Police

Alton Sterling

Alton Sterling was shot and killed by police yesterday. Maybe you’ve watched the video. I have. And I’ll tell you what: Other than a tussle and Sterling being shot, I have no friggin’ clue what is going on. And I’m what they call a so-called “expert” on these things. So I really don’t know how everybody else has it all…

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Police

You can’t make this sh*t up

Hours after posting about the police-involved killing of robber Robert Howard, I read Justin Fenton’s amazing storyabout the robber: “Man fatally shot by off-duty officer was also shot by police 20 years earlier.” Are you effing serious?! What are the odds? I don’t think anybody in American history has ever been shot by cops in two separate incidents. I don’t…

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Police

“He came in with a gun and announced a robbery!”

On April 15th, an off-duty Baltimore cop shot and killed a man. “Witnesses” said, according to WBAL: The officer was having an argument with the man outside the store and the man ran away toward the store. “As he was running in the store the police shot him, boom. When he got in the store, the police (officer) got over…

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Police

56 Rounds: What it means to “have cops’ backs”

Yesterday I was asked by a journalist what it means for politicians and police brass to “have cops’ backs.” It’s a fair question. It doesn’t mean not being critical of police. It doesn’t mean defending cops when they make an unreasonable mistake. It does mean giving cops the benefit of the doubt and supporting officers when they do their job.…

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Police

Why fewer police-involved shootings in Chicago might be bad

Police-involved shootings in Chicago are way down. From heyjackass.com This is great news for advocates of police reform. Chicago in 2016 will probably see police shoot just 15 or so people (based quite sketchily on January through March figures). This compares to 45 people shot in 2014. The decrease is without doubt due in part to those who keep a…

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Police

“Prosecutors ordered officers in fatal shooting be read Miranda rights”

I’m surprised that I can still be surprised at Baltimore’s State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s continued battle again Baltimore’s police. I don’t know, maybe she thinks all cops are bad because she grew up around so many bad cops. But Freudian analysis aside, imagine if the public prosecutor was out to get you and your colleagues. This concerns the latest police-involved…

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Police

“What messy justice looks like: After Peter Liang’s killing of Akai Gurley, DA Ken Thompson does the right thing twice”

Harry Siegel’s excellent column in the Daily News: The progressive prosecutor — elected on a promise to salvage Brooklyn justice from the oxymoronic state his predecessor had reduced it to — did the right thing first in holding the cop to account and convicting him before a jury of his New York City peers, and again in recommending that he…

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Police

RIP Detective Colson

“The shot that struck and killed Detective Colson was deliberately aimed at him by another police officer,” Stawinski said. “It’s another tragic dimension to this unfolding story.” Ouch. A black cop in civilian clothes being killed by other cop? This is not exactly frequent… but it is all too regular. In 170 years of US policing, you know how many…

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