If you want to hear some details about Baltimore police and policing during after the riots, listen to this 20 minute discussion with Sgt Robinson and Lt Butler on WBAL with C4.
Tag: police culture
How about telling cops what they should do rather than what they shouldn’t do?
Here’s my piece in today’s New York Times: Critics of police — and there have been a lot this past year — are too focused on what we don’t want police to do: don’t make so many arrests; don’t stop, question and frisk innocent people; don’t harass people; don’t shoot so many people, and for God’s sake don’t do any…
David Simon and the Code
This interview with David Simonis well worth reading in its entirety. Does he get some things wrong? Sure. Is he a little too believing that cops with the best stories are representative of the entire police department? Sure. (Among other things, drug-free zones were never used to arrest people. Too much paperwork. But that change the horrible concept of a…
Too many? Too few? Or just right?
Arrests are way down in Baltimore. But not just this month (though they are) but over many years. There were 40,000 arrests in 2014 (3,300 a month). In 2003 there were 114,000 arrests. Like I said, arrests are way down. This is worth repeating because it goes against a narrative that the riots were somehow the inevitable result of overaggressive…
Murder in Baltimore
With murdered doubled post-riot, you’d think more people would care. I don’t mean people in high-crime neighborhoods in Baltimore, they do care. It’s all those other people who so righteously saw police as the biggest problem in the hood. Where are they, now that the murder rate has doubled? Oh, and how did that “gang truce” work out? Well that…
“Group on the corner, disorderly, no further, anonymous”
I don’t want to make too much out of this, but there is something just a little funny about a reporter being robbed on camera and then running, in tears, to the police. No, it’s not funny because somebody is robbed. No, it’s not funny that she was traumatized by it. It is just a little funny because at the…
An interview with BPD Commissioner Batts
Both lengthy and honest, from 2011, when Batts was “between jobs.” Post-Oakland. Pre-Baltimore. [thanks to a commenter]
“All types come out of the woodwork”
I always welcome intelligent comments from police officers. Here is an email (lightly edited) from a retired sergeant about police-involved shootings in general. I always appreciate thoughtful comments from police officers. I don’t necessarily agree with everything he writes (but I don’t need to). It’s a well stated opinion based on experience. When it comes to police issues, we don’t…
The latest from Baltimore: Freddie Gray
Things are tense for police after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore Police custody. I got no clue what happened. And I’m not going to say much till I do. Keep in mind that Baltimore cops don’t know what happened. But boy is this turning into quote a jackpot. A man died in police custody. Of a broken spine.…
Too far a gap to bridge?
I lose hope when, on one hand, the South Carolina F.O.P uses the term, “professional race agitators” in a press release. As a former dues-paying member, I will gladly offer my editing service gratis to any FOP newsletter. Seriously. If your goal is P.R. and you’re talking about “the recent tragedy.” Do not use the term “professional race agitators” in…