So what do you want cops to do about this? From the Chicago Sun-Times. The 3700 block of W. Grenshaw. 3711 W. Grenshaw, to be exact, according to my google streetview snooping skills. It’s not even a horrible looking block, to be honest. I mean, it’s not the best looking block. But there are a bunch of well-kept homes. It’s…
From Cop in the Hood: Because of these problems and the “victimless” nature of drug crimes, most drug arrests are at the initiative of police officers. On one occasion, while driving slowly through a busy drug market early one morning, I saw dozens of African American addicts milling about while a smaller group of young men and boys were waiting…
They weren’t good then. They’re not good now. From Cop in the Hood: While the police see good communication between the public and the police as essential to fighting crime, relations are quite poor. This shouldn’t be surprising. Drug users are criminal. If they want to stay out of jail, they and those who care for them have every reason…
From Cop in the Hood: In cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, gangs control the drug dealing. Because of that, some assume that drug violence is intrinsically linked to gangs. But East Coast cities have a different history. Large-scale gangs, such as the Bloods and Crips, are growing but still comparatively small. Gangs in Baltimore tend to be smaller and…
Too many people are getting killed! From Cop in the Hood: Still the risk of death is astoundingly high. For some of those “in the game,” the risk of death may be as high as 7 percent annually. Each year in Baltimore’s Eastern District approximately one in every 160 men aged fifteen to thirty- four is murdered. At this rate,…
When I hear people, Commissioner Batts including, talk about the horrible institutional problem of Baltimore police corruption, I know they have never spent any time working on the streets of Baltimore. Batts certainly hasn’t. He’s the chief. He’s separated by five thick layers of chain of command from the rank-and-file. And he didn’t work his way up through that chain…
I hear a lot of people with very strong opinions try and tell me and others about a place they’ve never been and a job they’ve never worked. I wrote about police the drug corner, places like where Freddie Gray was arrested and died in police custody. The next few posts will be exerts from the chapter in Cop in…
Batts doubles down against the rank and file. I’m not quite certain whom Batts is trying to win over with his op-ed in the Sun. It seems like maybe he should have thought twice before pressing the send button. The first half of Batts’ article is spent recounting how bad the police department used to be, before Batts showed up…
This is one of the few things that really stuck with me from my grad-school days. A simple mathematical analysis of racism in America. It was in a class with Professor Orlando Patterson. I think of this math when people say we should be post-racial. Or say that we need to condemn anti-white racists as strongly as we do anti-black…
A few times, if I was working late enough or some church started extra early enough, I would go to church to say hello. Personally I’m a non-believing Greek Orthodox. But there’s something about a good black church that can’t be matched. Some Sunday mornings I would just sit outside, just to provide a little security. (And also to enjoy…