Zero Tolerance and Broken Windows Policing Criminalizes Homeless and Poor People ... and Can Kill Them

The recent death of homeless veteran Jerome Murdough in a Rikers Island cell should be more than a temporary debate in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it New York media cycle that often desensitizes us to tragedies. I know it hit close to home for myself — Mr. Murdough sought refuge the night of his arrest in an East Harlem public housing staircase three blocks from my home and across the street from my where my kids go to school. When sleeping in a staircase, I thought, lands you in a Rikers cell, something is wrong.

Murdough's death laid bare some of our collective disregard for the poor as well as an aggressive police department with an obsession for law and order rivaled only by military dictatorships and science fiction characters (i.e., RoboCop, Judge Dredd). Is it enough to have roundtable discussions lamenting the case of Mr. Murdough as one of someone slipping through the cracks? What happened to him is the not-so unpredictable outcome of a society heavily invested in enforcement by way of zero-tolerance policing and criminal justice system. It's an approach that is neither humane nor sustainable. But as some debate what stop-gap reforms or long term legislation might be crafted, let's not lose sight of how Murdough arrived at the cell he would die in: the NYPD and the low-level crime-focused Broken Windows theory that guides it.

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Bratton Cracking Down On Grave Subway Menaces: Acrobats, Sleepers and Churro-Selling Ladies

It's been two months since new-old New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton was sworn in, and much of the press coverage so far has focused on the NYPD's renewed interest in jaywalkers as part of Vision Zero, the initiative to end traffic deaths. But as the New York Times reports, much of that has focused on walkers, not drivers: jaywalking tickets are up eightfold over the same time last year. That's been sort of a mixed bag from a public relations perspective, with the nadir being 84-year-old Kang Chun Wong, who says he was beaten up by police officers trying to give him a citation.

As it turns out, Bratton's sick of talking about jaywalking and most especially Wong's alleged beating, which he calls "an isolated event." Instead, he'd rather discuss the other big plans he's got to make your city even safer, starting in the subway. Capital New York points us to a delightful interview Bratton did with WPIX yesterday morning where he laid out his plans to tackle the biggest menaces of the underground: sleepers, panhandlers, churro-sellers, and the "It's showtime!" dudes.

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U.S. 'supercop' Bratton rejects closing social media during riots

U.S. "supercop" Bill Bratton, visiting Britain to advise the government in the aftermath of riots earlier this year, said on Tuesday he was against the idea of shutting down social media services during times of civil unrest.

Police and politicians said rioters and looters had coordinated their actions and used services such as Blackberry Messenger and Twitter to incite trouble during the large-scale disorder which swept Britain in August.

Prime Minister David Cameron said at the time Britain might consider disrupting online social networking during any future trouble, and senior figures from Twitter and Research in Motion, which owns Blackberry, were summoned by politicians last month to discuss the issue.

However Bratton, former police chief in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, where he oversaw dramatic falls in street crimes gaining him the "supercop" moniker, cautioned against such a move, saying it would badly impact on "good people."

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Bratton does like to use lots of force to intimidate protesters though. Tom