Year: 2011

Mexico Frustrated at US Inability to Control Border

At least when it comes to our guns and demand for drugs. Calderon and Obama met, and seemed to accomplish nothing. Of course the border can’t be sealed, not if we want free trade. So we’ll keep getting their drugs, because we want them and have money. And they’ll keep getting our guns, because they…
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The Headline You Never See

“An Angry Man Is Met by a Smart, Experienced Police Team” But this headline is real. And it’s not from the Onion. It’s from the New York Times. The story is by Al Baker. I did not know, as his bio says, that he’s the son of a police officer. Maybe that’s why his stories…
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Alvarez is no Ham Sandwich

A grand jury didn’t indict Angel Alvarez. This is surprising, given how they say a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. Here’s what I wrote about his shooting back in August.

Fewer Cops = More Crime

That’s the news from Camden. Though I should point out that were it not for the layoffs (almost half the department!), the chief would probably be boasting that homicides are down. But everything else is up, including shootings. Hmmm, maybe there’s a correlation between fewer cops and bad aim?

How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam

Here’s an interesting article by Meg Stalcup and Joshua Craze in The Washington Monthly. The subtitle is: “There aren’t nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of America’s police–So we got these guys instead.” Despite their different backgrounds, the counterterrorism trainers we interviewed have a remarkably similar worldview. It is one of total, civilizational war–a…
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Ha!

Read this column by Thomas Friedman and this satire.

On Unions

A level-heading analysis from David Leonhardt in the New York Times: Fat and happy government workers, however easy the caricature may be, are not the cause of our looming federal and state deficits. Neither are spineless politicians. The cause is Americans’ collective desire for low taxes and generous government benefits. We want our politicians to…
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Cannabis use ‘raises psychosis risk’

Sez a study reported in the BBC.

The Art of Report Writing

Cops hate paperwork. Hell, everybody hates paperwork. But policing has more of it on a day-to-day basis than most occupations. And there’s an art to writing a good police report. I like to think my writing skills made me a better police officer. And it’s why as a professor I stress the importance of writing…
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DEA Runs Out of Money

Don’t I wish! Actually, the DEA is just out of money to help localities clean up meth labs after they’re raided. Cleaning up a meth lab costs $2,500. Last year the DEA allocated just $10 million to the cause. Obama’s new budget cuts this funding. I guess when you’re as lean and trim as the…
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