I didn’t post for over a month and guess what? I kind of liked it.
So here’s my plan: less posting. Maybe once or twice a week. We’ll see how it goes.
If you need daily fixes of police news (and granted I still do), I urge you to look at all the links on the right side of this page. There’s some good stuff out there. And that’s where I get half my shit anyway.
I love all my readers (well… all but one or two). But still, blogging is kind of a one-way relationship.
Writing is hard work. Now no doubt blog writing is lesshard work that “real” writing. But still, it’s work. And it’s not like I get paid for this. Just think… instead of writing stuff here I could be prepping for classes, or dating my wife, or cooking, or watching baseball, or playing pinball, or thinking about trains. Hell, instead of writing here, I could be doing basically anything!
But mostly I’ve got another book to write: In Defense of Flogging. While it’s related to crime and justice, it’s actually not about policing at all. And writing this book is something I actually get paid for.
So in case I don’t post much and you wonder what I’m thinking, here are my beliefs to cover 90% of police issues:
1) Police: Good (but there’s always room for improvement).
2) War on Drugs: Bad.
3) Prison: We’ve got too many people in them.
4) Tasers: Vastly overused.
5) Democrats: Better than Republicans.
6) Always do the right thing.
What else can I say?
Good to have you back. You missed some noteworthy police beating incidents on the break:
post-gazette.com/pg/10033/1032746-53.stm
(In the above one, the perp claims that the police planted a Mountain Dew bottle on him after the beating — but that would only be true if police plant things, which is a debatable point)
theprovince.com/technology/Innocent+Vancouver+beaten+police+will/2497675/story.html
nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/bronx_cops_beat_me_too_GRbukCFAzbS5aXiE7aCvyN
All well within policy, I am sure, and nothing anybody would need to be fired over, but, then, that is why they are noteworthy.
A "Drop Dew"!
I like it. I used to drink diet Mountain Dew when it was too hot for Dunkin Donuts coffee. I never thought how the Dew could come in handy.
And I think that rookie will be fired. Should be. You can't hit people in cuffs just because you want to. The sergeants should get a stern talking to.
On the notion of tasers overused, what do you think of the circumstances surrounding the recent death of the male pornstar?
nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/03/09/2010-03-09_cops_taser_kill_gay_porn_star_dustin_michaels_as_video_cameras_roll.html
It looks like the guy was quite an idiot, but I don't think it was necessary to tase him since there were at least three deputies on the scene, and it shouldn't have been hard to contain the scene after he got up resisting.
As much as I would like to come out against the taser, in that case I think it looks pretty good.
The officers had not restrained the guy and he was getting up and charging an officer.
This was not just a case of failure to comply.