This may not be news to anybody who was old enough to read in 1975, but Joseph Wambaugh writes a good police story. I just finished reading The Choirboys, 38 years after it was written. It’s about a bunch of police in Los Angeles: “They were just policemen. Rather ordinary young guys, I thought” It the book “true”? I don’t…
Month: February 2011
WWJD? The death penalty and Jesus
Texas just executed its 466th murderer in the last three decades (not surprisingly, the guy being executed was black. Black murderers are much more likely to be executed than are white murderers.) But I’m not here to defend murderers. I’m not even really even against the death penalty. (As long as we can be certain the person is guilty… which…
Tow Me
So here’s the longer storyin the Sun. What I don’t get (there’s a lot I don’t get), is how could officers get a kick-back of $300 per car? The tow company would need to charge more than that. And the article says that approved towers are only charging $130-$140 dollars. When I needed to tow a car, it was pretty…
Collective Bargaining 101
I know it’s important, but I’m a bit clueless here. Can somebody explain to me just what collective bargaining means? Why is it important to unions? And what would happen if it were taken away?
600,000 (official) stops in NYC
Here’s the story in the Timesand in the Daily News. The difficulty is that any benefits and harms of aggressive stop and frisks are not only found in aggregate numbers but also in the individual incidents. Some of these stops are good. Some aren’t. So how do we tell the difference? How do we keep the good and get rid…
The old gun-check ruse…
A “dozen or more” B.P.D. arrested?! Peter Hermann of the Sunreports: a federal corruption probe that involves an improper relationship with a Baltimore towing company, sources said. … The officers were arrested today at the police academy after being called in under the guise that their firearms needed to be checked. … Multiple sources say the officers are mostly from…
The “Madison Method”
There might be some good lessons here. Too often we only look for lessons when things go wrong. It’s probably better to look for lessons when things go right. Here were tens of thousands of people protesting and counter-protesting… and it all happened without an arrest.
Police shooting deaths
This year, nationwide, 15 officers have been killed by gunfire (out of 30 total line-of-duty deaths). This puts us on pace to expect 105 officers to be shot and killed in 2011. Compare this with 59 firearms deaths in 2010, 47 in 2009, 40 in 2008, and 66 in 2007. Is this a trend? It’s not clear. Maybe 2009 and…
RIP Officer John Falcone
There’s a wake for Poughkeepsie Officer John Falcone today. The 18-year-veteran was killed last Friday. Lee Welch, 27, and his wife, Jessica Welch, 28, both of Catskill, have three children together and a history of domestic violence, Knapp said. They were in Poughkeepsie to exchange a vehicle when the shooting occurred. Falcone was a block-and-a-half away from the scene of…
Seattle Police Union to Cops: Lay Low
Seattle Timescolumnist Danny Westneat has a worrisome article in the paper: “You are paid to use your discretion and there are many ways to do police work. Recent events should show us that many in the city really don’t want aggressive officers who generate on-view incidents. They want officers who avoid controversy and simply respond when summoned by 911.” ……