Professor Bainbridge...on law, politics, religion, culture & food

Safer in NYC than in NZ?

So claims a New Zealand Herald columnist:

I didn’t have the opportunity to visit New York in the 80s but, by all accounts, I didn’t miss much. You rode on the subway at your peril, the place was filthy and people on the streets were aggressive. Then along came Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who embraced a crime fighting policy known as Broken Windows. ... I guarantee if you get to visit New York, you’ll feel safer there than in this country. It’s a lot cleaner and there’s no graffiti - not in the city or subway, not even in the project housing areas. We saw plenty of signs offering rewards of US$300 for information leading to the successful prosecution of graffiti vandals; and maybe that’s the reason. Or maybe people are proud of their city and remove graffiti as soon as it appears.

There does seem to be an awful lot of graffiti here in Auckland, which is saying something given my constant exposure to tagging back home in LA.

Anyway, she concludes:

If we want to live in a safer, cleaner, more civilised society then we need a visionary leader, plentiful resources and a common desire not to live among filth, grime and crime.

It almost makes me want to vote for Rudy. And, if Rudy loses, maybe he should try his hand at cleaning up NZ.