Over at Nola Crime News, Jeff Asher tweeted this graphicjust now. Click on it; it moves! So while people are dying, I’m thinking about data presentation. There’s something about a moving line that may make one pay attention to dead people in a way that actual dead people don’t. Jeff’s graphic looks at Baltimore City shooting victims over the past…
Since I’ve been remiss at writing anything here recently, I’m going to link to a piece from Jim Glennon at Calibre Press: [Baltimore] Mayor Pugh then thanked federal officials for their assistance in the arrest of a man who murdered a three-year-old in 2014. … The Mayor’s expectation that the FBI can assist in the day-to-day in Baltimore not only…
I’m curious what cops think about this police-involved shooting in Portland, Oregon: Hearst, a seven-year bureau member who became a police officer after graduating from Multnomah University’s bible college, said he never saw Hayes with a gun, but was trained not to wait to see one. [emphasis added] “Because if I let him get his hands on his gun, he…
San Francisco Sgt Adam Plantinga always had good insight on policing. A few years back I posting a bunch of excerpts from his book: 400 Things Cops Know. Plantinga was interviewed recently in The Christian Century and addresses some tough issues. It’s worth reading the whole interview, but in case you don’t: There’s a 90-10 rule in law enforcement: 90…
“The corrupt and brutal ones always work together as if pulled by some magnetic force.” (Perhaps said by a Chicago cop, but I can neither cite nor verify.) I think the reason why, might be as simple as the fact that nobody likes to be given the stink-eye by their colleagues. So if most people disapprove of what you do,…
The Feds arrested seven Baltimore City cops today. I don’t know all the details yet, but the robbery charges seem major. “Robberies while wearing a police uniform,” I just heard. But you know what? Even without knowing the details I can go out on a very short limb and predict a few things. Why? Because it’s always the same. And…
[See my previous post on Ed Flynn.] Flynn isn’t new at this. A few years back, Flynn was answering questions about a controversial police-involved shooting. At a community meeting, some criticized him for being “disrespectful,” because he was on his phone. His response is well worth watching. The cop involved in that shooting was later fired. Officers voted Flynn a…
Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn is smarter than your average flatfoot. Generally considered a progressive in the police world, he’s the type of chief who should at least be embraced by the political left. But Milwaukee is one of the latest police department to be sued by the ACLU for racially disparate policing. But Flynn refuses to de-police the city’s…
I wrote this article for the Washington Post: President Trump declared in executive orders this month that the federal government would try to “reduce crime in America” and that the White House was opposed to violence against law enforcement officers. … Crime reduction does not happen through fearmongering or federal fiat. And violence against police is illegal. But although the…
A Baltimore police officer shot and killed an armed man who pointed a loaded gun at him. You’d think this would be cut and dried. But no. It’s Baltimore. I mean really, if any police-involved shooting is clear cut. It’s this one. Luckily for police, the cop had a body camera. Luckily it captures (barely) the key moment. Deal, a…