Americans riot when their team wins. Canadians riot when they lose. There’s video of two police cars being torched in Vancouver. There was some pretty hard-core looting and dozens of injuries. But even their riots seem relatively polite. Apparently, nobody was shot. From the Vancouver Province: Just after 11 p.m., in the aftermath of violence, the street was a deserted…
I have an op-ed in the Washington Post: Suggest adding the whipping post to America’s system of criminal justice and most people recoil in horror. But offer a choice between five years in prison or 10 lashes and almost everybody picks the lash. What does that say about prison? Read the whole article here.
Neill Franklin was my commanding officer when I graduated from the police academy. Now we’re co-authors and friends. Here, on WBAL, he talks about ending the drug war. You can also read a good article about Neill Franklin in The Fix.
Josh Rothman writes in the Boston Globe: His book is, as promised, a well-reasoned defense of flogging. It’s also an attack upon the penal system. … It’s hard to say how serious Moskos is being (though my money is on “pretty serious”). Even if you aren’t convinced that flogging is the future, though, Moskos’ deeper argument is still compelling.
There’s a story about this in the New York Times. But what struck me was this: Today, even prison officials encourage death row inmates to draft appeals. “At times, we also help the person draft the petition,” said K.V. Reddy, president of the All-India Prison Officers Association, who opposes capital punishment. “Normally, everybody sympathizes with a person who has spent…
Macleans, the Canadian news magazine, has a great article and Q&A with me. There’s some very good new material here, even if you think you’re heard everything I have to say about In Defense of Flogging. What is it about the Canadians? Why are their articles smarter and more insightful than ours? And they are awfully nice people. I mean,…
…As soon as the Department of Justice is “ready to reconsider and address its continuing prosecution of our misguided, destructive and dehumanising drug prohibition.”
By journalist Mara Hvistendahl in the Chronicle of Higher Education: I turned to academic papers because I wanted to do more than throw back a fleeting image. But scholars are haunted by their own demons. I recently polled a few journalist friends, asking them how often they rely on academic research, and how useful and accessible they find that information.…
Officer Gahiji Tshamba was found guilty of manslaughter. From the Sun: “He drew his gun when it was not at all necessary,” [Circuit Judge Edward R.K.] Hargadon said in court, finding that Tshamba lied about the incident and never identified himself as an officer. “The defendant grossly overreacted and in fact exacerbated this whole tragic set of events.” Yet Hargadon…
Justin Fenton has a good article describing a killing and a revenge killing in Baltimore. It doesn’t provide the answers, but it does help clarify the picture as to why things are so damn F-ed up.