Police

Ethnography Bashing

I don’t mind a mixed review of my book (Contemporary Sociology), but it does bother me when a reviewer calls my participant-observation research a “major flaw.” It’s like a man who doesn’t like olive oil, fish, and lamb bashing a Greek restaurant for being too “Mediterranean.” If you don’t like the concept, don’t review it. Basically, goes the tired old…

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Police

The snowball heard round the web

Everybody is talking about it… …so here’s my two-cents: For a cop, having a gun out isn’t such a big deal. Pointing a gun at someone is a big deal. Waving it around would be a big deal (and would also show a lack of professional training). I understand others may see any display of a gun as a shocking…

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Police

It’s not new, but is it fair?

I wasn’t even going to link to this story because I don’t want to repeat myself more than necessary. Here’s the point: black New Yorkers are seven times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. For a moment, let’s put aside the actually story (not that we should). For the sake of debate, let’s accept the seven…

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Police

Stocking stuffers of the century!

And the century has just barely begun. How come nobody is buying Cop in the Hood for Christmas? My Amazon sales rank is rapidly approaching infinity. Not good. Last I checked, more than 200,000 book were selling better than my book. That’s a lot of books being bought that aren’t mine. I can’t think of a better present in the…

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Police

They are most definitely not playing

Only hours after the grieving family had finished burying [Ensign Melquisedet Angulo Córdova, a Special Forces sailor killed last week during the government’s most successful raid on a top drug lord in years] in his hometown, gunmen burst into the family’s house and sprayed the rooms with gunfire, killing his mother and three other relatives, officials said Tuesday. More violence.…

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Police

Check out my dope suspenders!

I know you think it’s cool to be chillin’ with your pants hanging low, but funny things happen when your pants don’t stay up. For one, if you’re running and I’m chasing you and you’ve got one hand holding your pants up, I will actually catch you. Two, if you’re like Hector Quinones of the Bronx and kill three people…

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Police

Jackpot!

Problems in Baltimore Internal Affairs? I’m shocked. Shocked! Neither, I suppose, is Justin Fenton. Here is his story in the Sun. Remember the whole Staples affair from my era? “Stolen” confidential police files that then showed up in a Dunkin Donuts dumpster? You can’t make this stuff up. And you wonder why cops don’t trust the system…

Police

Ayers killing “justified”

Indeed, you read it here first (many thanks to my anonymous tipster). Here’s the story by Stephen Gurr in the Gainesville Times. Of course regardless of this decision and any lack of criminal conviction, the Ayers’ family will get a lot of money in some civil case. But no amount of money will bring Jonathan Ayers back. The whole situation–up…

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