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Author: Moskos

  • From the Brass

    From the Brass

    Colonel (Ret.) Margaret Patton is the highest ranking woman in the Baltimore City Police Department. Back in 2000, when I was a cop, she was in charge of the Northern District. I don’t think we ever met, but I knew her by reputation, and it was good.

    A few months ago, when I was having an exchange with retired police who refused to read my book on principle (apparently, for some, ignorance is not a problem but a principle). Out of the blue, Colonel Patton wrote to tell me what she thought. Let me tell you, I may be a slouched-over academic now, but when I get a letter from a colonel, I sit up straight and at attention, ma’am!

    But she put me at ease. She thought it was unfair for people–people she knew and respected–to criticize me for a book they wouldn’t read. She resolved to buy my book, read my book, and let me know what she thought. I already had respect for Colonel Patton as a police officer; I quickly gained respect for Maggie (as she insists I address her) as a person.

    Months passed. I thought perhaps she hasn’t written because she had nothing nice to say. A few days ago I sent her a note asking if she had finished my book and again asking for her thoughts. Here is her reply (reprinted with permission):

    Hi Peter,

    Yes, I certainly did finish your book and enjoyed it very much. I would have sent my “critique” back to you but I thought you were only being nice. I always consider it a privilege to be asked to comment on someone’s work. I pulled your book off my shelf and realized that I had even taken notes while reading it.

    Let me first say that I think that the book should be made mandatory reading for every recruit in the Balto. City Police Academy. I would love to be in the classroom listening to the conversations and debates sparked by your experiences. I believe that this dialogue would help to lessen the feelings that nothing of substance is taught or learned while in the academy. The command staff would certainly learn much by readingCop In The Hoodbecause command does forget a lot with each rank they achieve. Granted, they learn a lot with each experience of rank but much is forgotten.

    You mentioned that stats should be maintained for recovered drugs and not just for drug-related arrests. I couldn’t agree more and I’m sure that the Lab would have these stats but I have never seen them used for tactical purposes. It would give the city a better understanding of how prolific drugs are and it would help in providing necessary funding for treatment beds and enforcement.

    On pages 108 and 109 you discussed the problem with the dispatch of calls for service including foot patrol and rapid response. You are just so on the mark with these observations.

    I am so sorry that you didn’t have the opportunity to work for Major Lewandowski. He was way beyond everyone in his thinking. He took the “good police” out of their cars and put the inexperienced and lazy ones in the cars. This, of course, was met with resistance because everyone wanted a car. He would sit by the computer and re-assign calls for service putting some on hold because of more serious calls waiting. You can just imagine how the dispatchers felt about this. He ran into much resistance because the system was not set up for this type of strategy. His dream was for officers to be provided with real time crime information at roll call – now it can be done. You two would have made a fantastic team!
    […]
    If I had been your editor I would have liked to have seen you personalize your story more, maybe even bordering on an autobiography. … BUT, your book as written, is perfect for the academy.

    It would have been interesting to read about your parents and your upbringing. Why did you decide to become a sociologist and why did you decide to go to Harvard? Did your girlfriend think that she was getting involved with an academic and then you went off to become a police or did she think that she was getting involved with a police who then turned into an academic. How do your students react to you as a former police?

    You are interesting because of the decisions you made and it would be interesting to see how you were influenced along the way to make these decisions (as a child, young adult, student, police trainee, police and now professor). The book could be titledProfessor Outside The Hood.[…]
    If the present police commissioner was smart, he would bring you down to run the police academy although I am sure it would be a step down for you. Your insight into the drug world and law enforcement is outstanding and I hope that this is not the last book you write.
    […]
    Again, I enjoyed your book and I am so proud that you were a Baltimore Police Officer and a good one.

    Personally, I would love to hear conversation and debate in the police academy on any subject. But, alas, that’s not the role the academy plays.

    When I was there, I offered to lecture to my class during any of the many downtime hours that filled those 6 months. I thought why not? So much time was spend doing nothing. And I’ve lectured on crime and deviance at Harvard. If nothing else it would relieve myboredom. But nobody took me up on the offer.

    I could never figure out why so much time is spent “learning” how to write reports in a classroom when that kind of knowledge can be learned so quickly on the street.

    I think 911 and the police car are the two biggest obstacle to real positive change in any police department. I was talking about foot patrol in my class last week and one of the N.Y. police officers said, “It will never happen!” And this the day after a black man was elected president of the United States.

  • Massachusetts deals with decriminalized marijuana

    While the California prison guards helped defeat Prop. 5, stoners nationwide are lighting up splifs in celebration of their marijuana victories: Michigan became the first state in the Midwest to pass a medical marijuana measure. More significantly, Massachusetts passed a referendum decriminalizing possession of less than a ounce of marijuana. Possession will be a civil fine of $100. That’s good (though it won’t do anything to reduce drug-prohibition-related violence).

    Amazingly, despite the opposition of the governor, most politicians, and all of law enforcement, the referendum was supported by 65%of voters.

    Arlington Chief Frederick Ryan was stupid enough to admit that without crazy harsh penalties for marijuana, it will be harder to get people to work as police snitches. Why is Chief Ryan stupid? Because he just admitted something that is almost assuredly against his own department’s regulations and perhaps illegal and unconstitutional, to boot. You see, you can’t tell people to work undercover for the police and if they don’t, you’ll through them in jail. Of course that’s what happens all the time, but it’s not allowed.

    Everybody knows snitches work for the police to save their own hide and shouldn’t be trusted, but you’re not allowed to officially offer them a quid pro quo. In theory, and legally, all confidential informants work voluntarily because they want to do the right thing.

    Frank Pasquerello, a spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department, wondered whether officers will have to start carrying scales. Uh, Frank? No.

    Chelsea Chief Brian Kyes, more of a thinking man, wonders what this will mean for issues of probable cause. That’s a good question. I’d like to know the answer.

    Boston commissioner Edward F. Davis seems to have a good head on his shoulders. He said the law should not be harder to enforce than others on the books: “I’m disappointed that it went through… but I don’t think the sky is falling by any stretch of the imagination.”

    The whole story by David Abel of the Globeis here.

  • OBAMA!

    OBAMA!

    I won’t rub it in to all my Republican friends, but the real America has spoken (and just once, for the record, I did tell you so).

    While it may not be related to the Cubs, yet again, not winning the World Series, it does give me very good reason to fly the Cubs ‘W’ flag of victory from my front porch. Here’s to America and what is for very good reason, the envy of much of the world: a democratic and peaceful transition of power.

    And if you’re still feeling shitty (I remember how I felt 4 and 8 years ago), there’s always The Onion and this Onionstory,too.

  • Two Legs Good; Four wheels Bad

    As a cost saving move, more foot patrol in Boston. Reported in the Boston Globe.

  • Stop Lying

    Stop Lying

    Michael Mineo is lying. I’ve said it beforeand I’ll say it again. That’s what I think.

    So why is a grand jury being started on the case? Does that mean there is truth behind Mineo’s claim? No.

    Here’s what I think is the story. Michael Mineo won’t release his medical records because they don’t support his lies.

    The grand jury is a way to subpoena his medical recordsto show that the cops, good honest cops, did nothing wrong.

    Clever.

  • Prop. 5 and the Prison Guards’ Union

    Prop. 5 and the Prison Guards’ Union

    The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) is the union for prison guards. I’m all for unions for prison guards. They have a tough job, horrible working conditions (uh, prison), and I certain would not want their job.

    I believe their union should have a loud and robust voice on such things as pay, working conditions, health-care benefits, and retirement pension.

    But prison guards, or correctional officers, as the prefer to be called (even though they don’t do much correcting), should have novoice on sentencing policy. Think of it like the maker of electric chairs giving big bucks to politicians that support the pro-death.

    When it comes to locking people up, guess which side the union takes? They want more prisoners. For prison guards, prisoners are jobs. And the more prisoners the better. More prisoners means more guards and more union power to get more prisoners. Shame.

    In 1994, the CCPOA “strongly backed” (that’s their words) Prop 184, three strikes and you’re out.

    In 2004, the CCPOA strongly opposed Prop 66 which would have softened the state’s three-strikes law by restricting the second and third strikes to violent felonies. The proposition was narrowly defeated.

    Now they’re against California’s Prop 5. To be honest, the details of Prop 5 aren’t important. Not to the union. All that matters is whether or not the proposition would increase or decrease the number of prisoners. Prop 5 would divert people away from the prison system (related to non-violent drug offenders). That’s a good thing if you’re a tax payer or a human being. But it’s bad if you see the prison complex as one giant jobs program.

    When it comes to government jobs programs, I’d much prefer to actually build roads and bridges and parks, WPAstyle. But that, I suppose, is socialist.

  • I amuse you? I make you laugh, I’m here to f**kin’ amuse you?

    You know, for some reason I can’t figure out, I kind of like Al Sharpton. Not for what he does or stands for. Not for the lies he has said. I just like listening to him. He amuses me. Think of him running for President in 2004. He kept the debates interesting, that’s for sure. And I think he fills a predictable role that perhaps somebody should fill.

    That being said–and I can say it because I’ve never been the target of his libel–many people have told me over the years, “Sharpton doesn’t care about black-on-black crime.” Or, “Sharpton would never do this if that victim was white!”

    And it was true. Back in the days, he was only there for a white-on-black crime (or, in the Tawana case, non-crime). Then with Sean Bell he was there for a mixed-race-on-black crime. Now, sweet Jesus, he’s there for a (supposed) mixed-race-on-whitecrime.

    Who would have thunk it? I suppose that really is progress of sorts.

  • I have a dream today!

    I have a dream that one day a black man will rise to become the leader of this great nation and Al Sharpton will pray with a lying white man and say, “I don’t care if the cops were blacks and he was white or vice versa.”

    Free at last! Free at last!
    Thank God almighty, we are free at last!

  • Dirt bikes in Baltimore

    If you don’t live in Baltimore, it’s hard to understand just how big of a problem this is. If you do live in Baltimore, you may not realize that this problem doesn’t really exist anywhere else, at least not like it does in Baltimore.

    The bikes themselves weren’t illegal. But riding them is. It’s a strange Rite of Spring in Charm City.

    You may remember a story last year [update: the original story is lost, but in the follow up, the kid’s mom lost her lawsuit.] about Baltimore Police (in the Eastern District) locking up a 7-year-old black child for “sitting on a dirt bike.” Some had a field day talking about the “racist” policing and “zero-tolerance policing.”

    We’re not talking pedal bikes; we’re talking motorcycles and motorized 4-wheeled all terrain vehicles. And we’re talking packs of them, doing wheelies, zooming on streets, sidewalks, and through parks. They’re loud and dangerous. People have been killed. People whose cars have been hit have been beaten.

    What proceeded the kid’s detention was the kid’s mother calling 911 to say her son had been assaulted by police… after police had the nerve to stop the 7-year-old from driving an A.T.V. down the street. He wasn’t “riding,” says the mom; the motor was off. He was just “rolling down the street.” The kid was 7. On a motorized ATV that can start with a key. So the police do their job and take the kid off the bike.

    She wins the bad parenting award for 2007.

    So police go back and take the boy to the Eastern. What else can you do?

    We couldn’t do anything else illegal motor bikes about it because police aren’t allowed to pursue. If they crash, they die. And then the police and the city are in big trouble. And if you did catch a bike, the rider would run. If you took the bike, the owner would just come back and reclaim it. From the Baltimore Sun:

    A law took effect last month that allows police to seize any unlocked dirt bike – in an alley, driveway, front yard or street. A court can then order the bikes forfeited, and they are later destroyed. “The fact of the matter is that these dirt bikes drive people in neighborhoods nuts,” Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said. “We’re not talking about filling jails full of dirt biker offenders. We’ll seize the bike, and it is game over.” Stories of lawlessness jam e-mail inboxes of City Council members, who have struggled with the city’s dirt-bike problem for at least a decade. Councilman William H. Cole IV recalls finding a website purporting to organize city rides. He skims YouTube for video clips of Baltimore riders showing off. Councilwoman Belinda Conaway recalled a group repeatedly circling Lake Ashburton as if patrolling it. The level of lawlessness can escalate. In April, a 19-year old man was sentenced to a 45 year prison term, with 10 suspended, for firing at city police officers who were trying to stop him from riding his dirt bike in the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue.

    Read the whole story in the Sun.

    There’s a good chance this will work.

    [Update: It didn’t]

  • B.S.

    There’s a story in many New York City papers today about accusations that 5 members of the NYPD stuck something up a guy’s ass ala Louima. Google any NY paper for the details. I’d just like to go on record as saying, “Bullshit. It ain’t true.” Do I know? No. You’ll just have to trust me on this one. Complete B.S. It doesn’t ring true.