Police

Can you get away with murder?

Most of the time. The City Paper is starting to look into homicides to see what actually happens in the Hall of Justice. Sometimes somebody gets put away. Most of the times, not. I was turned onto this by the unfortunately fascinating Baltimore Crime Blog.

Police

That’s where the money is

A 10AM robbery of an armored truck pulled up at Lexington Market is bold, to say the least. Here’s the Sun’s account. Makes me think of the line from the Godfather, at least as I remember it: “Forget the gun, grab the crabcake!”

Police

I am enjoying your book

This came to me today: I came across your book at baltimorecrime.blogspot.com, so far I am 50 pages in to it and I have to say that you have an excellent way of speaking the truth. I am a Baltimore police officer […] and I have a B.S. in Criminal Justice from […] (I am debating whether or not to…

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Police

The Great(,) Humiliation Column

I got a call from Laura Vozzella of the Baltimore Sunthe other day. I thought maybe she was a reviewer asking about a press release from Princeton Press telling reviewers to hold off until the new edition is out. But I got worried when I started talking about the errors and heard the tapity-tap-type of note taking in the background.…

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Police

A genuine “good guy”

Initially my presence was greeted with skepticism, especially from supervisors who believed, probably accurately, that nothing good could come from my writing. One lieutenant told me: “Moskos, I like you. But I don’t want anything to do with your book. I don’t want to be in it. I don’t want my name in it. I don’t want any part of…

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Police

Officer Down

It’s horrible anytime a police officer dies. It’s particularly horrible when it’s at the hands of another police officer. If the Baltimore Sun is correct, the officer who died had 44 years on. I didn’t know any officer had 44 years on. My condolences to the officer’s family.

Police

From the Economist

This is from the Economist: Thursday I’M STANDING on a street lined with boarded-up shops—a popular haven for drug-dealers. A police officer is frisking a suspect whose trousers are nearly around his knees. The policeman didn’t pull them down; that’s how the suspect wears them. A bit impractical, perhaps, if his line of work requires him to run away from…

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Police

Tar and feathers?

One of my fears is that my book won’t be well received by my cop friends in Baltimore. I’m proud of the book. And I think it’s pro-police because it shows the shit we had to deal with. Good workers in a bad system. But I’m always been afraid that cops wouldn’t like it because it’s not 100% pro-police. I…

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Police

Waiting for execution

There’s a lot of pathos in this video. And a hell of a Baltimore accent. A visit to Maryland’s supermax. And quite an indictment of the criminal justice system.