{"id":4831,"date":"2014-10-29T09:51:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T14:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=4831"},"modified":"2014-11-01T06:47:43","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T11:47:43","slug":"ferguson-and-broken-windows-policing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=4831","title":{"rendered":"Ferguson and ‘Broken Windows’ Policing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looks like Fegruson, MO might be back in the news shortly. A Grand Jury is soon expected to release its decision<\/a> as to whether criminal charges should be filed against Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for the August 9, 2014 shooting and killing of 18 year old Michael Brown by Darren. The Washington Post reports<\/a> that the testimony of six local residents to the Saint Louis County Grand Jury who eyewitnessed the shooting, along with physical evidence collected at the scene, tend to confirm Wilson’s version of the story (i.e., that a physical struggle between Wilson and Brown ensued while Wilson was in his police vehicle, during a stop by Wilson to warn Brown and his companion not to walk in the middle of a busy street; Brown tried to take Wilson’s gun from him during the struggle; Wilson’s gun was discharged during the struggle, but did not hit anyone; Brown and his companion then ran from the vehicle while Wilson recovered his weapon and then got out and ordered them to stop; Brown stopped, but then starting moving towards Wilson without any sign of surrender — i.e., no “hands up”; and Wilson then raised his gun and discharged a volley of shots at the approaching Brown, hitting him at least 6 times including in the forehead, thus killing him).<\/p>\n

If the Post report is true, then the likeihood of a “no-bill” (whereby the Grand Jury lets Wilson off) must be taken seriously. Local officials thus fear<\/a> that there could be significant protests and possible disturbances once again in Ferguson as a result. There is no doubt that many in the African American community, including a majority of its leaders, will be upset if Wilson walks away without any sort of punishment. To repeat the obvious, many African Americans have had upsetting and arguably disrespectful interactions with police in their lives, and thus well remember the many incidents reported in the press over the past decade where unarmed black community members were killed by law enforcement (e.g., Trayvon Martin, Amadou Diallo, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Wendell Allen, etc., with very many others not making the national news). The Ferguson situation is just another lightening rod for their angst and frustrations.<\/p>\n

However, there does appear to be a valid argument that Officer Wilson was mostly doing what he should have been doing (other than perhaps the final barrage of close-range shots against Brown; while defensive measures were probably justified if Wilson’s version of the story holds up, the public still needs to consider if a somewhat less fatal strategy could have been executed by Wilson under the circumstances). In making the initial police stop to warn Brown and his companion not to walk in the center of the street, Wilson was effecting the “broken windows<\/a>” philosophy of local policing. In a nutshell, this philosophy says that in a neighborhood challenged by crime or potential high crime activity, the police need to step up enforcement against little things that may at best involve a citation and fine; e.g., vandalism (e.g. breaking windows in an abandoned building), riding mass transit without paying, drinking alcoholic beverages in a public park, littering, and stop-sign running. And, arguably, walking intentionally in the middle of a busy roadway, creating a nuisance and safety hazard for drivers. <\/p>\n

The broken windows idea, which was conceived by two criminology professors and has been extensively studied by the social sciences since the 1980s, is that controlling the little things sends a clear warning signal to those who would use the neighborhood as the base for bigger crimes, such as drug dealing and gun selling, which often lead to even more disturbing violent crimes and gang activity. I.e., if the police aren’t going to let a minor fist-fight go unnoticed, they certainly aren’t going to tolerate an auto theft\/hijacking operation. <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, when neighborhoods become inundated with major crime activities, local police are tempted to let the little things go and focus their resources mainly against the big things. Professors Kelling and Wilson (who first wrote about the concept<\/a>) argue that this starts a vicious downhill spiral, one that can only be broken by getting down to the roots and re-establishing law and order in the victimized neighborhood. They also note that those who are stopped for small infractions often are involved in more serious criminal acts (which was certainly the case with Michael Brown, given the store robbery that he accomplished just a few minutes before the street nuisance incident). Police make some of their most significant arrests in situations that started with a parking or speeding ticket.<\/p>\n

According to criminal statistics<\/a>, Ferguson had a significantly elevated crime rate between 2000 and 2008 (bouncing between 427 and 578 crimes per 100,000 population), which then started to trend downward, reaching 381 in 2012 (versus a US average of 298). Much of the problem in Ferguson centered around thefts and burglaries — certainly not good for local residents of any race. Although I am not familiar with what the Ferguson Police Department’s official strategies were during this time, it seems quite plausible that Officer Wilson’s initial stop of Brown was part of a “broken windows” effort (whether official or unofficial) that was having some success in reducing overall crime in Ferguson, and thus making life better for the vast majority of law-abiding residents. <\/p>\n

While an outcry by national black leadership against on-going disrespect from police is certainly necessary, and while the Ferguson situation offers a spotlight in which to help raise national awareness of the injustices tied to this phenomenon, an unfortunate backfire effect could ensue if black leadership continues to use political pressure to gain sanctions against Officer Wilson despite the ambiguity of the evidence against him (and the existence of local evidence supporting his contentions). If Wilson is chastised despite evidence that would normally not support sanction, the message would appear to be that a white policeman should do the minimum while patrolling in a community of color; e.g., only intervene when she or he witnesses a significant crime, or responds directly to a call initiated by a local resident. <\/p>\n

Yes, certainly there are too many white police officers<\/a> in the Ferguson Police Department. That situation cannot be changed overnight<\/a>, and even if (and when, hopefully) population parity is achieved, there will still be times when a white cop is needed to patrol a black neighborhood, due to random operational factors. Should the white cop then “do the minimum” while on patrol for fear of becoming another Officer Wilson, forsaking any sort of “broken windows” pro-active \/ preventative involvement? Is that fair to African-American homeowners struggling to improve a neighborhood where socio-economic factors have fostered criminal activity in the past? <\/p>\n

There is a delicate balance that needs to be struck between repressive and overly-lenient police tactics in communities challenged by crime. Unfortunately, national political spotlights are not the best environment for finding such balances, especially in the era of over-stimulative media bombardment of the public via smart phones, tweets, wide-screen cable TV’s, Facebook feeds, all layered onto the still-extant base of radio news, network TV and printed newspapers. I’m just hoping that cooler heads will prevail no matter which way the St. Louis County Grand Jury goes, and that real solutions can be eventually be found for all of the many problems that have gotten so tragically ensnarled in Ferguson, Mo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looks like Fegruson, MO might be back in the news shortly. A Grand Jury is soon expected to release its decision as to whether criminal charges should be filed against Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for the August 9, 2014 shooting and killing of 18 year old Michael Brown by Darren. The Washington Post reports […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4831"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4854,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions\/4854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}