[This relates to my previous post] Years ago, like when I was 13, I was with my father, driving from NYC to Chicago, on a baseball road trip (he drove). Between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, we spent one night in Johnstown, PA. (Remember the Johnstown Flood!). After watching the Johnston Jonnies play baseball, we had dinner in a local bar. My…
Month: September 2016
“We Need Help”
This picture of adults overdosing when a kid in their car has been making the rounds since police in East Liverpool, Ohio, posted it on facebook. The police department wrote: We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry, but it is time that the non-drug-using public sees what we…
NYPD: “Broken Windows Is Not Broken”
The NYPD released its response to the “quality-of-life policing is bad” report issued by the NYC Dept of Investigation. Guess what? Quality-of-life policing is good! (The original report, the one this responds to, is titled, and I’m not joking: “The New York City Department Of Investigation’s Office Of The Inspector General For The New York City Police Department Releases A…
“Cast-Out Police Officers Are Often Hired in Other Cities”
It’s unclear how big of a problem this is. But even that is part of the problem. The fact that it happens at all is horrible. You’d also think police departments, even the tiny ones (much less Cleveland), would be a bit more inclined to do a more thorough background check. Maybe pick up the phone or something. You’d also…
It Depends What Your Definition of “Rose” Is
What’s your definition of “rose”? Leaving aside the one that “would smell as sweet,” mine is “goes up.” I ask because the headlinein the New York Times says: “Murder Rates Rose in a Quarter of the Nation’s 100 Largest Cities.” When you say homicides “rose” in 25 of 100 cities, you might think it didn’t rise in 75 cities. Since…
“El Chapo and the Secret History of the Heroin Crisis”
Damn good (5,500 word) read in Esquire by Don Winslow: Okay, I’m going to say it: The heroin epidemic was caused by the legalization of marijuana. … Weed was a major profit center for [the Sinaloa Cartel], but suddenly they couldn’t compete against a superior American product that also had drastically lower transportation and security costs. In a single year,…
“Do Not Shoot Anyone”: Policing J’Ouvert and the West Indian Day Parade
Yes, the NYPD and others politely asked people to not shoot each other at J’Ouvert this year. The New York Postquotes a police source as saying, “I guess this is the de Blasio crime prevention program.” In Brooklyn, pre-lent pre-dawn J’Ouvert is followed by the massive (like one-million people massive) Caribbean Day Parade (which has also had a few unfortunate…
On Death Notifications: “I have terrible, terrible news.”
Consider how a single pull of the trigger impacts people — reporters, cops, EMS, nurses, doctors — who are strangers to the victim in the literal sense but are forced to have a visceral connection with the dead and those who survive them. 450 people have been shot and killed in Chicago in the first two-thirds of this year; 178…