NYC Mayor

On the heels of murder going up for the first time in 18 years, Tsar Bloomberg has decided to roll back a central component of the NYC Crime Miracle:

SOME petty crime is apparently too petty for the NYPD.

The department is edging away from a highly successful model of attacking all minor offenses to focus more on major crimes and counterterrorism....

The decline highlights the department's struggle to maintain the "broken windows" theory of crime prevention - that fixing problems such as a broken window right away will prevent bigger problems later.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani modeled his "zero tolerance" policy in part on that theory, leading to widespread reductions in minor and major crimes.

The broken-windows theory helped bring about the NYPD's CompStat program, the city's crime analysis and accountability system. CompStat keeps track of crime in each neighborhood - and puts each commanding officer's feet to the fire....

The decline highlights the department's struggle to maintain the "broken windows" theory of crime prevention - that fixing problems such as a broken window right away will prevent bigger problems later.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani modeled his "zero tolerance" policy in part on that theory, leading to widespread reductions in minor and major crimes.

The broken-windows theory helped bring about the NYPD's CompStat program, the city's crime analysis and accountability system. CompStat keeps track of crime in each neighborhood - and puts each commanding officer's feet to the fire.

This is incredibly dangerous, considering that the same people commit petty and violent crime.  The reforms of the Giuliani years demand eternal vigilance.  I fear this lesson has been forgotten.

Is it too late for a draft Rudy movement?

Guess who's crawling back to the GOP.  Money quote:

Bloomberg, a lifelong Democrat who joined the Republican Party for his first mayoral bid in 2001 but then abandoned it in 2007, must mend fences if he wants to secure the Republican line, several sources said.

"A lot of them [GOP leaders] told me they will not carry petitions for Mayor Bloomberg," said one source. "They feel he bought us and sold us."

Allowing this man back into the party would be an act of supreme stupidity.  Let us count the ways:

1) He's a tax hiker.  Since taking office in 2002, Michael Bloomberg has raised taxes on at least 5 seperate occasions.  The result has been that NYC has lagged behind the national job creation pace for this entire decade.  Now he's preaching a New New Deal.

2) He's sold his soul to orgaized labor.  Bloomberg has gone on the greatest public spending spree since the 1960's; his calls for discipline correspondingly ring hollow.

3) He's the most pro-Abortion Mayor in NYC's history.

4) He allowed murder to go up for the first time in 18 years.

5) He actively obstructed Rudy's Presidential run.  Obviously, Rudy's Presidential campaign had plenty of other problems.  That said, anyone who wants to run on the GOP line for mayor of NYC should have been an early and unapologetic supporter.

The citizens of New York City deserve a choice, not an echo.