Somehow, between the Cubs winning the World Series, the presidential election, friends and family visiting, and, you know, my job, I missed this. The Brennan Center, which has been repeatedly telling us not to worry about rising homicide, predicts that this year’s homicide increase will be even bigger than last year’s increase (last year’s was 10.4%, this year’s is predicted…
“Because we are sworn to protect those that can’t protect themselves”
The funeral for Sergeant Tuozzolo just happened. My friend Ari Maas posted this on facebook after his death: For the second time this week, the law enforcement community suffered a great loss. NYPD Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo was shot in the head while attempting to arrest a very bad man. That bad man had 17 prior arrests and had just committed…
RIP NYPD Sgt Paul Tuozzolo
NYPD Sergeant Tuozzolo was killed in the Bronx after confronting a domestic break-in suspectwith a long history of criminal trouble: Rosales’ 50-year-old mother-in-law had called 911 when the man, who had 17 prior arrests in Suffolk County, forced his way into the apartment she shared with his estranged 29-year old wife and their 3-year-old son, minutes before the police chase…
Press release for journalists
From John Jay’s Crime Report: ATTENTION JOURNALISTS: The John Jay Center on Media, Crime and Justice, publisher of The Crime Report, is offering special reporting fellowships to attend the 12th annual Harry Frank Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America in New York City on February 16-17, 2017. All U.S.-based media working on print, online and broadcast platforms are eligible to…
Don’t sh*t where you live
The Villiage Voice reportson how, after much effort, a guy got data on where NYPD officers live (the zip codes). There’s nothing too surprising here, but it is worth noting 1) the NYPD was reluctant to give it up, and 2) NYPD officers are forbidden to work in the precinct in which they live. This goes back to anti-corruption efforts,…
“Number Two” at the range
Two days ago in the Bronx, an NYPD sergeant shot and killed Deborah Danner, a 66-year-old with schizophrenia armed with a baseball bat. Deborah Danner’s death is a tragedy. It is a failure of the system. But almost immediately, the officer who shot was stripped of his badge and gun and denounced by the mayor and police commissioner. DeBlasio —…
“Chicago cop murders unarmed man after fender bender”
That’s the headline that wasn’t. Instead we have this headline: “Officer Didn’t Shoot Attacker Because She Feared Backlash.” A 43-year-old female 17-year-veteran suffered this: The man had punched her and “repeatedly smashed her face into the pavement” until she was knocked out, police said. She suffered head trauma and multiple cuts to her face and head. When you’re a cop…
“Why’d you have to shoot that criminal with a gun?”
So much of the body-cam debate, releasing or not releasing videos, comes down not to police behavior but to this: I know, as a lifelong police officer, that I see people on the worst day of their lives. People shouldn’t feel like when the police come to your house that what’s happened to you is going to be splashed all…
Dejuan Yourse Arrest
For the life of me, I can’t figure what Yourse is going to be charged with. Even with the game rigged in cops’ favor, I don’t see a crime. Yourse is under arrest after 9:10 when the officer doesn’t take kindly to Yourse invited his friends over. I can understand why the officer doesn’t want a posse of friends showing…
When to call (and not call) 911
Interesting study by some prominent (and good) sociologists about the drop-off in 911 calls after there was publicity about a man severely beaten by off-duty Milwaukee cops in 2004. Calls dropped by about 17 percent for about a year. But that’s just a segue to this, which comes from a community listserve in Durham, NC. A friend of mine who…