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“I Don’t Believe in a Fun City; I Believe in a Safe City”: Fear of Crime and the Crisis of Expertise in New York City

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2016

Joe Merton*
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham

Abstract

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Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Gareth Davies, Dean Blackburn, and the historians of the contemporary history research cluster at the University of Nottingham for their comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

References

NOTES

1. New York City, The New York City—Rand Institute Annual Report (New York, 1970), 1–2. The Harvard-educated Szanton was a former “whiz kid” on Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s Policy Planning Staff.

2. Letter, Szanton to Lindsay, 30 September 1970, Reel 8, Records of the John V. Lindsay Administration, Subject Files—Confidential, 1966–73, New York City Municipal Archives (NYCMA), New York.

3. Letter, Szanton to Lindsay, 26 October 1970, in ibid.

4. Szanton to Lindsay, 30 September 1970, Reel 8, Records of Lindsay Administration, in ibid.

5. “City Hires Rand Corp to Study Four Agencies,” New York Times, 9 January 1968, 31.

6. Szanton to Lindsay, 13 January 1971, Reel 8, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files—Confidential, 1966–73, NYCMA; “City-Rand Consultant Institute Ending Because of Tight Budget,” New York Times, 18 April 1975, 36.

7. Latham, Michael, Modernization as Ideology: American Social Science and “Nation-Building in the Kennedy Era (Chapel Hill, 2000);Google Scholar Alice O’Connor, Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy and the Poor in Twentieth-Century U.S. History (Princeton, 2001); Christopher Klemek, The Transatlantic Collapse of Urban Renewal: Urbanism from New York to Berlin (Chicago, 2011).

8. Flamm, Michael, Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s (New York, 2005);Google Scholar Ann Thompson, Heather, “Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History,” Journal of American History 97 (December 2010): 703–34Google Scholar; Kohler-Hausmann, Julilly, ‘“The Attila the Hun Law’: New York’s Rockefeller Drug Laws and the Making of the Punitive State,” Journal of Social History 44 (Fall 2010): 7195Google Scholar; Simon, Jonathan, Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear (New York, 2007Google Scholar). See also Garland, David, The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society (Oxford, 2001)Google Scholar; Beckett, Katherine, Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary American Politics (New York, 1997)Google Scholar; Weaver, Vesla, “Frontlash: Race and the Development of a Punitive Crime Policy,” Studies in American Political Development 21 (Fall 2007): 230–65Google Scholar.

9. Flamm, Law and Order, 124; Weaver, “Frontlash,” 250, 237.

10. Flamm, Law and Order, 104. Some new scholarship has even illustrated the specifically liberal origins of “law and order” politics and the War on Crime. See Murakawa, Naomi, The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America (New York, 2014)Google Scholar, and Hinton, Elizabeth, “A War Within Our Own Boundaries”: Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and the Rise of the Carceral State,” Journal of American History 102 (June 2015): 100112Google Scholar. In a similar vein, Kohler-Hausmann argues that many liberals’ eventual submission to the new orthodoxy further ‘facilitated the rightward shift . . . adding further legitimacy to a punitive logic instrumental in discrediting liberalism.” See Kohler-Hausmann, ‘“The Attila the Hun Law,’” 73.

11. In a recent article, Michael Javen Fortner argues for the importance of localized experiences of crime, calling for historians to “interrogate the space in which increasing crime rates were initially felt, understood and negotiated and explore how local institutions and political processes influenced the framing of these concerns and subsequent policy responses.” See Fortner, “The ‘Silent Majority’ in Black and White: Invisibility and Imprecision in the Historiography of Mass Incarceration,” Journal of Urban History 40 (2014): 276.

12. For “self-righteous indignation,” see Sleeper, Jim, The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York (New York, 1990), 33Google Scholar; for the “‘law and order’ bandwagon,” see Beckett, Making Crime Pay, 38.

13. Alice O’Connor makes a similar argument in her study of twentieth-century “poverty knowledge,” and like poverty research, expertise’s faith in the perfectibility of society, the benevolence of the state, and the power of public policy and scientific or technological solutions reflected core liberal values. See O’Connor, , Poverty Knowledge, 812Google Scholar.

14. Balogh, Brian, Chain Reaction: Expert Debate and Public Participation in American Commercial Nuclear Power, 1945–1975 (Cambridge, 1991), 114Google Scholar; Wood, Robert, Whatever Possessed the President? Academic Experts and Presidential Policy, 1960–1988 (Amherst, Mass., 1993), 4345Google Scholar.

15. Moynihan, Daniel Patrick, “The Professionalization of Reform,” Public Interest 1 (Fall 1965): 6–10Google Scholar; Bell, Daniel, “Notes on the Post-Industrial Society,” Public Interest 7 (Spring 1967): 2435Google Scholar. The American philosopher James Burnham preempted many of these ideas in his 1941 work The Managerial Revolution, which illustrated the emergence of a new group of managers and technocrats, who threatened to reassign power and authority from individuals and private enterprise to the New Deal state. See Burnham, The Managerial Revolution: What Is Happening in the World (New York, 1941). For a more recent sociological perspective, see Brint, Steven, In an Age of Experts: The Declining Public Voice of Professionalism in America (Princeton, 1994), esp. chap. 7Google Scholar.

16. Bell, “Post-Industrial Society,” 34.

17. Arthur Schlesinger, quoted in Balogh, Chain Reaction, 14; John F. Kennedy, Commencement Address at Yale University, 11 June 1962, from The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29661&st=&st1=#axzz1fBjA3clK (accessed 4 September 2014).

18. Balogh, Brian, “Making Pluralism Great,” in The Great Society and the High Tide of Liberalism, ed. Sidney Milkis and Jerome Mileur (Amherst, Mass., 2005), 147–48Google Scholar; Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the University of Michigan, 22 May 1964, from The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=26262&st=&st1 = (accessed 4 September 2014).

19. Flamm, Law and Order, 23–27; Aaron, Henry, Politics and the Professors: The Great Society in Perspective (Washington, D.C., 1978), 89Google Scholar; Heclo, Hugh, “Sixties Civics,” in The Great Society, ed. Milkis and Mileur, 5382Google Scholar. Heclo defines this dominant worldview as “policymindedness,” in which “public authority became . . . the presumptive agent to which one should turn for securing the most vital purposes of personal and national life.” See Heclo, “Sixties Civics,” 54, 60.

20. Light, Jennifer, From Warfare to Welfare: Defense Intellectuals and Urban Problems in Cold War America (Baltimore, 2003), 4143.Google Scholar

21. Between 1963 and 1970, the total number of violent crimes each at least doubled, and total instances of violent crime increased by 129.7 percent between 1960 and 1969. At the same time, public fear of crime also increased: 62 percent of Gallup poll respondents in 1970 felt there was more crime in their neighborhood than a year ago, compared to 50 percent five years earlier. Data from U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstracts of the United States Series, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/time-series/statistical_abstracts.html (accessed 22 September 2016); Gallup Poll (AIPO), April 1965, and Harris survey, October 1970, both from iPOLL Databank, Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, Cornell University, http://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ipoll-database/ (accessed 22 September 2016).

22. Lyndon Johnson, remarks to the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, 8 September 1965, from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=27242&st=crime&st1= (accessed 8 January 2015); Johnson, Special Message to Congress on Crime and Law Enforcement, 9 March 1966, from http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=27478&st=war+on+crime&st1= (accessed 13 January 2015).

23. Johnson, remarks to the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, 8 September 1965; President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society: A Report (Washington, D.C., 1967) (emphasis in original).

24. Washington Evening Star, 21 February 1967, 23; Wilson, James Q., “The Crime Commission Reports,” Public Interest 9 (Fall 1967): 65, 81.Google Scholar

25. The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, 291.

26. Federal appropriations for the nation’s cities grew from $3.9 billion in 1960 to $14 billion by the start of 1969, and in 1968 the Johnson administration created the Urban Institute, a government-backed think tank designed, in Johnson’s words, to “give us the power through knowledge to help solve the problems . . . of the American city and its people . . . bridging the gulf between the lonely scholar in search of truth and the decision-maker in search of progress through effective programs.” The New York Times envisaged that it “would do for the cities what the Rand Corporation and other “think-tanks” have done for the nation’s defense establishment.” See Teaford, Jon, The Twentieth- Century American City, 2nd ed. (Baltimore, 1993), 137Google Scholar; “Institute Set Up to Aid the Cities,” New York Times, 27 April 1968, 1; “Johnson Chooses ‘Think Tank’ Panel on Urban Issues,” New York Times, 7 December 1967, 1.

27. “Who Thinks in a Think Tank?,” New York Times, 16 April 1967, SM15.

28. “Computers Widen Government Role,” New York Times, 7 November 1965, F1; ‘“Think Tank” Zeroes in on Domestic Crises,” Los Angeles Times, 2 November 1969, 1; ‘“Think Factory’ to Help L.A. Solve Problems,” Los Angeles Times, 22 October 1967, B1. Jennifer Light has also demonstrated how city officials in Pittsburgh during the 1960s used computer simulations designed by expert “technicians” from Rand and the aerospace contractor Lockheed to define public policy goals. See Light, From Warfare to Welfare, 57–62.

29. Reitano, Joanne, The Restless City: A Short History of New York from Colonial Times to the Present (New York, 2006), 155.Google Scholar

30. Morris, Charles, The Cost of Good Intentions: New York City and the Liberal Experiment, 1960–1975 (New York, 1980), 22;Google Scholar Lankevich, George, American Metropolis: A History of New York City (New York, 1998), 181–98.Google Scholar

31. “Crime Rate in NY Shows Rise for ‘62,” New York Times, 18 February 1963, 10; “New York First in Manslaughter,” New York Times, 29 May 1962, 18.

32. “Wagner Agrees: More Policing,” New York Times, 4 June 1964, 36.

33. “New York City in Crisis,” New York Herald Tribune, 25 January 1965; “The Fear: The Impact of Rising Crime on New Yorkers,” New York Herald Tribune, 4 March 1965, 1, 8.

34. For this conventional portrayal of Lindsay’s record as mayor, see Vincent Cannato, The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York (New York, 2001); Siegel, Fred, The Future Once Happened Here: New York, D.C., L.A., and the Fate of America’s Big Cities (New York, 2007)Google Scholar; Morris, Cost of Good Intentions; Yates, Douglas, The Ungovernable City: The Politics of Urban Problems and Policymaking (Cambridge, 1978)Google Scholar. For more recent attempts to resurrect Lindsay’s historical reputation, see Roberts, Sam, ed., America’s Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York (New York, 2010)Google Scholar; Viteritti, Joseph, ed., Summer in the City: John Lindsay, New York, and the American Dream (Baltimore, 2014)Google Scholar.

35. Chronopoulos, Themis, “The Lindsay Administration and the Sanitation Crisis of New York City, 1966–1973,” Journal of Urban History 40 (November 2014): 1140Google Scholar. For a similar account, see also Rogers, David, “Management Versus Bureaucracy,” in Summer in the City, ed. Viteritti, 107–36Google Scholar.

36. On Lindsay as an ideological “Progressive,” see Kabaservice, Geoffrey, “On Principle: A Progressive Republican,” Summer in the City, ed. Viteritti, 2758Google Scholar.

37. Lindsay, John, The City (New York, 1969), 1819Google Scholar.

38. “Lindsay Stresses ‘Time for Change,’” New York Times, 2 November 1965, 1; Lindsay, The City, 51.

39. “Text of Lindsay’s Inaugural Address at City Hall,” New York Times, 2 January 1966, 56; “Lindsay Advised to Sweep Clean,” New York Times, 4 November 1965, 50; Lindsay, John, Journey Into Politics: Some Informal Observations (London, 1968), 136Google Scholar.

40. “Lindsay to Name Experts to Study City Problems,” New York Times, 9 November 1965, 1.

41. Morris, Cost of Good Intentions, 37; Rogers, “Management Versus Bureaucracy,” 128; “Lindsay Considers Use of Computers on City’s Problems,” New York Times, 13 November 1965, 17.

42. Lindsay, The City, 118–19; Lindsay, Journey into Politics, 136.

43. John Lindsay, remarks on law enforcement to Idlewild Lions Club, JFK International Airport, New York City, 17 June 1965, Box 103, Folder 196, “Crime, Police, Narcotics,” John V. Lindsay [JVL] Papers (hereafter JVL Papers), Yale University, New Haven [emphasis added].

44. John V. Lindsay, “White Paper on Crime and Safety,” n.d. [September 1965], Box 91, Folder 76, “Position Papers—Crime and Law Enforcement: Operation Safe City,” JVL Papers [emphasis added].

45. Lindsay for Mayor press release, 21 October 1965, Box 104, Folder 249, “Operation Safe City,” JVL Papers.

46. Cannato, Ungovernable City, 160.

47. “Excerpts from Law Enforcement Task Force Report,” Reel 43, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA.

48. Ibid., Lindsay, The City, 87–89.

49. Letter, Police Commissioner Vincent Broderick to Lindsay, 8 February 1966, Reel 43, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA; McNickle, Chris, To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in the City (New York, 1993), 214–15Google Scholar. For more on the Lindsay administration’s clashes over civilian review, see Cannato, Ungovernable City, 155–88.

50. “City Hires Agency for Study of Crime,” New York Times, 2 July 1967, 20.

51. Indeed, Jay Kriegel later confessed that “the [Police] department was old and tired, and badly in need of modernization,” and Lindsay’s “1965 campaign in a real sense was run against the police force.” See Morris, Cost of Good Intentions, 92.

52. Letter, Lindsay to Leary, 2 January 1968, Reel 44, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA; “Sweeping Change in Police Powers Urged on Lindsay, New York Times, 7 February 1966, 1; Letter, Hayes to Winnick, 24 February 1967, Box 361, Folder 418, “Urban Institute,” JVL Papers.

53. The commission had recommended that “all of a State or city’s actions against crime should be planned together, by a single body. The police, the courts, the correctional system and the noncriminal agencies of the community must plan their actions against crime jointly if they are to make real headway.” See The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, 279–80.

54. Lindsay, The City, 175; Letter, Lindsay to Courtney Evans, Office of Law Enforcement Assistance, 27 January 1966, Reel 54, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA; Criminal Justice Coordinating Council briefing notes, n.d., Reel 2, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files—Confidential, 1966–73, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA.

55. “Modern Law Enforcement,” New York Times, 10 February 1966, 36; Report, n.d., “John V. Lindsay: A Record of Performance: Police,” Box 138, Folder 166, “Police—Law Enforcement,” JVL Papers; Press release, 1 July 1968, Box 377, Folder 636, “Communications: Police Communications Center,” JVL Papers [emphasis added]; “Precinct Mergers to Free Police for Street Duty,” New York Times, 31 January 1968, 1.

56. Memo, Commissioner Leary to All Commands, 15 August 1969, Box 378, Folder 643, “Communications: Police: SPRINT,” JVL Papers; New York City Police Department press release, 1 October 1969, JVL Papers.

57. “City Opens Electronics ‘War Room’ for Police,” New York Times, 14 October 1969, 1.

58. Quotes from Independent Citizens’ Committee against Civilian Review Boards advertisements, New York Times, 3 November 1966, 28, and 1 October 1966, 11. For more on the review-board campaign, see Cannato, Ungovernable City, 155–88.

59. “Lindsay to Raise Number of Police on Patrol by 40%,” New York Times, 26 December 1967, 1; Letter, Lindsay to Hon. Francis Smith, 24 March 1969, Reel 8, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files—Confidential, 1966–73, NYCMA; Morris, , Cost of Good Intentions, 9495Google Scholar. Only in March 1969 did the mayor finally succeed in instituting the platoon, having been forced to appeal to the state legislature to intervene in the dispute.

60. “Patrolmen’s Rank and File” newsletter, no. 7, September 1970, Box 354, Folder 303, “Labor Relations—Police, Fire, Sanitation,” JVL Papers; Transcript of WABC-TV interview with PBA’s John Cassese and Norman Frank, 17 August 1968, Box 372, Folder 570, “Police: PBA,” JVL Papers.

61. “Garelik Calls Rand Study of City’s Police a Failure,” New York Times, 7 October 1970, 55; Szanton to Hayes, 13 February 1970, Box 358, Folder 353, “Rand,” JVL Papers.

62. Szanton, Peter, Not Well Advised (New York, 1981), 9192, 145–46Google Scholar.

63. Memo, Kriegel to Leary, 29 May 1967, and Memo, Kriegel to Leary, 19 September 1968, both in Box 377, Folder 636, “Communications: Police Communications Center,” JVL Papers; Letter, John Cassese, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, to Leary, 18 September 1968, Reel 7, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files—Confidential, 1966–73, NYCMA.

64. “1,000 Protest Plans in Bronx to Merge 2 Police Precincts,” New York Times, 3 March 1968, 78; “Chinatown Is Told That Police Station Will Stay,” New York Times, 24 February 1968, 19; “Mayor Delays Cuts in Police Precincts,” New York Times, 30 April 1968, 1.

65. Shefter, Martin, Political Crisis/Fiscal Crisis: The Collapse and Revival of New York City (New York, 1985), 89.Google Scholar By contrast, Los Angeles, which did enjoy economic growth during the 1970s, continued to invest in consultants’ projects, including a $28 million Emergency Command Control Communications System devised by Systems Development Corporation. See “Police Radio System Contract Awarded,” Los Angeles Times, 15 February 1978, E1.

66. Memo, Kriegel to Lindsay, Sweet, O’Donnell, and Dontzin, 31 March 1967, Reel 14, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA.

67. Notes to Mayor Lindsay on police meeting, n.d., Reel 43, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA (emphasis in original).

68. Memo, Davidoff to Lindsay, 1 February 1967, Box 247, Folder 121, JVL Papers.

69. “An Open Letter to the Mayor,” New York Times, 7 January 1969, 2; “Private Guards are Enlisted by Tenants to Combat Crime,” New York Times, 3 March 1969, 37.

70. Cannato, Ungovernable City, 526.

71. In April 1967, Lindsay admonished City Council President Frank O’Connor for criticizing the city’s sharp increases in crime, instead attributing the increase to his own “reforms in crime reporting.” “That these reforms in our crime reporting system have taken place should be a matter for praise by public officials rather than a source for raising public doubt and suspicion,” he wrote. See Lindsay to O’Connor, 24 April 1967, Reel 14, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA.

72. Richard Aurelio, “Lindsay Diary,” 20 March 1969, Box 226, Folder 35; “Campaign in New York City,” JVL Papers; “The Changing City,” New York Times, 3 June 1969, 1; Memo, Kriegel to Lindsay, 16 July 1969, Box 398, Folder 26, “Crime Rates,” JVL Papers; Memo, Goldsmark to Lindsay, n.d., Box 398, Folder 27, “Election Statistics,” JVL Papers.

73. “Voter Surveys in City Rate Crime No. 1,” New York Times, 22 September 1969, 27.

74. “Crime and Civil Disorder Are Chief Issues in Elections in Cities,” New York Times, 4 November 1969, 37; “The One-Issue Primaries,” New York Times, 7 June 1969, 34; “Procaccino Enters Contest for Mayor,” New York Times, 19 February 1969, 1; “Answering November’s Big Question: What Is a Mario Procaccino?,” New York Times, 10 August 1969, SM7.

75. “Lindsay Declares Crime Is Key Problem Here,” New York Times, 16 May 1969, 34; “Mayor Says Foes Make Crime Politics of Hysteria,” New York Times, 15 May 1969, 36; Perrotta statement on crime, n.d., Box 134, Folder 56, “Campaign Press Releases (2),” JVL Papers; “The Mayoralty: Crime,” New York Times, 31 October 1969, 44; “Answering November’s Big Question,” New York Times, SM7.

76. “Analysis of Recent Voting Patterns,” New York Times, 6 October 1969, 38; “Lindsay, Garelik, and Beame Victors,” New York Times, 5 November 1969, 1.

77. Hamill, Pete, “The Revolt of the White Lower-Middle Class,” in The White Majority: Between Poverty and Affluence, ed. Howe, Louise Kapp (New York, 1970), 12;Google Scholar Hamill, “Looking at Lindsay,” Village Voice, 27 March 1969. Indeed, Michael Javen Fortner’s work underlines the persistence of strong black support, especially in working- and middle-class communities, for increased police protection and punitive policies and high levels of anxiety toward crime in 1960s and 1970s New York. See Fortner, “The ‘Silent Majority’ in Black and White,” 261–68, 273–75.

78. Morris, Cost of Good Intentions, 167–68. Indeed, by the time Lindsay left office in 1973, New York had fallen from second among American cities for violent crime, where it stood in 1966, to nineteenth.

79. “Lindsay Steps Up City Services to Soothe Working-Class Anger,” New York Times, 30 November 1969, 1; Memo, Kriegel to Steve Manos and Diane Lacey, 4 January 1970, Reel 2, Records of Lindsay Administration, Subject Files 1966–73, NYCMA (emphasis in original).

80. “Besieged City,” New York Times, 19 October 1968, 36; “Crime Monitoring TV Goes on in Times Sq.,” New York Times, 26 September 1973, 43.

81. Lindsay, The City, 164–65.

82. In Los Angeles, former police officer Tom Bradley was elected mayor in 1973, and LAPD chief Edward Davis was regularly slated as a potential mayoral candidate until his run for governor of California in 1978.

83. Wilson, James Q., Thinking About Crime (New York, 1975);Google Scholar Robert Martinson, “What Works? Questions and Answers about Prison Reform,” Public Interest 35 (Spring 1974): 22. See also Nathan Glazer, “The Limits of Social Policy,” Commentary 52 (September 1971), 51–58.

84. For example, see Wilson, Thinking About Crime; van den Haag, Ernest, Punishing Criminals: Concerning a Very Old and Painful Question (New York, 1975)Google Scholar; Sidney Hook, “The Rights of the Victims: Thoughts on Crime and Compassion,” Encounter (April 1972): 11–14.

85. “Excerpts from Debate between Cuomo and Koch,” New York Times, 16 September 1977, 31.

86. “Knowledge Dethroned,” New York Times, 28 September 1975, 239; “Social Science: The Public Disenchantment,” American Scholar 45, no. 3 (Summer 1976): 335–59.