Yesterday an Eastern District sergeant, Keith McNeill, was shot and very seriously wounded. My thoughts go out to him, his family, and all those who know and work with him.
Category: Police
“The true lives of low-level drug dealers”
Erin Rose wrote a great piece in Salon about your average run-of-the drug dealer. It’s not like Breaking Bad (though it is in Albuquerque). It’s not like Baltimore’s Eastern District. Most drug dealers are not violent. Most drug dealers are not black. Some highlights (but it’s worth reading in its entirety): Rico works a full-time job and only deals as…
Prison is worse than flogging? You don’t say…
In the TimesDavid Brooks makes a crazy point that prison may actually be worse than flogging. Craaaaaazy… I only wish I had thought of this idea…
Lexington Market
Last week I mentioned“the army of junkies outside Lexington Market.” My tender New York eyes were a bit shocked by 20 people shouting and 20 other people nodding in what I call the “junkie lean.” You can’t expect decent people or caring parents with children to walk a gauntlet of junkies to go shopping. They won’t do it. Nor should…
Flogging is less harmful than prison?!
David Brooks says so in the Times, so it must be true. But what a craaaazy idea… who would have ever thunk such a thing?
We Got Another Kingpin! (13)
“El Chapo, Most-Wanted Drug Lord, Is Captured in Mexico.” “This is an absolutely huge get.” “Big strike.” “A landmark achievement, and a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States.” So don’t believe the headline, “Drug kingpin’s bust may have no effect.” Or the nay-sayers: “It’s bad news for Mazatlán. “He was keeping the peace.” We win!…
Baltimore, oh baby!
I was in Baltimore for a sociology conference. Sure, I ate 5 crab cakes at four locations in three days. (Let’s just settle this debate once and for all — ha! — Faidley’s is still the best, if you don’t let the army of junkies outside Lexington Market get you down. Plus what other place sells crabcakes, oysters, and frozen…
Civil trial in shooting of Jonathan Ayers begins
Remember Jonathan Ayers? Probably not. But you should. In 2009 he was an shot dead by police in what was one of the worst police-involved shooting in American history. Seriously. It didn’t become a national scandal. It wasn’t even big news. But there was so much wrong. So much police did wrong — tactically and morally — it’s hard to…
Flogging on Sunday Night Safran
This is the best radio show you’ve never heard of (unless you’re Australian, in which case it might just be the best radio show). Where else do you get a smart-alec Jewish boy from Melbourne and an (almost) 80-year-old Catholic priest shooting the shit? (pardon my language, Father Bob.) I was on it last week. I really love being on…
Too *few* stop, question, and frisks? Perhaps…
Bill Bratton was just quoted in the Post saying that the NYPD is conducting too few stop and frisks. Who would have thought that the shameful practice of mass stop, question, and frisk would ever end? Actually, I did (though I was two years too quick to predict its gradual demise). I knew there was internal pressure from up high…