Another arrest for a quality-of-life crime, another illegal gun taken off the streets.
Skeptics call such incidents anecdotal, but they keep adding up. And they keep pointing to a single, undeniable fact: “Broken Windows” policing works.
On Monday, two cops spotted a man urinating in public, right by a public school on E. 162nd Street in The Bronx. He turned out to be a Level 3 sex offender with a long rap sheet dating back to 1992.
More important, police said he was carrying a loaded .22-caliber Beretta semiautomatic — which the cops never would’ve found if they hadn’t gone after him for peeing in public.
Just as they wouldn’t have gotten two other illegal loaded guns off the streets in September, when they went after turnstile jumpers in the subway. Or a loaded .357 Magnum from a turnstile-jumper in April.
Yet Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito essentially wants to decriminalize such quality-of-life offenses. A bill to that effect is still under City Council consideration — despite the strong opposition of both Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.
Policing quality-of-life crimes is vital to ensuring the city doesn’t deteriorate back to the grime, filth and outright lawlessness that once ruled its streets. Even if the council won’t accept that, it can’t ignore the ongoing reality that it gets illegal guns off the streets.
Quality-of-life policing not only keeps neighborhoods cleaner — it keeps them safer.
End of story.