So reports the Times. I would not have voted for this because it’s perceived as anti-police, but once again, I say that Ray Kelly get what they had coming. You do work for the city, and you’ve shown nothing but scorn for those who try and make the NYPD better. The chickens coming home to roost and all that. If…
Sorry about the shooting, Brian, but it’s not profiling if it’s the totality of the circumstances
A few posts ago I linked to nice article by Brian Beutler. He explains very well how he didn’t succumb to the “ecological fallacy” (of assuming what is true for the individual is true for the group, or vice versa) even after being held up and shot. I particularly like the line, “Everyone who’s ever shot me was black and…
We Got Another Kingpin! (12)
That’s two in one month and it makes an even dozen. “Eduardo Arellano Felix is to serve 15 years in jail, after pleading guilty to charges of money laundering,” says the BBC. Though I don’t know if this should really count since he’s been in jail since 2008, and his nickname, “The Doctor,” is kinda lame. But I’m still chalking…
Busting the Polygraph Busters
The feds are really going after people who tell how and why lie detector tests are flawed?! Does anybody know what the actual crime these people are being charged with? I always tell my students that anybody who ever has to take a polygraph test buy and read Doug Williams’s manual on why the test is flawed and how to…
Stop & Frisk: They Had It Coming
A (cop) friend in Baltimore asked me with regard to stop and frisk: “What the hell is going on?” I emailed back: You know, leaving aside the decision was entirely predicable based on the judge not exactly being a friend of police, her decision is actually kind of mild. All she f*cking asks is for cops to stop making illegal…
LEAP’s Peter Christ on Drug Prohibition
Well played, Peter. Well played.
Amsterdam Police Gay Pride
People are always tickled to see the police boat representing at the annual Amsterdam gay pride boat parade. What’s unusual about this photo isn’t that hundreds of thousands (including every straight family I know) turn out for the gay pride parade in Amsterdam, it’s that there’s a blue sky. No city is as beautiful as Amsterdam in the sun with…
Now This News
Short video on the problem of opiate painkillers. I get my two-cents in at about three minutes in. Ironically, I may have been or Percocet while being interviewed!
Another Drug War Victim
Daniel Chongwas awarded $4 million after he was detained, told he wouldn’t be charged, and then left in a windowless cell in the DEA’s San Diego headquarter without food or water for four days. He drank his urine to stay alive and after being found spent three days in the ICU. Hey, mistakes happen. The DEA regrets the error.
Worth Reading
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Stop and Frisk. It’s also well worth scrolling down to read his posts on Trayvon Martin and Zimmerman. Coates is one of the main reasons I haven’t written very much on the subject (another being I was on the road). Coates wrote what I was thinking. And he wrote it very well.