This review of Cop in the Hood comes from Largehearted Boy. He keeps a music blog and is also reading and reviewing 52 books in 52 weeks: With our images of policemen and their work too often coming from dramatic television these days, a book like Peter Moskos’Cop in the Hoodis refreshing. A sociologist, Moskos spends a year in the…
Shameless Self-Promotion
Don’t forget to buy my book! OK, now that that’s out of the way… Tuesday from 12 to 12:40 (that’s tomorrow), I’ll be on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC. And keep your eyes out for a piece I just wrote in support of drug legalization for my new favorite news magazine, U.S. News & World Report. I don’t know…
Foot Patrol
Kind of like my idea, Policing Green. Officers turn to foot because of rising gas prices. Here’s the story from the New York Times. Thanks to Charlene, a former student of mine, for sending me the article.
And she didn’t even snitch!
The LAPD was interrogated a murder suspect. A detective told the suspect that a girl he knew had ratting him out. Said she had picked him up out of lineup and signed her name. They even showed him the lineup with her initials. But it was a trick. A ruse. She had nothing to do with it. What happened next…
WNYC Radio Gig
I’ll be on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show this coming Tuesday, July 22, at 12 noon (Eastern Time). The show is rebroadcast at 3am the following morning. You can listen live through their website or stream through your iTunes (look under: radio, public, then WNYC AM or FM). I hate to admit it, but Mr. Lopate is very often the first…
Officials Struggle With Rise in Knife Crimes Among Britain’s Youths
Knife crimes? If only we could be so lucky! The story is here. For all the panic about rising knife violence in London, let’s keep in mind that London has 7.3 million people and about 160 murders a year. That’s fewer than New York City. Hell, it’s even fewer than Baltimore (population: 650,000)! And it’s not that London has a…
Off-Duty Detective Who Shot a Gunman After Drinking Is Restored to Full Duty
I should hope so! The right thing was done. In the end. Too bad it was even an issue to begin with. This cop did everything right. The important thing isn’t if off-duty cops are drinking, it’s if they do the right thing. It’s one thing if Mothers Against Drug Driving imposes it’s Prohibitionist and puritanical views on our driving…
Snitchin’
The New York Timeshas an article about covering up a “Stop Snitchin’” mural. The shame is that we need snitches… I mean witnesses… willing to testify. Too bad it’s dangerous. If we didn’t use snitches so much in locking up drug criminals, I bet snitching wouldn’t have such a bad name.
Wall Street Journal Book Review
The Wall Street Journal reviewed Cop in the Hoodtoday. In the small world of books like this, that’s big. And it’s a good review! My only complaint is his assertion in the last paragraph that I lacked the impulse to run toward gunfire. I often did. My heart was big enough to be a good researcher anda good police officer.…
Bad Person. Bad Judge.
Too many people refuse to believe that there are some truly bad people out there. Some people are just bad. Police know this. Judges don’t. Is it unfair to throw someone in prison for a long time for a technical violation of parole? Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on the person. Just because you can’t convict a person doesn’t mean he’s…