How About We Knock Off the BS
We know what works... because it's worked before
Meet Darin Mickens. He’s a career pickpocket, one of the NYPD’s “Nifty Fifty” — recidivist perps featured on a set of 50 “trading cards” created by a Department anti-theft unit.
(source: NYPD booking photo)
Last week, Mickens was locked up in Manhattan for two thefts. Released immediately, he picked another pocket outside the courthouse.
Earlier this week, with two outstanding warrants, he was arrested again — this time for fare-beating. Remember that charge? You know — it’s one of those that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg won’t prosecute.
But the cops are making this arrest anyway. And in this case, it led to Mickens being processed on the open warrants.
Processed — and then released again.
I can’t think of a better example of how the prosecutors and courts are undoing the work of the NYPD.
This is how broken windows policing works, folks. And fare-beating has always been a foundational charge in that regime. As Bill Bratton and Jack Maple recognized so many years ago, criminals don’t pay their subway fare.
And we wonder why subway killings are at their highest in 25 years?
Do you think there is any way Mickens is going to change? Can you conceive of a “diversion program” or “alternative to incarceration” that would actually prevent his future recidivism?
Then there’s this. In 2020, the NYC Council voted to remove all restrictions on e-bikes and scooters. What’s followed has been an explosion of crimes involving mopeds of all types.
The result? Chain-snatchings, robberies, and worse — committed on two wheels.
Like stop, question, and frisk — still enshrined in federal case law, and so legal coast-to-coast — we are removing all the tools that made New York “the safest big city in America.”
In the pre-de Blasio era, the theory of “broken windows” — that taking care of the small things leads to the interdiction of bigger things, and to an atmosphere of order — could not have been more conclusively proven. It takes deep-seated bias to deny the evidence. Somehow, many academics (who have never made an arrest) manage.
Sure, the “criminal just reforms” must be reformed themselves. But until broken windows policy returns, what we’ll have instead is broken faith between city residents and their leaders.
New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore, Memphis, New Orleans…. Whatever your political persuasion, ask yourself honestly: Would you buy a home there?
Mayor Adams: This is the message you must deliver to the Governor’s mansion. Anything less is kabuki.
So this just in: DC Council Passes Sweeping Overhaul of Washington's Criminal Code. We wonder: Will it be an improvement? Here’s an early clue:
Ward 2 Council Member Brooke Pinto proposed an amendment to the new criminal code that would have increased the proposed maximum penalties for some gun charges.
Although supported by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Council voted against the amendment 10-3, saying research has shown that increasing penalties doesn't deter gun violence.
Another place not to buy a home.
Big Bird Goes to Harvard: This is hilarious. Looks like New York’s former Mayor didn’t get the reception at Harvard he expected.
Money quote: “I’m learning to be OK with being unpopular.”
Congratulations, Bill! Among New Yorkers, you’ll be “OK” for the rest of your life.
More Broken Windows: During the Summer 2020 riots — described up at Harvard by our former Mayor as, “… overwhelmingly peaceful.… And totally separately unrelated there was looting” (Oh God — I’m beginning to think he’s some sort of performance artist) — it became pretty clear that much of the retail theft was organized.
As the first night of riots stretched into days of it, vans with out-of-state plates began to descend on high-end shopping areas like Soho, disgorging looters who took all they could carry.
So what happens when cities tolerate that? This: Target Blames ‘Organized Retail Crime’ Surge For $400 Million Profit Loss.’
Here’s the firm’s stock chart:
Obviously, it’s not just New York. But the trend in not prosecuting shoplifting arrests had to have an effect at some point.
Hey Target — you’re defunded!
Welcome to the club.
Our warnings about campus-related crime continue to be borne out. But while the media focuses on the (mysterious) Idaho case and the UVA student-on-student shooting, they’re missing the big picture. Here’s a tweet from UVA Police… from the day before the killing of three members of their football team:
Totally separate, unrelated incident.
We’re losing our cities. And so, we’re losing the schools located there.
My appearance on Fox News’s America’s Newsroom is here; my article here.
If you’re the parent of a college-aged child, you should check out the article. I’m not seeing ghosts, folks. This is real.
We’ll be doing more work on this soon, on our updated website.
Good News Dept: New York State has disbarred Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman, the two Molotov lawyers we’ve written about previously. Both pled guilty in the tossing of a lit Molotov into an NYPD van during the 2020 riots.
In a confounding move, the federal prosecutors, unprompted, reduced the time they’re asking for (I still don’t understand that). Either way, Urooj is being sentenced this Friday (she’s been out with an ankle bracelet all this time).
My guess: A year and a day. Then a job as a paralegal, suing the police department.
Molotov, Part Deux: Samantha Shader, who tossed a lit Molotov into an occupied NYPD van during the “summer of love,” just received a six-year sentence (watch the video of the toss here). (It apparently only failed to ignite because of the fuse she used. Feels like attempted murder to me…).
(Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center)
What was the phrase? Oh yeah — “… overwhelmingly peaceful.… And totally separately unrelated there was looting.”
Bill, I think I’m starting to miss you.
Just Asking: Will Alec Baldwin ever be charged? Charge the guy or clear him, already. I’m no fan — but the Sheriff’s Office has completed its investigation. The decision is now with the Santa Fe prosecutors (there’s a good brief on the case permutations here).
Sure, the civil suits are flying. But this is the longest shooting investigation since the Warren Commission.
As a celebrity, he doesn’t deserve special treatment… but he doesn’t deserve worse, either.
Either way… stop him…. Before they breed again….
(hilariabaldwin - Instagram)
And finally.… There’s been a rash of these in Europe lately (this one’s really a shame — I’ve been to this museum in Vienna and seen these Klimt paintings) (there is actually a Klimt immersive exhibit going on in NYC these days, which I am advised is amazing).
The second idiot here glues himself to the picture frame, which is the routine with these art stunts.
I’ve got a simple solution to this. Leave him glued there, and put up some velvet ropes around him. Put up a sign that says, “Still Life With Fool, #3.”
Worth at least $2 million among the congnoscenti at Art Basel, I’d say….
Thanks for reading! And we’ll see you Friday with a new Weekend Buff…. Until then: stay safe.