Somebody got it all figured out:
Month: March 2016
Legalize It All
Dan Baum has written a bunch of good books about a variety of subjects, and I’ve mentioned him many times on this blog (search for his name, if you want). I first met Dan and his wife, Margaret, in New Orleans in 2007. The title of my book, “In Defense of Flogging,” was coined the night I met them, at…
Good news: Baltimore Homicides in 2016 only up a little…
Baltimore homicides, year to date, are only up a bit compared to last year. Through March 24th, 50 this year compared to 47 in 2015. Rarely is more murder good news. But it’s certainly an improvement from last year, post riot. From May through December 2015, there were 269 murders in 244 days. So 50 murders in 84 days in…
A Toddlin’ Town
From AP: In all, Chicago has paid a staggering sum — about $662 million — on police misconduct since 2004, including judgments, settlements and outside legal fees, according to city records. The payouts, for everything from petty harassment to police torture, have brought more financial misery to a city already drowning in billions of dollars of pension debt. … The…
Taser Use
Great story in the Baltimore Sun about taser use: • Nearly 60 percent of those hit by Tasers in Maryland were described by police as “non-compliant and non-threatening,” according to data from 2012 when the state began collecting data through 2014. • In one out of every 10 incidents, police discharged the weapon for longer than 15 seconds — a…
125 Overdose Deaths a Day
It makes homicide — which kills “just” 40 Americans a day — look positively benign. 47,000 Americas died from drug overdose in 2014. That’s a shocking figure. 47,000 is the number of US soldiers who died in Vietnam combat. And that was over 20 years. Heroin deaths have shot up since 2010: From the Times: The death rate from drug…
RIP Detective Colson
“The shot that struck and killed Detective Colson was deliberately aimed at him by another police officer,” Stawinski said. “It’s another tragic dimension to this unfolding story.” Ouch. A black cop in civilian clothes being killed by other cop? This is not exactly frequent… but it is all too regular. In 170 years of US policing, you know how many…
Broken Windows case study
Here’s how Broken Windows works in real life. A “subway swiper” — a minor crime — causes disorder, and then swiper gets into a fight and is murdered. Herbert Burgess, the Metrocard swiper — “58 prior arrests and sent to prison in 1993 for 18 years after confessing to fatally strangling his roommate” — was stabbed and killed: Neighborhood residents…
Beware of the Risen People
The ATF released a version of this photo taken during the April 27 riots. The guy (“repeatedly captured in photographs and other images on the day of the rioting”) was later identified as Donta Betts: He confessed to creating the explosion to ward off the cops “so people could finish … stealing whatever they was going to steal.” “I figured…
“Not on my post, you don’t”
Thinking about lobbies and public housing and policing…. Take the Jackie Robinson Homes, “an 8-story building with 189 apartments housing some 440 residents.” Last year there was an issue with kids raising hell. Residents were scared. So lets say there are 600 people living there in the Jackie Robinson Home (since many live off lease). Put a cop there. What…