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Category: Police

  • Wouldn’t it be great…

    If we were all rich enough to have our own private police force that did whatever we want?

    Police have better things to do that act as private security for rich corporations. I wonder how much Coach and Rolex (and other big-name products) have to “donate” to New York’s elected officials and police leaders to get them to care about such a pressing matter? If Coach doesn’t like people selling knock-off bags, let themhire private security.

    It reminds me of the days when the rich industrialist might “borrow” a few police officers to bust the heads of striking workers. For non-violent crimes, stores need to pay for private security (who, back in the days, were pretty good themselves at busting heads).

    I can’t for the life of me figure out why municipal tax-payer funded police waste any of their resources cracking down on copyright infringement. This all comes to mind because of the particular absurdity and stupidity of arresting a store worker at a legitimate store for selling paper replicas of luxury goods! Chinese funeral offerings.

    From the Times:

    A man in street clothes entered the store and seemed particularly interested in the handbags and loafers, obviously cardboard, that have print designs that vaguely resemble Louis Vuitton’s and Gucci’s.

    “He asked me, ‘How much is this?’ ” recalled Mr. Mak, pointing to a handbag on display. “I said $20, and he pulled out his badge and said, ‘Are you selling this to me?’ And then he arrested me.”

    He was held overnight in a local precinct house.
    …
    He was charged with two counts of copyright infringement in the third degree. Jonathan L. Stonbely, a lawyer from Legal Aid assigned to Mr. Mak, said that he was prepared to defend his client against the charges and that he had rejected an offer from prosecutors to allow Mr. Mak to plead guilty to disorderly conduct and pay a $100 fine.

    Whatever it costs to get this kind of police service, I bet it’s more than I’ll ever make.

  • Life without Internet

    My modem got fried by lighting during an amazing storm Friday night (deep down, I really didn’t think this kind of thing could happen). Until a new modem arrives… life is very strange and definitely unsettled.

    It’s shocking how much of my day is internet related… from the obvious like email to the less obvious like blog posts and listening to Cubs’ game and reading out-of-town papers. Now just what do I doall day?

    Time to wind up the Victrola, I suppose, and listen to some tunes.

  • RIP Officer Henwood

    RIP Officer Henwood

    Oh, jeeze, I wish it didn’t have to end this way.

    San Diego Police Officer Jeremy Henwood’s last act before being ambushed and killed by a suicidal gunman was to buy a 13-year-old boy cookies.

    For real.

  • Flash Mob Taos style, 1884

    From the New York Times:

    “The Feast of San Jeronimo: How it is observed by the Indians of Taos (from the Denver Tribune)

    After the racing was over a gang of reckless fellows strolled around the plaza with apparently perfect license to do as they pleased. They walked along paying, seemingly, no attention to the hucksters who exhibited their wares upon the plaza, but suddenly they would turn upon some unfortunate huckster, and a few moments utterly waste and upset his entire store. This was the signal for a general desertion of the plaza by the hucksters, so far as they could do so without first being caught.

    The whole story is worth a read. Poor sheep.

  • A little history of the courts and the plea bargain

    From the NYT:

    Conventional histories cite the mid-1700s as the turning point in the development of the modern adversarial system of justice in England and Colonial America, with defense lawyers and prosecutors facing off in court, Mr. Hitchcock and Mr. Turkel said. Their analysis tells a different story, however.

    “Mapping all trials suggests that the real moment of evolution was in the first half of the 19th century,” with the advent of plea bargains that resulted in many more convictions, Mr. Hitchcock said. “The defendant’s experience of the criminal justice system changed radically. You were much more likely to be found guilty.”
    …
    [In the late 1700s] prison began to be used as an alternative to exile or capital punishment…. As Mr. Hitchcock said, “It’s hard to have plea bargaining when all they are going to do is hang you.”

  • You know you’ve jumped the shark…

    You know you’ve jumped the shark…

    …when you post pictures of a slug. But I don’t have a dog.



    I found this little guy in my backyard trying to molest a grape. His two eyes stick out a lot further when I’m not trying to take a picture from inches away. Did you know this kind of slugcan live 3 years, has a breathing hole, and mates while dangling from a thick stream of mucus? Me neither! He’s about 4 inches long and would probably much rather be eating on my neighbor’s fig tree or grape vines.

    I think I’ll name him Slithers.

    Here he is, not at his longest:

  • Flash Mob steals from 7-11

    In Germantown, Montgomery County, Maryland.

    Anybody got any ideas how to prevent this?

    Is it possible to lock everybody insidethe store? Certainly if catch one of the kids, it would be pretty easy to get them to snitch. But then what? It would take a lot of police work simply to bring shoplifing charges against a lot of kids.

  • Sticks and Stones…

    Hey Republicans… you know why “treason” matters more than other insults? Because the Constitution mentions treason seven times, you want every idiot to be able to carry a gun, and treason is usually punishable by execution. But what do I know? I’m just another “lib”.

    I wonder what Karl Rove would say? Oh… I guess Karl is getting soft. Uh, no, he’s not. When Karl Rove is considered left wing, it’s a sign of the coming apocalypse. God help us!

    Speaking of God, I’d fully support Texas secession. And I hope they take Arizona with them. And then pray. I’m sure that’s what your intolerant old-testament hate-filled Jesus would do. Right after pissing on all those illegal immigrants not raping your daughters.

    [I know those last two lines don’t make sense. That’s my point. But when I’m in doubt, I just think: WWYIOTHFJD.]

  • We [heart] Syria

    We [heart] Syria

    Here are some thoughts on Syria. Actually they’re my wife’s thoughts, but I second them.

    I’ve never traveled in any country where the people have been as nice, hospitable, and honest as the average Syrian (and also not pushy or sleazy). It’s also perhaps the cleanest country I’ve been in (I’ve never been to Japan). The food is delicious… as is the Arak.

    So I’d like to add some of my pics to my wife’s collection of “nice Syrians we’ve come across.” Though it’s not mentioned, the picof us with the bike store man… after he shared his delicious lunch with us, he then offered us a free bike for our first-born child — “blue for a boy, pink for a girl.” I’m pretty sure he was serious… even though we have no plans on testing his generosity by having a kid. And it’s a shame we don’t have a picture of Mr. Coco, the sweet and misty-eyed Armenian tailor-extraordinaire in Aleppo. But I still have the shirt he made for me. Quality work.

    The drink vendor below, the well dressed kid on the right, was very professional. After serving us, he politely inquired, “Do you have tamarind in America?” We told him no so much, but it is very popular with Mexicans (tamarind is also why your Thai pad thai tastes so good). Then he refused to accept our money when we tried to pay. That actually happened to us a lot.





    That last picture is from the roof of our hotel in Latakia (we slept up there one pleasant night when the hotel was full). You can see the city’s harbor from which ships have been assaulting parts of the city.

  • Homicide: Toronto vs. Chicago

    I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth a second telling. Besides, how many of you read footnote #14 to the Epilogue of Cop in the Hood?

    Chicago and Toronto are similar sized cities. Chicago is having a record low number of murders; Toronto is having a record high number of murders. Chicago is patting itself on the back; Toronto is in crisis mode. And the numbers:

    Chicago: 450 murders a year.

    Toronto: 60 murders a year.

    Here’s The Crime Report’s summary and the full report from Chicago’s WBEZ.

    And if you think Canada is some homogenous lily-white country, I’d like to point out–because once again it shows that immigrants do not equal crime–that Toronto is half the residents are half foreign-born. Bet you didn’t know that. That has got to be the highest percentage in the world for any big city. And I would also guess that New York City, with about 30% of residents being from another country, is number two.