Mumbai needs ‘broken windows’ policing

Stamping out outlandish machismo will deter more serious crimes

Only the ‘broken windows’ style of law enforcement can clean Mumbai of testosterone-drenched crimes. In that crime-fighting approach, even minor offences are severely punished: a drunken kid breaks a window, and he is busted big time. The rationale of the system is that coming down heavily on minor misdemeanours deters those planning more ambitious enterprises in wrongdoing.

Rudi Giuliani, the former New York mayor and a Republican frontrunner in the race for Presidential candidature, was among the most enthusiastic advocates of the system. Broken windows was one of the successes that magnified Giuliani’s image as a tough protector of the city’s interests.

The Mumbai police, on Thursday, took their first - even if an unwitting - step towards adapting the broken-windows approach when they urged the courts to hand down tough sentences to violators of traffic rules.

Three men had to spend a night in prison for such offences as reckless changing of lanes and breaking the speed limit.

Now although cracking down on road rats is sensible, it is by no means enough. Many of those who act reprehensibly on the roads show similar disdain for the law in other places. One of the most critical links that connects insane driving to vicious crime is an outlandish sense of machismo.

Why was Rohit Jadhav, 22, stabbed on Carter Road on September 2, while he was enjoying a quiet date with his girlfriend? Because his killers wanted a motorcycle - these days the mascot of youngsters virility - but did not earn enough to make a legitimate purchase.

Why was a war hero, Brigadier (retd) SC Sharma, battered by 15 young men on Monday in Kharghar? Ostensibly because he castigated three of them for cutting their bike too close to his car. For the drink-addled goons, the reprimand from an old man must have seemed like an assault on their manhood. And their manhood must have been puny, because they required the assistance of 12 friends to quell the brave brigadier.

The disquieting catalogue of Mumbai’s crimes is full of young louts who think that brutality is sexy and coarseness in cool.

We need to twist the broken-windows policing to emasculate our city’s macho malefactors. I suggest the ‘Ear-dirt’ law: the police must swiftly and harshly act at the slightest hint of abuse, which defiles the ears before priming the minds for violence.

After all, many instances of violence are triggered by uncharitable references to familial anatomy. If mouthing an abuse becomes an offence that invites summary imprisonment, it will deter the next level of confrontation, the delivery of a tight slap. And it will also make Mumbai infinitely more wholesome.

The ear-dirt law will be a tribute to people who are among the most law-abiding citizens of the country. A Mumbaikar forms a queue naturally, while a Delhi resident spends many minutes at any counter bandying and warding off ear dirt.

If the police introduce the ear-dirt law (they can choose the offence and the tag) it may encourage more young men to become peaceable metrosexuals. That way, they won’t lust for expensive bikes, obsessing instead about the latest Calvin Klein scent pour homme.