One of the responsibilities that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio assigned NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton was addressing the city's stop-and-frisk issue. Though the number of stop-and-frisks are down under the new administration, panhandlers are being arrested more frequently.
The New York Times reports that arrest numbers for panhandlers and peddlers have soared under Bratton so far in 2014:
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The Times also acknowledges that police have made fewer arrests and issued less summonses overall since Bratton took over, thus making the increased number of panhandler arrests stand out. Furthermore, the number of arrests for minor violations in public housing developments have increased as well:
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Part of Bratton's crime-fighting strategy revolves around aggressive pursuit of both misdemeanors and low-level infractions, which the police chief says can result in the arrest of several career criminals. "If you take care of the little things, then you can prevent a lot of the big things," he explained.
Bratton, who instituted the "Broken Windows" strategy during his first stint as NYPD Commissioner, also established a method for curbing low-level offenses when he oversaw the city's transit police during the early 1990s. While Bratton champions this initiative as what the Times called "the first step in turning the tide in a city plagued by crime," attorneys representing low-level offenders say many of their clients arrested in city subways recently are nothing like the typical homeless panhandler.
Russell S. Novack, who represents such offenders in Midtown, said he recently represented a woman who was busted for "selling churros in the subway system." Some of his other clients include people arrested for asking commuters to swipe their MetroCards so they could walk through turnstiles.
So while stop-and-frisks are down, isn't this new strategy kind of similar? Bratton did say that it's impossible to police without some variation of stop-and-frisk. This is apparently what he meant, and considering his track record, the city shouldn't be surprised.
[via New York Times]
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