"The case for broken-windows policing is compelling because it lightly dipped in truth. Yet while there is a correlation between disorder (social and physical) and crime, research shows that this relationship is not causal. Simply put, there is no evidence that disorder directly promotes crime. What the evidence does suggest, however, is that the two are linked to the same larger problem: poverty. High levels of unemployment, lack of social resources, and concentrated areas of low income are all root cause of both high crime and disorder. As such, crime would be more effectively redressed by investing economically in neighborhoods rather than targeting them for heightened arrests." - p. 44

"Unfortunately, since modern American society, as with all things in the current neoliberal moment, prioritize privatization and individualism, the very notion of the public has become disposable. As the current criminal-justice process shows, no longer is there a collective interest in affirming the value of the public good, even rhetorically, through the processes of transparency, honesty, or fairness. No longer is there a commitment to monitoring and evaluating public officials, in this case prosecutors, to certify that justice prevails. Instead we have entered a moment in which all things public have been demonized withing out social imagination: public schools, public assistance, public transportation, public housing, public options, and public defenders. In place of a rich democratic conception of "the public" is a market-driven logic that privileges economic efficiency and individual success over collective justice." - p. 78-79

"There is plenty of reason to debate the central premise of privatization - that business always does it better - but we don't have to go there to find this idea objectionable. In the way that privatization separates government responsibilities from democratic accountability, the notion is flawed from its very conception. Businesses are not made function for the public good. The are made to function for the good of profit. There is nothing inherently evil in that. In most cases, the profit motive will almost certainly lead to a more efficient and orderly execution of tasks. But it does not necessarily lead to an equitable execution of tasks; indeed, it quite naturally resists and equitable execution of tasks. Furthermore, bu injecting moneymaking into the relationship between a citizen and the basic services of life - water, roads, electricity, and education - privatization distorts the social contract. People need to know that the decisions of governments are being made with the common good as a priority. Anything else is not government; it is commerce. One only needs to look back at Michigan to see this idea manifested because the crisis in Flint, as Henry Giroux has written, is what happens when the State is 'remade in the image of the corporation.'"

 

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