How Broken Windows Policing Leaves Large Numbers of People Unemployable
The other day, one of my friends and tennis partners, a criminal lawyer, gave a chilling account of what a good part of his law practice involves. Many of his clients, he said, are working class people who have been arrested for non violent crimes ranging from shoplifting, to possessing small amounts of drugs, to passing bad checks, to getting in bar room brawls, to arguing with police when stopped for DWB or WWB ( Driving or Walking While Black). What he tells these clients is that they are paying him to make sure that they won't have an arrest or conviction record that will show up on background checks. And why is that worth it? Because employers simply won't hire people, even for entry level jobs, if they have criminal convictions on their record.
I left this conversation extremely upset. Not just because it confirmed what i knew about criminal records disqualifying people for employment-I knew this from unsuccessfully trying to help young men who had recently been released from prison find jobs-but because this disqualification covered even people who were arrested for non violent offenses who would never spend a day in jail, a group whose numbers have been growing astronimically in the last few years because of "Broken Windows Policing."
In many parts of this country, it is the official policy of police departments to arrest people en masse for minor non violent offenses. In New York City, the stated logic of this policy is to prevent more serious crimes and to engage in searches which take guns off the street; but in many other communities, such as Ferguson Missourri, a side effect of the policy is to fine local residents in such proportions that it helps balance strapped city budgets. In any case, it is now official public policy to maximize arrests for non-violent offenses and to promote police officers
