I am a day late and a dollar short on this, because these AP reportson the NYPD Intelligence Division “Demographics Unit” came out in 2011 and 2012 (mostly when I was out of the country). The reports are from 2006, but only now am I fully appreciating them. Here’s New York Magazine’s more recent take on the whole operation. Of…
Good work by the NYPD: October 14th, 2013 BY ORDER OF THE CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT, THE FOLLOWING IS TO BE READ AT ROLL CALL TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE SERVICE AND POSTED CONSPICUOUSLY WITHIN COMMANDS: On July 23rd, 1991, twenty-two years ago, the body of a four-year-old girl was found in a cooler off the Henry Hudson Parkway. She had…
They then opened fire. The authorities would not estimate how many rounds were discharged. Mr. Gainer, the sergeant-at-arms, said he believed that five to seven officers had fired. Possible Clues in Fatal Chase, but No Motive — Miriam Carey Was in Car When Police Fired, Official Says
Do Carnegie Hall stage hands really make $400,000 a year? I first thought this was some urban right-wing anti-labor myth (I was all ready to file this under “right-wing lies”). But actually, well, they do. (Or at least close to it.) Holy sh*t! Susan Adams of Forbes wrote this great piece explaining the why. In short, why do they make…
Cause it’s always fun to watch crooks get caught. Full story here. [thanks to David Bratzer]
Because of the War on Drugs.
Like fellow “blockhead” Jay Livingston, I can’t believe I’ve been doing this “writing for free” crap since 2007. Like Jay, I decided to look back at my more popular posts. Unlike Jay, blogger/google doesn’t allow one to look at the past year. The choices jump from “last month” to “all time.” So let’s look at my five most popular posts…
These twodidn’t die from MDMA. They died from whatever they took that wasn’t MDMA. Why? Because of prohibition. To blame drugs rather than prohibition is exactly the same as when, during Prohibition, “alcohol” caused blindness, death, and (my own favorite) Jake Leg. These are prohibition problems. Of course during Prohibition, prohibitionists blamed the prohibited drug rather than their policy of…
This is far more radical than anything Judge Scheindlin ruled in her well publicized stop and frisk decision. In a 3-2 decision (People v. Johnson is not long and worth reading in its entirety) the court managed to rule the following unconstitutional: In a New York City Housing Authority building, which the testifying officer characterized as a “drug-prone” location, the…
Unless you’re an academic, of course. From Commentary and worth reading in its entirely (if you care about this sort of thing): Since the 1970s, the government has overseen the establishment of bodies called Institutional Review Boards, and these “IRBs” have suppressed vast amounts of talking, printing, and publishing—even mere reading and analyzing—for hundreds of thousands of Americans. This is…