Museum of Broken Windows

Last updated
Museum of Broken Windows
Museum of Broken Windows
Established
  • 22 - 30 September 2018
  • September 13 - October 8 2019
Location Cooper Union Foundation Building, 41 Cooper Square, 7 E 7th St, New York, NY 10003, USA
Type Art exhibition
Owner New York Civil Liberties Union
Website www.museumofbrokenwindows.org

The Museum of Broken Windows is a pop-up exhibition organised by the New York State affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. [1] Housed within the Cooper Union's Foundation Building on Cooper Square, the project has been displayed twice, first from September 22 through 30, 2018, [2] and then between September 13 and October 8, 2019. [3]

Contents

The exhibition features artwork that explores the historic tactics utilised by the NYPD and their eventual consequences in terms of racial injustice and police brutality, focusing primarily on the namesake broken windows theory of crime. [4]

Background

The Broken Windows theory is a criminological theory that was first introduced by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in a 1982 issue of The Atlantic Monthly , in which they argue that areas exhibiting visible evidence of anti-social behaviour such as graffiti and vandalism act as catalysts for the occurrence of more serious crimes. [5] Despite the fact that there is still debate in regards to the relationship between crime reduction and the policing policies inspired by the hypothesis, [6] the theory was later applied in numerous locations around the United States, most notably in New York City following the 1993 election of Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Along with incumbent police commissioner William J. Bratton, Giuliani promoted the use of "broken windows policing" across the city by enforcing stricter policing on minor crimes and the introduction of policies such as the controversial "stop-and-frisk" program which allowed for the temporary detainment and searching of an individual based upon a reasonable suspicion that they are involved in a criminal activity. [7]

In 2019 there were nearly 13,500 reported stops with around 90% of them being African-American or Latino. [8] The stop-and-frisk policy therefore faced accusations of racism as further research suggested that white people were stopped significantly less than other races, [9] resulting in a "wall of distrust" between minorities and the police. [10]

As a defender for the civil rights and liberties of New Yorkers, [11] the New York Civil Liberties Union established the museum and funded the project with the intention of exposing the "ineffectiveness of broken windows policing, which criminalizes our most vulnerable communities". [12]

Works

The exhibit features roughly 60 selected works from 30 artists, activists and authors that draw attention to the long-lasting impact of the broken windows theory on marginalised communities. At the entrance, a sculpture by Jordan Weber shows a destroyed police car with plants growing through the broken windshield in soil taken from the burial site of Michael Brown. [2] Brown was an unarmed 18 year old black man whose fatal shooting by Ferguson police resulted in the 2014 Ferguson riots. The plants in the exhibit were chosen specifically as a reference to the death of Eric Garner through a prohibited police chokehold. [12] Garner's death was also the principal inspiration for Molly Crabapple's animated short "Broken Windows" which also appeared at the exhibition. [13]

Ann Lewis produced a 20ft installation called "...and counting" that features 1093 mortuary toe tags dangling from the roof to represent all the victims of police-related deaths in the US during 2016. Each individual tag was written by hand. [14]

Other exhibits include a self portrait painted by Philadelphia artist Russell Craig on a canvas covered in his court documents after being imprisoned for seven years as a result of non-violent drug offences, as well as Michael D'Antuono's "The Talk", which focuses on the racial profiling of African Americans by police. [13]

As well as holding original art, the museum features newspaper clippings, personal mementos, and photos from the period where broken windows policing was utilised. [12]

Selected contributors

-Source: [15]


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Broken windows theory</span> Criminological theory

In criminology, the broken windows theory states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking, jaywalking, and fare evasion help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness.

A Terry stop in the United States allows the police to briefly detain a person based on reasonable suspicion of involvement in criminal activity. Reasonable suspicion is a lower standard than probable cause which is needed for arrest. When police stop and search a pedestrian, this is commonly known as a stop and frisk. When police stop an automobile, this is known as a traffic stop. If the police stop a motor vehicle on minor infringements in order to investigate other suspected criminal activity, this is known as a pretextual stop. Additional rules apply to stops that occur on a bus.

"Driving while black" (DWB) is a sardonic description of racial profiling of African-American motor vehicle drivers. It implies that a motorist may be stopped by a police officer largely because of racial bias rather than any apparent violation of traffic law. It is a word play of "driving while intoxicated."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Bratton</span> American police officer

William Joseph Bratton CBE is an American law enforcement officer and businessman who served two terms as the New York City Police Commissioner. He previously served as the Commissioner of the Boston Police Department (BPD) (1993–1994) and Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) (2002–2009). He is the only person to have led the police departments of the United States' two largest cities – New York and Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Action Network</span> Civil rights organization

The National Action Network (NAN) is a not-for-profit, civil rights organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton in New York City, New York, in early 1991. In a 2016 profile, Vanity Fair called Sharpton "arguably the country's most influential civil rights leader".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Constitutional Rights</span> U.S. nonprofit organization

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a progressive non-profit legal advocacy organization based in New York City, New York, in the United States. It was founded in 1966 by Arthur Kinoy, William Kunstler and others particularly to support activists in the implementation of civil rights legislation and to achieve social justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crime in New York City</span> Overview of crime in New York City, New York, US

Crime rates in New York City have been recorded since at least the 1800s. They have spiked ever since the post-war period. The highest crime totals were recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s as the crack epidemic surged, and then declined continuously since the mid-1990s and throughout the 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frisking</span> Act of searching a persons outer clothing to detect concealed objects

Frisking is a search of a person's outer clothing wherein a person runs their hands along the outer garments of another to detect any concealed weapons or objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New York Civil Liberties Union</span> Legal advocacy organization in New York State

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly 50,000 members across New York State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police brutality in the United States</span> Use of excessive force by a police officer

Police brutality is the use of excessive or unnecessary force by personnel affiliated with law enforcement duties when dealing with suspects and civilians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey</span>

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU-NJ) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit civil rights organization in Newark, New Jersey, and an affiliate of the national American Civil Liberties Union. According to the ACLU-NJ's stated mission, the ACLU-NJ operates through litigation on behalf of individuals, lobbying in state and local legislatures, and community education.

The stop-question-and-frisk program, or stop-and-frisk, in New York City, is a New York City Police Department (NYPD) practice of temporarily detaining, questioning, and at times searching civilians and suspects on the street for weapons and other contraband. This is what is known in other places in the United States as the Terry stop. The rules for the policy are contained in the state's criminal procedure law section 140.50 and based on the decision of the US Supreme Court in the case of Terry v. Ohio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 New York City mayoral election</span> American contest to be Mayor of the City of New York

The 1993 New York City mayoral election was held on Tuesday, November 2. Incumbent Mayor David Dinkins ran for re-election to a second term, but lost in a rematch with Republican Rudy Giuliani.

<i>Floyd v. City of New York</i>

Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al., 959 F. Supp. 2d 540, is a set of cases addressing the class action lawsuit filed against the City of New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and named and unnamed New York City police officers ("Defendants"), alleging that defendants have implemented and sanctioned a policy, practice, and/or custom of unconstitutional stops and frisks by the New York Police Department ("NYPD") on the basis of race and/or national origin, in violation of Section 1983 of title forty-two of the United States Code, the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Constitution and laws of the State of New York.

Racial profiling by law enforcement at the local, state, and federal levels, leads to discrimination against people in the African American, Native American, Asian, Pacific Islander, Latino, Arab, and Muslim communities of the United States. Examples of racial profiling are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic violations, or the use of race to determine which pedestrians to search for illegal contraband. Besides such disproportionate searching of African Americans and members of other minority groups, other examples of racial profiling by law enforcement in the U.S. include the Trump-era China Initiative following racial profiling against Chinese American scientists; the targeting of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the investigation of illegal immigration; and the focus on Middle Eastern and South Asians present in the country in screenings for ties to Islamic terrorism. These suspicions may be held on the basis of belief that members of a target racial group commit crimes at a higher rate than that of other racial groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protest of Ray Kelly at Brown University</span>

On October 29, 2013, Brown University students and community members of Providence protested a lecture by then-NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal justice reform in the United States</span> Reforms seeking to address structural issues in criminal justice systems of the United States

Criminal justice reform seeks to address structural issues in criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Reforms can take place at any point where the criminal justice system intervenes in citizens’ lives, including lawmaking, policing, sentencing and incarceration. Criminal justice reform can also address the collateral consequences of conviction, including disenfranchisement or lack of access to housing or employment, that may restrict the rights of individuals with criminal records.

100 Blacks In Law Enforcement That Care is an American New York City-based advocacy group which focuses on fighting injustices between the African American community and their interactions with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). This internal relations advocacy group speaks out against police brutality, racial profiling and police misconduct. They are composed of active duty and retired employees from within the department. They also support the black community with financial, educational and legal support.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Police surveillance in New York City</span>

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) actively monitors public activity in New York City, New York, United States. Historically, surveillance has been used by the NYPD for a range of purposes, including against crime, counter-terrorism, and also for nefarious or controversial subjects such as monitoring political demonstrations, activities, and protests, and even entire ethnic and religious groups.

Deborah N. Archer is an American civil rights lawyer and law professor. She is the Jacob K. Javits Professor at New York University and professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law. She also directs the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law and the Civil Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law. In January 2021, she was elected president of the American Civil Liberties Union, becoming the first African American to hold the position in the organization’s history.

References

  1. ↑ "About - Museum of Broken Windows". Museum of Broken Windows. Retrieved 2021-02-17.
  2. 1 2 Sayej, Nadja (18 September 2018). "Museum of Broken Windows: artists on the dangers of racial profiling". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  3. ↑ "Museum of Broken Windows". NYCLU - ACLU of New York. New York Civil Liberties Union. 6 September 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  4. ↑ "NYC's Museum of Broken Windows Focuses on the Systemic Impact of NYPD Tactics". NowThis. 5 October 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  5. ↑ Wilson, James Q.; Kelling, George L. (March 1982). "Broken Windows". www.theatlantic.com. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  6. ↑ Harcourt, Bernard E.; Ludwig, Jens (2006). "Broken Windows: New Evidence from New York City and a Five-City Social Experiment". The University of Chicago Law Review. 73 (1): 271–320. JSTOR   4495553. SSRN   743284.
  7. ↑ "Terry v. Ohio, 392 US 1, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889 (1968)". Google Scholar. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  8. ↑ "Stop-and-Frisk Data". New York Civil Liberties Union. 24 February 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  9. ↑ Gelman, Andrew; Fagan, Jeffrey; Kiss, Alex (2007-09-01). "An Analysis of the New York City Police Department's "Stop-and-Frisk" Policy in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias". Journal of the American Statistical Association. 102 (479): 813–823. doi: 10.1198/016214506000001040 . ISSN   0162-1459. S2CID   8505752.
  10. ↑ Taylor, Kate (September 23, 2011). "Borough President Seeks Limits on Stop-and-Frisk". The New York Times.
  11. ↑ "About the NYCLU". NYCLU. New York Civil Liberties Union. 18 September 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 Feinstein, Laura (25 September 2018). "The Museum of Broken Windows Makes a Powerful Plea for Police Reform". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  13. 1 2 Solly, Meilan. "NYC Pop-Up Exhibition Traces Broken Windows Policing's Toll". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  14. ↑ Cascone, Sarah (24 September 2018). "A Pop-Up Museum in New York Illustrates the Harmful Effects of Broken Windows Policing". artnet. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  15. ↑ "Virtual Tour". Museum of Broken Windows. New York Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved 22 February 2021.

40°43′46″N73°59′26″W / 40.72957°N 73.99044°W / 40.72957; -73.99044

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.