“Quality of life” policing first started in the 1990s when Giuliani was mayor, and it has been adopted into broken windows policing which Mayor Bill de Blasio currently advocates. This form of policing focuses on arresting those who commit misdemeanors in order to prevent more serious crimes from occurring. I believe that this form of policing is doing more harm than good. Police brutality has been increasing, even for the smaller crimes such as drinking in public or urinating. “Quality of life” also targets minority groups as well as the homeless. I think this is unfair. Those who are homeless should not be getting harassed by the police for sleeping in public. I think the police should not waste their time on making arrests for crimes that are not making the city unsafe. A person urinating in public is not as serious of a crime as rape or murder is. The police should be focusing on these more serious crimes that affect the safety of an individual. The broken windows policy and police brutality contributed to the death of Eric Garner, who was arrested for selling cigarettes on a Staten Island street. He was put into an illegal chokehold that ended his life. Another important thing the city should focus on besides crime is how the police are conducting themselves while on the job.

Question: Do you think that the broken windows policy is helping to prevent more serious crimes from occurring?