And it’s the fault of the Republicans! Imagine the conservative anger if Maurice Clemmons–armed robber, child rapist, messianic apocalypse believer, bad neighbor, and now cop killer–had been been granted clemency by some Democraticgovernor! Some criminal-loving cop-hating commie Democrat politician. Maybe with proper mental health care this never would have happened. Clemmons is clearly a guy who needed to be confined…
Month: November 2009
Support for legal marijuana growing
Or so says the Washington Post. “Seriously,” said Bruce Merkin, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group based in the District, “there is a reason you don’t have Mexican beer cartels planting fields of hops in the California forests.”
Four Police Officers Killed in Ambush
Holy Sh*t! Talk about an unwelcome back to the ol’ US of A. Guns, folks. Guns matter. I wonder if four police officers have ever been shot and killed in England. Ever. There was one police funeral in England when I was there, just two days ago. An officer who was killed when a flood-weakened bridge collapsed on him.
Holiday (Criminal) Spirit
The Christmas crime season is the US begins. This storyfrom the NY Daily News. [November 30 Update] And the Chicago Sun Times. Street crime really does up before Christmas. Keep that in mind. I’m in a pub in York, UK, right now. Leeds, where I’m staying, and where David Simon said he might have set The Wire if he set…
‘Ello Leeds!
Happy Thanksgiving. No holiday here in England. I’m here in Leeds for a conference on The Wire. Good stuff. I gave a speech this morning. Now it’s the evening and I’m hankering for a pint.
Just because you’re paranoid…
…doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. The FBI spent 45 years keeping files on Chicago writer and journalist Studs Terkel. And to think this agent provocateur went unwatched for the last 18 years of his life!
More applicants, fewer jobs in the NYPD
The story by Michael Schmidt in the New York Times.
Police Officer Uses Taser On 10-Year-Old Girl
As a reader pointed out: “She was just too big and tough, I guess.” My point (again) isn’t that cops violated their rules. It’s that the rules are wrong! Update November 19: The officerinvolved has been suspended for seven days (with pay, mind you). This is an example of the worst functionings in a police department. If policy is policy,…
Police speak out against racial profiling in California
Take that, “blue wall of silence.” From Anthropoliteia.
Political Correctness Kills?
No. My buddy Ron Smith has a column with the headline: “Fort Hood massacre shows how political correctness can kill.” (just for record, columnists don’t write headlines.) I’m not a fan of political correctness (though I like being polite) and don’t consider myself very politically correct (though I try and be considerate). But I’m pretty certain that political correctness does…