I don’t like guns, but I’m not a gun control nut. I think there are a good many reasons that people can and should have guns. If I were a store owner in a dangerous neighborhood, I’d want a gun. If I were a resident in a dangerous neighborhood, I’d want a gun. If I were a hunter, I’d want…
U.S. War on Drugs: Bolivia
George Washington, in his 1796 farwell address, warned about unnecessary foreign entanglements: The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.…
In Texas School, Teachers Carry Books and Guns
I don’t see what the problem is. And I’m a liberal who supports gun control. I’m all for a assault riffle and handgun free America. But it’s not going to happen. Maybe as a cop I’m not afraid of guns (in the right hands). Maybe as a teacher I want one. But really, I don’t. But I do have students…
Murders down in Eastern
Buried in a small story in the Sun: “Nineteen people have been killed in the Eastern District this year, half as many as at this point last year.”
The poor mob
Sometimes I kind of feel sorry for these guys. From the Boston Globe. The New England Mafia just is not what it used to be. In what would be an unusual move for a man of his rank, the family’s reputed underboss, Carmen “The Cheese Man” DiNunzio, is accused of personally delivering a $10,000 bribe to a near stranger, a…
Prop Joe? He Dead.
That’s a Wirereference, if you don’t know. There’s a short Q & A about me in Vanity Fair titled “The Ivy Leaguer Who Took on Prop Joe.” The art cracks me up: While ace writer Jordan “slugger” Heller’s text makes me sound so rough and blue-collar, the art just captures my naturally effeminate and pompous persona perfectly. Hmmm, yes, indeed,…
Oh Nos!
Rabid kitten discovered in North Baltimore A stray kitten that wandered into a North Baltimore backyard this month had rabies, the first city cat or dog found to have the disease in more than 20 years, officials said yesterday. Two people who tried to help the kitten are receiving medical treatment. Others who are concerned that they or their pets…
L.A. Police Shift Discipline Away From Automatic Punishments
I had no idea that any department could be so stupid to have a system of “automatic punishment.” “In a series of changes this year, direct supervisors are being encouraged to forgo suspensions of officers who they believe will change their behavior – or just made a one-time mistake – and instead opt for written warnings.” “Police officials believe the…
Police departments don’t enforce immigration laws
Good. “Despite a nationwide clamor against illegal immigration, only 55 of more than 18,000 police and law enforcement agencies across the country have signed agreements to coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” The whole story is here.
In our nation’s capital…
“My one beef with law enforcement in general is I hate the top-down approach, that only people with rank can think.” I think I’vesaid that before. But that quote is from D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. “Lanier wants to convert the department from a conventional military-style hierarchical culture into one driven from the bottom up. That means accountability and leadership…