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Text 10 Bratton outlined a "broken windows" theory of fighting crime in his
NEW YORK'S CRIMEBUSTER TAMES LA
Officers applauded as Bill Bratton, the most celebrated American police chief since
Eliot Ness, entered his "gang-buster" headquarters last week and surveyed a bank of
computers designed to help him transform the urban war zones of Los Angeles into white
picket-fence suburbia.
A slight figure with a strong Boston accent, he exuded Irish charm and confidence as
he shook hands with rookie cops and computer geeks. Their mission: to turn a high-tech
police station in the heart of the city's notorious South Central gang-lands into an
unprecedented weapon against America's organised crime.
The 55-year-old police chief will need all the talent he can muster. All Ness and his
Untouchables had to do in the 1920s was to put Al Capone behind bars. Last week Bratton
declared war on all America's 25,000 gangs, making himself public enemy number one to
700,000 armed thugs.
Yet the omens are promising. The Los Angeles Police Department has revealed that
during Bratton's first year in office, murders across the city dropped by 23% to 501.
In South Central - 10 square miles of drinking clubs, crack houses and thriving mortuaries
to which more than 10,000 young men have been consigned by gang warfare since 1970 there
was an even more dramatic fall of 40%. To the surprise of some social commentators, this
coincided with a rise in California's unemployment rate and a decline in family income.
For Bratton, who halved the New York murder rate in the 1990s with his "zero
tolerance" crime-fighting policies, it is business as usual. "My philosophy remains the
same as it was in New York, even if some people are a little slow in picking it up," he said
in an interview.
"Unemployment rates are not critical because poverty does not cause crime - it is only
an influence. People choose to commit crimes, and the only way to stop them is more cops.
Crime is a plague, cops are the penicillin. It's that simple."
1
autobiography, Turnaround - required reading in both American and British
police training schools, where he is a guest lecturer. He warned that tolerating a
vandalised building or graffiti on public transport brought darker criminal and
social consequences.
"Broken windows are a measurement of the quality of life," he said. "I
think the UK is about 10 years behind America on that philosophy. Your police
chiefs get little support.
"This is the battle I had to win in New York and have to fight all over again
in California. I think the gangs here are a monster that destroys lives and
communities - as big a threat to our quality of life as crack cocaine was in the
1980s.
"The gangs increase racial tension, because some associate all black people
with gang members, which is unfair. Gang life ruins everything it touches."
Last week Bratton dominated the first national US conference on criminal
gangs since terrorism became the priority of all American police after the
September 11 attacks in 2001. The FBI has lost 700 gang specialists to anti-
terror duties, but it is now working with Bratton on a national gang strategy.
Gangs have terrorised the streets of Los Angeles since the 1940s, when
economic refugees from the Deep South banded together in "clubs" to protect
themselves against youth gangs such as the White Spooks. But as political
idealism soured in the late 1960s, new gangs such as the Crips and their rivals
in red bandannas, the Bloods, grew the drug trade to industrial proportions.
There are now 100,000 gang members in Los Angeles alone - one in five
young men.(Some gangs are territorial; others, such as 18th Street, forge
business alliances with gangs in Jamaica and Africa. Among the most vicious is
MS-13, which includes former soldiers from El Salvador. They specialise in
raping rivals' girlfriends and offer this as a freelance "service" for 50.
Hundreds of gang leaders are on death row but their legacy continues to be
celebrated through rap music and fashion.
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Bratton told last week's conference that they could win the war with two
weapons: disciplined, plentiful street police, and technology. "I have a great faith in
computers, which give us the edge in achieving the 10% rule - that is identify and
lock up the most dangerous 10% of the gangsters and their followers fade away."
In Los Angeles, police chiefs meet daily at 10am to analyse which of the city's
426 gangs were most active the night before. They study gangsters' social occasions,
such as basketball matches, parties and funerals, and "swamp" them with officers
who sit outside houses or drug-dealing sites day an4 night. They wait until they
make arrests or the gang goes quiet, then move onto the next target.
This eases the problem of crime "displacement" because thugs can be tracked
when they move their drug-dealing franchises into the suburbs.
Bratton has shaken up police habits, persuading squad car drivers to
patrol areas on foot instead. He has put more officers on duty at weekends,
when most shootings take place.
His policy, which puts a premium on surveillance and intelligence, carries risks.
Last year saw a 21 % increase in the number of police shot on duty.
Los Angeles has half as many police officers per citizen as New York, yet
Bratton has failed to get the extra 1,000 officers he said he needed. "I am using
British research to show the politicians how much money we save when we drive
down murder rates," he said.
The police department says last year's drop in crime saved the city 300m in
medical bills and unemployment benefits.
So how would South Central look in 10 years if Bratton matched his New York
record? He thinks the tree-lined streets would be peaceful, prosperous and, he hopes,
utterly dull.

Notes
rookie (mainly Am E informal) - someone who has just started doing a job or activity and does not have
much experience \ geek - someone who is boring, especially because they seem to be interested only J
in computers
the Untouchables - a group of the FBI agents headed by the special agent Eliot Ness (1903-1957) whose
work in the late 1920s helped promote the image of an incorruptible federal agent, G-man (Government
man). Their work has been reflected in a number of films and TV series crack - (here) a pure form of the
illegal drug cocaine
death row (Am E) - the part of a prison for criminals who are going to be executed (= legally killed)
franchise - a formal agreement for someone to sell a company's products or services in a particular place
in exchange for a payment or part of the profits

A. Answer the following questions:

1. What is Bill Bratton?
2. What did he look like?
3. What did he intend to do?
4. How did he see the mission of rookie cops and computer geeks?
5. Whose enemy number one did Bratton make himself?
6. What has the Los Angeles Police Department revealed?
7. How many young men have been killed in South Central since 1970?
8. How big was the drop in murders there?
9. What are Bratton's crime-fighting policies?
10. Where did Bratton outline his "broken windows" theory of fighting crime?
11. What is the essence of the "broken windows" theory?
12. Why, in his view, are gangs in California as big a threat to the quality of life as
crack cocaine was in the 1980s?
13. What became the priority of all American police after the September 11 attacks
in 2001?
14. What effect did those attacks have on the FBI?
15. Since what time have gangs terrorised the streets of Los Angeles?
16. Why and when did the drug trade grow to industrial proportions?
17. How many gang members are there in Los Angeles alone?
18. What links do some gangs have?
19. WhatisMS-13?
20. Through what does gangs' legacy continue to be celebrated?
21. With what two weapons did Bratton plan to win the war with crime?
22. What is the 10% rule?
23. What do police chiefs in Los Angeles analyse daily?
24. How do the police chiefs act?
25. What effect do these policies have?
26. What risks do such policies carry?
27. How many police officers does Los Angeles have?
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28. What is Bratton using British research for?

29. What does the LA police department say concerning last year's drop in crime?
30. What does Bratton think about South Central's future?

B. Reading between the lines:

1. Do you agree with Bratton's statement that "unemployment rates are not critical
because poverty does not cause crime, it is only an influence"? Why? Why not?
2. Do you think that some people are born criminals? Reason out.
3. What do you think about the "broken windows" theory? Do you agree with
Bratton's view on vandalism and graffiti as a sign of poor quality of life? Why?
Why not?
4. What is the connection between political idealism and the emergence of
new gangs? Reason out.
5. Why is crime celebrated through rap music, fashion, films and TV? Is it
part of the macho culture? Why?
6. What do you think of the 10% rule? Is there any truth in it?
7. In what way can computers help combat crime?
8. Can crime be eliminated?
9. Is there any difference between crime and terrorism?
10. Are criminals becoming more difficult or easier to track as scientific
progress advances?
11. What frightens people more: crime or law enforcement?
C. Comment on the following:
1. The remedy may be worse than the disease.
2. "The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime."
Max Stirner
3. "It's not the people in prison who worry me. It's the people who aren't."
Earl of Arran
4. "People who go to prison are not just criminals but, by definition, un-
successful criminals." The Times