Cool maps! And interesting data presentation that shows the detailed racial and ethnic make-up of various cities broken down by very small units.
Category: Police
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Stealing bricks right off off the buiding
Sounds like a headline you might expect to hear out of Baltimore.
But it isn’t! This story is out of St. Louis.
(Though I’m a bit ashamed to mention that the only reason this probably isn’ta problem in Baltimore is because Baltimore brick isn’t particularly good. Hence Formstoneand painted brick. Baltimore brick is pretty enough, but kinda soft and easy to tunnel through, as many a burglar knows. Speaking of which, are they still stealing lampposts in Baltimore or has that somehow stopped?)
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A Slow Work Day at the FBI
The FBI has slow work days? I kind of hoped they were pretty busy. But I guess we all have slow work days. But when I have a slow work day I like to listen to a Cubs game or write blog posts or play pinball.
But when the FBI has a slow work day… well the the Justice Department’s inspector general has released a pretty damning report about FBI work on domestic terrorist organizations. Specifically a 2002 rally in Pittsburgh sponsored by a nonviolent anti-war group was “An ill-conceived project on a slow work day.”
Did it really start with two agents, feet up in the office?
“What do you want to do today, Marty?”
“I don’t care. What do you want to do?”
[Kudos to anybody that can tell me where that line is from. I don’t know and get this: can’t find it on google! It’s probably a movie from the 1950s as I learned it from my dad. Update: I figured it out. It’s from the movie Marty. Google wins again.]
“We could keep an eye out on the war-protesters. They’re probably up to no good.”
The New York Timesreports:
The IG also concluded that the factual basis for opening some investigations was factually weak and that in several instances there was little indication of any possible federal crime, as opposed to state crimes.
…
Regarding the Pittsburgh rally, controversy erupted in 2006 over whether the FBI had spied on protesters at the event several years earlier because of their anti-war views.At the time, the FBI issued a news release saying the surveillance had been based on an ongoing investigation.
FBI Director Robert Mueller told a Senate hearing that the bureau had been trying to identify a particular individual believed to be in attendance.
Turns out that was not true.
Why does this matter? Well the Timespoints out that, “Domestic terrorism classification has far-reaching impact because people who are subjects of such investigations are normally placed on watchlists and their travels and interactions with law enforcement may be tracked.”
My issue is more primal. Every time I hear that anti-war protesters and pacifists are considered a national-security American threat, I reach for my gun. Especially given the FBI’s has a long and shameful track record of investigating “subversives.” Certainly that was the case under J Edgar Hoover. But we’ve moved on, haven’t we?
And I also have a much more basic complaint. The FBI, part of the Executive Branch, is not a police force (no matter how much they act like one on TV). The line between local police and federal law enforcement can at times seem like very fine line indeed. But it’s an important distinction to keep. For starters it’s a constitutional issue. But it’s also important because local police can be held accountable to local (and state and federal) politicians. And because law enforcement is supposed to be work for us and not become a domestic spying organization.
Truthfully, I don’t mind the FBI investigating subversives. What I mind how this category is defined. Why do liberals and pacifist seem to get a lot of attention? I mean, you may not agree with them, but pacifists are, well, pacifist. And it just so happens that these anti-war folk (myself included, though I’m not much of a protester) happened to have been right. Maybe the FBI should spend more time investigating those who want to get us into these wars.
[Since I’ve been around, off the top of my head I can think of US troops occupying, bombing, or invading Kuwait, Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Serbia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Lebanon (I’m sure I’m forgetting one or two). Did any good come from anyof these? Maybe. But it’s damn hard to make an argument that good has come from all of these collectively.]
Does that make me suspicious? Maybe. I guess it makes me a liberal. And I suppose the FBI, like most law enforcement, is basically conservative and suspicious of liberals.
[I just thought of this one: You know you’re a liberal when… the thought of Michael Moore as president scares you less than Sarah Palin.]
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East St. Louis lay off police.
Fifteen percent of the department. The St. Louis Post Dispatchreports on a raucous city council meeting at which:
East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks announced that the city will layoff 37 employees, including 19 of its 62 police officers, 11 firefighters, four public works employees, and three administrators. The layoffs take effect on Sunday.
For budget reasons.
[Update: This is bit outdated. See comments.]
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Missouri Tells Judges Cost of Sentences
Fascinating. And I think a great idea. Cost is irrelevant only to those who don’t pay.
From the New York Times:
But critics — prosecutors especially — dismiss the idea as unseemly. They say that the cost of punishment is an irrelevant consideration when deciding a criminal’s fate and that there is a risk of overlooking the larger social costs of crime.
“Justice isn’t subject to a mathematical formula,” said Robert P. McCulloch, the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County.
That’s laughable coming from a prosecutor who cuts plea bargains all day.
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Back when the job was fun
“Washington policeman Bill Norton measuring the distance between knee and suit at the Tidal Basin bathing beach after Col. Sherrill, Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, issued an order that suits not be over six inches above the knee.” June 30, 1922.
From Shorpy.
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Five myths about prostitution
So says Sudhir Venkatesh in an interesting articlein the Washington Post.
Here are the myths:
1. Prostitution is an alleyway business.
2. Men visit sex workers for sex.
3. Most prostitutes are addicted to drugs or were abused as children.
4. Prostitutes and police are enemies.
5. Closing Craigslist’s “adult services” section will significantly affect the sex trade.
Read the whole article here.
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A little excitment on 324 Post
Justin Fenton and Peter Hermann report:
So many police officers are at Hopkins at this hour that the department had to call in officers from other districts and detective units to help answer other 911 calls in the Eastern District. One plainclothes officer reported being out in his personal car, and he warned his dispatcher he was patrolling “with no lights, no sirens, no nothing.”
Needless to say, usually shootings in the Eastern don’t get such a massive response.
Update:I just heard on the radio that the gunman was shot and killed (apparently self-inflicted). Hopefully Baker Shift will get home on time!
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Bernstein defeats Jessamy!
Jessamy may finally be on the way out as Baltimore City State’s Attorney. And good riddance to her!
If these results hold, it’s good news for police and good new for Baltimore. Do I know anything about Berstein? No. Nothing than the fact he’s not Jessamy, who has been at the post since 1995. And while it wouldn’t be fair to blame Jessamy for Baltimore’s crime, she has, to put it mildly, never done much to help police. A sign of that was Police Commissioner Bealefeld’s public endorsement of Bernstein.
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Clever Disguise!
Some of the September 11th killers flew right over the Indian Point Nuclear Power plant on their way to NYC. Perhaps they didn’t crash into the “Energy Center” (that’s really what it calls itself) because it looks just like a big mosque. You never know.
