Baltimore proves need for ‘Broken Windows’ policing

(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Here’s hoping Mayor Bill de Blasio isn’t too busy playing political games and barnstorming the country to absorb the right lessons from the Baltimore riots. If he’s paying attention, he’ll learn a thing or two about policing and that the bloody price of failed leadership is paid by innocent families and businesses.

The disgraceful orders for cops to disappear or stand by and watch as rioters, looters and arsonists had their way should never be repeated anywhere again. Nor should any mayor talk, as Baltimore’s foolishly did, about giving “those who wished to destroy space to do that.”

What America is witnessing in Baltimore is what happens every day in neighborhoods that are under-policed. Violence spirals out of control and doesn’t stop until someone stops it.

Those painful lessons are especially relevant to New York now because de Blasio pal Al Sharpton and wackos on the City Council are pushing the mayor to roll back “Broken Windows” policing. Apart from a welcome but incomplete statement of support for Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, de Blasio is asleep on the job.

Baltimore should be his wake-up call. It shows that handcuffing the cops ultimately leads to more violence and crime, not less, and ends up with the National Guard patrolling the streets like a war zone.

Yes, that could happen here, too.

To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post, click here.