Najee Thomas, the 14-year-old son of Ronnie Thomas, was shot and killedin Cherry Hill (south Baltimore). You may better know Ronnie Thomas as Skinny Suge, he who 10-years ago created the semi-famous/infamous “Stop Snitching” DVD and is now in federal prison. Now I know it’s not popular in liberal circles to allow people to talk about “culture” — at least…
Month: April 2014
Guns and Homicides
We all, er, know that guns don’t kill people (even though that is what they’re designed to do). But what I didn’t know was that guns really didn’t kill people until just a few decades ago. As recently as 1960, just 20 percent of NYC homicides involved a gun! That went up to 48 percent in 1970 and 69 percent…
Cliven Bundy and the Law
There is justifiable liberal outrage over Cliven Bundy’s land-rights claim, his refusal to recognize the federal government, and his kookie armed supporters who forced the government to back down. And by kookie, I mean men who say they’re going to use woman and children as human shields (in other contexts we blame terrorists for that). It is also indeed true…
Sorry, but…
From the Daily News: “Devastated mom to sue city, driver over Queens creek crash that killed four friends” I’m sorry for your loss, but my first thought upon hearing of this — actually my second thought since my first thought was “Where the hell is there a creek in Astoria you can drive a car into?!” – was not sympathy…
High Crime Neighborhood + Cops on Bikes = Less Crime
From the Chicago Tribune: The [Chicago] impact zones, established in February 2013 after a violent 2012, comprise just 3 percent of the city’s geographic area but account for one-fifth of its violent crime, according to the department. From the Sun Times: In March 2013, the department began assigning foot patrol offers to the high-crime areas. McCarthy said feedback from the…
On jaywalking and giving tickets and 84-year-old men: “If the ends of justice are not met…”
In a comment Kyle W was kind enough to get me going about the situation in which a Manhattan resident Kang Chun Wong suffered injuries after an officer attempted to give him a jaywalking ticket and Mr. Wong seems to have tried to walk away. Mr. Wong is 84. I wasn’t there, so it’s hard for me to talk about…
The Real Peel
One of the reasons I like NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton is that he is prone to quoting Robert Peel, the man who invented police as we know them back in 1829 London. Bratton has reprinted “Peel’s” principles online. Those nine principles are an excellent philosophical base for policing, they’re just not Robert Peel’s. And now the New York Times —…
Common Sense from the NYPD (X2!)
I love any memothat instructs police officers to “use discretion and common sense” and the arrest “as a last resort.” This is the type of common sense one would expect from Bratton because jaywalking in NYC is not a “broken window.” It’s actually quite poetic. Whoever wrote this should be promoted to editor of Spring-3100! The second bit of common…
Laments of the Qualitative Researcher
I don’t apply for many grants, in part because they’re so hard for a qualitative researcher to get. Ethnographic work and qualitative research isn’t taken seriously in a generally quantitative field. My research doesn’t follow the standard “theory, hypothesis, experiment, verify” model of hard science. Nor should it. But it’s hard to get grants or get published in Criminology if…
Is the sky falling?
Not yet. But the sky did get a little lower in NYC last month. Over the 28-day period ending 4/6/14, compared to 2013, the number of people shot increased 40 percent (101 vs 72). The increases were found, not surprisingly, in the Bronx (27 vs 18), Brooklyn North (28 vs 17) and Queens South (12 vs 6). Cause for alarm?…