Man hug and fist bump to the Oxford, Mississippi Police Department for this tweet last night:
That is Harvey Updyke (former cop, actually), the notorious Alabama tree poisoner. Oxford P.D. went on to tweet:
Well done, good policy, good public relations. Last year the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department played along good-naturedly with the great @fauxpelini in a hilarious twitter exchange.
So I have a theory. On this factual foundation of sand I have erected this impressive theoretical edifice:
Oxford Police Dept
If you spot this person in Oxford give us a call. Could also be wearing houndstooth.
That is Harvey Updyke (former cop, actually), the notorious Alabama tree poisoner. Oxford P.D. went on to tweet:
If this is the first time seeing our Twitter account we like to keep things personable & informal on here along with police related info.
Well done, good policy, good public relations. Last year the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department played along good-naturedly with the great @fauxpelini in a hilarious twitter exchange.
So I have a theory. On this factual foundation of sand I have erected this impressive theoretical edifice:
Campus police departments are more laid back than normal police departments.
Sounds like a reasonable theory that should be borne out by the facts, no? Campus p.d.'s understand their constituency, understand that young people are going to be a little crazy...Okay, a lot crazy, a little anti-establishment, anti-authority. My theory would go on to predict that campus p.d.'s are going to be a little lenient, like, last year @fauxpelini tweeted a hazy reference to the haze of marijuana smoke in the stands at Wisconsin's stadium. My theory would not expect Madison P.D. to go into the stadium en masse and arrest 1,000 kids for smoking marijuana...Okay, 20,000. My theory would not expect that.
Normal police departments, especially under the broken windows theory of policing, look for any excuse to make contact with citizens, thence to pat them down and get weapons and dangerous drugs off the street, check for warrants and get a dangerous guy off the streets, a guy more dangerous than one just smoking weed, squatting, driving with bald tires,...selling loose cigarettes.
However, there is danger in any police-citizen contact. Know the encounter that results in more dead officers than any other? Traffic stops.
Danger to civil liberties, too. Practicing homosexuality used to be a crime in America, not too long ago, either. Cop's job is to enforce the law! Arrest practicing Gay people! That's what the New York Police Department did in 1969 at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. Led to a riot. Birthed the Gay civil rights movement. Gay people were sick and tired of being harassed and busted for being Gay and had enough. But it was against the law, what were the cops to do? Ignore the law, don't enforce it. My God, if the adultery laws were enforced I'd be a fucking career criminal.
The broken windows theory of policing works, there is no doubt about that, it is credited with the huge drop that has occurred in more serious crime in our cities, it has improved the quality of life in the poorest, most disadvantaged, i.e. Black areas. And it also led to Eric Garner's death for selling loose cigarettes. Black people have long been tired of being harassed and busted for things that white people never would be. Think I would ever be arrested for selling loose cigarettes? I didn't even know that was a frigging crime! (Ignorance of the law is not a legal excuse.) A friend of mine one time was smoking a joint with another guy at an outdoor restaurant on Miami Beach's chi-chi Ocean Drive. The other guy saw a female police officer coming down the sidewalk and said "Oh, shit!" As the officer got parallel to them my friend said within her hearing, "It's cool, it's cool." The officer replied sternly, "No, it is NOT cool" and told them to get rid of it. Didn't arrest them. (They were white.) Any chance of that happening in a black neighborhood? Any chance? None.
There's another thing. When you arrest, you are creating a criminal. An arrest record stays with a person forever. First time ever, ever, ever offenders are treated more leniently than those who have been been arrested previously, even if not convicted, even if the arrest is for nonsense, even just once. A guy who is arrested three or four or five times even for broken windows offenses is going to be looking at increased punishment, let's say just probation, then when he next has an encounter with a police officer for a broken windows offense he gets two for the price of one, one for the new sale of loose cigarettes, one for a violation of probation. The fact of an arrest, regardless of the merits, regardless of seriousness, violates your probation. You also can, and will be kept in custody with no bond on the probation violation, just as if you committed the non-bondable offense of first degree murder. And, in a lot of jurisdictions, once your, now two, broken windows cases are resolved you're going to be sentenced to jail. Violating probation does that to you.
Let's say you're not on probation, you're out on the streets but have a pending case for selling loose cigarettes. What happens when a police officer pulls you over for going 65 mph in a 55 zone? "License and registration." What does he do with your license and registration? He goes back to his car and runs your name to see what your driving and criminal record is, see if you have any outstanding warrants. If you didn't show up in court one time, you have a warrant for your arrest. The officer will arrest you right there. If you violated probation, you have a warrant for your arrest. Ditto. If all your cases are done and over but you have been arrested before, chances of you getting off with a warning, without a ticket? Good luck with that. You keep popping a guy for bald tires or smoking reefer or selling loose cigarettes you are creating the conditions for him to be arrested again. You are in a meaningful sense, creating crime.
Now put the preceding paragraph in this context: 40% of Black males between ages 18-35 have been arrested at least once in their lives. Assume, as I do, that broken windows policing is not discriminatory in theory. By targeting poor, disadvantaged, crime-ridden, i.e. Black, neighborhoods for broken windows policing we are creating Black criminals and creating Black crime. The practice of broken windows policing is discriminatory.
There's another thing. When you arrest, you are creating a criminal. An arrest record stays with a person forever. First time ever, ever, ever offenders are treated more leniently than those who have been been arrested previously, even if not convicted, even if the arrest is for nonsense, even just once. A guy who is arrested three or four or five times even for broken windows offenses is going to be looking at increased punishment, let's say just probation, then when he next has an encounter with a police officer for a broken windows offense he gets two for the price of one, one for the new sale of loose cigarettes, one for a violation of probation. The fact of an arrest, regardless of the merits, regardless of seriousness, violates your probation. You also can, and will be kept in custody with no bond on the probation violation, just as if you committed the non-bondable offense of first degree murder. And, in a lot of jurisdictions, once your, now two, broken windows cases are resolved you're going to be sentenced to jail. Violating probation does that to you.
Let's say you're not on probation, you're out on the streets but have a pending case for selling loose cigarettes. What happens when a police officer pulls you over for going 65 mph in a 55 zone? "License and registration." What does he do with your license and registration? He goes back to his car and runs your name to see what your driving and criminal record is, see if you have any outstanding warrants. If you didn't show up in court one time, you have a warrant for your arrest. The officer will arrest you right there. If you violated probation, you have a warrant for your arrest. Ditto. If all your cases are done and over but you have been arrested before, chances of you getting off with a warning, without a ticket? Good luck with that. You keep popping a guy for bald tires or smoking reefer or selling loose cigarettes you are creating the conditions for him to be arrested again. You are in a meaningful sense, creating crime.
Now put the preceding paragraph in this context: 40% of Black males between ages 18-35 have been arrested at least once in their lives. Assume, as I do, that broken windows policing is not discriminatory in theory. By targeting poor, disadvantaged, crime-ridden, i.e. Black, neighborhoods for broken windows policing we are creating Black criminals and creating Black crime. The practice of broken windows policing is discriminatory.
Can the successful results and laudable theory of broken windows policing be sustained with a practice less discriminatory, with less collateral damage, can its aggressiveness be moderated a little in some reasonable way by departments and officers who "know their constituencies" in Black neighborhoods as, my theory holds, p.d.'s on mostly white college campuses do, who ignore the law in some instances, like selling loose cigarettes, who do not enforce every goddamned statute on the books, like the adultery statute (Please?), who are more mindful of the tension between civil liberties and robotic arrests, more concerned by police-citizen contact escalating into violence and death, more aware of the cycle of crime and criminal creation, a little more concerned with having better police-community relations? I think so; I don't know, but I think so.
