# Kongressman Koch Fights Krime **URL:** **By** Gary Greenberg **Published:** December 1, 1972 --- “What is most amusing is that Ed Koch actually believed that what he did is to be treated seriously.” Having just completed a campaign against Ed Koch, the incumbent Congressman from Manhattan’s Silk Stocking district, I couldn’t help be more than amused at a piece of literature he distributed telling of his own personal crusade against crime. What is most amusing is that Ed Koch actually believed that what he did is to be treated seriously. In his own words, Ed Koch narrates the events that took place. “As I walked through Washington Square Park to get to the Sixth Avenue subway I was stopped by an individual who was about six feet tall and probably over 200 pounds. He was very threatening in manner and became even more so when he said to me, ‘Give me a quarter, man.’” Ed Koch replied “No.” “He then said, ‘Give me a quarter, man, or I am going to beat the s—t out of you,’ and he put up his hands as though to strike me. In response I said, ‘No, I am Congressman Koch and I am going to have you arrested.’ Unaccountably the man dropped his fists and started to walk away.” (Perhaps he realized that a congressman is a member of the deadliest, most brutal criminal organization in the U.S., and figured he had better not mess with organized crime.) Now, Ed Koch is proud of his reputation as Superlib (although as he prepared to run for mayor of New York City next year he now claims not to be an idealogue). As a liberal he constantly supports the right of the government goon squads to lean a bit on citizens who don’t want to give their quarters to Koch’s playmates—who would then redistribute them to persons such as Koch’s new-found acquaintance. And of course Ed Koch and his cohorts of the corporate liberal class resent the intrusion of independent, self-starting individuals who would diminish the power and justification for corporate liberalism. Therefore, one isn’t too surprised to learn that Koch’s response to an individual trying to eliminate the liberal establishment as the middleman in the transfer of quarters was to have the man arrested. “By then it was 6:30 p.m. It took 45 minutes for the police to fill out the information forms on the arrested individual. At 7:15 p.m. we were taken to the criminal courts building and arrived there at 7:30 p.m. where again forms had to be filled out and this took another 45 minutes.” Gary Greenberg is an attorney who works for the criminal division of Legal Aid. He ran against Koch in this year’s congressional race, and may well end up opposing Koch for mayor of New York next year. Now, you may think, the congressman has brought a would-be mugger to justice. They will nail him for attempted robbery, assault, extortion, something serious— right? After all, to take care of this important matter, the congressman has taken two patrolmen off the street (where their physical presence would act as a deterrent to potential muggers) for a period of almost two hours so far. The narrative continues. “The defendant was charged with intoxication, loitering and harrassment. I was told by the assistant district attorney that I should charge him with attempted robbery, but I told him I did not want to make a federal case of it, and that I simply wanted to have him punished for what had occurred in some reasonable way.” He doesn’t want to make a federal case out of this? He has so far tied up two policemen for two hours and has taken the time of an assistant district attorney to help prosecute an obnoxious drunk—and we aren’t through yet. One should understand that, on a routine night, there are a great many defendants being processed. Virtually all of them will be represented by an undermanned staff of Legal Aid attorneys. The charges will range from Koch’s charge of drunkenness to real crimes—ranging through car thefts, robberies, muggings, burglaries— and perhaps some non-crimes like prostitution and serious non-crimes like drug possession charges. There is almost always a constant pressure by the judges and court personnel to move things along. The Legal Aid attorney will try to give everybody as thorough an interview as time allows, and the time-consuming business of interviewing people like Koch’s drunk makes it difficult to spend as much time as one would like with the persons charged with serious crimes. Much of what goes on in the court at the arraignment will be determined by rules of thumb which are necessary to deal with what goes on in an institutional situation. As a result of these rules of thumb, virtually everybody but Ed Koch, one of the persons responsible for these institutions, could have predicted what would happen next. “A new Assistant District Attorney said to me that he did not think it was worth pressing and that nothing would happen since there were so many cases of this kind. I said, ‘That is why I have taken the time to come here.’ He said if I wanted to have something done I should charge the defendant with attempted robbery but he warned that would take another three hours. I said no, I would press the three original charges. The defendant then pleaded guilty to harrassment.” \[1\] Koch then went on, with the court’s permission, to state in substance that he had taken the time to do this because it was time someone said “No!” even though it would have been easier to give the guy a quarter. “The court sympathized with what I had said, stating that crime was rampant not only in the area in which I lived, but in so many places in the city \[a revelation that apparently came as a surprise to Koch\]. And then the judge, turning to the defendant, said: ‘I want you to know that the next time you come into this court I will deal with you very sternly and this time I will fine you $50.’” The attorney for the defendant asked for time for the defendant to bring in the money and the court granted three weeks.. “The defendant and I both left the criminal courts building at 8:30 p.m. by the same door. And as he passed me he smiled; he knew something I did not.” Mr. Koch subsequently checked out what had happened on the adjournment date. The defendant did not pay the fine. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he could not be found. The residence and employment information he had given the court were false (All those who are surprised, raise your hands—now read Ed Koch’s last six speeches as penance.) The only part of the story that anyone familiar with the workings of our criminal courts could find astonishing is how everyone at the courthouse kept a straight face while Koch was going through his routine. Ed Koch is comic relief in the theater of the absurd. That he seriously believed that arresting someone for being an obnoxious drunken beggar is the way to fight crime can only leave one concerned that things will get worse before they get better. Koch’s most serious proposal for fighting crime on the street to date is to distribute police whistles to citizens so that they can whistle for help. He apparently assumes that a would-be robber wouldn’t also take the whistle. I suppose that any day now we can expect Koch to escalate the war against crime by supporting a legislative program that will make a pair of sneakers available to every American. And in his speech he will say, in all seriousness, “The time has come when we must take concrete steps to fight crime. For too long the victim has been under the heel of the perpetrator. My new bill will help put the victim on equal footing with the mugger.” Nowhere in the speech will there be any recognition of the relationship between crime and heroin prohibition. Nowhere will there be a recognition that overcrowding in the courts has anything to do with the prosecutions for victimless crimes. \[2\] I suppose the only way to deal with politicians like Koch is to laugh. Ed Koch wants to run for Mayor. The Peter Principle strikes again. 1. In New York, harrassment is classified as a violation, carrying a maximum penalty of 15 days in jail and/or a $250 fine. 2. In a work entitled _The Honest Politician’s Guide to Crime Control_ (Chicago, $5.95) by Morris and Hawkins, it is estimated that about half of the six million arrests each year are for public intoxication.