Commentary Back in the early days of talk radio, the late Bob Grant used to have a tagline: “It’s sick out there and getting sicker.” The pugnacious New York City host, who ruled the local airwaves on WABC in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, came to fame during the previous nadir in the city’s fortunes, the David Dinkins administration of 1990-93. Crime was out of control, murder was at record highs (2605 in 1990), and there seemed no way out of the sealed box decades of Democratic administrations had constructed for the city. Then came the Rudolf Giuliani administration (1994-2001) and things changed almost overnight. New police chief Bill Bratton cracked down on so-called “lifestyle crime,” such as the city’s omnipresent squeegee men – intimidating derelicts who “cleaned” car windshields with filthy rags for a mere quarter—and subway turnstile jumpers. By 1995, murders had fallen to 1,550 and by 2001, …
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