Joe Conason has a good piece in Salon about the war on drugs. Want to cut waste and abuse? How about starting with the $50 billion we spend every year on the war on drugs. And why aren’t either McCain or Obama talking it?
Shot cops and turnstile jumping
There’s more about that here. Also interesting (if it weren’t, would I post it?). “Officers Seeking Fare Evaders Often Find Worse Crimes.” And here’s a first hand account of the shooting from the L.T.
Illegal immigration and arrest
There’s more here. It’s interesting.
Another Isolated Incident
“It’s not that SWAT tactics are always wrong. It’s that they’re frighteningly too often the first resort with the police departments that have them.” That’s from The Agitator. It’s worth reading.
2 Officers Shot in Subway Station
The New York Times reports. The Queensbridge Homes are not too far from where I live. A man who was being arrested for using a student MetroCard on Tuesday evening struggled with two plainclothes police officers in a Queens subway station and then shot them with the gun of one of the officers, the police said. The gunman was then…
Taser use draws fire from Amnesty International
The Boston Heraldreports: The stunning rise in Taser use has drawn the fire of the local Amnesty International chapter, which says Tasers were supposed to be a non-lethal alternative to gunfire. “Now it seems clear that police departments are using Tasers not as an alternative to lethal force but to get compliance.” Amnesty International says that since 2001, 320 people…
Courthouse Confessions
Evidently I’m going to meet Steven Hirsch on Thursday at the Non-Motivational Speakers Series. His blog, Courthouse Confessions, is fascinating. Too much for me to read right now…. There’s an interview with him here.
Cop in the Classroom
Gelf Magazine has an excellent interview with me in advance of me being part of the Non-Motivational Speakers Series this coming Thursday. It’s always a little scary to read what you said. Because sometimes you didn’t say it. Other times you did say it, but it’s not what you meant. In this case, I said it, I meant it, and…
War on Drugs in Mexico
Drug Killings Haunt Mexican Schoolchildren See the New York Times for the whole terrible story.
Are drugs evil?
This is taken from the comments of a previous post. Your comparison of a drug dealer to anyone who sells cigarettes and booze is interesting. I believe that even with the huge tobacco lobby at work, most tobacco products will be illegal within twenty years, and rightfully so. Booze is a different story because it is well tolerated by many…