In New York City, police have killed 281 people over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, a friend just gave me this a fun tidbit, in Rio de Janeiro (which is smaller than NYC) over the past ten years police have killed 8,466 people! That’s crazy. That means that every day police kill 2.3 people in that city. Just think of…
When I was on Bill O’Reilly, he used Lt. Joe Gliniewicz’s death as a lead-in to asking: “Do you believe that the black lives matter crew and other radicals are igniting violence against police officers?” I didn’t. The next day I pointed out that Black Lives Matters doesn’t have a strong foothold in Fox Lake, Illinois, which is less than…
The good ol’ days… I love spending time in John Jay College’s great Lloyd Sealy Library browsing NYPD annual police reports from 100 years ago. Even older ones are available to the public online. In 1912 the total force was 10,371 plus 268 civilian. Three motor patrol wagons were installed during the year 1912 [making 4]. It is proposed to…
For such a Landmark Case, I was curious how Terry v Ohio (1968) was reported at the time. I was thinking it would have been hard to see its potential implications at the time (though William Douglas did so in his dissent). Indeed, on June 11, 1968 the New York Times said: Held, 8 to 1, that the police may…
Another case where body cams help police officers avoid false accusations of brutality from a viral video.
I love thoughtful cops. Especially those who can write. He emailed me this and agreed to let me repost it, anonymously. I wish him well and am happy to see people like this still becoming police officers. I’m a police recruit with a B.A. in the social sciences, and I read your blog a lot. Granted I am just a…
This goes against common accepted wisdom, which refers to a recidivism rate (ending up behind bars again within three years) of about two-thirds . Here’s another good piece by Leon Neyfakh in Slate, an interview with William Rhodes. The basic gist is this. Some people recidivate a lot while others do not at all. So if you look at everybody…
Halloween is coming! 6,000 inmates are about to be released from prison. Most got about 2 years cut from a 10 year drug sentence. Think of it: 6,000 roving marauders. Pirates! Barbarians!! Thugs!!! They’ll be Shanghaiing our youth, raping our maidens, and pillaging our homes! At least that’s what I’m learning from some on the Right. (See me on Bill…
Washington Post reporters are doing what journalists are supposed to do. They’re looking at those killed by police (like the Guardian, but a bit more fairly). 815 have been shot dead by police this year as of right now (the Guardian, just FYI, pushes that number to 948. That’s a 15 increase based on people that really shouldn’t be counted…