To the editor: I was disheartened to hear attorney Tim Shugrue say on WTBR-FM’s July 13 “Morning Drive” that when he says “sweating the small stuff” he means imposing the failed 1980s-era theory known as “broken windows” on Berkshire County.
Broken windows is a broken theory that promotes over-policing of low-level, nonviolent offenses in poor and racially diverse neighborhoods. Like so much of the 1980s policing theories and policies, in cities where broken windows has taken root, there’s little evidence that it’s worked as intended. The theory has instead resulted in what critics say is aggressive over-policing of minority communities.
Such practices strain criminal justice systems, burden impoverished people with fines for minor offenses, and fracture the relationship between police and minorities. Broken windows led to tragedy in New York City in 2014 when Eric Garner died from a police chokehold after officers approached him for selling loose cigarettes on a street corner — a city Mr. Shugrue referred to in the radio program as being a success with broken windows. I now ask how you defend your stance on broken windows.
Tim Shugrue’s campaign rhetoric is out of touch with the values and needs of our community. He wants to reverse all the progressive policies that District Attorney Andrea Harrington has put into place and return to a time when we punish the marginalized and the disadvantaged. In 2022, with all this country has been through with another racial reckoning, how can we support candidates who support old policies and measures that are racist in nature? Shugrue would have us turn our backs on all the other work being done by public and private organizations in our community to bring more equity to the Berkshires.
I will not be voting to go backward. I will be voting for Andrea Harrington, who will focus on violent crime and taking violent offenders off the street. Not an individual that seeks to pile on the disadvantaged. I will be voting to move to justice for all and equity for all my community members. Tim Shugrue’s broken, tired, thoughtless policies will move us backwards to a place we have worked so hard to escape.
Nate Giles, Pittsfield