http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1805556,00.html
"But only once have I witnessed the total turnround on the streets and that took place not in Britain but in Manhattan where I was living in 1993 and 1994. At the weekend, the place was a farmers' market for drugs, with dealers coming from all of the five boroughs and beyond to sell their produce. The park at night was a no-go area and on the streets leading to it, I would be stopped every 20 yards or so by men selling crystals or 'smoke'. Between the two sets of doors to my apartment building, I often came across people sheltering from the exceptionally harsh winter and smoking crack. The situation changed when William Bratton was made police chief and introduced zero tolerance policing by moving officers on to the streets. The park was reclaimed within a week and the dealers who used to station themselves outside my ground-floor window were replaced by two of New York's finest."
