I like this model, which isn’t that rare in much of the world: “Where Prisoners Can Do Anything, Except Leave.”
Why not? It’s cheaper. And more humane.
Category: Police
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“As limp as it is dubious”
So says the Washington Times about my defense of flogging. Though I’d say overall it’s neutral (to mildly negative).
The reviewer seems upset that the book is actually more about prison than flogging (but of course, that’s the point) and also that I didn’t convince her that flogging is the answer. Oh well.
Here’s the full quote:
“Flogging” is intriguing, even in – or because of – its shocking premise. As a case against prisons, Mr. Moskos’ is airtight; as for the case for flogging, it’s as limp as it is dubious.
Not so positive. A bit critical. But fair enough. It’s not a bad review and certainly could be worse. And, as they say about publicity, at least they spelled my name right!
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“How do you know it’s mine?”
This must have been one of the easiest suspect-IDs in world history: Bangladeshi woman cuts off rapist’s penis and gives it to police.
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Tasers safe on people who won’t be tased
An NIJ report says Tasers are fine when used on “healthy, normal, nonstressed, nonintoxicated persons.” Okaaaay…
[Thanks to The Agitator]
[Update: I just read the report. It is quite an unambiguous green-light for Taser use: “Law enforcement need not refrain from using CEDs to place uncooperative or combative subjects in custody.” It’s that “uncooperative” part I do not like. The report concludes: “CED use is associated with a significantly lower risk of injury than physical force, so it should be considered as an alternative in situations that would otherwise result in the application of physical force.” But what about when the alternative is verbal persuasion? And isn’t somerisk of increased physical injury justified if it saves a life? An approximately 1 in 400 chance of serious injury or death are not odds I would want to play.
Here’s the latest one. And Electronic Village keeps a pretty good list of Taser deaths. Or, should I say, people whose time happened to come coincidentally just a few moments after they happen to be Tasered.
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I’ll smoke to that
I just got this gem of a line from a police officer who just turned in his retirement papers: “This job is like cigarettes–hazardous to your health, addictive, and occasionally strangely satisfying.”
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Prison for life, as a free man
I received an email yesterday from Lorne Caplan, who gave me permission to republish it with attribution. I’ve edited it slightly:
As a former investment banker and having recently been freed from prison in 2007, I have to agree with much of what you said today. Most importantly, it is the culture of eternal punishment that has developed in this country.
My own situation suggest you are absolutely right to try to avoid prison, since once you have a felony on your record, it is like being branded for life. My own prospects for work have been essentially taken away by what I did and what the system continues to do, as Google can’t seem to lower the references to my incarceration and conviction, and any company with an HR department won’t even consider me.
As for qualifications, that is also funny, since I have been published in trade and consumer magazines, have the Masters, etc. It doesn’t matter. It only makes me overqualified.
I am curious if you have run across organizations for white collar criminals that have found no support and a complete taking away of family (my children haven’t had food on occasion because I can’t find work, UPS won’t hire me, McDonald’s and so many others), friends, work prospects etc…. Yes, there should be consequences to peoples actions, but a lifetime of no prospects hurting family, children, etc? I don’t think that is what the US population really would want.
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I was first interrogated as a witness in 2002 and after 21 or so meetings with the FBI, a wire tap, and the usual threats to family, I heard nothing for 3 1/2 years, until one day they showed up at my ex-wife’s door looking for me. The perp walk ensued, lawyers and their expensive (useless) defense, the pleading, sentencing, etc. And all the while, no work, income, devastation to the family, etc. I got out to no prospects, the joke of half-way house, and programs that are menial and insulting. All to say, almost 10 years into this and I am still suffering from the decisions and consequences. I don’t believe those in industry understand that it isn’t just a couple of years and some time playing tennis at a minimum security prison in the US. Your life will be destroyed, completely. -
Probation for Baltimore Officers
These were the two officers who stranded two 15-year-olds far from their home. They were not the first officers to do this. They may be the last. (My earlier post.)
From the Sun:
[Judge] Doory said the fact that Johnson was left in Howard County without shoes “stood like a monument” in the middle of the case and remained inadequately explained. “What I don’t understand is the ‘why,’” Doory said. “I can only conclude that this was done for fun … or as homage to the legends of the good old boys, or was a convoluted attempt to teach someone respect.”
Or perhaps all three.
While I admit this activity is awfully hard to defend, I’m still not convinced it’s always wrong. Especially given the alternative of arrest, CBIF, going through the system, and a criminal record.
Like the espantoon, shooting at fleeing felons, drinking at the American Brewery, and “keying” up your radio, this venerable Baltimore police tradition is probably history.
Despite the judicial slap on the wrist, the officers still risk being fired. I say cut them some slack. If the powers that be don’t want this to happen anymore, bang down hard if there’s a next time.
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Then and Now: NYC
New York City is certainly not immune to destructive urban “progress.”
Here’s a shot from Shorpy of Cortland Street from 1908.
Here’s the view today:
But what’s really interesting is what happens when you turn around. Back then, it would have looked much like the picture above. You were in the heart of what was known as “radio row.” But they tore down that area for… The World Trade Center. Here’s the view today (or really about a year ago):
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A black man catching a cab in New York
The other day I saw a young black man on the corner of 32nd Street and 6th Avenue with his arm up, trying to hail a cab. He wasn’t particularly well dressed, but he didn’t look like a hoodlum (the same could have been said of me). “How many empty cabs are going to pass him by before one stops?” I wondered.
The answer: three.
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Poverty doesn’t equal crime
James Q. Wilson writes some good stuff on crime in the Wall Street Journal. But this worries me:
Culture creates a problem for social scientists like me, however. We do not know how to study it in a way that produces hard numbers and testable theories. Culture is the realm of novelists and biographers, not of data-driven social scientists. But we can take some comfort, perhaps, in reflecting that identifying the likely causes of the crime decline is even more important than precisely measuring it.
Culture doesn’t create a problem for social scientists like me. If social scientists can’t deal with culture, who can? It’s time for sociologists to step up to the plate. And it’s time to take qualitative methods more seriously.