Jerry "Buz" Busnuk, a retired Baltimore police captain who has his own crime blog, attended the speech by LAPD Chief William J. Bratton and had his own thoughts, both on the talk and on the blog I posted earlier today.

At one point, Bratton talked about arriving in New York City and being overwhelmed by squeegee men cleaning windows. The chief said he investigated and discovered there were only 75, but they were strategically located at the most crowded entrances to the island. Nearly 40,000 cops easily took care of the 75 squeegee men who had terrorized millions, he bragged.

Here's Busnuk's take (and he promises more on his own blog soon):

Thanks, Peter! I skimmed your piece on our intellectually-stimulating talk last night, and have some thoughts running around in my mostly-empty head. You must have had a recorder on or took real good reporter-like notes. I have some perhaps contrary notes, and I'll post those if I get a chance, but a couple:

Geesh, if NYC had, for real, only 75 squeegee men, I wonder how many dirt bikes there are in poor ole Bmore?

There seems to be a slight intellectual conflict, in my mind, between Compstat -- which generally measures Part I crimes -- and his talking about all the other quality-of-life issues that he says the cops so matter about. Were squeegee corners noted at Compstat?

He kept mentioning "38,000" police. He and Giuliani both forgot that the Dinkins administration, before they left office, pushed thru a "Safe Streets" act, which dramatically increased the size of NYPD--and New Yorkers taxed themselves to pay for it. The Housing and Transit police were also merged into the city police, at one time having a force of over 40,000--though it's a bit smaller now.

More to come from the curmudgeon, but final thought: he says that the community concerns of little things matter, but he keeps mentioning the drop in homicides.  Baltimore has seen a huge drop in homicides, but all the little things seem to be off the hook...