Dolan Cummings of Culture Wars has written the best review of my book. I don’t mean the most positive review (though I’m very glad he liked my book); I mean the best written review. They sure writes good with that there English language in England. Along with being the first to juxtapose me, Venkatesh, Homicide,…
Read more
Crime alert tip provided by I Can Has Cheezeburger.
The New York Timescame out today with an editorialagainst lowering the drinking age. That surprised me, especially from a paper that says we’re not winning the war on drugs. I started drinking when I was 15. Most people do. Seems to me that the legal drinking age for beer and wine should be 16 or…
Read more
A Baltimore reader emailed me this: Michael Verdugo is a police officer in Florida who was on the HGTV show Design Star. He’s openly gay and a porn blog revealed that five years prior to becoming a police he was in a gay porn film. The police department he is in suspended him to investigate…
Read more
Jack Cole, the founder of LEAP, has an op-ed in today’s Boston Globe. WAR AND RACE dominate the presidential campaign, but one nation-shaping war with profound racial consequences eludes the political radar: the drug war. I was a frontline soldier in this self-perpetuating, ineffectual effort that has swallowed more than a trillion tax dollars and…
Read more
A federal a local task force, HIDTA (“High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area”) busted down 27 doors in what must have been a very long night’s work. I hope people feel safer.
Baltimore Sun reporter Peter Hermann doesn’t exactly crack the case, but he does provide a bit more insight and analysis than you usually find in such a story. Read it here.
At many many bars in Baltimore, there are video gambling games. Video poker games. Not video games. Not Ms. Pac Man or Galaga. These are not something you would play for fun. You play for money. They’re gambling games. If you’re a regular, the bartender will pay you out if you win. Police raided some…
Read more
“You can’t arrest your way out of problems in a neighborhood,” the sheriff said. Communication between the community and law enforcement, Bradshaw said, is crucial. It’s my favorite line. I’ve said it a bunch myself. You canarrest your way out of some problems, but not drug problems in a drug neighborhood. There’s a piece about…
Read more
No surprise here. The question is what will happen to the officer.