I received a very gracious and lengthy email from a very prominent professor (which in and of itself was thrilling). He read Cop in the Hood and wrote, in part: There are police and there are police. They all look similar to the general public because they are all (most, at least) in similar uniforms,…
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Ten beheadings in Mexico wasn’t enough to make me post…. But then killing 12 police officers who came to investigate? That’s hardcore. From the New York Times. Let me know when we start winning this war.
Retired Baltimore Police Officer and amateur historian William Hackley passed away. Were it not for Officer Hackley, so much of the history of the BPD would be lost to time. I never met him, though I think I contributed a few pictures to his website. Give it a look (and get ready for some old-school…
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Except this time it was Ray Kelly who was doing the smacking down. He gave it back good to the New York City Council on the subject of stop and frisks and violence among minority youths. From the New York Times: “What I haven’t heard is any solution to the violence problems in these communities…
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There’s a great review of William Stuntz’s book, The Collapse of American Criminal Justice (which I have but have not read). Stuntz was conservative, just FYI. The review is by Leon Neyfakh in the Boston Globe. Stuntz’s point is that procedural justice is not the same is real justice. And the trend towards the former,…
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It doesn’t happen often. But here it is. Oh, no, it’s not a US police force. That would be a sign of weakness. Wouldn’t be prudent. Might admit legal liability.
I didn’t know that Tony Bennett came out for drug legalization. Tony Bennett is a hometown hero here in Astoria, Queens. I mean, I’ve had more than a few debates with old timers about how great Tony Bennett is. And it’s strange, because we’d both be on the same side. Old man: “Tony Bennett is…
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I wrote in the New York Times: Much — though by no means all — of the disproportionate rate of blacks stopped, frisked, arrested, convicted and imprisoned is a simple reflection of violence in poor African-American communities. Like robbing banks because that’s where the money is, the obvious reason police focus so much of their…
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From Salon.com, regarding an interview they did with me: The June 20, 2011, story “Could Flogging Solve Our Prison Crisis” initially stated that “the Corrections Corporation of America helped draft anti-immigration laws,” a reference to the draft legislation that later became Arizona SB 1070. CCA has brought it to our attention that although CCA did…
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There were many periods of silence in the police academy. The environment didn’t exactly encourage free and independent thinking. During these awkward moments, Agent Cassidy, when he was in the room, was fond of bellowing out, often apropos of nothing, “Moskos, your thoughts!” Thirteen years later, these might be most (only?) remembered words from the…
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