Rudy Giuliani took office as the new mayor of New York City in January 1994 facing enormous problems that were the driving reason voters put him in office: approximately 2,000 murders each year, homelessness, job losses, and rising crime across the board. Rudy took to action on day one.
Using the crime theory of Broken Windows, Rudy implemented an aggressive crime-fighting plan known as "compstat."
According to the Department of Justice, this is Compstat:
Essentially, a Compstat program requires police to gather timely, accurate information about crime patterns, and then respond quickly to break up those patterns. - Denise E. O’Donnell, Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance and Chuck Wexler, Executive Director, Police Executive Research Forum
The results were incredible as the city saw one of the largest drops in crime in decades and got the murder rate back to a level not seen since 1966.
Anecdotally, Times Square changed, driving into the city was easier, and walking the streets just felt safer. The reason? It was safer. Not just with the crime stats, but the noticeable change was the lack of harassment from homeless men trying to shake you down for a dollar.
Known as the "Squeegee men," motorists were harassed at stop lights and entering the city through the tunnels. It was dangerous and gross as the perps would smear your windshield and then beg for money to clean it. Of course, it was never clean because the same squeegee that had been used to smear it was then used to "clean" it.
Rudy changed all that. Enforcing the existing laws for jaywalking, squeegee men were soon taken off the street. Many with outstanding warrants and addiction, this was best for everyone. But as with all good things, nothing lasts forever. Now through the outrageous criminal-appeasing, cop-degrading policies of former mayor Bill DeBlasio and now Eric Adams, Crime is up, the city is as dirty as I've ever seen it, and the Squeegee men are back.
People are rightfully concerned that the small crime of the middle-of-the-street shakedown could and is leading to greater crimes of harassment, assault, and worse.
Sitting in the worse-than-ever Manhattan traffic after my Newsmax appearance on Monday, I grabbed this video of a young driver clearly frightened as a strange and erratic man smeared her window with who knows what liquid substance. It was gross and threatening.
Thankfully the light changed and we all moved along. But it got me thinking, how is the average citizen going to defend themselves against this aggressive invasion of personal space? How can young women in particular feel safe when approached by large men with clear mental and or addiction issues?
Given the fact that good Samaritans who do the right thing and put down threatening creeps are now being charged by the city, is it best to just leave NYC altogether and wait for the next Rudy?
For me, it's not a choice as I am doing regular in-studio hits on cable news and meetings for our film production company. We need the next Rudy now, it's time to enforce the law and clean up the city streets. Arrest jaywalkers. Period.
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