Update: The links have changed (oops!) since these were first published. Here are links to all my August 2016 posts on the DOJ report on the BPD. 1 https://copinthehood.com/initial-thoughts-on-doj-report-on-2/ 2 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-wrong-1-2/ 3 https://copinthehood.com/the-dojs-war-on-broken-window-2/ 4 https://copinthehood.com/cant-you-take-joke-2/ 5 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-wrong-2-n-word-2/ 6 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-wrong-3-that-damn-kid-on-2/ 7 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-wrong-4-on-diggs-dig-2/ 8 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-right-1-2/ 9 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-right-2-actual-department-is-2/ 10 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-right-3-actual-department-is-2/ 11 https://copinthehood.com/the-doj-is-right-4-actual-department-is-2/ My take away is that the report is 1/3 spot on,…
Prequel to the DOJ BPD report
Dan Rodricks in the Sun: Anticipating the Department of Justice’s release of its civil rights investigation, Davis clearly staked out a position as the man who is trying to fix the department’s broken relationship with large sectors of the community it serves. … Getting ahead of police reform is no easy task, but it’s much easier than getting ahead of…
Shooting at a moving vehicle
Great (and thus rare) legal discussion by Whet Moser in Chicago Magazine: “Why It’s Legal for Police to Shoot at Someone During a Car Chase: CPD officers who shot at Paul O’Neal may have violated procedure, but Supreme Court decisions set a high barrier for legal liability”: Perhaps the law could evolve. Police departments are trying to limit high-speed chases,…
“Unarmed” man shoots and kills store worker
Did you see the headline in today’s New York Counterfactual?: “NYPD Kills Unarmed Man in Bronx”: Protests erupted after police killed a hispanic man in a Bronx bodega. Efraim Guzman, 30, was unarmed when he was shot and killed by police. One round entering Guzman’s back. Police allege Guzman was engaged in a dispute at a store at 230 East…
If a protest against violence falls in a street without reporters, does it make a sound?
Lois Beckett in the Guardian: But black Americans in neighborhoods that see constant gun violence do try to make their voices heard, in protests like the one Truehill helped organize: community led, often small and largely ignored by news organizations. Thirty people showed up on Friday, most of them black men and women in their mid-20s. Gun violence was deeply…
Paul O’Neal shot and killed by Chicago police
Last week Paul O’Neal was fleeing from police in a stolen car. He crashed past one police car, and cops shot at him. He then veered head-on into another cop car, bailed, jumped over a fence (being more agile than any of the chasing cops), and was then shot at again. One (or more?) of these shots hit O’Neal in…
All charges dropped against the Baltimore Six
Marilyn Mosby said she is dropping all charges against the six Baltimore Police officers in the custody death of Freddie Gray. In the press conference she sounded like a petulant child who was caught out doing bad, and so blames everybody else instead. “Systemic issues,” she said. I think a voice of humility, noble humility, might have served her better.…
20 People Shot at Florida Nightclub (ho hum)
From the Times: Two teenagers were killed and at least 18 people were wounded early Monday when attackers raked a crowd with gunfire outside a nightclub here that had been hosting a party for young people, the authorities said. Sound familiar? Yeah, because it is. But this isn’t even the main story of the day. It kind of started as…
“The False Promise of a ‘Conversation’ About Race”
John McWhorter wrote this article about race and racial discourse. I doubt most readers here subscribe to the Chronicle of Higher Education. It’s behind a paywall, and you can’t access it back-door style through google. So though this excerpt doesn’t really do his whole argument justice, it’s better than nothing: After the horrific shootings in Baton Rouge, St. Paul, and…
“One Police Shift: Patrolling an Anxious America”
From the New York Times: “Riding along with officers illuminated fears they confront, compassionate gestures from the public after two recent ambushes against the police, and varied responses to the Black Lives Matter movement.”