Holy Rioli
Premiership Player
New York used to have an obscene crime rate, especially with regards to murder in the late 80s. The New York police force were at an absolute loss with how to deal with the situation, with almost 2000 people murdered in New York City in 1989. The fact is in the late 80's and early 90's New York City was a terrifying city.
Rudi Giuliani was elected major in 1989 and was desperate to address the issue, holding grave fears for what will happen to this great city if crime, and in particular the murder rate isn't brought under control and sought answers from a variety of firms and agencies. William Bratton who was the Chief of the Transit Police put forward an idea that fare evasion was an enabler or a starting point for crime, and that a significant amount of the violent crime in New York occurred inside or very near a subway station. At the time New York police took no action for fare evasion, because quite simply the effort arrest someone, take them down to the station, book them and then show up in court at a later date simply wasn't worth the effort.
The mayor's office agreed that it would crack down on fare evasion, booking each and every person who attempted to evade a subway fare. Even with a significant increase in police presence it wasn't practical to take each person down to a station to book them at the time they were caught, so the police would arrest each fare evader and chain them up inside the subway together until the end of their shift and then book them all together, meaning fare evaders quickly learned that not only would they get booked, they would typically spend hours chained up inside the subway station first.
Crime in and around the subways started to reduce almost immediately but it took about 4 years before there was a significant drop in the murder rate in NYC. But by making a culture change regarding how fare evasion was policed, NYC saw a significant drop in all types of violent crime, and also took the Subway away from violent criminals as a place to commit their crimes. In 2017 there were 270 murders, representing an 85% decrease in the murder rate compared to 1990.
It might have been a total pain in the ass as a decent human to have been chained up for 10 hours and then to be booked for evading a $1 fare, but it worked. That decent person is now a lot safer in general in NYC.
I'd like to think I'm a decent person, but I can admit I've booed at the footy (and probably will do so in the future, but more so with respect to an action or incident as it happens at the time), I've said not so friendly things to umpires when I don't agree with some decisions, and if I was the Richmond cheer squad member who copped the 3 game cheer squad ban for a fairly minor incident, I'd be pretty pissed off. But sometimes we've gotta take drastic action to achieve a culture change, and that culture change may mean a decent person/family doesn't get belted at the footy when someone is too drunk and reacts poorly to what is happening at the game. Culture change is why now people call out other fans when something racist, sexist or homophobic is said at games. For our great game to remain a great game, for people to feel safe and included in our game, we need to have the right culture established at the most basic of levels. There is no place for abuse in our great game, even when our umpires are wrong.
Just as a side note, in Feb 2018, NYC decided they'd reverse the decision made in 1989 to book all fare evaders, I just hope the subway is still a safe mode of transport for me when I visit in early 2020.
Rudi Giuliani was elected major in 1989 and was desperate to address the issue, holding grave fears for what will happen to this great city if crime, and in particular the murder rate isn't brought under control and sought answers from a variety of firms and agencies. William Bratton who was the Chief of the Transit Police put forward an idea that fare evasion was an enabler or a starting point for crime, and that a significant amount of the violent crime in New York occurred inside or very near a subway station. At the time New York police took no action for fare evasion, because quite simply the effort arrest someone, take them down to the station, book them and then show up in court at a later date simply wasn't worth the effort.
The mayor's office agreed that it would crack down on fare evasion, booking each and every person who attempted to evade a subway fare. Even with a significant increase in police presence it wasn't practical to take each person down to a station to book them at the time they were caught, so the police would arrest each fare evader and chain them up inside the subway together until the end of their shift and then book them all together, meaning fare evaders quickly learned that not only would they get booked, they would typically spend hours chained up inside the subway station first.
Crime in and around the subways started to reduce almost immediately but it took about 4 years before there was a significant drop in the murder rate in NYC. But by making a culture change regarding how fare evasion was policed, NYC saw a significant drop in all types of violent crime, and also took the Subway away from violent criminals as a place to commit their crimes. In 2017 there were 270 murders, representing an 85% decrease in the murder rate compared to 1990.
It might have been a total pain in the ass as a decent human to have been chained up for 10 hours and then to be booked for evading a $1 fare, but it worked. That decent person is now a lot safer in general in NYC.
I'd like to think I'm a decent person, but I can admit I've booed at the footy (and probably will do so in the future, but more so with respect to an action or incident as it happens at the time), I've said not so friendly things to umpires when I don't agree with some decisions, and if I was the Richmond cheer squad member who copped the 3 game cheer squad ban for a fairly minor incident, I'd be pretty pissed off. But sometimes we've gotta take drastic action to achieve a culture change, and that culture change may mean a decent person/family doesn't get belted at the footy when someone is too drunk and reacts poorly to what is happening at the game. Culture change is why now people call out other fans when something racist, sexist or homophobic is said at games. For our great game to remain a great game, for people to feel safe and included in our game, we need to have the right culture established at the most basic of levels. There is no place for abuse in our great game, even when our umpires are wrong.
Just as a side note, in Feb 2018, NYC decided they'd reverse the decision made in 1989 to book all fare evaders, I just hope the subway is still a safe mode of transport for me when I visit in early 2020.