I have lots of smart readers. Can someone please explain to me why it’s not a crime to kill somebody if you’re driving. If it were any other situation, it would be crime, right? Hell driving drunk safelyis a crime. But killing somebody sober isn’t? I don’t get it. Here’s just the latest example.
It’s always tough when you knowsomething but can’t convince others. I know foot patrol works. At least I think I know. I’ve done it. But there’s so little research out there. There’s no reason we should all still be quoting a study from 30 years ago (which did show that foot patrol reduced public fear).…
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This story blows me away both in terms of chutzpa and stupidity. Say you’re NYPD and need some extra money. Work overtime in the three-four? Naw. You don’t play that game. Instead… rent five vans, hire 16 day laborers, and then go to a perfume warehouse in Jersey where you have a connection. Then wave…
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I recently received this from a (black) Baltimore police officer: If you want to know what an Eastside drug dealer feels when confronted by Baltimore Police, show BPD ID to Montgomery County police. They tossed me out of a restaurant in Bethesda because my shirt rode up and my holstered weapon with the badge adjacent…
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Lest people think Baltimore is all ghetto, I’ll link to a Sunfeature showing some of the homes in nice neighborhoods. [The low prices listed for these neighborhoods almost make me want to move back!] Funny that Greektown, where I lived, didn’t make the cut.
While the prison population keeps going up, not many know that in some states it’s going down. Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York have reduced their prison populations by five to twenty percent since 1999 (without any increases in crime) while the national prison population increased by another twelve percent. The Sentencing Project explains.
Since there’s no good newspaper left in San Francisco, I guess it’s up to the Washington Post to report stories like this. Today, in 2010, the difference between New York City and San Francisco (or Santa Monica) is amazing. I’m always a little shocked out west and think, “Wow, I thought we figured out how…
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You may know Flint, Michigan, from “Roger and Me“. In many ways, Flint is typical of America’s struggling small cities. It’s 2000 population, just over half African-American, was 125,000 (so it’s probably down to about 110,000 right now). Flint has about 35 homicides a year, disproportionatly concentrated in its north side ghetto. Thirty-five homicides puts…
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Karen Schmeer, a friend of a dear friend, was killed on January 29 while carrying groceries home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. She was killed by a speeding car filled with drug-shoplifting hoodlums fleeing the police. The impact knocked her out of her boots and flung her through the air, half a city block. Karen’s…
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Dan Baum wrote an excellent, award winning, best selling book about New Orleans, Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans. He first spent time there as a reporter and writer for the New Yorkerin the days after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent devastating flood. A few years ago I cold-called (or email) Dan after…
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