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I don't think it is particularly useful to combine stop and frisk with broken windows. The latter is simply the enforcement of law, while the former is, often, the violation of law. (eg: In NYC "[b]etween January 2004 and June 2012, the NYPD conducted over 4.4 million Terry stops. . . .52% of all stops were followed by a protective frisk for weapons. A weapon was found after 1.5% of these frisks. In other words, in 98.5% of the 2.3 million frisks, no weapon was found.". Given that police are permitted to frisk only when they have reasonable suspicion that a detained person is armed,* the police were clearly engaging in widespread Fourth Amendment violations.
And, while it is perfectly true that "[t]he entire community benefits when ordinary people can walk in their city without fear of street crime or gunfire[,]" one can say that of most civil liberties. "It is OK to violate the civil liberties of a small number of people if the community benefits" is a recipe for the complete evisceration of civil liberties.** It is certainly the rationale that has been given in the past for the evisceration of civil liberties.
*Though if Justice Scalia had had his way, they would not be able to frisk without probable cause, a higher bar. See Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366 (1993) (concurring opinion)
**Obviously Including, given this particular rationale, Second Amendment rights.
I think there’s a faulty assumption here in the sense that I don’t think the actual discovery of weapons in a stop and frisk is nearly as important as the show of force S&F represents. There are more efficient ways to find contraband. However the show of force, the fact that cops are making a point to stop people likely known to police as troublesome serves as a strong deterrent to carrying weapons or contraband around.
Yes, I understood that to be your point. It is obvious that a show of illegal force will result in fewer people carrying weapons, and hence less crime.
I mentioned the low percentage of frisks that resulted in the discovery of weapons merely to demonstrate that the NYPD was conducting illegal frisks. If they had been only frisking when they had a reasonable suspicion that the detained person was armed, they would have found weapons more frequently.
But I don’t see that you have addressed the central objection that I raised, which is that your argument that it is ok to ignore the civil liberties of individuals if doing so will benefit the broader society is a recipe for having no civil liberties at all.
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