Land of the Free?
When just about anyone thinks of high crime and dirty streets, New York City seems to be among the first places to come to mind. It is actually a bad rap, but nevertheless, a common conclusion. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is credited with cleaning up the streets of NYC, and significantly reducing crime in the Big Apple by enforcing a “zero tolerance” policy. However, it is just recently that the true meaning of “zero tolerance” has surfaced.
Reuters News Service in a July 20, 2003, article reported that a musician named Angel Melendez was plying his trade on a couple of plastic drums in Manhattan’s Fourteenth Street subway station, ostensibly in the hope of receiving tips for serenading New York’s subway passengers. While he was busy tapping away, his kitten “Gizmo,” was sound asleep nearby.
Along comes New York’s finest, and Angel and Gizmo are led away to the hoosegow. New York has a law that any pet in the subway system must be “enclosed” in a container. Little Gizmo was asleep “on top of an upside down bucket,” and according to the arresting officer’s criminal complaint; people are “not allowed to possess a cat not enclosed in a container inside a subway facility.” Apparently having a sleeping kitten next to you in a subway station is a serious enough offense in New York City to get you put in jail. “Melendez and Gizmo spent 40 hours in separate city lockups before a loving reunion on Wednesday afternoon.”
Melendez it seems understood the law in question, but wanted to have his little friend with him anyway, “She's like my baby. I didn't want to leave her alone at home.”
In the same Reuter’s article, it was reported that New York “officials fined a man for sitting on a milk crate and ticketed a woman for talking loudly to her neighbor.”
WorldNet Daily ran an article on July 19, 2003, about a 21-year-old man named Stephen Lamarch who was on his way to work on a New York City train at about 2:30 in the morning. Stephen has a job at Rockefeller Center as a grounds keeper and he starts work at 4:00am.
The train car Stephen was riding in was empty but for one other passenger, which is not unusual for a train car traveling at 2:30am, even in New York City. Steven is only five-foot-six inches tall and was not expecting a rush of people to be entering the car any time soon, so he thought he would stretch out a bit. He put his feet up on the seat next to his.
Along come New York’s finest. Stephen, according to WorldNet Daily was told by the officers, “'NYPD. You're coming with us.” Stephen was then “grilled” by the officers for fifteen minutes and given a summons which read, “Did observe respondent laying across three seats.” Though, Stephen is adamant that he only used two seats, it doesn’t matter anyway. New York has a law that says one seat per person and no more.
Because of the delay, Stephen was late for work, so in addition to his fine, Stephen was also docked an hour’s pay.
There are a number of other equally horrendous stories reported in other sources but suffice it to say, NYC seems to have gone off the deep end in their search for more revenue. Though, NYC does claim that there has been a “14.5 percent decline in major crimes in the transit system in 2003,” and they credit that decline to the enforcement of “zero tolerance.” It sounds good, but it is still hard to accept the idea that if you incarcerate a musician for having a sleeping kitten next to him, overall murders and rapes in NYC will be reduced.
More to the point, shouldn’t we all be a little more concerned when city officials anywhere are advocating the incarceration and fining of its otherwise decent citizens, in the hopes of preventing violent criminal activity within their jurisdiction? In other words, aren’t the NYC folks at the same time making convicts out of ordinary citizens, and creating huge problems for adjacent jurisdictions?
It doesn’t take a criminologist to figure out that the people who commit violent crimes would, if the city’s explanation is correct, find new haunts. That may be good news for the NYC politicians, but not so good news for the residents of cities and towns that become the new homes for the displaced NYC criminals.
While it may be intuitive to also claim victory for NYC’s population, it may not be. This may be the day and age of mandatory seat belts when you drive, helmets when you ride a bicycle, and no smoking in a restaurant or even an office building, it still doesn’t sit well to think that any infraction, no matter how small will be met by rigid police persons and a rigid justice system. Do we all want to sacrifice a few good people in an effort to drive out some bad? What does that make the people who advocate that policy?
We all need to remember that we are humans, and that’s what made America the best place to live in the world. We have always looked at each person and each situation as unique, and we always involved our hearts in spite of the concept that justice is blind. It is one of the things that make Americans proud to be Americans. Jury nullification, the right of jurors to find a defendant not-guilty in spite of a judge's instructions and the law.
Our Founding Fathers knew what state tyranny was and what Alexander Hamilton said more than two hundred years ago is as true today as it was then, “Jurors should acquit, even against the judge's instruction... if exercising their judgment with discretion and honesty they have a clear conviction the charge of the court is wrong.”
Even Mr. Giuliani is quoted as saying in the UK Guardian newspaper in describing his policy, “It really isn't zero tolerance. It's concentrated on small areas of crime so you reduce the number of murders and robberies.” It seems New York has distorted the goal, and expanded the technique. Billy Joel sings a song called, “A New York State of Mind;” if the trend continues and expands, we will all know too well what that “state of mind,” entails.
