We in American don’t know about “traveler” culture in Ireland and England.
Now I know it’s wrong, but I can’t help but have some respect for people who race horses, harness racing style, down major highways. The full youtube clip has been deleted (it was a long race). But here’s the shortened BBC version.
Thug challenges Mayor Bloomberg to a fight, mano-a-mano.
Nice to know the judge released him on his own recognizance since he seems like such a nice chap who will stay out of trouble.
What is the relationship between (A) number of cops, (B) number of arrests, and (C) crime. When “A” goes down, “B” goes down, and “C” goes up. Sometimes it really is that simple. Here’s the more nuanced story by James Queally in the Newark Star Ledger.
[Tip of the cap to Epichorus.]
There’s a much delayed and controversial report listing the flaws of New York’s “new and improved” 911 phone system. There are many flaws I won’t get into here, but I would like to point out just the cost. The project has cost $2 billion. The entire annual budget of the NYPD is about $4.5 billion (NYPD and NYFD is about $6.1 billion). It’s bad enough that half the average police department is, in effect, sitting in a car waiting for the phone to ring. It’s even worse when the system costs as much as the officer.
After 31 years on the force and 5 years at the top, Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld announced his resignation. I wish him well. Certainly Bealefeld was the best police commissioner Baltimore has seen in the past 18 years (I can’t talk about the pre-Frazier era). Five years on top may not sound like a long time, but Bealefeld is the longest serving commission since Donald Pomerleau’s epic reign ended in 1981.
If nothing else, Bealefeld provided some stability to the top of a department that had seen decades of quick-to-come and quick-to-go commissioners (one a felon) who produced little but a massive churning at the top ranks.
But Bealefeld’s accomplishments are real. Homicides in Baltimore dropped to under 200 for the first time in three decades. Some dismiss this accomplished too quickly by saying crime is going down everywhere and pointing out that Baltimore’s homicide rate is still horribly high. Sure, but crime didn’t have to go down in Baltimore and hadn’t gone down significantly before Bealefeld.
Equally important, this crime drop occurred while arrest numbers decreased (from 100,000 in 2005 to45,000 in 2011). Time and time again it’s been shown that a policy of mass arrests does not reduce crime, and yet a takes a bold police leader to realize and implement strategies that change a police culture of zero-tolerance and making as many arrests as possible.
Also significant, Bealefeld partnered with the city’s new State’s Attorney, Gregg Bernstein. Bealefeld boldly (and received flack for) endorsed Bernstein by putting a campaign sign on his lawn. Bealefeld got flack for this, but the controversy gave Bernstein the boost needed to defeat his disastrous long-serving anti-police predecessor, Patricia Jessamy.
Peter Hermann, Julie Scharper, and Justin Fenton give a fuller story in the Baltimore Sun.
Destruction in Seattle. Destruction in Oakland. All pretty peaceful in New York, more or less. Kudos to all who kept the peace.
And I like the one cop in this video who doesn’t even flinch when a guy kicks out the window of a squad car right next to him.
Bad ass.
Respect.
Happy May Day! Union Power! (And please don’t attack your union police brothers.)
And appreciate the mad skills of my neighborhood Ironworkers Local 580 training facility. That logo is all hand-worked. Respect.
[thanks to Astoria Ugly]
This is news that shouldn’t be: officers arrest a resisting suspect and for their efforts get splashed on the news for alleged brutality. At least the B.P.D. didn’t flinch.
I say eighty percent of videos that purport to show brutality involve people under arrest who won’t put their hands behinds behind their back. If you’re under arrest and so ordered, you need to put your hands behind your back.
Here’s the thing — and I want you to try this at home or work with someone you love — lie on your belly with your arms under you. Now have that someone try and force yours arms apart. Resist. Those arms won’t budge. Now make it a threesome and have two people pulling. Those arms still won’t budge.
It’s incredibly hard to get a resisting person’s arms out from under them. It’s just the way the human body is built. So when that happens, police police use what is called (strangely un-euphemistically), “pain compliance.” It’s a fancy term for old-school putting on the hurt.
Pain compliance is done with pressure points or mace. In a pinch, you could strike somebody, but this is not how it’s supposed to be done because it looks bad and you might break something.
Pain compliance is not self-defense. And it’s not normal use of force in which the force is directed toward the goal. Pain compliance is supposed to hurt. And it keeps hurting we keep hurting until you decide it’s in your best interests to follow lawful orders. And as soon as you comply, we’ll stop putting on the hurt. Because you see those hands… how are we going to get those hands behind your back? We’ve already tried asking and forcing.
[thanks to Gotti]
A while back I started hearing rumors about “Obama phones.” You know, Obama taking our hard-earned money to give free phones to undeserving poor people in the ghetto. Really? I keep hearing about this, so I thought there must be something to it. Take this facebook post from a Baltimore cop friend of mine:
Beautiful day out and then I see the all to familiar free cell tent a block away from the methadone clinic. I am so happy I PAY my cell phone bill so the “disadvantaged” can get a free phone. WTF!! The best part is both clinic and tent had the same people in line!!
Almost always (not in my friend’s case) these posts are racistly linkedto President “Hussein Obama”. OK. I know there are racists out there (not my friend, but it’s impossible to do online research into this matter without coming across a lot of them), but that’s not the point. What I want to know is, is this true?! Are there tents in poor neighborhoods giving away phones? If so, why? And is it an Obama plot?
Let me put it in FAQ format:
Q: Are they really giving out phones in the hood?
A: Yes!
Q: You mean they’re really giving out free phones? Like with minutes on them?
A: Yes!
Q: Is the government really taking our hard-earned money and giving poor people phone service?
A: Well, Yes. More or less. Actually a charge on your phone bill rather than a straight-up tax. But whatever.
Q: Why can’t I get one?
A: You might be able to, if you’re poor enough to qualify for food stamps (gross annual income of less than $14,160).
Q: What’s the cash value that these moochers get?
A: About $10 a month.
Q: Is this a secret Islamic Socialist Obama plot to take they money of hard-working white Americans and give it to poor ghetto drug addicts?
A: No, you stupid schmuck!
Q: But what about that video of the woman saying “Everybody got an Obama phone”?
A: She’s an idiot. As is anybody who believes Obama gives out phones.
Turns out this subsidized phone service for poor people (many of them rural whites) began under The Great American Socialist, Ronald Reagan.
In 1996, when Clinton was president, people got the choice of using this subsidy for cell-phone service instead of land-line service. Fair enough.
Then in 2005, the program was expanded during the liberal Bush administration.
So go ahead and blame Obama. Why not? He is our president. Born in the Ol’ U.S. of A. He does happen to be African-American. So go ahead and blame Obama for whatever you want… but don’t blame him for phones subsidies for poor people! [You could, of course, blame him for saving the economy, killing Osama Bin Laden, getting out of Iraq, and keeping this country safe from a terrorist attack.]
The actual cell-phone giveaways did start, by chance, in 2008, right before Obama was elected. Why then? Not because Sharia law was creeping over America, but because cell phone costs actually came down so much that right around then private companies could actually turn a profit by taking money from this program, even with the expense of giving away a phone.
But you know what, maybe giving phone to poor people is actually a good use of government money. Crazy, I know. But think about it. Because you can’t get a job if you don’t have a phone! Certainly when I was a cop, most homes I went into did not have phone service. [Many didn’t have electricity, either. After a while I felt kind of silly asking for a phone number, much less a “work” phone number. Seriously, you don’t know what f*cked up poverty till you’re a cop in Baltimore’s Eastern District.] I seriously doubt people were poor because they don’t have a phone. But, should perchance you want one, it’s almost impossible to get a job if you don’t have a phone phone number to put on the job application so your future employer can call you!
Meanwhile, on April 15, I was with all those middle-class home-owning folk lining up at the Post Office to get my Obama money. You know, mortgage interest-tax deduction. Thank you, Mr. President. I spent mines on booze!
In a stupid way, mind you. But what I love is that if the Dutch want to regulate drugs, they can! Our illegal drugs are unregulated.
What’s ironic is that this isn’t actually about drugs. It’s much more about traffic and parking.
Also, don’t count the kips (chickens) before they hatch. I’d be shocked if this comes into effect throughout the nation and in Amsterdam.