The “broken windows” theory of police work goes something like this: Criminals see untended broken windows in a neighborhood, assume neglect, and further assume that they can get away with more in a run-down locale than in one in which they see no signs of neglect. Blight breeds crime. A corollary to that theory is that by enforcing petty crimes, you prevent people from making a career of crime and progressing up the ladder to more serious and harmful crimes. You also catch big criminals by enforcing smaller crimes and catching them on those offenses, then build the case that they have also committed more serious crimes. Catch a guy for speeding, say, and it turns out that he’s running a drug ring and may have killed a rival or two. But if you let the smaller crimes slide…?
“Broken windows” helped Rudy Giuliani, perhaps the greatest US mayor of the second half of the 20th century, to clean up New York, which was overrun with crime when Guiliani took office. Today, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that, essentially, he is abandoning “broken windows.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Chicago) joined forces to unveil the so-called “Welcome City” ordinance, which would prohibit police from detaining undocumented immigrants unless they are wanted on a criminal warrant or have been convicted of a serious crime.
“If somebody has a criminal background, I want ‘em in jail or out of the city. If you’re an immigrant and you have no criminal background, I don’t want that to be prohibitive from you contacting the police,” Emanuel told a news conference at Little Village High School.
And if they’re guilty of stealing the identity of a law-abiding US citizen for the purpose of getting a job or credit? Apparently that relatively small crime isn’t enough to attract Emanuel’s attention. How about scoffing the requirement to carry auto insurance? How about just being where they are not legally supposed to be?
Elections have consequences, and here’s one consequence of electing a Democrat functionary like Rahm Emanuel: Chicago’s murder rate is skyrocketing under his watch. Rahmbo just rolled out the welcome mat for petty criminals, which will not help reduce the murder rate. In response to that crisis, Rahm is making an unbelievable appeal to the killers’ “values.”
“We’ve got two gang-bangers, one standing next to a kid. Get away from that kid. Take your stuff away to the alley. Don’t touch the children of the city of Chicago. Don’t get near them. And it is about values. … And I don’t buy this case where people say they don’t have values. They do have values. They have the wrong values. Don’t come near the kids—don’t touch them.”
To be blunt, only an idiot could say such a thing and mean it. Given Chicago’s uniquely corrupt and one-sided politics, the idiot who said that will be mayor of the city for as long as he wants, no matter how high the bodies pile up around him. And eventually, that same idiot will be elected governor.
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