“El Chapo, Most-Wanted Drug Lord, Is Captured in Mexico.” “This is an absolutely huge get.” “Big strike.” “A landmark achievement, and a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States.” So don’t believe the headline, “Drug kingpin’s bust may have no effect.” Or the nay-sayers: “It’s bad news for Mazatlán. “He was keeping the peace.” We win!…
Month: February 2014
Baltimore, oh baby!
I was in Baltimore for a sociology conference. Sure, I ate 5 crab cakes at four locations in three days. (Let’s just settle this debate once and for all — ha! — Faidley’s is still the best, if you don’t let the army of junkies outside Lexington Market get you down. Plus what other place sells crabcakes, oysters, and frozen…
Civil trial in shooting of Jonathan Ayers begins
Remember Jonathan Ayers? Probably not. But you should. In 2009 he was an shot dead by police in what was one of the worst police-involved shooting in American history. Seriously. It didn’t become a national scandal. It wasn’t even big news. But there was so much wrong. So much police did wrong — tactically and morally — it’s hard to…
Flogging on Sunday Night Safran
This is the best radio show you’ve never heard of (unless you’re Australian, in which case it might just be the best radio show). Where else do you get a smart-alec Jewish boy from Melbourne and an (almost) 80-year-old Catholic priest shooting the shit? (pardon my language, Father Bob.) I was on it last week. I really love being on…
Too *few* stop, question, and frisks? Perhaps…
Bill Bratton was just quoted in the Post saying that the NYPD is conducting too few stop and frisks. Who would have thought that the shameful practice of mass stop, question, and frisk would ever end? Actually, I did (though I was two years too quick to predict its gradual demise). I knew there was internal pressure from up high…
Greek Americans correction
In the just published Greek Americans, I wrote that when multiple identities are listed and Greek is one of them, Greek is listed first “two-thirds of the time.” This is wrong. The actual number is 60 percent (which is still significant, but it’s not two-thirds). I regret the error.