Police

We’re Going to Rock Down to, Electric Avenue…

…And then we’ll take it higher. I was in Brixton, London, today and stumbled across… Electric Avenue. There’s a market there. I had no idea Electric Avenue was a real place. Nor that the song was even “set” in London. As a fan of 80’s hip hop, I felt the same way I felt in my early days in New…

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The Principles That Never Were

It turns out the Peel’s famous “Principles of Policing” are a fraud. I kind of always suspected that… but not so much that I didn’t quote them at length in the afterward to the paperback edition of Cop in the Hood. I should have known better because Susan Lentz and Robert Chaires had already published an article stating as much…

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Bon Voyage!

It’s September 5th, 2011. Today happens to be my 40th birthday. But unrelated, my wife will soon be boarding the Queen Mary 2 in Brooklyn for an Atlantic Ocean crossing. We are packing our steamer trunks and hat boxes. Here’s our view and where we are. I just learned that when my mother came to America in 1958, she was…

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Sneak-and-Peek

There’s an interesting chart in New York Magazine that shows what the Patriot Act is used for. Delayed-notice search warrants issued under the expanded powers of the Patriot Act, 2006–2009: For drugs: 1,618 For fraud: 122 For Terrorism: 15

Police

Irene Crime

One last bit on crime in New York City during Irene: There were about 30 arrests citywide for crimes committed between midnight and 7:30 a.m. during a police tour of duty that roughly matched the duration of the storm’s approach and arrival. (An earlier estimate of 45 arrests — described by the mayor as proving the inherent goodness of New…

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Baltimore City’s curfew center

To round up wandering kids in an effort to combat mobs of roving teens. From the Sun: Baltimore’s curfew center began four years ago — a collaborative effort among police, the school system and social services — to get kids off the street and away from potential harm. Their work has taken on a new urgency as other cities grapple…

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Remember Dudas?

Jamaican Kingpin pleads guilty in New York. I’m surprised he lived to see the day.