Last week I reported that marijuana arrests in New York City cost the city $75 million per year. In truth, that’s a pretty conservative estimate. One thing left out is the cost of actually testing the drugs people are arrested for. Now if somebody takes a quick plea, the drugs may never be tested. But with 50,000 marijuana arrests, there…
Category: Police
Eastern District Officer Shot
On Harford road by armed guy on a bike. The suspect was also shot. The story in the Sun.
Movies: Adjustment Bureau & Precious
Not that you asked (you didn’t), but here’s what I thought of two movies I just saw: “Adjustment Bureau.” Good stuff. I liked it. Cool. Great concept. Good New York movie. But really I’m here to tell you about the other one: “Precious.” What? “Precious”? Isn’t that so 2009? Yes, but I didn’t see it till 2011. Why? Because every…
Broken Windows (or booze bottles)
This type of crime bothers me far more than it should. Known (at least to the cognoscente) as the “Broken Bottle Scam,” some S.O.B. bumps into somebody (usually a tourist), drops a bottle of booze, and confrontationally demands $40 for a replacement. That’s old-school New York and it’s wrong. Crap like that preys on the weak, makes people afraid of…
Camden brings back some police, firefighters
The AP story.
“Retiree who yelled ‘Gun’ has ‘annoying habit’ of visiting crime scenes”
“He listens to scanners and races to locations where police are called, a source told the New York Post.”
The DEA and the Death Penalty
Good ol’ Radley has the most interesting take I’ve read. The subject is the DEA seizing death-penalty drugs in Georgia because they were… bought illegally from a foreign country.
“My name is Frunk-en-steen”
That’s a “Young Frankenstein” reference, for all you kids out there. That’s from back in the days when Mel Brooks was funny. Or at least funny to a seven-year-old. I watched that from the family Datsun with my dad and brother at the old Sunset Drive-Inon McCormick Blvd in Skokie, ILL. Man, I sound like I’m getting old… Maybe I…
NYC Marijuana Arrests Cost City $75 mil
So reports the Daily Newsabout a new reportby the Drug Policy Alliance. In response, Commissioner Kelly says if you don’t like, call your state senator. Of course, that’s a bit disingenuous because the law is already pretty clear: small-scale possession of marijuana in New York State is not an arrestable offense. The problem is how the NYPD enforces a violation…
Mistaken-Identity Police Shootings in Black and White
The death of a Nassau County police officer got me thinking about cases of police officers shot by other cops. There’s the belief out there that black officers are much more at risk of being mistaken for suspects than are white officers. It’s also been said (by me?) that such accidental mistaken-identity shootings almost never happen to white officers. Officer…