The cops smell weed and bust down a door. The Supreme Court, in Kentucky v. King, say no big deal. It’s a dumb decision, but it’s not such a big deal. This decision simply reaffirms the status-quo. As best, the Court’s decision can be described as yet another nail in the coffin of the 4th…
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No doubt you, like most others, think the professorial life is all glamor, fame, leisure, wine, and women. That’s just what I wantyou to think with my frequent vacations and the fact there’s a good chance I might still be in my bathrobe at 3pm (working at home, mind you). Such perks do have their…
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One of the nice things about being a police officer is you can explore places that normal people fear to tread (or would get arrested if found). Back in 2001, I wanted a good view to conduct surveillance of a drug corner. So I entered this vacant building. This block has since been torn down.…
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One of the nice things about being a police officer is you can explore places that normal people fear to tread (or would get arrested if found). Back in 2001, I wanted a good view to conduct surveillance of a drug corner. So I entered this vacant building. This block has since been torn down.…
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The United States now has more prisoners than any other country in the world. Ever. In sheer numbers and as a percentage of the population. Our rate of incarceration is roughly seven times that of Canada or any Western European country. Despite our “land of the free” rhetoric, we deem it necessary (at great expense)…
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As you may or may not know, I’m a guest blogger on The Agitator. A clever woman I’m married to pointed out that I shouldn’t have the same things posted in both places so that when when people visit here from there (or vice versa) they’ll be rewarded for their hard-earned click. So I’m going…
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Al Sharpton and Ron Paul are the two people I can’t imagine ever voting for, and yet… God bless ’em for their contributions to presidential debates! They both liven things up, buck the Party Line, and sometimes just make plain sense (though, alas, not all the time). Here’s Paul talking about drug legalization. He makes…
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I’m skeptical of the very term prisoner “rehabilitation.” It seems rooted in a misguided sense of paternalism, implying there is some criminal class just waiting to be cured by us, the enlightened class. Rehabilitation implying there is something to “habilitate” in the first place. And this hogwash it is the very foundation upon which our…
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In a shameful move, the trustees of the City University of New York voted not to allow my college to give an honorary degree to Pulitzer Prize-winning playing Tony Kushner. It’s the first time this has happened since 1961. Why? Because one of the trustees did some research on the interwebs and found some statements…
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It what might be end of a long (and glorious?) Baltimore police tradition, two officers were convicted of misdemeanor for picking up two 15-year-old boys and dropping them off far from home, one of them barefoot. The officers were acquitted of far more serious kidnapping charges. These officers were certain not the first police officers…
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