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Broken Windows (page 2)
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What foot-patrol officers did was to elevate, to the extent they could,
the level of public order in these neighborhoods. Though the neighborhoods
were predominantly black and the foot patrolmen were mostly white, this
"order-maintenance" function of the police was performed to the general
satisfaction of both parties.
One of us (Kelling) spent many hours walking with Newark foot-patrol
officers to see how they defined "order" and what they did to maintain it.
One beat was typical: a busy but dilapidated area in the heart of Newark,
with many abandoned buildings, marginal shops (several of which
prominently displayed knives and straight-edged razors in their windows),
one large department store, and, most important, a train station and
several major bus stops. Though the area was run-down, its streets were
filled with people, because it was a major transportation center. The good
order of this area was important not only to those who lived and worked
there but also to many others, who had to move through it on their way
home, to supermarkets, or to factories.
The people on the street were primarily black; the officer who walked the
street was white. The people were made up of "regulars" and "strangers."
Regulars included both "decent folk" and some drunks and derelicts who
were always there but who "knew their place." Strangers were, well,
strangers, and viewed suspiciously, sometimes apprehensively. The
officer--call him Kelly--knew who the regulars were, and they knew him. As
he saw his job, he was to keep an eye on strangers, and make certain that
the disreputable regulars observed some informal but widely understood
rules. Drunks and addicts could sit on the stoops, but could not lie down.
People could drink on side streets, but not at the main intersection.
Bottles had to be in paper bags. Talking to, bothering, or begging from
people waiting at the bus stop was strictly forbidden. If a dispute
erupted between a businessman and a customer, the businessman was assumed
to be right, especially if the customer was a stranger. If a stranger
loitered, Kelly would ask him if he had any means of support and what his
business was; if he gave unsatisfactory answers, he was sent on his way.
Persons who broke the informal rules, especially those who bothered people
waiting at bus stops, were arrested for vagrancy. Noisy teenagers were
told to keep quiet.
These rules were defined and enforced in collaboration with the "regulars"
on the street. Another neighborhood might have different rules, but these,
everybody understood, were the rules for this neighborhood. If someone
violated them, the regulars not only turned to Kelly for help but also
ridiculed the violator. Sometimes what Kelly did could be described as
"enforcing the law," but just as often it involved taking informal or
extralegal steps to help protect what the neighborhood had decided was the
appropriate level of public order. Some of the things he did probably
would not withstand a legal challenge.
A determined skeptic might acknowledge that a skilled foot-patrol officer
can maintain order but still insist that this sort of "order" has little
to do with the real sources of community fear--that is, with violent
crime. To a degree, that is true. But two things must be borne in mind.
First, outside observers should not assume that they know how much of the
anxiety now endemic in many big-city neighborhoods stems from a fear of
"real" crime and how much from a sense that the street is disorderly, a
source of distasteful, worrisome encounters. The people of Newark, to
judge from their behavior and their remarks to interviewers, apparently
assign a high value to public order, and feel relieved and reassured when
the police help them maintain that order.
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