Broken Windows

Maybe it’s time to admit that bicycle cops high-fiving gangbangers isn’t the best way to protect the public at the Virginia Beach oceanfront. I mean no offense to the police officers who patrol that wild 10-block area. They have a tough job. 

It’s time we let them do it.

For years, the city tried to play nice with the unruly crowds that congregated on the resort strip on warm nights. Business owners and restaurateurs complained and tourists with children found the atmosphere intimidating. Yet city officials deliberately downplayed the bad behavior.

Let’s just call these “leaders” what they are: violence deniers.

I mean, who will ever forget this headline from the May 2, 2018 Virginian-Pilot: “Despite Multiple Shootings, College Beach Weekend Was ‘A Calm Atmosphere’ City Says.”

No, that wasn’t satire. City honchos were dizzily trying to spin the annual April gathering of mostly African- American college students that was marred by brawls and violence into some sort of success.

I guarantee you the four people who were shot that weekend didn’t think it was calm. Neither did the 139 people arrested. 

In 2019, the Something in the Water festival was held on the same April dates as Beach College Weekend and that was a stunning success. There were few, if any, problems. Sadly, the governor’s crowd restrictions resulted in the festival being cancelled last year and this year.

But that was one weekend.

Anti-social behavior and violence are commonplace in the resort area any time the weather is warm. Especially on weekends. For instance, in June of 2020 three people were shot on the strip when a mob suddenly assembled near the Dairy Queen on 17th Street.

There are many, many more instances of fights and stabbings at the oceanfront.

Last weekend’s shootings that left two dead and eight injured were the bloodiest incidents so far. Police say the suspects are likely gang members.

Color me unsurprised.

Maybe it’s time the city switched gears and employed the Broken Window theory to curb the violence.

In 2007, a story in City Journal “Broken Windows Turns 25” described the theory this way:

Twenty-five years ago, social scientist James Q. Wilson and criminologist (and Manhattan Institute senior fellow) George Kelling first introduced the phrase “Broken Windows” into the public policy lexicon. 

In a pathbreaking Atlantic Monthly article, Wilson and Kelling pointed out that people were likelier to vandalize a building with one broken window than a building with none, since a broken window sends the message that nobody cares, encouraging vandals to act on their destructive impulses. 

Similarly, they suggested, if a community tolerates quality-of-life offenses, such as drug use and prostitution, it signals to all potential lawbreakers that it doesn’t care what happens to it; more serious crime will soon result.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is credited with bringing the Broken Window theory to New York City in the 1990s, which resulted in cleaner streets and subways and a sharp drop in crime. Back then, the NYPD enforced even jaywalking laws. (Jaywalking is no longer illegal in Virginia thanks to the General Assembly’s police reform package that passed in the special session last year.)

After perusing TikTok and YouTube videos purportedly shot at the Beach last weekend, it appears there was plenty of hooliganism going on before the shooting started. People were jumping on cars and blocking traffic.

Perhaps if the police began ticketing people along the resort strip for nuisance violations like drunk in public, urinating in public, disorderly conduct, vandalism,  and even littering it might send a message that all are welcome in Virginia Beach - as long as you can behave yourself.

The majority of those who head to the beach on warm nights come for fun. They ought to be able to enjoy themselves on the resort strip without being hit by stray bullets. And without interfering with local businesses.

If history is any predictor, elected officials will once again wring their hands and two-step around the resort strip crisis, terrified if they take bold action they’ll be called racists.

Grow a pair, city council. Act like leaders. For a change.

It isn’t racist to want a safe city. Neither is it racist to admit that Virginia Beach has broken windows.