Year: 2008

Teens Cite Ease of Access to Drugs

The Washington Postreports: “A growing number of teenagers say it’s easier to illegally obtain prescription drugs than to buy beer or marijuana.” 19 percent, to be exact (according to the survey from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuseat Columbia University). 25% say marijuana is the easiest, with 43 percent saying they could buy…
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I love you, Baltimore!

You know what I love about Baltimore? When I’m there, very often I want to burst out singing, “I love you, Baltimore!” just like Tracy Turnblad from “Hairspray.” Usually, I resist the urge. These past two days in Charm City were no exception. I never felt so welcome moving to a city as I did…
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Cop’s gun “accidentally” fires

The Daily Newsreports that a cop’s gun “accidentally” fired. No it di’int!If there’s one thing I learned as a cop, it’s that guns don’t fire by themselves. You gotta pull the trigger. Now there is a chance, if your finger is on the trigger, that you could get hit by something and accidentally squeeze the…
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Big bust in Australia

Australia police confiscated 15 million pills of ecstasy. That’s a lot of dancing! The ecstasy was hidden in cans from Italy, supposedly of canned tomatoes. What’s amazing about hauls of these huge sizes is just how little they matter. Why, what if all that ecstasy had gotten through?! I mean just think, every shipment before…
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Hit it!

Ha! “Apparently, McDonald’s didn’t realize something everyone else did, namely that the “I’d hit it” slogan adorning a banner ad means “I fancy it sexually” in the language of its target audience, and that the slogan sounds somewhat strange in the context of hamburger advertising.”

More on NYPD vs. bicyclists

If you need more proof that something ain’t right in how the NYPD handles Manhattan’s Critical Mass bike ride, you should watch this video on the blog, The Agitator. There’s an anti-police tone I don’t like. And overproduction. And half-assed legal knowledge (there is no Constitutional right you “wave” when you identify yourself to police.…
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Yes to Free Coffee

I always accepted free coffee. And I’m proud of it. There’s nothing wrong with that. The links I built over coffee helped me be a better patrolman. Accepting free coffee or a free meal should not be against the rules. But it is. People say it’s the start of corruption, but it’s not. I mention…
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Special delivery

If you want to keep a bad drug raid from hitting the papers, I guess you shouldn’t do it to prominent white folk (see picture). Doug Donovan in the Baltimore Sun reports: [The Mayor of Berwyn Hights, Prince George County, Maryland] Calvo’s home was raided by the county Sheriff’s Office SWAT team and narcotics officers…
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Inform the public

I got this in a email from a Baltimore Police Officer. I couldn’t say it better myself: At the end of the day, I hope more officers will see your book as a vehicle to inform the academic community and public about the many challenges of policing in a poor urban environment. I think the…
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Apologies in flex squad case

Annie Linskey writes in the Sun. The full story is here. City settles, calls supervisor a ‘law-abiding officer’ Two and a half years after allegations surfaced that an elite Baltimore police unit had become a rogue operation, the city did an about-face, agreeing yesterday to pay the squad’s supervisor a six-figure settlement and issuing a…
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