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I had an interesting conversation with a fellow Grassroots Leader recently on the need to actively report infractions like illegal parking and littering in the neighborhood.
I am a believer in the broken window theory that links disorder and incivility within a community to subsequent occurrences of more serious anti-social behavior and even crimes. Essentially, if people see others getting away with small illegal acts, they too will feel that they can get away with other illegal acts. Soon, the cumulative effect of all these small infractions without consequences will be a community that no longer obeys the law.
My sense is that we are already seeing the start of this where residents see nothing wrong with throwing their cigarette butts, drink cans, and tissue paper anywhere they want. If we want to stop this spiral, we need to start enforcing the small “insignificant” laws.
