JNS
The ‘broken windows’ strategy for combating Israel demonization
Melanie Phillips
May 19, 2022

The “broken windows” theory of policing, which was responsible for a stunning drop in crime in New York in the 1990s, was based on a simple proposition. This was that bad people are encouraged to commit serious crimes if lesser social nuisances such as litter, vandalism or fare evasion are ignored. This transmits the fatal signal that those in authority are giving a free pass to disorder. To stop serious offenses, there must be a consistent message that there will be zero tolerance for breaking any of the rules that keep a society civilized. The “broken windows” theory might well also be applied to politics. The classicist and commentator Victor Davis Hansen has published a bone-chilling analysis of America that suggests it is inexorably going down to destruction. READ MORE