NY: Bloomberg Touts Quality of Life Crackdown

The New York Post (1/9) reports, "Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday unveiled 'Op-eration Clean Sweep' -- the NYPD's quality-of-life crackdown that aims at wiping out public urination, prostitution and squeegee men." Bloomberg also "said his top cop had spent Monday night touring some city homeless shelters to assess their safety." And the mayor "said he had personally met with officials from the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, where homeless people are permitted by a court ruling last week to sleep on the steps." Bloomberg, who has said he's "trying to work out an arrangement with church officials to keep the homeless off the steps, credited Kelly with being the first top cop to target quality-of-life crimes."

Long Island Newsday (1/9) reports, "Hundreds of so-called quality of life offenders were arrested or ticketed over the weekend, and officials said Tuesday that more action is on the way." The "arrests and summonses, issued in 50 'tar-geted areas' that include Hell's Kitchen and Long Island City, are the focus of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's first major initiative: a crackdown on the kind of low-level offenses that became a hallmark of the Giuliani administration." But in "signs that this initiative may be kinder and gentler than in the past, police officials said some offenders were issued desk-appearance tickets, instead of being forced to go through the booking system, and Kelly said he made a surprise visit to the Bedford-Atlantic Men's Shelter in Brooklyn Monday night to check on safety conditions there."


Courtesy of the Bulletin's Frontrunner
January 9, 2002, Wednesday