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New York Post
14-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
An ode to cop creativity — how colorful characters with bold ideas made New York City safe
'Back from the Brink,' Peter Moskos' new book chronicling New York City's remarkable 1990s crime drop, revives something largely absent from national discourse in recent years: the voice of cops. It packs a powerful — and desperately timely — message for New Yorkers in 2025: Don't believe the 'experts' and academics who tell you police don't reduce crime. Indeed, as we careen toward June's mayoral primary, public safety remains Gothamites' top concern. Yet many candidates still advocate what the 1990s turnaround debunked, as Moskos writes: 'the dominant sociological 'root cause' concept of crime, dismissive of any positive role of policing.' Moskos critically reminds us social issues like 'job creation, income maintenance, medical care, housing, education, drugs, and firearms' did not change majorly in the 1990s — 'in fact, poverty increased.' Yet the Big Apple slashed its murder rate by 20% for five consecutive years, beginning in 1994, even while the city's 'jail population began a decades-long decline in 1992.' 8 Peter Moskos with his new book, 'Back from the Brink: Inside the NYPD and New York City's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop' (Oxford University Press). Peter Moskos How? Not through introducing an army of social-service 'alternatives' to policing and prosecution, as socialist Zohran Mamdani and a rainbow of other Democratic candidates advocate. Instead, police leaders were given support 'to try new ideas' and a fresh policing philosophy was adopted, 'one focused on reducing crime, fear of crime, and disorder.' The book's genius is in providing a veritable oral history (recounted in cop-ese) of this experimentation and revolution from the inside. It moves chronologically from the chaos of the city's gritty, violent 1970s and 1980s to the restored order of the early 2000s, the transformation unfolding through interviews with police officers — and a handful of other key players — who witnessed it firsthand. That compelling, on-the-ground format is no surprise coming from Moskos, a sociologist who became a Baltimore Police Department beat cop as research for his Harvard doctorate. His first book, 'Cop in the Hood,' drew on that experience to illuminate the realities of narcotics enforcement in some of America's toughest neighborhoods. 8 New York City subways were out of control in the 1970s. AP The voices in 'Back from the Brink' ring with authenticity. Many interviewees begin by describing how they grew up and what led them to join the NYPD, offering a wide spectrum of backgrounds and motivations. Whether raised in families of addicts or professors, each officer brings a distinct perspective — and a personal stake — in the work of protecting the city. The story opens in the 1970s NYPD disarray, when mass layoffs fostered officers' deep resentment and a sense of betrayal. As the city staggered through the crime-plagued 1980s and into the early 1990s, crises like the crack epidemic and the Crown Heights riot exposed the department's lack of a clear understanding of the challenges it faced and an effective strategy for addressing them. 8 Graffiti was a subway scourge before cops made quality-of-life issues a priority. AP But big changes were brewing; the chaos underground proved a powerful motivator. 'Vigilante' straphanger Bernie Goetz in 1984 shot four black teens who'd asked him for money — thrusting the extremes of subway crime and rider fear into the national spotlight. Surveys showed beggars had intimidated nearly two-thirds of passengers into giving money, and close to 1,000 homeless people were living in the subway system. As then-NYC Transit Authority President David Gunn put it: 'It's really important on our agenda that we continue to create the impression that someone is in control down there.' Moskos recounts the NYCTA issuing a 1989 code of conduct that now reads like a Karen's checklist — but starkly illustrates just how unruly the subway had become. Pamphlets like 'Introducing Operations Enforcement' announced the agency's new mission: to 'restore a safe, civil environment.' This drive became part of a broader revolution: basing public-safety goals on not arrest numbers but restoring everyday citizens' sense of safety. 8 Moskos signs copies of his new book at Astoria's Irish Whiskey Bar. Hannah E. Meyers Vincent Del Castillo, who served as transit police chief during the campaign to rid the subways of graffiti, recalls Gunn wanted more than arrests — he wanted visible results. 'Eventually we got the message,' Del Castillo said. 'That began a policy where no train would go into service if it had any graffiti at all.' Police creativity played a crucial role — such as coating freshly cleaned trains in hot wax, allowing graffiti to be quickly steamed off. Many graffiti artists, frustrated by seeing their elaborate work melted away almost instantly, eventually gave up. That kind of imaginative policing is a central theme of Moskos' book. No one embodied it more vividly than the gritty and flamboyant Jack Maple, a senior NYPD executive under Mayor Rudy Giuliani's first police commissioner, William Bratton. (Bratton would return as Gotham's top cop during Mayor Bill de Blasio's first term; Maple died in 2001.) Known for his Homburg hats, spats and relentless dedication, Maple recruited what he called 'Jack's broken toys' — officers willing to go undercover as prostitutes or billionaires to catch criminals in the act. 8 Maple's creative policing helped revive New York. Wikipedia Maple sketched his four-step crime-control strategy on a napkin over drinks at a legendary restaurant. 'I'm sitting in Elaine's,' he once told Moskos, 'and you know when you have just enough to drink, you can concentrate on one thing?' He jotted down his keys to reducing crime: timely, accurate intelligence; rapid deployment; effective tactics; and follow-up. Backed by other unconventional thinkers in the department, his formula became the foundation for NYPD's CompStat crime-tracking system — now a global model for data-driven policing. Maple — like many of the book's figures — underscores a vital truth: Real progress often comes from those on the ground who observe problems firsthand and have the creativity and drive to solve them. 8 A 1975 'survival guide' for New York visitors was blunt about the city's crime. Back from the Brink / NYPD Many interviewees reference George Kelling and James Q. Wilson's landmark 1982 Atlantic article, 'Broken Windows,' which famously argued visible signs of disorder — like broken windows, graffiti and public intoxication — create an environment of neglect that invites more serious crime. The core insight was behavioral: When minor infractions go unchecked, both criminals and residents begin to assume no one is in charge. Grounded in fieldwork and frontline observations, the revolutionary essay became a cornerstone of New York's 1990s crime turnaround after Bratton operationalized the theory into a citywide strategy. Under his leadership, police began cracking down on quality-of-life offenses — fare evasion, public drinking, aggressive panhandling and vandalism, among others — on the theory restoring order would deter more serious crime. 8 Broken-windows theory turned around a deteriorated Bryant Park, seen here in 1983. Bryant Park Corporation Businessman and civic leader Daniel Biederman, who transformed Midtown's Bryant Park from a dangerous no-go zone into a celebrated urban oasis, told his wife on the drive home from a New Hampshire mountain-climbing trip: 'I just read something so incredible and so on target for New York City.' He applied the theory to park management by establishing clear behavioral standards: 'There are seven things I don't want going on here. This is my version of Broken Windows.' His list: loud radios, public spitting or cursing, harassing women, smoking, feeding pigeons and letting kids sit on balustrades (they fall and bonk their heads!). Simply having guards enforce the rules proved so effective, the park hasn't needed its own dedicated police. 'Unless it's dastardly, nobody gets arrested ever,' Biederman says. 'Back from the Brink' recounts other small but effective interventions — like piping in classical music at the Port Authority Bus Terminal — that helped restore order and drive out chronic loiterers. 8 Astoria's Irish Whiskey Bar hosted a reading by some of Moskos' interviewees, including former NYPD Chief of Department Louis Anemone (in white shirt and dark jacket, center right). Hannah E. Meyers Fittingly, the book's launch took place at a Queens dive bar, where the redheaded tapster spoke in a thick Irish brogue. Moskos opened the evening with a moment of silence for late key players in New York's revival — figures like George Kelling and Jack Maple. 'Back from the Brink' is a remarkable tribute. It shows how unconventional thinkers, novel ideas, a few drinks and a lot of grit can produce real, lasting progress. Hannah E. Meyers is a fellow and the director of policing and public safety at the Manhattan Institute.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How faculty lounge ideologues attacked Big Apple's dip in murder rate
By the mid-1990s, a thousand butts were being covered in the faculty lounges of America. Sociologists and criminologists were impotently dissing the miraculous plunge in crime and murder in New York, America's largest and most storied city. Starting around 1967, the murder rate in the Big Apple began soaring from 746 that year to a terrifying 2,245 in 1990. During that period, New York also suffered a bleed-out of blue-collar jobs, white flight and a drug epidemic. The problems plaguing New York weren't worse than many other American cities, but the Big Apple became the poster boy for crime and urban decay because of its size and the glare of the media. 'There was a 50% reduction in murders. Sociologists and criminologists in academia were saying 'it's not happening,' author Peter Moskos told the Toronto Sun. ''Who knows what's causing it?' they said. All the 'experts' in the field were wrong.' Moskos — a criminology professor at John Jay College in New York — has written a new book that boasts a rave review from author David Simon, whose works spawned the hit TV series Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire, no less. The book is called Back from the Brink: Inside the NYPD and New York's Extraordinary 1990s Crime Drop. What Moskos — who lives in my old Astoria stomping grounds — did was talk to cops who were there. But the average faculty lounge criminologist does not talk to cops, typically doesn't like cops and is firmly ensconced in an ivory tower with faddish ideas Instead, they posited that the criminals aged out, Roe v. Wade meant fewer unwanted kids coming into the world ready for mayhem, leaded gasoline was banned and suggested we, uh, look at 'root causes.' 'It was the cops,' Moskos said. 'The other things played a role, sure, but mostly it was policing.' In his book, Moskos tells the tales from the front lines and explores the strategies the NYPD used in their war against crime and how cops gave New Yorkers their city back. The book is out Wednesday. Unlike many academics who study crime and policing, Moskos put his money where his mouth is: While doing his PhD, he joined Baltimore Police for a birds-eye view. And because of his blue bona fides, police officers would talk to him, whereas they remained rightly suspicious of the faculty lounge types. Even as murders and crime in general began tumbling in the Big Apple, Moskos' criminology colleagues remained in disbelief. They were wedded to an ideology that remains prevalent in those circles today. 'For starters, they generally don't like cops and they didn't want to give the police any credit,' he said. Still, Moskos said the NYPD benefited from the ebbing of the crack epidemic that ravaged big North American cities in the 1980s and early 1990s. The dealers and users were either in prison or the morgue. The NYPD itself was handcuffed by its inertia. There was little accountability even as the bodies began stacking sky high. That is until the arrival of Jack Maple and William Bratton. Maple had been a subway cop riding the rails and was somewhat of an idiot savant when it came to crime. As commissioner of New York's transit police, Bratton saw a diamond in the rough. Crime fell first on the subway system and then Bratton became NYPD commissioner and brought Maple along for the ride. 'There was little accountability and they demanded it. They cleaned house. Then everything changed,' he said, adding that the NYPD became very good at problem-solving. 'Only sociologists were still saying that the police didn't matter … but they couldn't explain the crime drop away.' CRIME HUNTER: New Mafia movie Alto Knights focuses on Costello-Genovese war HUNTER: Will junk justice be Mark Carney and Liberals' soft underbelly? Like the cops themselves, Moskos said sociologists and criminologists were privileged, believing they were different. 'But they weren't on the streets seeing what was happening … and sometimes their views were offensive, even though data was disputing their ideas,' he added. 'They did not like the conclusion, which was you can police your way out of something like this. 'The adults took charge.' Moskos said he doesn't intend his book to be an ode to Bill Bratton, America's most celebrated cop who not only cleaned up New York, but Los Angeles as well. But Moskos fears there are signs that some of the problems with the cops and the city itself are again plaguing the NYPD. He blames uber-progressive former mayor Bill DeBlasio, whose disdain for the police is well-known. 'Bratton got rid of a lot of the corruption, but now it's back. After the turnaround, police were getting in people's s— which is how you cut crime. Under DeBlasio, the streets were surrendered,' he said. Now, New York has what Moskos calls the Taj Mahal of homeless shelters, packed with illegal immigrants, many of them Venezuelan gangbangers. 'They (the NYPD) are not supposed to enforce that and so you're again seeing a drop in the quality of life,' he said, adding the subways are again dangerous. 'They gave up enforcing the rules on fare evasion and bail reform is a big problem. New York gave up a decade of progress.' Moskos has some advice for other cities like, say, Toronto if they want to eliminate crime. 'Don't let the ideologues have a seat at the table,' he said. 'These are people who want to destroy policing at all costs, most are in the pro-criminal direction.' Canada knows this all too well. bhunter@ X: @HunterTOSun
