crimes, of course.

Perhaps we should ask Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's drug war capital, how that effort's working out.

Life in 'Murder City'

Noone with important information on those crimes is guilty of illegal immigration. Or illegal possession of firearms. Or other variations of broken windows.

Yeah, I'm sure it's all going a-ok. Because that's what the people who advocate the policy tell us. Even when it's not.

The question for people, at this point, on a whole range of more aggressive approaches in governance that have failed and backfired is:

How long are you going to swallow the bullshit?

And, more importantly, when might we all take some responsibility for the fact that our aggressive posturing has betrayed us, once again. And hurt a lot of people, in the process. No matter who is doing it.

Aggression is sometimes necessary. But honest use of aggression minimizes its use as much as possible and offers a broad scope for freedom, in the meantime, except when people are a genuine danger. And not a endless variations of made up dangers we can conjure to rationalize our use of power.

This has been the ugly and cynical rationalization behind power since humans started exercising it. And our progress has been marked by our honest challenge to that rationalization, since the beginning of time. Not pretending that the rationalization has made things better when it hasn't.

Progress is marked by our commitment to more genuine liberal values - meaning a commitment to liberty - and the more honest accounting of this rationalization of power and our behavior, as a consequence.

Deep in their hearts, even the cynics know that. Deep in our hearts, all of us do.

Because it's deep in our hearts where all of us are most honest.