Go to qualitypolicing.com

Copinthehood.com has moved to qualitypolicing.com

  • Read More

    If you don’t read The Atlantic, you should. Not only can you act like you’re smart, you might become smart. Or at least a lot smarter than you’ll ever become reading the typical drivel in a cop magazine (yes, I know, “staying alert can save your life”–so remain in “Code Yellow” and read something worthwhile).

    Here’s a short piece on “truth” in politics. “The Truth Lies Here.”

    Academics should read this, about how most of medical science is… what’s the word?… Wrong. (God save us if Dr. Ioannidis ever took on Sociology). (And extra credit because the story is good for the Greeks.)

    And last but not least, read the latest about TSA and pat-downs in Jeffrey Goldberg’s hilarious (and disconcerting) story about airline security.

    I asked him if the new guidelines included a cavity search. “No way. You think Congress would allow that?”

    I answered, “If you’re a terrorist, you’re going to hide your weapons in your anus or your vagina.” He blushed when I said “vagina.”

    “Yes, but starting tomorrow, we’re going to start searching your crotchal area” — this is the word he used, “crotchal” — and you’re not going to like it.”

    “What am I not going to like?” I asked.

    “We have to search up your thighs and between your legs until we meet resistance,” he explained.

    “Resistance?” I asked.

    “Your testicles,” he explained.

    ‘That’s funny,” I said, “because ‘The Resistance’ is the actual name I’ve given to my testicles.”
    …
    The agent snapped on his blue gloves, and patiently explained exactly where he was going to touch me. I felt like a sophomore at Oberlin.
    …
    He felt me up good, but not great. It was not in any way the best pat-down I’ve ever received.

    The best pat-down my wife ever received was in the Vienna Airport. It was five years ago. We were newlyweds. The young woman feeling up my wife was young, stern, fit, and wore leather gloves. I got to watch. She was meticulous. And thorough. We both thought it was hot.

  • What do we do with all that weed?

    What do we do with all that weed?

    Explain this to me:

    In the past few weeks about 155 tonsof marijuana has been stopped from coming in from Mexico. Numbers of that magnitude tend to numb. I have no idea what 155 tons means. So I did some figuring. 155 tons is about 1,500 big men (or 3,000 very petite women). It’s about 1.3 times what the space shuttle weighs (at landing). It’s a lot.

    And, according to the magic elves at google, 155 tons is 4,960,000 ounces, or about an 1/8th of an ounce for every 6 adults in the USA.

    Can’t picture an eighth-of an ounce? According to some crack online research hereand here, 1/8 oz. is roughly equal to the amount of tobacco in 4 cigarettes (or 3 cigarettes whole). 1/8 oz of marijuana is more than enough to get a few people nice and high.

    Now keep in mind, 1) there’s a lot weed grown right here in the ol’ US of A, and 2) There’s a lot of weed still coming in from Mexico.

    So how much marijuana are we as a country smoking? The amount seems truly amazingly astronomical.

  • War on Drug Continues

    It didn’t surprise me that Prop 19 lost. I’m still amazed that it did so well and was taken so seriously. A lot of progress has been made over the past 10 years. I suppose only history will tell if we’ll look back on this as the high point (there was really no pun intended when I first wrote that) or whether it’s just a step down the path toward a better drug policy.

    Meanwhile, another secret tunnel was found from Mexico. It included 25 tons of the maryjane. English Aljazeerareports. And that’s on top of the 134 tons the other week.

    I say this in my best whiny Mike Bloomberg voice: “People, it’s the tunnels that make us less safe, not the drugs.” I don’t want people building tunnels under the border. But they will as long as we keep building walls on top of them and fighting “wars” against things and people from Mexico.

    Here’s a good story in the Christian Science Monitoron the tunneland one on the Latin American leaders and the failure of Prop 19. Here’s a good quote: “The two presidents who have come out strongly against legalization [in Mexico and Columbia] are presidents who have received a combined total of nearly $9 billion from the United States government.”

  • Trick or Treat

    Trick or Treat

    Some very good Halloween pics from Baltimore by photojournalist Martha Cooper.


    (Though it’s titled “Halloween in da Hood” and from what I can tell — occupied blocks and well maintained buildings — she’s in a pretty decent neighborhood.)

    [thanks to A.H.]

  • Reality-Based Thinking

    The key is to un-learn the academic habit of treating every proposition and argument offered as needing to be taken seriously and requiring a refutation, if false.

    Note to self: Making sh*t up is a valuable research technique. Must use it more often.

    So says Mark Kleiman.

    [thanks to Jay]

  • I don’t understand

    “No one can get a straight answer on how many cops are patrolling the streets,” Vallone said.

    In other cases, he added: “They just don’t want to provide the statistics. I don’t understand why, because when they do, it always shows the N.Y.P.D. is doing what they are supposed to do.”

    Just FYI, I don’t like Vallone. He’s my councilman and I didn’t vote for him. But he’s got a good point.

    The article by Ray Rivera and Al Baker in the Times is “Data Elusive on Low-Level Crime in New York City.”

  • Convicted prisoners to get vote

    In the UK. According to the BBC. Something about “human rights,” sez the E.U. Bunch of socialists.

  • Really?

    Cop Blocks Bike Lane To Ticket Cyclists For Not Using Lane. I’d like to think there’s more to this story.

  • Gang membership

    Do you ever see a headline that says “Gang Membership Down”?
    I’m suspicious. Gang membership did not increase 25% in one year. That I can guarantee.

  • 2nd Amendment for Immigrants

    It’s not too often supporters of the 2nd Amendment and supporters of immigrant rights can find common political ground. But here’s a case. Whatever happened to discretion?

    Immigration officials are always on the lookout to deport “criminal aliens,” and it appears that last week, Mr. Valerio’s name came up.
    …
    He had been a legal permanent resident of the United States for nearly 30 years.
    …
    Mr. Valerio’s offense dated back more than 20 years to a conviction for possessing a gun without the proper license. He had bought the gun to protect the bodega he owned from burglars, his daughter said. He served three years’ probation in the mid-1980s and had never again been in trouble with the law.