I’ve always wondered and never been able to figure out exactly how much police cars cost to operate. Somebody in motor-pool must know, but nobody has told me. Here’s an article in the New York Times about a fleet for OTB. No doubt cheaper than cop cars. The vehicles cost an average of $6,700 each…
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Esquire.com just published a nice piece by John Richardson about my op-ed co-author, Neill Franklin, on violence in the drug war. We’ve heard a lot about the terrible death toll Mexico has suffered during the drug war — over 11,000 souls so far. This helps to account for the startling lack of controversy that greeted…
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Somebody tried to do to me what I tried to do to the Heritage Foundation. I was accused of playing fast and loose the numbers in my Washington Post op-ed. In the old days I could have just challenged him to a duel. I’d feel pretty confident going into that battle! Instead I have to…
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OK. I’ll be honest. I had never heard of the guy either. But it turns out he might be responsible for America’s great crime drop (not that he ever claimed such a feat). But he did hire Bill Bratton to run the New York Transit Police, and that was perhaps the start of it all.…
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A nice articlein Reason by Radley Balko. This one on police TV shows and use of force. Of course, there isn’t “always a good time to use a Taser,” as the multitude of viral web videos depicting taserings of grandmothers, pregnant women, and children will attest. TLC’s ad campaign is offensive, though merely the latest…
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The generally conservative and pro-legalization Economist reports: The evidence from Portugal since 2001 is that decriminalisation of drug use and possession has benefits and no harmful side-effects. … IN 2001 newspapers around the world carried graphic reports of addicts injecting heroin in the grimy streets of a Lisbon slum. The place was dubbed Europe’s “most…
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In November I’m speaking at a conference in Leeds, UK, on The Wire (the HBO TV show). I need a title for my presentation. I can’t think of anything. Of course I have no idea what I’m going to say yet. But I still need a title. Anybody out there have any good idea for…
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I love Maryland crabs. Even more than I love Maryland venison. And I do love eating the deer. But I think steamed blue crab may be the most delicious food in the world. Last night my friend cooked a true Maryland-inspired crab feast for twenty people. She’s gone down to Baltimore twice now for my…
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Nothing new here. But it’s good to have a refresher course every now and then. It’s too easy for prisoners to be out of sight and out of mind. (plus these are the neatest diagrams I’ve found in the subject) Now it’s 2,300,000 behind bars. The increase is all since 1970 and the war on…
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In June, Ford Motor Co. invited the heads of some of the nation’s largest police fleets to Dearborn to talk about the future of police cars. For nearly two decades, that market has belonged to Ford’s Crown Victoria — a vehicle that departments from coast to coast have come to respect for its toughness and…
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