Most Baltimore cops are clean. The vast vast majority. But of course there are dirty cops. We know so because they get caught. Too bad the record of prosecuting dirty cops in Baltimore isn’t too good. Peter Hermann reports.
Month: September 2009
Maryland Morning
Along with Neill Franklin, I’ll be broadcast on Baltimore’s “Maryland Morning” tomorrow (Friday) at 9:05am (Eastern Time). In Charm City WYPR is 88.1 FM. Or you can listen to live streaming here.
Why’d they have to write a story ’bout her?
The R.O.X.A.N.N.E. The whole Roxanne’s Revenge story? Rap teen took advantage of a minor clause in her contract to have the evil record company pay for all her education up to an including her Ivy-League PhD? Reported in Blender and more recently the Daily News? The feel good story of 2008 for the old-school hip hop world? I didn’t post…
Do Not Murder
Ta-Nehisi Coates has an interesting post about the death penalty and “innocent” people on death row. I assume it’s inspired by this storyin the New Yorker. I feel the need to highlight the case of Roger Keith Coleman, a man claimed innocence to the end, and whose case was murky enough that it garnered this cover story from TIME back…
Drug Violence? Gang Violence? Idiot Violence?
This isn’t new. But it happened in the Eastern and only know did I discover (thanks to a colleague of mine) the Timearticle.
“The trouble with the world…”
“The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.” — Betrand Russell
Cost of a Car?
I’ve always wondered and never been able to figure out exactly how much police cars cost to operate. Somebody in motor-pool must know, but nobody has told me. Here’s an article in the New York Times about a fleet for OTB. No doubt cheaper than cop cars. The vehicles cost an average of $6,700 each per year. They have 87…
A Radical Solution to End the Drug War: Legalize Everything
Esquire.com just published a nice piece by John Richardson about my op-ed co-author, Neill Franklin, on violence in the drug war. We’ve heard a lot about the terrible death toll Mexico has suffered during the drug war — over 11,000 souls so far. This helps to account for the startling lack of controversy that greeted last week’s news that Mexico…
Those Slippery Stats
Somebody tried to do to me what I tried to do to the Heritage Foundation. I was accused of playing fast and loose the numbers in my Washington Post op-ed. In the old days I could have just challenged him to a duel. I’d feel pretty confident going into that battle! Instead I have to defend my honor with a…
Alan F. Kiepper dies at 81
OK. I’ll be honest. I had never heard of the guy either. But it turns out he might be responsible for America’s great crime drop (not that he ever claimed such a feat). But he did hire Bill Bratton to run the New York Transit Police, and that was perhaps the start of it all. “Effective management is doing small…