Daniel Chongwas awarded $4 million after he was detained, told he wouldn’t be charged, and then left in a windowless cell in the DEA’s San Diego headquarter without food or water for four days. He drank his urine to stay alive and after being found spent three days in the ICU. Hey, mistakes happen. The…
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Ta-Nehisi Coates on Stop and Frisk. It’s also well worth scrolling down to read his posts on Trayvon Martin and Zimmerman. Coates is one of the main reasons I haven’t written very much on the subject (another being I was on the road). Coates wrote what I was thinking. And he wrote it very well.
Why it was less than a year ago that we got Heriberto Lazcano, the founder and principal leader of the Zetas. And now the Times reports: The leader of … the Zetas, was captured Monday in a city near the Texas border, an emphatic retort from the new government to questions over whether it would…
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Am I disappointed in the verdict? Yes. Is it inconceivable based on the idiodically written stand your ground law? Alas, no. And now that Zimmerman walks free, can we talk more about repealing this horrible law? Legal justice is not moral justice. I wrote this last year: The law is written in such a way…
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I received this interesting and thought-provoking email from my friend Alan (bold added): It seems to me that if Zimmerman is convicted of a felony, then the Florida laws are apparently defensible. Sure, a guy is allowed to shoot someone in certain circumstances; in this case such circumstances did not present and so he’s going…
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Prof. Carl Hart on modern reefer madness: Harry J. Anslinger, commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (predecessor of the Drug Enforcement Administration) declared, “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.” Seven decades and hundreds of studies later, we no longer have an excuse for indulging the myth of “reefer madness.”…
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Just strolling around Oakland at midnight, as you do. Notice the cop car crashing into the donut O. As I took this picture a man stopped, looked at me, and said sternly… “Don’t miss the giant owl across the street.” I didn’t. It was big. But too big for a good picture with a phone…
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If you care about the militarization of police, and Radley Balko makes a strong case you should, read his “fascinating and sometimes terrifying” Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. That quote is mine. And you can find them in the July/August issue of Pacific Standard, a great new (to me)…
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The questioneverybody is asking, for sure. I don’t even know, when is the cheapest time to buy crabs? Clearly not this week. (if you click on the link, you can see the crabs are still alive, which is pretty amazing for a cooked crab!)
I’ll be gracing the ever-mysterious world of Second Life again tonight. It’s a nice long-form discussion. And you can listen in in your first life as well. Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd. Tonight at 9pm, New York time. It’s about the militarization of police.