think Goetz was a criminal or a hero. The 1980s had been experiencing a lengthy crime wave. After the shooting, New York City officials realized it was time for some major changes; changes that could possibly change how people lived.
Gladwell continues by writing that the Broken Windows Theory became the center of the changes they needed. New York City criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling believed it was the graffiti, trash, and minor crimes that created an environment that was highly susceptible to bigger and "better" crimes. Wilson and Kelling's example was: if a window is broken and left that way, passers-by will see it and believe no one sees a broken window as a big deal. Then they themselves will pick up rocks and start smashing windows and this will ultimately
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