I have an op-ed in today’s Washington Post about my father and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” It’s got absolutely nothing to do with policing. I was the first critic of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It was 1993, and I was home on break from college. My father, Charles Moskos, and I were watching TV and drinking ouzo. … My father…
Shut yo’ mouth!
The Supreme Court ruled that suspects must explicitly tell police they want to be silent or want a lawyer to invoke their Miranda protection during interrogations. I’m pretty liberal guy, but I’m all for this conservative decision by the court. Look, if you don’t want to be convicted, the smartest thing you can do is shut up. Period. Don’t talk.…
More Immigrants, Less Crime
I’ve said it before, but now there’s yet more academic support, this study by Tim Wadsworth. You can’t easily access the study and it’s not light reading if you can. But Christopher Dickey wrote a very readable article about the study. Dickey is the author of a very good book: Securing the City. Wadsworth’s research and the recent FBI data…
“Police dem a wicked n’ a tief…soldier not so bad”
According to the papers, life in Kingston begins to return to normal. Dudus has not been captured. Until he his, seems like you’d have to call the whole operation a failure. My quote of the day comes from The Observer’s Twitter feed: “Dem say Dudus hold us hostage but it Bruce [The P.M.]. Mi wana go look for mi son.…
Di President dat and anything possible wid him
I know it’s wrong, but I’m kind of starting to root for Dudus. Of course I can’t really root for cop killers, but this is one guy taking on two entire nations. And, at least for now, he’s winning! Plus, the more I learn about Jamaica the less I want to root for the government. They’re crooks. And not in…
US Ends ‘War on Drug’
Sounds like an Onion headline but it’s real. The Drug Czar himself said, “I ended the war.” You’d think this would be big news in America. Did we win? [thanks to Drug WarRant]
Stupid Drug Story of the Week
I read this stupid AP story and it set off warning bells in my head. “ULTRA-POTENT HEROIN… MEXICAN DEALERS… $10 BAGS KILL UNSUSPECTING USERS INSTANTLY… NEEDLES STILL IN ARM AT THE DEATH SCENE!!!” OK, the caps and exclamation points are mine, but you get the idea. It’s a little strange because people who die from heroin overdoses rarely suspect it…
Oh, Jamaica
Gun battles seem to be the order of the day. Police officers have been killed. There’s also looting. But a police spokesman says about the business district, “There was some shootings last night but some amount of calm has returned.” Phew. A state of emergency has been declared that basically give police carte blanche to do what they want. Prime…
“He does what the government doesn’t do for us”
Jamaica is a rough place. 2.7 million people and 1,500 homicides. That’s a higher homicide rate than Baltimore… but lower than Baltimore’s Eastern District. It’s also dangerous for police, with 5 official line-of-duty deaths per year (though I suspect many more police die in less official ways). Jamaican police are known to kill a lot of people, probably between 150…
Police Chief Endorses Marijuana Legalization
Sometimes, as our drug war continues unabated, it’s easy to forget just how much progress has been made in fighting prohibition. Just a few years ago this kind of talk from an active police chief was inconceivable. It’s the kind of talk that encourages honest debate. Which is just what we need because advocates of the drug war will not…