Broken Windows

Just a couple of nights ago, yet another black youth was killed by police in America — this time in Milwaukee, touching off a night of rioting which featured the burning of a gas station and the smashing of windows on businesses and cop cars. And as usual, White America and the Boss Media were getting their panties in a twist more about broken windows than human lives.

For those of you who’ve been living in caves since the 1990s, “Broken Windows” has been a policing institution gifted to us by the likes of Rudolph Giuliani in New York City. Basically a pretext for the establishment of paramilitary police occupations of the poorest — and blackest — areas, it was such a hit that “Broken Windows” opened up franchises in pretty much every city in the US, spreading its brand of harassment, profiling, intimidation and brutality.

After observing this form of right-wing “folk wisdom” in action for over twenty years, I can’t help but ask: whose windows are really being broken here?

11×14 inch medium-res color .jpg image, 819kb