I remember it well. When I moved to New York City from Los Angeles in 1974 everyone warned me that the city was not going to be friendly or safe for a 20-something young girl all by herself. Yet I had no choice. There was nothing left for me in Hollywood at that time. I had used up my capital as a child actress and needed a new life. So off I went, with no connections, no apartment, barely any money, but a lot of determination.
I have vivid memories of living in a $66 a week hotel on the Lower East Side until I made enough money to move. I rode the subways against my better judgment, usually getting off at the 42nd Street and 8th Avenue station. I remember two subway police officers one night asking if I was out of mind being down there since that was one of the most dangerous stations in the city. I had no choice; I needed to get to auditions in midtown and that was the cheapest way.
I learned to live with my eyes constantly moving, making no eye contact with anyone. Being a model, I had to dress a certain way for the Madison Avenue executives, but walking in the city I had to blend in with the homeless, hookers and drug addicts that were everywhere on the streets. Whether summer or winter, I covered up with a long dark coat and a baseball cap to avoid attention.
Crime was rampant. You couldn't go to Central Park after dusk for fear of being mugged or assaulted. The Charles Bronson film "Death Wish," set in NYC, was made the year I moved there.
In 1975 the city was under the leadership of Mayor Abraham Beame, a Democrat who took over the reins from another Democrat, John Lindsey, and the city of New York was one deep breath away from bankruptcy. I remember the headlines on the newspapers claiming that unless the teachers union turned over $150 million dollars from its pension funds, the city was virtually over. At the 11th hour, the crisis was averted and the funds were given, but the teachers union lived in fear that the gains they had made in union negotiations would become null and void.
Corruption continued in the city even after the crisis. Beame left in 1977, and another Democrat was elected, Ed Koch. The city still struggled with crime, drugs, homelessness, welfare slums, union corruption, etc., all throughout Koch's tenure. From 1990-1993 Democrat David Dinkins was elected, and 42nd Street was still a haven for peep shows and XXX-rated theaters, but a clean-up was in motion mainly because the entire economy was picking up and there was a turnaround in employment and an economic boom put into place by the policies of President Ronald Reagan and continued by Bill Clinton and the congressional Republicans.
The city saw its greatest transformation once Mayor Rudy Giuliani was elected. He had a tough-on-crime policy and vowed to clean up the city and bring it back to its glory days. Under Giuliani, violent crime declined by more than 56 percent in the city, and property crimes tumbled by around 65 percent. He aggressively policed lower-level crimes, thus discouraging criminals from attempting higher-level crimes. The police force grew by 35 percent, and the inmate population rose 24 percent.
The police say the measure that most consistently reduces crime is the arrest rate of those involved in crime. Felony arrests rose by 50-70 percent in the 1990s, and when the arrest of robbers increased by 10 percent, the number of robberies fell by 5.7-5.9 percent.
So here we are in 2015. Yes, there is no doubt that right now, New York City is still holding on to the mood and tone that has been in place since the '90s, but we are starting to see some disturbing trends. With the election of Mayor Bill de Blasio, there has been a completely different feel to the NYC police force. In the short time he has been in office, de Blasio has aggressively transformed the NYPD. He has been at odds with the commissioner and the force over the now banned "Stop and Frisk" policy, basically tying the hands of police officers and keeping them from preventing crimes. There is controversy over the "Broken Windows" policing Commissioner William Bratton strongly supports, and there is the fact that de Blasio loudly and publicly attacks the police for doing their jobs and openly promotes the grievances of criminals.
The murder rate in NYC spiked an alarming 20 percent in the first two months of this year and is rising even higher as we speak. Rapes and felony assaults have gone up as well, although to be fair, the numbers are still lower than they were in the '70s and '80s.
There are now daily reports of people in Central Park being robbed and assaulted, shootings on Madison Avenue in broad daylight and gangs of violent youths taking over subway trains. The word is out that cops should take a "hands off" approach, and the would-be criminals are taking advantage of that situation. They know that cops will think twice before putting themselves in a position that could land them in prison or brought up on charges.
Terrorism is a huge threat for the City of New York since it is the No. 1 target, and it was mind-boggling that de Blasio's latest budget did not include money for new cops even though it was suggested that 1,000 more were needed.
Between the racial tensions, police targeting and the terrorist threats, the NYPD have their hands full – and they have little support from the mayor. If the crime trend continues to tick upward because criminals feel empowered and if oppressive taxes and regulations scare people away from doing business and living there, we might see a slide back to what we witnessed in the 1970s and '80s.
New York doesn't have to go the way of Detroit, Baltimore or St. Louis. It can still maintain itself as a safe, prosperous and vital city for millions of people, but it takes discipline and toughness. The city's leader cannot turn his back on the police in favor of the criminal, but right now, that is exactly what he is doing.
Media wishing to interview Morgan Brittany, please contact [email protected].
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