America's Duce

[womzilla]

I was re-reading some old Usenet posts and came across this bit I posted in 1999:

That's the myth, yes. Benito Guliani takes credit for the reduction in NYC crime rates, but in fact a) major police policy reforms began during the Dinkins administration and started to show results before Guliani's term; and b) crime rates are down nationwide for demographic reasons, though admittedly the decline in NYC is impressive even by that standard. (There are other considerations, like the changes in Virginia's gnu purchasing laws, which helped, too.)

Also, the reduction in civilian crime has come with a sharp increase in police crime. The number of police brutality complaints has skyrocketed under Benito's regime, and the number of police killings of civilians has increased, while nationwide the number has declined during the same period.

I think it was later revealed that the NYC police had committed literally hundreds of thousands of illegal search-and-seizures in the process of "cleaning up" New York. If those had been factored into the crime rate--they weren't, and never will be--crime didn't fall much during Giuliani's tenure.

That's one of the things which continues to scare me about America: voters genuinely don't seem to care about police misbehavior as long as there is a coincidental drop in crime rates, especially if police misbehavior is targeted at "them".

I later added:

Since all politics and history is anecdote, I will point out that I was never once mugged while David Dinkins was mayor. I blame the failed Guliani administration.

Comments

[crowleycrow.livejournal.com]

What were Virginia's gnu purchasing laws before, and why was a change thought to be necessary? Did the incoming gnu population in NY keep a lid on crime? I think it would have, but only science could discern it.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Possession of a gnu with intent to graze used to be legal in Virginia; it is now a misdemeanor. The effect of this on the wildebeast population on Central Park has been stunning.

(Typing "gun" as "gnu" was an old Usenet trick to keep people from showing up in discussions that they found by spool-grepping for "gun". It worked somewhat.)

[crowleycrow.livejournal.com]

Interesting and unknown to me -- I lived the early days of the Internet with a 900-baud modem. But didn't you risk attracting numbers of gnu-fanciers?

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Gnu-fanciers tend to be better behaved than most people who trawl the Usenet looking for fights. For that matter, *gnus* tend to be better behaved than such people.