by Michael Alcazar at UnHerd
In the New York of my 1970s boyhood, urban chaos encircled ordinary people. Subway cars were covered in graffiti, inside and out. Pickpocketing, public urination, and assaults were common. I vividly recall the homeless people sprawled out on the sidewalks when I was 10. My father, with his thick Filipino accent, would point at them and say, “See that? That’s a bomb”. Of course, he meant “bum”, which was the accepted term in those days.
Yet as dark as Gotham could be in those gritty days memorialised in film classics like Taxi Driver, there was always a ray of light: namely, a healthy respect for the police. Any disturbance would stop as soon as an officer stepped into the train, for example. Many of these cops were Vietnam veterans, and you could see the command and experience in their eyes. I remember noticing one officer’s medal above his NYPD shield: “sharpshooter”, it read.
It’s the crucial element missing today, as disorder grips the Big Apple once more. Law-breakers don’t respect law enforcement — and for good reason: they know that, thanks to misguided criminal-justice “reform”, they can re-offend over and over with utter impunity.
I didn’t aspire to be a police officer when I joined the force in 1989. My career choice…
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