Lenny Levitt on Adrian Schoolcraft: Larry [his father], who appeared to be calling the shots, hired and fired half a dozen lawyers…. Over the years, their behavior became increasingly bizarre. For months at a time they would disappear. They continually changed their phone numbers. At one point, one of the lawyers asked Frank Serpico, who lived nearby and had befriended…
“Was the Shooting of Tamir Rice ‘Reasonable’?”
Another good story by Leon Neyfakh in Slate. This one with some legal analysis on the two reports that judged the shooting of Tamir Rice in Cleveland “reasonable.” Here’s a link to the audio of the radio dispatch.
Baltimore in The Onion
I’m totally stealing this from the Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Preparing For Hurricane Joaquin By Adding Second Layer Of Plywood To Shuttered Small Businesses Camden Yards Concessions To Stop Selling Crack After Seventh Inning Baltimore Residents Urged To Stay Indoors Until Social Progress Naturally Takes Its Course Over Next Century Final Police Report: Only 20,000 Killed During Ravens’ Super Bowl Parade …
Prop 47 in California
In the Washington Post. In the 11 months since the passage of Prop 47, more than 4,300 state prisoners have been resentenced and then released. Drug arrests in Los Angeles County have dropped by a third. Jail bookings are down by a quarter. … Robberies up 23 percent in San Francisco. Property theft up 11 percent in Los Angeles. Certain…
Tamir Rice shooting “reasonable”
From when it happened I said the police shooting of Tamir Rice — though tactically shameful and morally tragic — was “reasonable.” That didn’t make me too many friends outside the police world. But “reasonableness” is judged from the perspective of a reasonable police officer. And now outside two reports have come to a similar conclusion. They “justify” the shooting…
“We can’t walk away.”
Baltimore’s Acting Commissioner Kevin Davis speaks about this video where officers fight with a suspect: The community doesn’t expect police officers to walk by that type of thing. … I’ve watched the video 5 or 6 times and think the officers showed remarkable restraint. … This is where the art form of policing is really best spoken about. What does…
2015 NYPD firearms discharge report
From the NYPD firearms discharge report for 2014: In adversarial conflict, 58 NYPD officers fired 201 rounds in 35 incidents. In total, 104 NYPD officers fired 282 rounds shot in 79 incidents. 18 incidents involving animal attack. There were 4 suicides. In adversarial conflict: 41% of officers fired one round. No officer had to reload. 52% of those shootings were…
The Freddie Gray investigation
Haven’t read this yet, but looks interesting. By Justin George in the Baltimore Sun: In the days following Freddie Gray’s death, The Baltimore Sun had exclusive access to police investigators as they gathered evidence, debated legal issues and weathered public pressure.
Data on police-involved killings of unarmed civilians
The creators of StreetCredrecently brought their work to my attention. They like data. So do I. They’re trying to flesh out the situations when police kill an unarmed person. Unarmed does not automatically mean a person isn’t a threat. It’s interesting that the majority of these cases are not officer initiated but involve police response to a call for service…
Murder in Baltimore Post Riot
Here’s the latest in terms of Baltimore homicides, pre and post riot. The downward slope is a slight silver lining in a homicide rate the doubled overnight.