Wednesday, January 21, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://news.yahoo.com/two-more-planets-solar-system-astronomers-134043845.html

Two more planets in our Solar System, say astronomers
By Richard Ingham
January 19, 2015

Paris (AFP) - The Solar System has at least two more planets waiting to be discovered beyond the orbit of Pluto, Spanish and British astronomers say.

The official list of planets in our star system runs to eight, with gas giant Neptune the outermost.

Beyond Neptune, Pluto was relegated to the status of "dwarf planet" by the International Astronomical Union in 2006, although it is still championed by some as the most distant planet from the Sun.

In a study published in the latest issue of the British journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers propose that "at least two" planets lie beyond Pluto.

Their calculations are based on the unusual orbital behaviour of very distant space rocks called extreme trans-Neptunian objects, or ETNOs.

In theory, ETNOs should be dispersed in a band some 150 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun.

An AU, a measurement of Solar System distance, is the span between Earth and the Sun -- nearly 150 million kilometres (almost 93 million miles).

ETNOs should also be more or less on the same orbital plane as the Solar System planets.

But observations of about a dozen ETNOs have suggested a quite different picture, the study says.

If correct, they imply that ETNOs are scattered much more widely, at between 150 and 525 AU, and with an orbital inclination of about 20 degrees.

To explain this anomaly, the study suggests some very large objects -- planets -- must be in the neighbourhood and their gravitational force is bossing the much smaller ETNOs around.

"This excess of objects with unexpected orbital parameters makes us believe that some invisible forces are altering the distribution" of the ETNOs, said Carlos de la Fuente Marcos of the Complutense University of Madrid.

"The exact number is uncertain, given that the data we have is limited, but our calculations suggest that there are at least two planets, and probably more, within the confines of our Solar System," the Spanish scientific news agency Sinc quoted him as saying.

"If it is confirmed, our results may be truly revolutionary for astronomy."

So far, there is no direct evidence to substantiate the theory.

Marcos's team, which includes astrophysicists at the University of Cambridge, devised a model based on changes previously observed in the orbit of a comet called 96P/Machholz 1 when it came near Jupiter, the biggest planet in the Solar System.

Based on this model, the movement of the ETNOs was consistent with one planet at nearly 200 AU and another at about 250 AU, they said.

Last year, the ALMA advanced telescope, located in Chile's bone-dry Atacama desert, found that planets in other star systems can form hundreds of AU from their sun.

Neptune orbits at an average distance of about 30 AU, and Pluto, which has a highly eccentric orbit, circles the Sun at an average of about 40 AU.




“Their calculations are based on the unusual orbital behaviour of very distant space rocks called extreme trans-Neptunian objects, or ETNOs.... "The exact number is uncertain, given that the data we have is limited, but our calculations suggest that there are at least two planets, and probably more, within the confines of our Solar System," the Spanish scientific news agency Sinc quoted him as saying. "If it is confirmed, our results may be truly revolutionary for astronomy." So far, there is no direct evidence to substantiate the theory.... Last year, the ALMA advanced telescope, located in Chile's bone-dry Atacama desert, found that planets in other star systems can form hundreds of AU from their sun.”

So there could conceivably be a planet within our solar system that is warm enough for liquid water. Maybe ET is closer than I thought. One thing science teaches me daily – very few things are truly impossible. It is somewhat disconcerting that so much that I was taught as a child is no longer considered true. That's okay. My life is very firmly centered on this earth and I plan to continue enjoying it as long as I can.






HYBRID SCHOOLS


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/eagle-academy-for-young-men-public-education-success-story-for-inner-city-kids/

Public education success story for inner-city kids
CBS NEWS
January 21, 2015

The Eagle Academy for Young Men is a system of six schools, open to grades six through 12, created in 2004 by the group One Hundred Black Men of America. The schools are strategically placed in high-crime areas in all five boroughs of New York City, and in Newark, New Jersey, and could very well be saving lives, reports CBS News correspondent Vladimir Duthiers.

At the Bronx school, every student's day begins with breakfast and a town hall meeting where students get to discuss with administrators school announcements and any issues they are having -- one of many things that sets Eagle apart from other public schools.

Ja' Paris Sheridan is a 17-year-old senior at the Eagle Academy for Young Men in the Bronx.

At his senior convocation, he was chosen to speak not as class president, not as a valedictorian but as a young man who's conquered many of the struggles facing the boys in his school.

"The Eagle Academy for Young Men was created to make a difference in our black and Latino communities, especially for young men like me," Sheridan said in his speech. "I was headed down the same vicious cycle that so many of today's urban youth get caught up in, a path that only has two potential outcomes; either prison or death."

Sheridan, the oldest of six, lives in a violent and crime-ridden neighborhood in the North Bronx. Like 67 percent of black children in America, he has grown up in a single-parent home.

"Before I came to Eagle Academy it were constant fights, getting arrested," Sheridan said. "I was arrested four to five times."

The fact that both his parents were incarcerated on drug charges when he was only 9 years old only made life more difficult.

"He took it the hardest. I had many of nights that I cried, blaming myself," his mother Mercedez Smith said.

She admitted it hasn't been easy for him.

"We are not that far from the projects, where there is always shoot-outs, even on this block, the back block, a lot of fights, a lot of gangs," she said.

When his mother learned about a public school in the neighborhood geared specifically to boys of color, she urged her son to apply.

"I feel like that was the best choice me and my son we could of ever made," she said.

Out of thousands that applied, Sheridan was one of the lucky 100 to be accepted in his class. But it didn't stop local gangs trying to recruit him.

"He was always in a fight, every day, even outside of the school, they would go to his school," Smith said.

Sheridan said the biggest turning point in his life came when a teacher at the school went the extra mile to help him

"I said, 'Wow. What is going on with this student? Where at one end he wants to do well and he wants to learn, but at the other he has such a short fuse,'" his ninth grade teacher Ms. Macklin said. "One day in my class he said to me, he feels like he wants to commit suicide, and I talked to him about why he wanted to commit suicide. He said that he was going to die anyways, he was going to be killed on the streets."

From that day on Macklin has been Sherican's advocate, providing counseling and support.

"Ms. Macklin, I have told you things in the past, but I don't think I have ever told you this: You have changed my life," the teenager said in his convocation speech.

And that, according to David Banks, the president and CEO of the schools' foundation, is the point of the Eagle Academy.

"We help young men to understand what it takes to get the lights to go on, for them to believe in themselves," Banks said.

And the way they do that is by providing the structure and discipline many of these boys have never had.

Students must wear uniforms, each boy gets paired with a mentor from the community, school days are longer to avoid idle time on the streets, and the kicker:

"No girls, and it makes a huge difference," Banks said. "I think to be able to come to a place where they don't have to worry about competing for girls, or getting dressed up for girls, they can be very focused on their school work. Many of our young men, other schools would shy away from. But we admit all of these young men and we say we will put all of them in there together and will get everybody to the finish line."

Eagle Academy has brought an astounding number of students across the finish line. The average number of black and Latino boys to graduate high school in New York City is 50 percent. At Eagle Academy, it's 78 percent, with 100 accepted into colleges.

"People don't see the greatness that lies within boys of color. They are boys; they are kids, just like any other kid in America. And with the right direction they can soar," Macklin said.

In his speech, Sheridan discussed watching convocations from the sidelines as a younger student.

"Now I am here. I made it," he said.

"That school will be forever in my memory, in my heart, and (I'm) grateful to them as well because they didn't give up on him," Smith said.

Instead they gave him and his family an alternative to life on the streets. Sheridan will be the first in his family to attend college.



“When his mother learned about a public school in the neighborhood geared specifically to boys of color, she urged her son to apply. "I feel like that was the best choice me and my son we could of ever made," she said.... Sheridan said the biggest turning point in his life came when a teacher at the school went the extra mile to help him. "I said, 'Wow. What is going on with this student? Where at one end he wants to do well and he wants to learn, but at the other he has such a short fuse,'" his ninth grade teacher Ms. Macklin said. "One day in my class he said to me, he feels like he wants to commit suicide, and I talked to him about why he wanted to commit suicide. He said that he was going to die anyways, he was going to be killed on the streets." From that day on Macklin has been Sherican's advocate, providing counseling and support. "Ms. Macklin, I have told you things in the past, but I don't think I have ever told you this: You have changed my life," the teenager said in his convocation speech.... And the way they do that is by providing the structure and discipline many of these boys have never had. Students must wear uniforms, each boy gets paired with a mentor from the community, school days are longer to avoid idle time on the streets, and the kicker: "No girls, and it makes a huge difference," Banks said. "I think to be able to come to a place where they don't have to worry about competing for girls, or getting dressed up for girls, they can be very focused on their school work. … And the way they do that is by providing the structure and discipline many of these boys have never had. Students must wear uniforms, each boy gets paired with a mentor from the community, school days are longer to avoid idle time on the streets, and the kicker: "No girls, and it makes a huge difference," Banks said. "I think to be able to come to a place where they don't have to worry about competing for girls, or getting dressed up for girls, they can be very focused on their school work. … Instead they gave him and his family an alternative to life on the streets. Sheridan will be the first in his family to attend college.”

Please see the NY Times article below on the issue of charter schools, public schools and hybrids such as the Eagle Academy. To me the point of the Eagle Academy is that it includes a good deal more discipline, stress on academics, the use of uniforms, and the segregation of boys from girls than the average public school. It is a school whose whole emphasis is character building and academic achievement, with a distinctly higher likelihood of being accepted to college. We need schools like this across the country for those who would willingly chose them. Some parents undoubtedly would prefer the more “normal” setting of boys and girls together and the freedom to wear normal clothing to school. There is one thing that I can guarantee about the Eagle Academy, the kids will not wear their pants down around their hips. The campuses also will not be a breeding ground for drug abuse and other criminal activities. I assume that the kids who do such things will be expelled. How can kids study in an environment which threatens their very safety?

The following article, also about the Eagle Academy, focuses on charter, public and hybrid schools. It was written in March of 2014. From it comes this – “To even question the motives or practices of charter schools is to be a supplicant in the cult of the teachers’ union, which is its own absurdity, just as it is a disgrace that the term “education reform” has come to refer almost exclusively to the charter movement, belying the innovation that can happen within regular public schools. If the mayor’s messaging were more robust, determined and aggressive, he might draw attention to hybrid schools, which strive to offer poor children something like the experience of a private education within the context of the traditional public system, using union teachers.... The schools operate in conjunction with their own foundation, which raises about $1 million annually to help pay for the staff required to hold longer school days, offer intensive college counseling, provide mentoring programs and so on. Foreign travel and the broadening of worldview are promoted; this spring’s class trip at the Eagle Academy in the Bronx is to Greece and Turkey. Students raise money for the trips, and parents are encouraged to save to help pay for them. “Most of our kids have expensive sneakers and iPhones,” Jonathan Foy, the school’s principal, said. “Choices can be made.” Last year, 17 students went to China.... In very poor neighborhoods, like Brownsville and Ocean Hill in Brooklyn, the rates are even lower, including at Eagle’s school in the area. But across its network, Eagle sent 82 percent of last year’s graduating class to college, a rate significantly higher than college enrollment for black male students across the country.”

This school feeds the kids – all of them – breakfast each day and conducts a town meeting. During their career there they have a chance of going abroad to Europe, something which most public school students don't get to do. Not only are 82% of them going to college, some are accepted at Ivy League schools. This is a success rate that should cause other public schools to investigate their methods and perhaps become a Hybrid school. Since these are boys schools, there should be girls' schools as well which get the same perks – breakfast, uniforms, high academic offerings and a trip to Europe. Hopefully this trend will spread to other cities. It can only help high school achievement and college attendance. It also sets kids on the path to a new kind of life that generally only the privileged classes enjoy.




http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/nyregion/in-debate-on-charter-schools-hybrids-offer-an-answer.html?_r=0

The Wisdom in the Middle
In Debate on Charter Schools, Hybrids Offer an Answer
MARCH 13, 2014

In recent days, as the debate over education has produced so many glowering expressions on so many faces all over the city, I have heard people say, in a spirit of both bafflement and confession, that they “don’t know what to think about charters.” In one sense, the befuddlement itself is a part of the problem, a suggestion that charter schools, like graphic wallpaper or adventurous restaurants in Brooklyn, constitute a matter about which one should have an opinion.

When he was campaigning for mayor, Bill de Blasio had an enlightened formulation — that charter schools, though they educate only 6 percent of the city’s children, had usurped nearly all the conversation, and that this was an unhealthy proportion. And yet since he was elected he has been too lost in the morass to reframe and reorient the discussion.

The mayor has allowed charter school advocates, whose public-relations machine would seem to rival the operations of Paramount in the 1940s, to continue to leave too many people believing that if you are against charter schools you are against “change,” and thus by default a friend of laziness and mediocrity. To even question the motives or practices of charter schools is to be a supplicant in the cult of the teachers’ union, which is its own absurdity, just as it is a disgrace that the term “education reform” has come to refer almost exclusively to the charter movement, belying the innovation that can happen within regular public schools.

If the mayor’s messaging were more robust, determined and aggressive, he might draw attention to hybrid schools, which strive to offer poor children something like the experience of a private education within the context of the traditional public system, using union teachers.

The Eagle Academy schools, for example, are a consortium of five schools, four of them in New York and one in Newark (a sixth is scheduled to open on Staten Island in the fall), that educate boys, most of them black and poor, from sixth grade through 12th.

The schools operate in conjunction with their own foundation, which raises about $1 million annually to help pay for the staff required to hold longer school days, offer intensive college counseling, provide mentoring programs and so on. Foreign travel and the broadening of worldview are promoted; this spring’s class trip at the Eagle Academy in the Bronx is to Greece and Turkey. Students raise money for the trips, and parents are encouraged to save to help pay for them.

“Most of our kids have expensive sneakers and iPhones,” Jonathan Foy, the school’s principal, said. “Choices can be made.” Last year, 17 students went to China.

When teachers haven’t done well for him, he has gotten rid of them, he said, explaining that in his school environment it is crucial for teachers to make emotional connections with students, whose home lives are often chaotic. “They want to know who you are, and then they will buy into the curriculum,” he said.

Black boys make up a particularly challenging cohort for educators. Last year, on standardized math and English tests for students in the sixth to eighth grades, only about 13 percent of them scored as proficient, as opposed to just under 30 percent for students citywide. In very poor neighborhoods, like Brownsville and Ocean Hill in Brooklyn, the rates are even lower, including at Eagle’s school in the area. But across its network, Eagle sent 82 percent of last year’s graduating class to college, a rate significantly higher than college enrollment for black male students across the country.

This year, the Eagle school in the Tremont section of the Bronx has one of its first Ivy League candidates, a student who is waiting to hear about admission to Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania. Another student, in 11th grade, who has grown up in a shelter, recently learned that he had made the first cut for admission to Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America, known as LEDA, a program that prepares high-achieving low-income students for entry to elite colleges.




COPS AND ROBBERS – NEWS AND COMMENTS


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/nyregion/the-dark-side-of-broken-windows-policing.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fbig-city&contentCollection=nyregion&action=click&module=NextInCollection®ion=Footer&pgtype=article

The Dark Side of ‘Broken Windows’ Policing
JAN. 16, 2015

Photograph – Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton spoke about police retraining in December.

In recent weeks, New Yorkers have been watching a family drama unfold among an angry patriarch, the mayor, Bill de Blasio; his petulant charges in the Police Department, apparently as huffy as 12-year-olds told to stop texting; and a mother, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who, like mothers everywhere hoping to get Daddy to understand and the children to listen, has been trying to broker peace.

What risks getting obscured in a story whose other central characters include irritable union leader babysitters and their incitements to misbehavior is that the significant rift here isn’t political. It is civic, spurred by the continued friction between an underclass with ample reason to feel alienated from the modern culture of law enforcement and a police department that can seem intolerant of any challenge to its methods and methodologies.

Just how wide that gulf remains was evident this week, when New York City advocates for police reform delivered testimony to President Obama’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing that condemned the practice of “broken windows” policing, which postulates that summonses issued and arrests made for minor offenses preclude the eruption of major crimes.

Writing on behalf of the group, Communities United for Police Reform, Monifa Bandele, a native of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, who now lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, called for an end to the approach, arguing that its casualties include the black and Hispanic men who end up stigmatized, burdened with fines and arrest records that make it harder to find jobs, secure loans or obtain housing. At the spectrum’s far end are unnecessary civilian deaths.

A few weeks before, writing in City Journal, a periodical publication of the conservative Manhattan Institute, Commissioner Bratton put forth a lengthy defense of the policy he has passionately advocated and implemented for decades, arguing essentially that minorities love “broken windows”; that critics who don’t see this “have never been to a police/community meeting in a poorer, mostly minority neighborhood”; that those who attribute historic decreases in crime to broader social trends are lost in academic mumbo-jumbo; and that anyone else standing in opposition to the practice must be too young to know that New York was once Detroit.

Both Mr. Bratton and his critics on the left understand that the way forward is for police officers to vastly improve their relationship with the communities they serve and for community members to be more deeply involved in the maintenance of the social order.

This notion of community or neighborhood policing, as Michael Jenkins, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Scranton and author of the new book “Police Leaders in the New Community Problem Solving Era,” pointed out, arose in tandem with “broken windows,” both in the literature and in practice. But the approaches have come to be regarded as antagonistic to each other, or at the very least have taken on the veneer of incompatibility, in large part because of the discriminatory tactics of stop-and-frisk, which “broken windows” engendered — a relationship that Mr. Bratton refuses to acknowledge.

“Different neighborhoods have different ideas about the problems they’ll want police responding to, and varying capacities to manage disorder,” Mr. Jenkins said. “If police are viewed as intervening across the board everywhere or viewed as carpet-bombing an area, that’s usually not going to be helpful to community relationships. If you add a layer of disrespectful or unnecessary interactions with citizens, broken windows can be denigrated.”

Additional testimony before the president’s task force this week included a report from Dolores Jones-Brown, a former prosecutor and director of the John Jay College Center on Race, Crime and Justice, who argued that San Diego, a model for alternative techniques, had experienced a greater long-term reduction in violent crime than New York had without resorting to broken-windows tactics. From 1991 to 1998, she wrote, New York’s homicide rate declined by 70.6 percent but San Diego’s dropped by more than 76 percent. From 2002 to 2012, while violent crime in New York fell by 19 percent, violent crime in San Diego fell by 27 percent.

How was this accomplished? In the ’90s, for example, when a spate of robberies occurred around a particular bus stop, the San Diego police, rather than flooding the area with officers or making mass arrests, simply relocated the bus stop to a spot in front of a convenience store, which provided more light. The thought, which turned out to be correct, was that the robberies were largely crimes of opportunity, committed by impulsive young people who would not bother to set up shop elsewhere.

Underpinning the execution of “broken windows” is the conviction that someone doing something stupid — committing a minor act of vandalism, for instance — is on the path to becoming someone bad. As Ms. Bandele said, her neighbors are all too aware that while they may be given a summons for drinking beer on their stoop, residents of more affluent quarters of the city can do those sorts of things and go unnoticed and ignored.

If Mr. Bratton believes that “broken windows” is indispensable to keeping the city safe — and perhaps it is — then he must retool and reframe it, a process that might begin not with the arrogant dismissal of its critics, but with an admission and some attention to where it has gone wrong, or at least real recognition that, like any system, it is imperfect.





“If Mr. Bratton believes that “broken windows” is indispensable to keeping the city safe — and perhaps it is — then he must retool and reframe it, a process that might begin not with the arrogant dismissal of its critics, but with an admission and some attention to where it has gone wrong, or at least real recognition that, like any system, it is imperfect.”... the significant rift here isn’t political. It is civic, spurred by the continued friction between an underclass with ample reason to feel alienated from the modern culture of law enforcement and a police department that can seem intolerant of any challenge to its methods and methodologies.... Just how wide that gulf remains was evident this week, when New York City advocates for police reform delivered testimony to President Obama’s Task Force on 21st-Century Policing that condemned the practice of “broken windows” policing, which postulates that summonses issued and arrests made for minor offenses preclude the eruption of major crimes. Writing on behalf of the group, Communities United for Police Reform, Monifa Bandele, a native of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, who now lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, called for an end to the approach, arguing that its casualties include the black and Hispanic men who end up stigmatized, burdened with fines and arrest records that make it harder to find jobs, secure loans or obtain housing. At the spectrum’s far end are unnecessary civilian deaths.... Both Mr. Bratton and his critics on the left understand that the way forward is for police officers to vastly improve their relationship with the communities they serve and for community members to be more deeply involved in the maintenance of the social order. This notion of community or neighborhood policing, as Michael Jenkins, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Scranton and author of the new book “Police Leaders in the New Community Problem Solving Era,” pointed out, arose in tandem with “broken windows,” both in the literature and in practice. But the approaches have come to be regarded as antagonistic to each other, or at the very least have taken on the veneer of incompatibility, in large part because of the discriminatory tactics of stop-and-frisk, which “broken windows” engendered — a relationship that Mr. Bratton refuses to acknowledge.... If you add a layer of disrespectful or unnecessary interactions with citizens, broken windows can be denigrated.”

Dolores Jones-Brown, a former prosecutor and director of the John Jay College Center on Race, Crime and Justice, delivered a report to the President in the same forum on the even greater reduction of crime rates in San Diego which did not employ broken windows techniques, but more thoughtful methods. For instance a bus stop which had been a center for crimes was simply moved to a location in front of a convenience store where there was better lighting, thus discouraging attacks.

About Mr. Bratton, it seems to me that he has long been involved with the too often brutal crackdown on minor crime called “broken windows,” and is loath to change to community policing. It requires admitting that there have been errors and even crimes committed by police, and changing the NYPD work atmosphere. Under de Blassio's influence, however, he is standing up for police policy reforms, much to the police union's discontent. He did reprimand officers for their show of disrespect to de Blassio a couple of weeks ago.

The Police don't want to accept any responsibility for the discord and downright hatred that exists between communities and officers, but the examination of the situation by the public is not going to go away. Hopefully the evil that is going on today is going to change soon. The same changes need to be made across the country, however, not just in hard core cities like New York and Detroit – or even Ferguson where all this started last year. It's linked to the rise in racial hatred and hatred of all things liberal, tolerant or progressive, and is part of a cultural wave in the US right now. The same thing is going on in Europe. NeoNazi philosophy is appearing again, especially in relation to the difficulties those countries are having with Islamic refugees who have flooded into Europe. Intolerance rules.

One thing is clear to me. Policing per se is not immoral, unethical or cruel, but being abusive is. Too many times police officers are abusive, even to the point of committing legalized murder and they are getting away with it without paying a substantial penalty. That's because of lazy or timid or corrupt management and city governments. The courts and city government are involved in the matter of who gets punished, also.

Of course we need law enforcement, and we need as much order as possible. The problem with this argument (see the very enlightening reader comments below) is that police unions across the country are defending unnecessary shootings as good policing, and they just aren't good at all. Police do need to be massively retrained as de Blassio and Bratton have begun to do. The outcry among police against this is nothing but the attempt to deny their personal responsibility for what they have done. I think it's a developmental stage we are going through as a free society. Our cities are too large and our economic structure is failing. Our system isn't working as well as it did in 1950 and too many people are scared, angry and financially desperate. We need good cops, but we need to weed out and eliminate the bad ones – in other words fire them and even send them to prison when they abuse members of the public. I think de Blassio is on the right track to treat the problem at its source – the police department when they behave as swaggering and arrogant bullies. Not all police do that. The ones who behave more humanely should be promoted and those who don't fired.

That is not to say that there aren't plenty of street punks and crime ridden neighborhoods. I would like to see police become at least to a greater degree involved in cleaning up and healing the wounds of the neighborhood rather than venting their hate and anger on poor and blighted communities. It's a complex problem with a need for everyone to pitch in and help. Hopefully the President will be moved to help and pragmatic thinkers will come to the fore, calling for justice alongside “law and order.”


COMMENTS



Earl Horton
 Harlem,Ny 2 days ago
Deblasio is pretty weak, easily capitulating to the issue of policing. He is pushing for a broken windows approach to policing instead of with crime being down, a mend broken fences approach.

THE DAMAGE WITH POLICE AND BLACK/BROWN COMMUNITIES IS GENERATIONAL. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH THE POLICE AND BLACK/BROWN COMMUNITIES, NYPD DIDN'T WANT A GOOD RELATIONS, CRIME IS THEIR BREAD AND BUTTER.

SINCE THE CRACKDOWN ON GRAFT IN THE NYPD THE POLICE WANT AS MUCH OVERTIME THEY CAN GET. ALSO, ENSURING THAT THEIR SONS AND DAUGHTERS HAVE A LIFETIME CAREER TOO. LET US FACE IT POLICING HAS BEEN A BOON FOR LOW INCOME WHITES. THEY ARE NO SMARTER OR MORAL THAN ANY OTHER ETHNICITY YET THEY ARE SOUGHT OUT BECAUSE AMERICA FEELS BETTER WHEN A WHITE MAN IS AT THE HELM OR IN AUTHORITY.

Unfortunately that doesn't translate into effective and equitable governing, ask Giuliani or Bloomberg. It also seems as though Deblasio is going in the same direction, mediocrity.
Mend "broken fences" not "broken windows". ...


Earl Horton
 Harlem,Ny 2 days ago
WE ALL KNOW THAT WHITE KIDS COMMIT VANDALISM AND PETTY CRIMES JUST AS ANY OTHER KID. RIGHT NOW THERE IS A SEVERE HEROIN EPIDEMIC IN STATEN ISLAND. SOMEONE SHOULD ASK BRATTON WILL "BROKEN WINDOWS" BE APPLIED THERE ALSO,OR IN PREDOMINATELY WHITE NEIGHBORHOODS? WE KNOW THAT THE CRIME RATE IS HIGH DUE TO INCREASING SUBSTANCE ABUSE, WHAT APPROACH ARE THEY USING FOR THAT COMMUNITY? SILENCE. YET THE DRUG EPIDEMIC IN BLACK/BROWN COMMUNITIES HAVE WANED CONSIDERABLY. NOW WHITES ARE FINDING OUT THAT DRUG ADDICTS ARE MADE NOT BORN. A RECIPE OF TRAUMA, NO OPPORTUNITY, MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, A MYRIAD OF OTHER CONDITIONS IS WHAT SHAPES THE SUBSTANCE ABUSER.

We also know that whites don't want police in their community checking on them to see if crime is being committed by them, they prefer to call, otherwise "don't harass us or our children"

Deblasio, Bratton. and Sharpton( Sharpton is a "shill" for the establishment) have done nothing but flip stop question and frisk, using so called scientific data to once again target black/brown communities.

Crime is down across the nation. There is no need for hyper policing. Now is the time to mend broken fences, not broken windows....


Eric
 NY 2 days ago
Broken windows, stop and frisk, community policing, all controversial tactics used to reduce crime.

There are two facts about crime: it's gone down dramatically over the past 20-25 years throughout the country, and the experts don't know why. They have theories, but no consensus. They have statistics, but no sure explanations.

Usually it takes carefully designed studies with two groups - a test group and a control group - to determine true cause and affect. Apparently such studies haven't been or can't be done.

THE RESULT IS CONTROVERSY AND DISAGREEMENT. EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN PERSPECTIVE AND OPINION. BUT NO ONE REALLY KNOWS WHAT WORKS AND WHY.

WHAT IS CLEAR, THOUGH, IS THERE ARE BIG PROBLEMS IN NYC AND OTHER CITIES BETWEEN THE POLICE AND THE PEOPLE THEY'RE PAID TO PROTECT - ESPECIALLY, PRIMARILY, AFRICAN-AMERICANS. THESE IS TENSION BETWEEN THE NYPD AND THE MAYOR, WHICH IS EXACERBATED BY THE ANTAGONISTIC STATEMENTS OF THE HEAD OF THE PBA. 

THE POLICE HAVE A DANGEROUS JOB. BUT BY NOT ACKNOWLEDGING THEIR ROLE IN THESE CONFLICTS, THEY ARE ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE, THEY SHOW NO COMMITMENT TO IMPROVE THINGS, AND THEY ARE MAKING THEIR JOB MUCH HARDER.

CARRYING A BADGE AND A GUN IS NOT A LICENSE TO KILL. TURNING THEIR BACKS AT FUNERALS IS WRONG. IT'S PAST TIME FOR THE POLICE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY AND WORK TO FIX THEIR MISTAKES AND STOP BLAMING EVERYONE ELSE.


laura
 Brooklyn,NY 2 days ago
Nobody thinks robbers shouldn't be arrested. The "broken windows" approach refers to cracking down on petty offenses such as trespassing, smoking marijuana, open containers. etc, with intention of preventing serious crimes like robbery and assault. THE PROBLEM WITH THIS APPROACH IS IT'S UNEVEN APPLICATION AND THE TERRIBLE CONSEQUENCES THIS HAS UPON THE LIVES OF YOUNG MEN OF COLOR.


KB
 Brewster,NY 2 days ago
I DON'T BELIEVE ITS SO MUCH THE POLICY AS IT IS THE MANNER IN WHICH THE POLICY IS ENFORCED.

THE NYPD REALLY HAVE TO MAKE A BETTER EFFORT AT TRAINING THE PATROLMEN IN THEIR MANNERS. THEY NEED TO LEARN THAT THE POLICY CAN BE JUST AS EFFECTIVE, OR MORE SO, IF THEY SHOW CIVILIANS ( YES, ESPECIALLY MINORITIES ) THE SAME RESPECT THEY WISH TO RECEIVE.

I KNOW AND HAVE KNOWN MANY NYPD ( INCLUDING FOUR RELATIVES ) AND THEY UNIFORMLY HAVE A " BAD ATTITUDE " TOWARD BLACKS IN PARTICULAR. THAT ATTITUDE IS, IN MY OPINION, A FUNCTION OF EDUCATION OR LACK THEREOF. IF IT'S IMPRACTICAL OR UNTENABLE TO MANDATE A BA IN A SOCIAL SCIENCE AS A JOB REQUIREMENT, AT LEAST PROVIDE THEM WITH AN IN HOUSE PROGRAM TO SENSITIZE THE NYPD , EVEN A LITTLE BIT, TO THE PLIGHT OF ALL THE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS THAT ARE OFFENDED BY THEIR NASTY BLANKET APPROACH.


Njmike  NJ 2 days ago
I'm with you 100% on the need for cops to show common courtesy, but is a BA in a social science the right delivery mechanism for that? For one thing, it is expensive. For another, we'll, don't we already have an awful lot of those? Oh, and business majors.


B.
 Brooklyn 2 days ago
NOW, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT A "MINOR ACT OF VANDALISM" IS. 

GRAFFITI ON YOUR HOUSE? A PICKET YANKED OFF YOUR PICKET FENCE? A BROKEN GARAGE OR CAR WINDOW? (OR SEVERAL, ALL ALONG THE STREET?) MAYBE UPROOTING A BUSH IN FRONT OF YOUR APARTMENT BUILDING? SCATTERING THE CONTENTS OF GARBAGE CANS ONTO THE SIDEWALK?

SCRAWLING OBSCENITIES ON THE SUBWAY CARS YOU RIDE EVERY DAY TO WORK?

TELL ME HOW MINOR THAT IS WHEN IT'S YOUR APARTMENT BUILDING, HOME, FENCE, OR MODE OF TRANSPORTATION THAT'S TARGETED.

AS FOR OTHER QUALITY-OF-LIFE INFRACTIONS LIKE LOITERING, PLAYING LOUD RADIOS, AND SELLING WEED ON THE STREETS, TELL ME HOW MINOR IT IS WHEN IT'S IN FRONT OF YOUR BUILDING. EVER BEEN KEPT UP ALL NIGHT, FOR WEEKS, WHEN A DOUBLE-PARKED CAR PULLS UP AND BLASTS ITS RADIO BENEATH YOUR WINDOW? OR, ON A WARM SUMMER NIGHT A BUNCH OF GUYS' CIGARETTE AND MARIJUANA SMOKE COMES WAFTING THROUGH YOUR WINDOW? THE LOUD CELL-PHONE CONVERSATIONS, CURSING, AND ARRANGING FOR DRUG SALES? HOW ABOUT FINDING USED CONDOMS IN THE DRIVEWAY OR ALLEY? OR A PILE OF (HUMAN) FECES? 

EVER ASK THEM NICELY TO MOVE? EVER HEAR WHAT THEY CALL YOU?

PLEASE DON'T TELL ME TO EXPECT THIS SORT OF BEHAVIOR. I'VE LIVED IN BROOKLYN ALL MY LIFE, AND SO I KNOW BETTER.
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Karen Bernard
 New Jersey 2 days ago
IN ANY ENCOUNTER WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS AUTHORITY, IF THE PERSON WITH AUTHORITY COMES ACROSS AS SELF-CENTERED, RUDE, UNWILLING TO HEAR YOU, THOUGHTLESSLY RIGID, SNARKY, FOUL-MOUTHED, OR INSULTING IF YOU DARE ASK A QUESTION - WELL, YES, ANY NORMAL PERSON WOULD RESIST, IF ONLY TO ASK ANOTHER QUESTION. This becomes "resisting arrest" and things go down from there. People are people, and there can be no excuse for treating people differently simply because they live in a NYC ghetto instead of a NJ suburb, WHICH IS REALLY THE CRUX OF "BROKEN WINDOWS". That being said, there are uncouth and dangerous people in both places. if a police officer cannot restrain his understandable irritation at having to deal with such a person, she should get another job. THOSE WHO DON'T GET ANOTHER JOB SHOULD BE DISCIPLINED, PROVIDED TRAINING, THEN FIRED IF THEY CANNOT BUILD THE INTERPERSONAL SKILLS TO DO THEIR JOB CORRECTLY. WHY SHOULD CITIZENS PAY FOR ANYTHING LESS?
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Rodrick Wallace
 Manhattan 2 days ago
"STOP-AND-FRISK" IS NOT BROKEN-WINDOWS POLICING. THE YOUNG PEOPLE TARGETED HAVE NOT COMMITTED ANY CRIME. THEY ARE BEING ILLEGALLY SEARCHED.

For misdemeanors, the police often have the discretion to issue a ticket rather than a full arrest. Noise, littering, double-parking are all misdemeanors that can be merely ticketed.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, DRUG DEALING, PIMPING, CARRYING A GUN WITHOUT A PERMIT ARE AMONG THE FELONIES THAT SHOULD RESULT IN ARRESTS.

IN MY PRECINCT (34TH, MANHATTAN), THE POLICE DON'T BEHAVE APPROPRIATELY. THE PATROL OFFICERS WANT TO GO BACK TO "STOP-AND-FRISK" BUT REFUSE TO TICKET MISDEMEANORS SUCH AS NOISE PROBLEMS THAT ERODE COMMUNITY LIVE. FURTHERMORE, THEIR RECORD ON ARRESTS FOR FELONIES IS SPOTTY. THEY ENCOURAGE DRUG-DEALING AND DON'T ARREST DEALERS. ON THE ONE HAND, THEY WANT THE ARROGANT, SWAGGERING ABUSE OF AUTHORITY. ON THE OTHER HAND, THEY ARE EITHER TOO LAZY OR TOO CORRUPT TO DO THEIR JOBS WITH RESPECT TO REAL CRIMES. "BROKEN WINDOWS" THEORY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH POLICING IN THE 34TH PRECINCT.
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Phil Serpico
 NYC 2 days ago
THE BROKEN WINDOWS THEORY UNDER THE DE BLASIO ADMINISTRATION PRESENTS A CLASSIC SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS SITUATION. THERE IS A MOVE AFOOT TO LAY OFF MINOR CRIMES IN MINORITY NEIGHBORHOODS LIKE MARIJUANA POSSESSION. SOON IT WILL BE OTHER OFFENSES. THE PROPONENTS CLAIM THAT IT RUINS THE LIVES OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE STIGMATIZED WITH A CRIMINAL RECORD. THERE IS ALSO A MOVE TO EXAMINE THE ISSUANCE OF SUMMONSES BY RACE IN THE CITY COUNCIL. SO THERE IS A BELIEF THAT LAW ENFORCEMENT IS UNFAIRLY AIMED AT MINORITIES. WITH THIS MINDSET, THE MAINTENANCE OF STANDARDS AND CIVILITY IN A GIVEN NEIGHBORHOOD, MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO PROCEED WITH THE BROKEN WINDOWS THEORY. YOU SIMPLY CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. So many of the proponents of eliminating quality of life enforcement (broken windows) would be the first to call the police if someone was loitering in their hallway or nearby and engaging in minor violations. Some would prefer that they be removed with no punitive actions. Then why have police at all? The most insidious example of broken windows in action was the graffiti of the seventies. New York City was a psychedelic nightmare. To some it was an art expression. In summary, the broken windows theory is stopping something before it gets put of hand. Incidentally, police had been doing this for years before Prof . Wilson decided to make it the subject of a white paper.
14Recommend

Alocksley
 New York 3 days ago
BROKEN WINDOWS IS SIMPLY A CARTE BLANCHE FOR THE POLICE TO ANNOY AND BULLY PEOPLE FOR MINOR OFFENCES, MANY OF WHICH CAUSE NO HARM TO ANYONE. WHAT'S WORSE IS THAT THEY OFTEN TICKET AND ARREST PEOPLE AT THEIR DISCRETION.

THE ISSUE ISN'T POLICING POLICY, IT'S THE POLICE. IT'S THE "US VERSUS THEM" ATTITUDE OF AMERICAN POLICE FORCES THAT ALIENATES THEM FROM THE PUBLIC. I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU CHANGE THAT ATTITUDE. 

BTW, how was the crime rate during the recent "slowdown" when the cops didn't fine and ticket? The City didn't collapse, did it??
17Recommend


Jay
 Florida 3 days ago
Why in the world would anyone approve of license to allow "minor" crimes to be ignored or unpunished? I grew up in NY, South Bronx in the 1950s. It was safe. The minor crimes included opening the hydrants in hot NY summers to cool off. We didn't carry guns or knives. Assault or robbery was not a problem. Standing alone on a deserted train platform at any hour was safe. That's not to say that we didn't have some punks and bully boys who acted like idiots. We had them. But the cop on the beat knew who you were, knew you're mom and dad and knew where you lived. Sometimes a cop would take one of the boys aside and have a meaning full exchange. No hard feelings. The kids being stupid knew they were being jerks. The difference today is that the kids and young adults doing stupid stuff don't know they are. And don't care. And they escalate to greater crime since the opportunity exists. RESPECT FOR THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS HAS TO BEGIN WITH RESPECT BY WOULD BE PUNKS. THEY MUST HAVE RESPECT FOR LAW AND ORDER AND GOOD BEHAVIOR. BROKEN WINDOWS AND STOP AND FRISK ARE NOT DONE CAVALIERLY. WHILE IT SEEMS THAT IT TARGETS TOO MANY FOR PETTY OFFENSIVES THE OUTCOME IS TO CREATE SAFER STREETS. WHY WALK DOWN THE STREET LOOKING LIKE AND ACTING LIKE A PUNK SEARCHING FOR TROUBLE? WHAT MESSAGE DOES THAT SEND? ARE YOU CARRYING A GUN? WHAT IS YOUR INTENT? MUST EVERYONE ELSE COWER AND BE AFRAID? WE WANT TO LIVE WITHOUT FEAR. THE PUNKS AND PEOPLE DOING STUPID STUFF SHOULD NOT BE THREATENING TO US.
27Recommend


shirls
 Manhattan 2 days ago
"BUT THE COP ON THE BEAT KNEW WHO YOU WERE, KNEW YOU'RE MOM AND DAD AND KNEW WHERE YOU LIVED. SOMETIMES A COP WOULD TAKE ONE OF THE BOYS ASIDE AND HAVE A MEANING FULL EXCHANGE. NO HARD FEELINGS. THE KIDS BEING STUPID KNEW THEY WERE..." SAYS IT ALL! COMMUNITY POLICING, IE BEAT COPS WAS EFFECTIVE. NEVER SEE A POLICEMAN WALKING MY NEIGHBORHOOD... EVER!
8Recommend

edstock
 midwest 3 days ago
"Broken Windows" does not work. After reading Kerik's book one of his tactics was to "put paper on criminals" ie: write summonses up for every little thing such as jaywalking, spitting, drinking beer in the park, etc. When suspected of more serious crime they could then be arrested via the bench warrants issued for not showing up in court for the above violations. It needlessly caused all sorts of arrests, in some cases leaving the victims with criminal records; making it much more difficult to obtain jobs and housing.





http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/11/nyregion/outside-the-spotlight-bill-de-blasio-wages-a-war-on-inequality.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fbig-city&contentCollection=nyregion&action=click&module=NextInCollection®ion=Footer&pgtype=article

Outside the Spotlight, Bill de Blasio Wages a War on Inequality
JAN. 8, 2015

A year ago, just days into his tenure as New York City’s 109th mayor, Bill de Blasio fell under criticism for his approach to eating pizza, one that depended on cutlery. That this minor peculiarity became a matter of mass media interest — Jon Stewart, Time magazine, The Guardian all weighed in obsessively — only confirmed Mr. de Blasio’s status as a national celebrity. He had been elected by a wide margin, promising to rectify the imbalances of an ever more economically divided city. On the right were predictions that Mr. de Blasio’s progressive commitments would return the city to the anarchy of the 1970s; elsewhere was the concern that we were now to be led by someone dull and dismissible. And yet we haven’t ended up in an era of another Abe Beame.

During Mr. de Blasio’s first year in office, the crime rate in the city went down, not up, even as stop-and-frisk tactics were curtailed. At the same time, fears among centrists that Mr. de Blasio lacked a commanding presence and would reflexively submit to unions, no matter their demands, should now seem to be at least partly mollified by his contentious dealings with the police, a constituency he has been disinclined to coddle.

By the end of 2014, perhaps unforeseeably, the defining fissures in the city were not those between rich and poor but those between supporters of the police unions, like the tabloids that worship law-enforcement culture, and those who feel that criticism of the police is not synonymous with the belief that criminals should have free rein. Ultimately, what the police perceived as betrayal was the mayor’s refusal to celebrate the grand jury decision that vindicated the actions of the officer who put Eric Garner, a Staten Island man suspected of selling cigarettes illegally, in a chokehold that resulted in his death in July.

What police officers don’t appear to see is that their collective tantrum, one intended to alienate the mayor from his citizenry, runs the risk of having precisely the opposite effect — uniting progressives with centrists who may have been wary of Mr. de Blasio but who now find the officers’ actions, their work slowdown and other more theatrical displays of defiance, childish and deplorable.

This would amount to a blessing for a mayor who has often had a difficult time mining political capital from his policy maneuvers. Beyond its big initiatives — the expansion of universal prekindergarten and of paid sick leave — the new administration has done little to tout its many other efforts in the fight against inequality. And these efforts don’t easily register in a city where $50 million condominium listings continue to be commonplace, soaring commercial rents drive beloved institutions into oblivion and the ultrarich still seem to be taking up all the room in the dance hall.

In August, despite the mayor’s strained relationship with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and despite sparring with state officials over the issue, the city managed to negotiate a deal totaling close to $140 million to help subsidize rents for homeless families. The dissolution of a similar but poorly managed program toward the end of the Bloomberg administration had disastrous consequences that still resonate today, advocates for the homeless have argued. Rates of homelessness remain at record highs because of prior policies, but with the new subsidy having gained momentum at the end of the year, 5,000 families are expected to move out of shelters in 2015, said Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless.

“Things are very much looking up,” Mr. Markee said.

Beyond that, in July the new administration reversed a longstanding policy that failed to prioritize homeless families for apartments belonging to the city’s Housing Authority. And the authority itself, long neglected under the Bloomberg administration, has been the recipient of increased city funds, with tens of millions of dollars going toward maintenance, repairs and enhanced security.

By the end of November, the city had financed the construction of nearly 3,900 units of affordable housing and the preservation of more than 7,500 others. By the end of December, it reached its goal of 16,000 units. The city has doubled the capital budget of its Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Of the 200,000 units of affordable housing it plans to create over the next decade, 20 percent would go to families with household incomes of $40,000 a year or less. In recent years much has been made of the fact that affordability in the context of housing is a euphemistic and relative term and that affordable housing initiatives skew in favor of the middle class. In fact, only 11 percent of units in the city’s plan are designated for families with household incomes of $97,000 to $138,000.

There have been other moves too, seemingly small in scope and beyond notice. For instance, provisions in certain municipal contracts have been introduced that dedicate funds for career development and education, which will enhance prospects of mobility. Mr. de Blasio was elected on his rhetoric of the tale of two cities. That tale is a continuing story in New York, but it is a story that can now be read with some hope that the ending won’t turn out so dismally.




“A year ago, just days into his tenure as New York City’s 109th mayor, Bill de Blasio fell under criticism for his approach to eating pizza, one that depended on cutlery. That this minor peculiarity became a matter of mass media interest — Jon Stewart, Time magazine, The Guardian all weighed in obsessively — only confirmed Mr. de Blasio’s status as a national celebrity. He had been elected by a wide margin, promising to rectify the imbalances of an ever more economically divided city. … During Mr. de Blasio’s first year in office, the crime rate in the city went down, not up, even as stop-and-frisk tactics were curtailed. At the same time, fears among centrists that Mr. de Blasio lacked a commanding presence and would reflexively submit to unions, no matter their demands, should now seem to be at least partly mollified by his contentious dealings with the police, a constituency he has been disinclined to coddle. … What police officers don’t appear to see is that their collective tantrum, one intended to alienate the mayor from his citizenry, runs the risk of having precisely the opposite effect — uniting progressives with centrists who may have been wary of Mr. de Blasio but who now find the officers’ actions, their work slowdown and other more theatrical displays of defiance, childish and deplorable.... What police officers don’t appear to see is that their collective tantrum, one intended to alienate the mayor from his citizenry, runs the risk of having precisely the opposite effect — uniting progressives with centrists who may have been wary of Mr. de Blasio but who now find the officers’ actions, their work slowdown and other more theatrical displays of defiance, childish and deplorable. … What police officers don’t appear to see is that their collective tantrum, one intended to alienate the mayor from his citizenry, runs the risk of having precisely the opposite effect — uniting progressives with centrists who may have been wary of Mr. de Blasio but who now find the officers’ actions, their work slowdown and other more theatrical displays of defiance, childish and deplorable.... the city managed to negotiate a deal totaling close to $140 million to help subsidize rents for homeless families. The dissolution of a similar but poorly managed program toward the end of the Bloomberg administration had disastrous consequences that still resonate today.... Beyond that, in July the new administration reversed a longstanding policy that failed to prioritize homeless families for apartments belonging to the city’s Housing Authority. … Of the 200,000 units of affordable housing it plans to create over the next decade, 20 percent would go to families with household incomes of $40,000 a year or less. In recent years much has been made of the fact that affordability in the context of housing is a euphemistic and relative term and that affordable housing initiatives skew in favor of the middle class. … For instance, provisions in certain municipal contracts have been introduced that dedicate funds for career development and education, which will enhance prospects of mobility. Mr. de Blasio was elected on his rhetoric of the tale of two cities. That tale is a continuing story in New York, but it is a story that can now be read with some hope that the ending won’t turn out so dismally.”

From everything I've seen lately, since he's been in the news so much, I am impressed by Mayor de Blassio, and I consider his standing up for his principals against an abusive police union to be very courageous. He was even criticized for how he eats pizza. I'm more than a little shocked by the expense of living in NY. $50 million for a blinking condo? That is ridiculous. Dedicating funds for career development and education is another good move. Reversing a policy that failed to prioritize housing for homeless families is good. He's looking at issues that really impact people who are not wealthy, and I'm all for him. If he runs for President I will consider voting for him.