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  • The Idea of “Juvenile”

    The state has an archaic system in which we operate under the misimpression that everyone under 18 can be rehabilitated for repeatedly committing violent crimes. We must find a way to provide rehabilitation, but also accountability and punishment.

    That’s kind of hardcore coming from, of all places, the office of Baltimore State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy. Her office, as I write about in my book, is often at odds with police officers.

    I’m not against the conceptof “juvenile justice.” I do think that kids who commit crimes should be treated differently than adults. But 17-year-olds? Especially when they’re fathers, murderers, and drug dealers? They’re no longer kids. I can’t tell you how many times I had to treat an arrested 16 or 17-year-old as a “juvenile” only to find no adults who could or were willing to deal with this violent man anymore.

    These so-called kids certainly don’t see themselves as kids. They don’t look like kids. They certainly don’t play like kids. Why treat them like kids? How many times does somebody have to locked up for violent crimes before they’re kept off the street and away from other?

    Maybe lowering the adult age to 16 would be good start. Given the environments some kids grow up in, childhood is an unfortunately idealistic concept as best. But at some point, for some kids, we simply gotta put them away. If you disagree, and it’s touching if you do, I recommend you go to the juvie home and work on adopting an unloved teenager. But whatever problems have developed need to be headed off long before the teen years.

    The issue here is Lamont Davis. He’s been arrested 15 times since he was ten. Lamont is a very bad boy. In the past year and a half since Davis has been in custody of juvenile services, he’s been arrested and charged in fiveincidents. God only knows how many times he hurt people and didn’t get caught.

    Recently Davis yoked (robbed and beat) a woman. He was arrested and plead guilty on July 1st.

    On July 2nd, soon after Davis cut off his home monitoring bracelet, a five-year-old girl apparently got in the path of one of his bullets. She may not make it. Two other guys were hit as well.

    Justin Fenton has the story in the Sun.
    Willie Bosket comes to mind. I’m not a fan of prison. But some people need to be put away for a long time. I nominate Davis. And then let’s come up with some ideas and be willing to spend some money to prevent such cases from happening again.

  • Mexican Immigration Problems


    Mexico Builds Border Wall To Keep Out US Assholes

  • Life Without Daddy

    Life Without Daddy

    At any given moment, more than 1.5 million children have a parent, usually their father, in prison.
    …
    Among those born in 1990, one in four black children, compared with one in 25 white children, had a father in prison by age 14. Risk is concentrated among black children whose parents are high-school dropouts; half of those children had a father in prison, compared with one in 14 white children with dropout parents.
    …
    In some cases children may benefit from a parent’s forced removal, especially when a father is a sexual predator or violent at home. But more often, the harm outweighs any benefits.

    The whole story by Erik Eckholm in the New York Times.

    I like making fun of the “think of the children” line. But in this case, shouldn’t we? What’s the answer?

  • Marion Barry: set up again?

    Marion Barry: set up again?

    Mr. Marrion “that-goddamn-bitch-set-me-up” Barry has been arrested… yet again. Except for the crack, the not filing his tax returns thing, and the alleged stalking, he sure is a great elected representative for his people.

    Here’s the storyabout his latest arrest. It’s complicated, of course. Who knows what really happened? Who cares?

    But does anybody out there have the AUDIO from the famous video of his arrest for crack? I can find the video, but not with sound. I want to show it in my class as an example of entrapment. Make fun of hizonnor all you want, but in that case that g*dd*mn b*tch really didset him up!

  • Amsterdam Party People

    Amsterdam Party People

    This account of the party scene in Amsterdam is from a person who enjoys such things. He’s lived in Amsterdam for the past 17 years.

    The Sensation dance party, Wicked Wonderland, held in the city’s largest football stadium. The dress code was all white. The party goes from 10pm to 6am. Tickets cost about $100 (69 euros).


    The placed is filled with thousands–probably tens of thousands people–dancing. [Update: there were 40,000 people on each of the two sold-out nights. Public transportation was excellent, night train schedules were posted in the bathrooms, and special free busses were running between 1 and 5am when the metro is shut down] Top DJs spin. It’s an upscale rave. Does that mean people are taking drugs? Of course.

    Nobody overdoses. Nobody dies. A good time is had by all. Many if not most of the people are high on marijuana and/or ecstasy. There’s also a full bar.

    [click on the picture to get an idea of the scale of this event. It is HUGE.]
    Because of our war on drugs, there’s no equivalent to this DJ-music party scene in the US. It’s actually illegal. Nobody can make money on such a large scale event because they all get shut down by police. It would be like closing down Yankee Stadium in the 1920s because people were drinking at baseball games.

    In Europe, this party scene is a job-creating industry. This one sounded like fun.

    Sensation White was the best or at least the most impressive dance music party I have even been to. It was at the Arena, but they did it up really nicely. The stage was in the center with four thrust parts going into the four corners. That meant that your section of the audience was broken up and smaller and there was stuff close to you.

    They did the place up so well with details and hiring hundred’ of models to work there. Everyone was actually dressed all in white, and the atmosphere was superb. And so many hot 20 somethings. Mmmmm. And 30 somethings and 40 somethings too. It was an exciting mix actually. And it sounded good. There, it’s official, a stadium set-up can sound perfect. I want nothing less in the future, please.

    Unlike two years ago where police in plainclothes were harassing party goers and arresting joint smokers (for what I’m not sure), this year they were present, helpful and in the background.

    It should be noted that two years ago the Amsterdam police were not actually going so far as to take people to jail for drug use. But they were taking people out of the party and giving them citations. Taking any action for marijuana in Amsterdam is pretty much unheard of. Much less “harassing” people who otherwise were not causing trouble. This year was more laid back.

    We did one e before getting on the metro and I had two more in my shoe. In the other shoe I had a joint and left a decoy joint in my pockets. When I took it out at the frisking, they said it wasn’t allowed. “Why?” I asked.

    You are allowed to have 5 grams [about 1/5 of an ounce] of weed in a bag and roll your own. But not a pre-rolled joint because, “We don’t know what is in it.”

    “You can go outside and smoke it right now if you want,” a second security helpfully offered.

    I thought that was very reasonable, but let them take it. I smoked the secret one over the evening in their classy, not stuffed, not smoky smoking room. The football stadium had windows the opened!

    I wrote back and said I was shocked that anybody in Amsterdam would have to resort to a “decoy joint.” It’s “just not mokum,” I said. His reply:

    On one hand it is ridiculous that I would bring a decoy roach. And it’s not Amsterdam. On the other hand, I think it’s still nice that I can bring a decoy roach just to see what the police/security will do and not be worried that anything bad will happen. Of course I know they are not going to make me take off my shoes, so drugs get in.

    Is this man a blight on society? A junkie? A long-haired hippy freak? Quite the contrary. This man, who may or may not be my brother, is a husband, a father, and employees lots of people. He is a businessman.

    Were it not for the permissive and successful drug policy of the Netherlands, he would not be in Amsterdam providing jobs and paying taxes. He never would have visited in the first place.

  • Happy 4th of July

    Especially thinking of everybody stuck working it. Here’s to you!

  • $12,500 in Seattle Taser Settlement

    A homeless felon in Seattle gets $12,500 for being tased twice simultaneously by two officers. That’s just what I don’t like my tax dollars going to. I’m not saying the cops didn’t follow procedure and their training. I am saying that procedure and training are wrong.

    [A] judge ruled that the two officers … were too quick to use their Tasers after confronting Releford outside a Tukwila convenience store to arrest him on outstanding misdemeanor warrants.
    …
    Both officers ordered him to turn around. When he hesitated at the conflicting commands, the officers fired their stun guns simultaneously, knocking him to the ground with a combined 100,000 volts, the documents say.
    …
    She said the officers didn’t adequately consider their other options before resorting to the use of Tasers.
    …
    “He didn’t resist,” she said. “They just didn’t give him time to comply.”
    …
    Releford — despite his size and a long history of run-ins with the law — had never been violent toward officers. In fact, she said, records showed that Vivet had arrested Releford six times in the eight months before the incident, all without incident.

    The story by Mike Carter in the Seattle Times.

  • Bicycle Patrol

    I love the idea of cops on bikes. Nothing beats the speed and stealth. But I haven’t really considered the benefits of paramedicson bikes. A couple of those saved a life in Chicago.

    The rescue might not have been possible if not for the paramedics’ bicycle team, which can weave in and out of crowded spaces like the Taste with life-saving defibrillators and other medical supplies in tow.
    …
    “You can’t beat them. They’re just invaluable,” he said of the team, which is also used to patrol busy downtown areas.

    The whole story by Monifa Thomas in the Chicago Sun Times.

  • New Haven Firefighters

    Interesting story in the New York Times about Ben Vargas, the lone Hispanic firefighter on the winning side of Ricci v. DeStafano.

  • Police Blogs

    Here’s a police blogs that seem, at least at first glace, to be pretty interesting.Beat and Release:

    To new supervisors, I have the following the advice: Dedication to your troops is what engenders respect. Willingness to back them engenders respect. Putting paper on them and chastising them for very minor infractions shows them you are a company man with no discretion and can’t be trusted. Don’t break the law or lie for them, but consider the totality of the circumstances in any given situation. I heard one of my guys trying to recruit another officer for the team. His selling point was, “I know he won’t go to jail for us, but he will put his ass and his job on the line to keep you from getting screwed over.”

    And this post: Old Versus New.