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  • U.S. News: Moskos says Regulate Drugs

    Don’t forget to buy the current issue of U.S. News & World Report to see my piecein print.

  • Officer assaults bicyclist (3): stupidy breaks out in groups

    Leave it to Bike Snob NYC to give a beyond-the-obvious take on the take-down. Here is an edited version:

    By this point most people have seen the footage of critical mass cyclist Christopher Long getting tackled by NYPD officer Patrick Pogan. This is a classic example of the eternal conflict between the younger, more progressive generation and the older, more conservative one—except of course that the rider was 29 and the officer was 22.
    …
    Similarly, the standard of what constitutes heroic behavior is also lower in 2008. The bike-tackler, Patrick Pogan, is a third-generation police officer. I wanted to know more about the Pogan family, so I strapped on my “investigative journalist” helmet and Googled vigorously for almost two full minutes. I finally uncovered this New York Times article from 1991…. I will go ahead and assume that the Pogan mentioned herein is the bike-tackler’s father:
    So it would seem that tackling someone riding his bike is in 2008 what rescuing someone from a wrecked subway train with the jaws of life was in 1991, because Pogan Sr. not only stands by his son (as you’d expect him to) but is also proud of him for what he did:

    “He’s my son. I’m proud of him. He’s third-generation that’s been serving the city,” said Pogan Sr., who was at home in Massapequa Park, LI, today and said he had not seen the video. “These people are taking over the streets and impeding the flow of traffic. Then you gotta do what you gotta do,” said Pogan, 51.
    …
    Yet try as I might, it’s hard for me to feel outrage…. One of the most important truths I’ve learned is that where there are crowds there is stupidity. When large numbers of people get together, stupid things happen, and you’re almost always better off simply getting as far away from the crowd as possible.
    …
    One of the things that make cycling so great is that it enables you to avoid crowds and pointless delays. Few things are more satisfying than effortlessly weaving your way through a traffic jam. So while I’ll begrudge nobody his or her Critical Mass, personally I don’t understand the appeal of forming a crowd and creating a pointless delay. And it is a delay, whether you’re in a car or on a bike.

    I once accidentally got caught in a Critical Mass ride while out riding. I felt like a dolphin ensnared in a tuna net. One second I was sailing along, and the next I was trapped among a bunch of people with rickety bikes rolling on wobbly, rusty brown steel rims on the verge of collapse. It was like watching a Beatles “Yellow Submarine”-esque cartoon LSD sequence where all the bicycles were rolling on pretzels.
    …
    People do need to see other people out there on bikes. They need to become accustomed to them so they learn to respect them, and they need to see how practical and effective they can be so they consider riding them themselves. Many cyclists illustrate this day after day…. Effectively, you’re a Critical Mass of one. Meanwhile, a mob of people on crappy bikes blocking traffic one day a month isn’t a “mass” at all. At best it’s a party. At worst it’s effectively just one big stupid person.

    Stupidity breaks out in groups, and when people gather expect stupid things to happen. You may or may not encounter a stupid person or stupid thing individually as you go about your day, but you’ll definitely encounter one in a crowd, and Christopher Long encountered one in the form of Patrick Pogan. On the other hand, intelligence travels alone, but it travels swiftly, and consequently it’s not only more effective, but it also generates much better word-of-mouth.

  • War On Drugs: 2. Dogs: 0

    This is crazy. I hate the war on drugs.

    Here’s part of the storyin the Washington Post.

    A police SWAT team raided the home of the mayor in the Prince George’s County town of Berwyn Heights on Tuesday, shooting and killing his two dogs, after he brought in a 32-pound package of marijuana that had been delivered to his doorstep, police said.

    Mayor Cheye Calvo was not arrested in the raid, which was carried out about 7 p.m. by the Sheriff’s Office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers. Prince George’s police spokesman Henry Tippett said yesterday that all the residents of the house — Calvo, his wife and his mother-in-law — are “persons of interest” in the case.

    The package was addressed to Calvo’s wife, Trinity Tomsic, said law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

    Just because this guy is mayor, does not mean he is not a drug dealer. Maybe he is. Maybe not. Maybe his wife is. Maybe not. I don’t know.

    I don’t care!

    Here is what bothers me (and this doesn’t even include 2 shot dogs):

    Fed Ex gets a package filled with marijuana. Dog sniffs it. Police notified. I got no problem there.

    But then the police take over and deliver the drugs to the door?! And then they wait to bust down the door? Why didn’t they just take the drugs? Oh, because they wanted an arrest. But they didn’t make an arrest!Why didn’t they just ring the doorbell? Because thanks to prohibition and the war on drugs, police are allowed to bust down the door of your home.

    I just doesn’t make sense. The police delivered the drugs!!!

    Maybe we should all send drugs to our enemies.

    Kudos to the local police for pointing out: “Berwyn Heights Police Chief Patrick Murphy said county police and the Sheriff’s Office had not notified his department of the raid. He said town police could have conducted the search without a SWAT team.”

    The whole story can be read here. It’s worth it.

    p.s. I do like the quote: “We’re not in the habit of going to homes and shooting peoples’ dogs…. If we were, there would be a lot more dead dogs around the county.”

  • So wrong?

    There’s another video of excessive NYPD use of force.

    This has nothing to do about bicyclists. But it is the NYPD. And brutality. And it probably won’t turn out well for the officer.

    At least neither of the cases directly involve race. The bike case was white on white. This is black on black (and yes, there would be a different reaction from the press and public if a white officer had been beating the black guy).

    The academy does not teach the baton to be used as a compliance tool like this. That’s how they’re going to get the officer. In cases like this, I was taught to mace the guy, but never did (and is mace really better than hitting him?). It’s another point in favor of my lost cause: the straight baton. You can use it for leverage to force an arm.

    So here, even though I think the cop did the wrong thing, I can’t help but stick up for him a little bit. Not in beating the guy. But youtry and force a man’s hands behind his back. It’s not as easy as you think it is! Why doesn’t he just do what the officers say?

    The right thing to do is wait for backup. Two officers may not be able to get the arms behind the back. But four officers can!

    Assuming there was a good reason to arrest this guy (and naturally I do… but that the cop in me. I wasn’t there. And the Postraises the question), well, you gotta put your hands behind your back. You’re under arrest. You don’t have a choice.

    And you know what really doesn’t help matters? The girl in background yelling and egging everybody on. As an officer trying to control a situation, the last thing you want is to worry about is that the woman yelling “fight” is going to join the fray. It makes want to end things faster.

  • Officer assaults bicyclist (2): Let Them Ride

    Ray Kelley, the commissioner, just came on the radio and said he “couldn’t fathom” why the officer, Pogan, did that.

    That means the officer is officially being fed to the dogs… hung out to dry… you might even say thrown under a bus.

    And since the officer is still on probation… well, it’s time to dust off the resume.

    You can read the lying officer’s report at the smoking gun.

    And my previous post here.

    One comment asked a good question: what should police do?

    Three simple words: Let them ride!

    As much as it pains a few particular people in the NYPD, you can’t control hundreds of people on bikes. Especially if they’re willing to get arrested. Police have to work with Critical Mass, just like police do in many other cities. Provide an escort. Join the fun.

    That means that once a month, yes, bikes go unrestricted through the streets. Yes, it might slow cars down. But so do double parkers and the 4th of July Parade.

  • Ed Norris the man?

    I tried to take the high road. I did!

    But my friend just sent me this and I can’t resist. Thanks, buddy!

    Here’s what my friend wrote:

    Not that you needed me to but I took it upon myself to defend you by sending Ed a nasty gram.

    Ed,

    I listened to the show today and was very disappointed. You spent 3 breaks with Mike Wingler, an old washed up alcoholic who can barely put a sentence together. You listen to his lies and BS and treat him like a hero? WTF!!! Moskos comes on and you treat him like a piece of shit. I graduated the academy with Moskos and worked with him in the Eastern District. When working in the Eastern you don’t have to be on the streets for more than a day to realize what’s going on. He was a very good cop for the time he served. I worked in the Department from 1999 until 2003 and for those 4 years I never received any sense of direction much less a “strategy” from the brass. My job was to drive a beat up patrol car, chase 911 calls, clear corners, and take home an insulting salary. The streets were the same on my last day as they were on my first as they still are today. So if you want to pat yourself on the back for a job well done, go ahead. Good job Ed!!! Perhaps you should stop being so bull headed, take a step back, listen to criticism, and learn from it. If you would have done this earlier in life maybe you would still be a cop and not a DJ.

  • My Take on Commissionar Ed Norris

    Why beat around the bush? Here’s what I think about Ed Norris as commissioner.

    Like I already wrote: I think he was a good commissioner. Not as good a commissioner as hethinks he is, but then who is? I think he was better than the guy that came before and the guy that after him.

    When Norris came in, the goal was to reduce homicides to 175. Ultimately he failed. Then he quit. Then he got convicted.

    Norris likes saying how he led the nation in crime decline every year. Errr, kind of, sort of, but, no. Not really. But it says so in Wikipeadia! Yeah, right next to “citation needed.” First of all, there’s no official stat on crime decline, so it depends how you measure it. Let’s take murder. I like murder because it’s fun and easy (to count, that is).

    Year — Baltimore Murders2000 — 262
    2001 — 259
    2002 — 253

    Norris took over in March, 2000. That was the first year in a decade that Baltimore murders dropped below 300. It was a big deal. I even got a medal (we all did). Norris deserves credit. He did things that should have been done a lot early: put cops where the crime is, clear up cold-cases, talk about crime prevention, help get cops a raise, and try and get guns off the streets. He had the right ideas. He still does.

    Since 2002, after Norris, murders are back up. In 2007 there were 282 murders. Like I said, Norris was doing something right. I’d guess he prevented about 30 murders a year as commissioner. That’s more than Iprevented last year.

    But a big decline? Well, not really. The murder rate (that’s murders per 100,000 population–don’t forget, Baltimore was losing population this whole time) didn’t go down at all between 2000 and 2002! And when Norris couldn’t get the murder rate down any more, he quit. Well, there’s a longer story, perhaps for another time.

    Biggest decline in the nation? No way. Let’s take New York City as just one example.

    Year — NYC Murders2000 — 667
    2001 — 649
    2002 — 587

    New York’s murder rate dropped more than 10% when Baltimore, under Norris, was stagnating. And this is aftermurders in New York had already gone down by two-thirds (the so called “low-hanging fruit”).

    The problem wasn’t Norris’s vision. And by and large the rank-and-file, myself included, supported him. His problem was implementing his policies.

    Ultimately my jobwas judged by arrest number and not crime prevented. I would have loved to have been brought into the district-level problem-solving meeting and asked how I thought we could do a better job? I have ideas. But that’s not how it works. In police departments, ideas come only from the top.

    I’m telling you, his “plan,” despite what he wants to believe, didn’t change my day-to-day patrol job one bit. Is that his fault? Yes and no. I don’t blame him personally. But as the man in charge, well, it is his problem.

    The weak link is middle management–the 4 layers in the chain-of-command between the commissioner and the patrol officer. Middle management believes, in this case for very good reason, that they’ll outlast this outsider boss. Just kiss ass, say yes, play nice, stay out of trouble, and hope for promotion. Meanwhile cops like me, at the bottom, go about and do their job same as it ever was.

    I wantedto write my book on the great crime drop in Baltimore. Too bad it didn’t happen.

  • Who do I think I am?

    When I’m criticized for my book (usually it’s me that is criticized and not my book), I hear the same two things again and again: 1) who does this college boy think he is? and 2) what gives you the right to be an “expert” since you were only a cop for 20 months?

    First of all, going to college is a good thing. And if you want to be professor, it’s kind of required.

    And I don’t call myself an expert. Being a cop doesn’t make you an “expert” on policing any more than being a criminal makes you an expert on crime.

    Sometimes other people do call me an expert. Usually media types (and who am I to argue?). But here’s the thing, being an expert isn’t about having done something all your life or even being able to do something well. That makes you a professional, or a master. An expert is someone who can both understandand explainsomething. That’swhat makes you an expert.

    And I have this question for high-ranking police officers who think a lowly patrol officer has no idea what’s going on. You, sir, in headquarters, what makes you think you’re an expert about my job here and now?

    When’s the last time you patrolled 8 hours? When’s the last time you walked the beat at 3am? How do you have any idea what is really going on with police and crime in mypost? Who, sir, do you think youare?

    That reflects a problem with police departments everywhere (Baltimore under Norris included). Higher ranking officers lose touch with the streets. This isn’t personal. It’s organizational. If you’re trying to reduce crime in my post, why not talk to the patrol officer. Nobody ever does.

    I do know a lot about policing. And if you’re good at asking questions, you can learn from those who know more than you (that’s called research). Would I have known more after 20 years on the force, of course! If you’ve read my book, I’ll take the criticism. I just don’t often hear criticism from those who have read my book.

    If you’ve worked the streets 20 or more years and resent me for writing a book about my brief tenure, I got this to say: write your own damn book!

    Please.

    Really. I’d love to read it.

  • Shovel of Wisdom Winner!

    So I was the Ed Norris Show. It was brutal. Brutal anddirty because they only attacked me after I was off the air. I got thick skin; I just wish I could have defended myself. He was too polite to me on the air and too harsh afterwards.

    I think the problem is that 1) I don’t think he ever read my book (despite what he said), and 2) he had read that damn City Paperarticle that is filled with errors and misrepresents my views of Ed Norris. The article quotes me as saying: “Under Norris… there was the idea that we could just arrest our way out of the problem…. It was all about stats and not about actual strategy.” That’s not, as you might imagine, my complete views on the job performance of Ed Norris as Baltimore police commissioner.

    I think he was a good commissioner. Not as good a commissioner as he thinks he was. But I think he was a lot better than what came before and after him.

    Anyway, he read the City Paper’squote and took it personally. I could see he was getting snippy with me, but I wouldn’t bite because I got nothing against the man (well, actually I do, but that has more to do with his departure and felony conviction than his tenure as commish).

    I do know you can’t arrest your way out of the drug problem. And I do believe there’s a problem in any plan working its way down from the top of the police organization to the bottom (where I was). Like the childhood game of operator, no matter what he said, by the time it filtered down through the ranks, it came down to “make arrests and keep them off our back.”

    I did like that my sergeant’s wife called in to defend me. But they ignored her and kept going back to the City Paper.

    Anyway, it’s still good to be on his show. Even bad publicity is good publicity.

  • Fewer homeless nationwide

    This is encouraging news reported in New York Times:

    The number of chronically homeless people living in the nation’s streets and shelters has dropped by about 30 percent — to 123,833 from 175,914 — between 2005 and 2007.
    […]
    The officials attribute much of the decline to the “housing first” strategy that has been promoted by the Bush administration and Congress and increasingly adopted across the country.

    In that approach, local officials place chronically homeless people into permanent shelter — apartments, halfway houses or rooms — and then focus on treating addiction and mental and health problems.
    […]
    Until cities and states began adopting the program, many of those people seemed to shuttle endlessly between shelters, hospitals and the street.


    Homeless shouldn’t be a police problem. But as always, the buck stops with police. And if nobody doesdeal with homeless, then it becomes a police problem.

    One of the silver lining’s of the Eastern District was there wasn’t much a visible homeless population. I guess that’s the advantage to a neighborhood with so many vacant buildings. A few of the vacants were squatted quite nicely. More commonly, squatting would eventually result in a drug-related fire.