NYC’s Former ‘Tough on Crime’ Laws Were Effective — A Personal Perspective

Growing up watching films like “Bad Lieutenant,” “The French Connection,” and “King of New York,” I envisioned myself moving to the city after experiencing a downward spiral into drugs and crime.

As someone well-acquainted with the darker sides of life, I was taken aback when my Greyhound bus arrived at the New York Port Authority in the spring of 2013.

The city was unexpectedly tidy, safe, and bustling with life. I headed to Times Square looking for some wildness, only to find throngs of tourists relishing their time and an array of family-oriented shops.

Little did I know, the past playground of open prostitution and drug dealing had vanished. Was I wrong to come here?

I had spent the majority of 2011 and 2012 homeless, on Skid Row in Los Angeles and the Tenderloin in San Francisco, grappling with an intense heroin and meth addiction.

It was a whirlwind of chaos and depravity, but after a year and a half, I opted to give up.

My father, who had also battled heroin addiction, achieved sobriety at a halfway house in Florida and offered to help me escape California and embark on my own recovery journey alongside him. Yet, after about four months in his halfway house, I realized I wasn’t ready to quit using drugs. So, with roughly a thousand dollars to my name, I took a bus to New York, where I imagined I could recreate my own homeless drug addict version of “Taxi Driver”; reality, however, proved otherwise.

My stay was abruptly interrupted when I was arrested for jumping a subway turnstile. It was my first swift run-in with the law, prompting a mental note to avoid that behavior and to recognize that New York City was far stricter on fare evasion than I was used to in San Francisco.

A few weeks later, while desperately seeking heroin, I was stopped, searched, and found myself back in jail. The city was relentless in not giving me a chance.

I soon realized that, unlike in California, I couldn’t sustain my addiction through petty theft and other illegal activities.

Additionally, I wasn’t permitted to be homeless after being thrown off my friend’s couch.

I simply had nowhere to sleep outside, so each night I made my way to the shelter on First Avenue and 30th Street. There, I found some semblance of stability and eventually secured a job at a cabinet shop. I rented a room in Harlem for $600 a month and managed to maintain housing and employment for nearly a year.

I even started on Suboxone, a medication akin to Methadone, yet I still indulged in getting high for several days after cashing my paycheck.

It wasn’t ideal, but it was far preferable to sleeping on Skid Row.

I had journeyed to New York City seeking a dangerous, drug-fueled, criminal escapade — and somehow ended up being coerced into becoming a semi-functional contributor to society.

But I wasn’t simply tricked. I was compelled. The regulatory environment established by local authorities at the time effectively obstructed my desires for indulgence. The most surprising part? I actually complied.

Is it really so surprising? Don’t people generally engage in activities they are permitted to and refrain from those they aren’t?

As we’re witnessing in locations like San Francisco (and now New York City, post-de Blasio), allowing drug addicts to use crack in a playground with impunity leads them to do just that.

And permitting people to engage in mass petty theft without repercussions will undoubtedly encourage some to take advantage.

This is the fundamental principle of human behavior, yet somehow the current politicians and “expert consultants,” who earn exorbitant salaries funded by taxpayers, seem unable to comprehend it. It’s astonishing.

In 2013, New York City grasped this concept, prompting my departure. I returned to where such understanding was lacking — Skid Row in Los Angeles — and proceeded to unravel my life for several more years before finally achieving sobriety in 2018.

Fortunately, I ended up with a lengthy jail term (which was surprisingly difficult to procure in California), followed by an extended stay at a nonprofit treatment facility. Since then, I have been living a fulfilling life beyond anything I had ever imagined.

So what’s the remedy for NYC? A solid first step would be to reinforce laws against antisocial behavior and petty theft.

After investing in public detox centers and long-term rehabilitation facilities, we should require repeat offenders to attend these programs instead of serving jail time. We need to facilitate recovery, provide career training, and assist with job placement to create a life worth living.

Most critically, we must put an end to allowing people to act as they please if it threatens the safety and freedoms of others and erodes the fabric of society.

Reward commendable conduct and penalize negative behavior. It’s a straightforward principle that, for some inexplicable reason, many seem to have overlooked since my arrival in New York City aboard that Greyhound bus in 2013.