Last weekend, the NYPD released images of a man wanted for an assault on the subway — one that was, police say, committed in response to being asked by a senior citizen riding in the same car to stop smoking. The story might easily be overlooked, but it illustrates an important point worth making: many of the “low-level” infractions progressives argue should not be policed often mask something more nefarious.
Whether police should intervene when individuals break what are perceived to be minor rules — like hopping the turnstile, smoking in the subway, and playing music from a speaker in a public place — has been an ongoing debate for as long as I’ve been alive. Progressive police critics helped drive a movement to de-emphasize public order enforcement which culminated with prosecutors and politicians adopting non-enforcement policies and decriminalizing such offenses.
Some seem to have buyer’s remorse in the wake of recent decriminalization efforts, as evidenced by both the unseating of many so-called “progressive” prosecutors, and the passage of a number of ballot initiatives countering that push last November.
Continue reading the entire piece here at UnHerd (paywall)
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Rafael Mangual is the Nick Ohnell Fellow and head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He is also the author of Criminal (In)Justice: What the Push for Decarceration and Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts Most.
Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu Getty Images