One of my life’s great regrets is that I can’t for the life of me imitate the Baltimore accent. And I love the Baltimore accent. Well, I’m not the only one who has trouble with those sounds that go from DC to Philly. This is actually about the Philly accent, but a lot of it applies to Baltimore, too. Plus,…
Month: April 2014
RIP Officer Dennis Guerra
From the NYT:
Life in Federal Minimum-Security Prison… Free Kariakou!
Not too long ago I sent my Greek Americans book to John Kiriakou. He’s a proud Greek American and about as close to a political prisoners as we have. In his own words: I’m one of the people the Obama administration charged with criminal espionage, one of those whose lives were torn apart by being accused, essentially, of betraying his…
(Former) Narc in Vice
Neill Franklin, once my commanding officer and now my friend (and coauthor) featured in Vice Magazine. I love Vice Magazine. And just because I’ve also been featured in it.
The non-coming of the super-predictor
A nice New York Times video piece about the coming of the “superpredators” who never came. File under C for crack babies? From the Times: What happened with the superpredator jeremiads is that they proved to be nonsense. They were based on a notion that there would be hordes upon hordes of depraved teenagers resorting to unspeakable brutality, not tethered…
Crime in NYC is going to go up, unless it doesn’t
I’ve never heard such uniformity in belief from police officers that crime is going to go up in New York City. Why with stop, question, and frisks down and a liberal mayor in charge, it’s almost like they want crime to go up just so they can say, “we told you so” and reminisce about the good ol’ days of…
Ghetto Culture, Hockey Fights, or Stuff White People Like
This may be the best argument for a residency requirement I’ve ever seen. You know what “ghetto” is? When two groups who are oh-so similar — really with everything in common, objectively, and perhaps a bit misunderstood by society — forgot their brotherhood and trade blows with each other because of some perceived slight. Or maybe it’s just in “their”…
The black-market pot trade in Colorado
One would expect to see illegal weed sales diminish in states with legalized marijuana. It hasn’t happened overnight. But I suspect it will. From USA Today.
Bratton says morale was low in the NYPD under Kelly…
…And Bratton is right. Should be the end of the story, despite what you’ll read in the Postand the Daily News. More interesting is what is buried in the Daily News story: Police made 12,495 stops between October and December — down a staggering 86% from 89,620 during the same time period in 2012. And of the stops during the…
Guarding the “Pumpkin Festival and other dangerous situations”
The Economist’s takeon the militarization of police. Or, why does Keene, New Hampshire, need a $286,000 armored personnel-carrier?