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Old February 20, 2012, 09:26 AM   #17
dannyb
Senior Member
 
Join Date: June 19, 2008
Location: SE PA
Posts: 336
I grew up in Manhattan

Right in the area where they filmed West Side Story, at the time they filmed West Side Story. It has changed a lot - more because of Giuliani than anything Bloomberg ever accomplished. When I was growing up, we were cautioned to carry tribute in case we were mugged - the police were not allowed to use hollow point bullets because they might violate the criminal's right to rehabilitation if they were killed - muggings were treated as misdemeanors for all intents and purposes - to get things treated as a felony, the criminal had to actually draw blood.

That started to change around the time of the movie Death Wish and the Bernard Goetz subway shooting. Then, under Giuliani who succeeded the absolutely ineffective Dinkins, they actually started enforcing all the laws - citations for buildings with broken windows, store owners and building owners not sweeping the sidewalks, aggressive panhandlers actually going to jail, muggers treated as violent criminals instead of street entertainment. NYC became much safer.

I come back to NYC frequently. It's so different from when I was growing up, and it's a good different. I take the subway without fear, I walk around aware of my surroundings but not with the hunched "I'm waiting to be a victim look." That doesn't mean that there is no crime, but the common sense things I've seen written in this thread should go a long way toward keeping people from becoming victims.
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