Month: December 2009

It’s not new, but is it fair?

I wasn’t even going to link to this story because I don’t want to repeat myself more than necessary. Here’s the point: black New Yorkers are seven times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. For a moment, let’s put aside the actually story (not that we should). For the sake of…
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Stocking stuffers of the century!

And the century has just barely begun. How come nobody is buying Cop in the Hood for Christmas? My Amazon sales rank is rapidly approaching infinity. Not good. Last I checked, more than 200,000 book were selling better than my book. That’s a lot of books being bought that aren’t mine. I can’t think of…
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They are most definitely not playing

Only hours after the grieving family had finished burying [Ensign Melquisedet Angulo Córdova, a Special Forces sailor killed last week during the government’s most successful raid on a top drug lord in years] in his hometown, gunmen burst into the family’s house and sprayed the rooms with gunfire, killing his mother and three other relatives,…
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Read it for the writing (don’t peek at the pictures!)

“A pre-Christmas 2003 “Code Orange” terror alert that had police standing guard in heavy assault gear on the streets of Manhattan was the result of a scam by a man named Dennis Montgomery.” From Playboy.

CopCams in San Jose

To record interactions with the public. The storyin the Mercury News.

Check out my dope suspenders!

I know you think it’s cool to be chillin’ with your pants hanging low, but funny things happen when your pants don’t stay up. For one, if you’re running and I’m chasing you and you’ve got one hand holding your pants up, I will actually catch you. Two, if you’re like Hector Quinones of the…
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Jackpot!

Problems in Baltimore Internal Affairs? I’m shocked. Shocked! Neither, I suppose, is Justin Fenton. Here is his story in the Sun. Remember the whole Staples affair from my era? “Stolen” confidential police files that then showed up in a Dunkin Donuts dumpster? You can’t make this stuff up. And you wonder why cops don’t trust…
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Ayers killing “justified”

Indeed, you read it here first (many thanks to my anonymous tipster). Here’s the story by Stephen Gurr in the Gainesville Times. Of course regardless of this decision and any lack of criminal conviction, the Ayers’ family will get a lot of money in some civil case. But no amount of money will bring Jonathan…
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The killing of Jonathan Ayers judged “good”

I have just received word over the virtual transom (as of yet still unconfirmed word [update: now confirmed]) that this morning the grand jury decided notto bring criminal charges against the officers who killed Jonathan Ayers. I would have loved to have heard the facts as they were presented because knowing what I do know,…
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Here’s a no brainer: Clean needles

Clean needles save lives. Clean needles make policing less dangerous because 1) it limits the spread of HIV and and hepatitis, and 2) which would you prefer to get stuck with? So logically, police are big supports of clean needles and needle exchange (oh, wait, I just made that last part up). There have been…
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