The New York Times looks at the Big Apple’s efforts to legislate civility and kindness.

From tighter restrictions on sports fans and car alarms to a new $50 fine on subway riders who rest their feet on a seat, New York’s efforts to curb everyday annoyances and foster more civility among its residents have increasingly been studied and debated far from home.

[...]

With its precipitous drops in crime, New York has increasingly been able to turn its attention to policing offensive behavior, from the mere faux pas to outright misconduct that puts others at risk. And that has put it on the front line of a national crackdown on incivility.

“There’s no excuse for that kind of thing,” said Alderman Edward M. Burke, a leader of the Chicago City Council, who has introduced a sports fan law based on New York’s. “I think it’s a good idea to remind the general public of what is expected of them.”

Alderman Burke ought to be voted out of office for that comment alone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 18th, 2006 at 7:26 am by Radley Balko and is filed under There Oughtta Be a Law, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.