Safer Era Tests Wisdom of ‘Broken Windows’ Focus on Minor Crime

Even as violent crime has receded across New York City, arrests are near historic highs, driven by an increasingly controversial imperative that no offense is too minor for police officers to pursue.

Now, the death of a Staten Island man after officers tried to arrest him for peddling cigarettes is intensifying scrutiny of the Police Department’s unflagging push to arrest people over the most minor offenses.