Broken windows policing focus of Sunset Park forum
Eric Gonzalez, Letitia James among invited speakers
“Broken windows,” a crime-fighting theory practiced by NYPD for decades, holds that putting an emphasis on fighting quality-of-life crimes such as vandalism, public drinking and turnstile-jumping helps to create an atmosphere of law and order and prevents more serious crimes from taking place.
But several community watchdog groups in Brooklyn, like El Grito de Sunset Park, have charged that “broken windows” policing has given police officers a license to abuse their authority.
El Grito de Sunset Park, which is a member organization of a larger group known as the Coalition to End Broken Windows, will host a town hall event this week to discuss the controversial policing practice. El Grito is Spanish for “The Outcry.”