Out of 12,000 Chicago Cops, 124 are responsible for a third of misconduct lawsuits settled by the city since 2009, costing $34 million. The Tribune(behind a paywall unless you good for the article) reports that 82 percent of the department’s officers were not named in any settlements. (Keep in mind that a good chunk of that 82 percent haven’t interacted…
Category: Police
The Denominator Problem: Throwing stones from glass houses
There’s something bordering on the absurd when newspapers write stories about police racism based on claims like, “90 percent of those arrested are African-American while African Americans make up only 65 percent of the population.” The assertion, sometimes explicit and sometimes implied, is that cops are racists hunting black men. Same thing with papers that assume that any arrest not…
How much I make (III)
I received a courtesy call from John Jay’s legal department about a FOIL (freedom of information law) request made for my records. One person, whom I won’t name but I presume reads this, wanted A) my letter of appointment and B) to know how much I make. You’ll have to trust me that I did get my job, but my…
The Baltimore 6 Effect
To paraphrase Tip O’Neill, “All policing is local.” But that doesn’t mean that something in one town can’t have an effect on policing nationwide. And a trend can be large and worrisome — and national — without being universal. That’s why they call it a trend. I don’t know what’s going on everywhere (or even most-where), but I can tell…
Ferguson and Death in Baltimore’s Western District
Usually I focus on the Eastern District, because that is where I policed. But I was looking at stats for the Western District, where Freddie Gray died. Homicides in the Western went from a long-time record low (but still shamefully high) 21 in 2014 to a record high 66 in 2015. Holy mackerel, that’s a huge increase! (The Eastern went…
“Embrace the police”
Like Dan Aykroyd, I continue to “embrace the police,” here in Catania, Sicily. (Though I’m currently in Malta.)
Just counting people killed by police won’t fix problems. We need better data.
I and Nick Selby wrote this one for the Washington Post.
“Pander to audience expectations”
There’s a nice article about Alice Goffman in the Times magazine. Overall it’s a great piece about Alice Goffman, who has written one of the best sociology books ever, and the state of sociology in general. One line I find funny is the assertion that she “panders to audience expectations” by this description of a house: “[it] smelled of piss…
You cheap lazy bastards!
So I go to my school office today (the first time since before X-mas), and what’s there for me? A nice letter from somebody thanking for my blog. That’s very sweet. You’re very welcome. But you know what made it even better? No, you don’t, because it wasn’t from you, you cheap lazy bastard! (Except for you who sent it…
We Got Another Kingpin! (16)
It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten a Kingpin. Almost a year. El Chapo. We’ve gotten this guy before. Like non-sequel movies, are we running out of Kingpins?