Public order is a fragile thing, and if you don't fix the first broken window, soon all the windows will be broken.

One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.

I mean that the function of the police is to solve problems that have law-enforcement consequences in a way that is based on a genuine partnership with the neighborhood in both the venting of the problem and the discussion of the solution.

There aren't any liberals left in New York. They've all been mugged by now.

Arresting a single drunk or a single vagrant who has harmed no identifiable person seems unjust, and in a sense it is. But failing to do anything about a score of drunks or a hundred vagrants may destroy an entire community.

I believe we ought to subsidize some health care for the poor, but Medicare subsidizes everyone's health care

In terms of other functions, we are making a mistake about insisting on a public school monopoly.