Continuing my conversation with Colonel (Ret.) Margaret Patton of the Baltimore Police department, I recently received this email: I read your added chapter[the new chapter in the paperback edition of Cop in the Hood].You should be a police chief. The term “Policing Green” is very catchy and, more important, very smart. Foot patrol is a key to addressing crime and…
Month: November 2009
CIA agents convicted in Italy of kidnapping
The story in the NYT.
The family that robs together…
Marc Perrusquia in the Memphis Commercial Appeal has a good story about the extensive criminal activities of one very criminal family. Over seven decades, Porterfield and several members of his extended family have been a violent, drug-peddling, thieving scourge on Shelby County. They’ve been involved in at least 14 shootings, four murders and countless break-ins and assaults. In all, 407…
Officer Down: Seattle cops ambushed in car
It’s amazing how defenseless you are sitting in a police car. I’m happy this doesn’t happen more. [update: seems like they got the guy]
Dorm Room Dealers
There’s a great new academic book out by A. Rafik Mohamed and Erik D. Fritsvold: Dorm Room Dealers: Drugs and the privileges of race and class. Too many books (my own included) treat drug crimes like it’s some black thing that whites wouldn’t understand unless some kind-hearted interpreters explain to “us” those strange things “they” do. Well it ain’t like…
A Tale of Two Cities
The Sun is starting a nice little feature where a reporter from London and Baltimore switch places.
Bratton and L.A.
Everywhere Bill Bratton goes, crime seems to go down. Since 2002, homicides in L.A. decreased by more than 50%. And yet so many professors are unwilling to accept that good policing has a major impact on crime. In the academic world, Bratton still seems to get little credit and respect. Why is that? Here’s an article by Scott Gold, Catherine…
‘Flying imams’ settlement
Seems to me a request for a not-needed seat-belt extension alone is grounds for suspicion. Here’s an account in USA Today.
Police Bribes in Mexico?
Strange question, but have any of you ever paid a bribe to a Mexican police officer in, say, the past 10 years? If so, when, where, why, and how much? There was an article in the New York Times the other day about Cancun police extorting people, in this case a Minnesota state senator. My wife, cookbook and travel writer…