Author: Moskos

Broken Windows (or booze bottles)

This type of crime bothers me far more than it should. Known (at least to the cognoscente) as the “Broken Bottle Scam,” some S.O.B. bumps into somebody (usually a tourist), drops a bottle of booze, and confrontationally demands $40 for a replacement. That’s old-school New York and it’s wrong. Crap like that preys on the…
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“Retiree who yelled ‘Gun’ has ‘annoying habit’ of visiting crime scenes”

“He listens to scanners and races to locations where police are called, a source told the New York Post.”

The DEA and the Death Penalty

Good ol’ Radley has the most interesting take I’ve read. The subject is the DEA seizing death-penalty drugs in Georgia because they were… bought illegally from a foreign country.

“My name is Frunk-en-steen”

That’s a “Young Frankenstein” reference, for all you kids out there. That’s from back in the days when Mel Brooks was funny. Or at least funny to a seven-year-old. I watched that from the family Datsun with my dad and brother at the old Sunset Drive-Inon McCormick Blvd in Skokie, ILL. Man, I sound like…
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NYC Marijuana Arrests Cost City $75 mil

So reports the Daily Newsabout a new reportby the Drug Policy Alliance. In response, Commissioner Kelly says if you don’t like, call your state senator. Of course, that’s a bit disingenuous because the law is already pretty clear: small-scale possession of marijuana in New York State is not an arrestable offense. The problem is how…
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Mistaken-Identity Police Shootings in Black and White

The death of a Nassau County police officer got me thinking about cases of police officers shot by other cops. There’s the belief out there that black officers are much more at risk of being mistaken for suspects than are white officers. It’s also been said (by me?) that such accidental mistaken-identity shootings almost never…
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RIP Officers Breitkopf and Schaberger

Nassau County Officer Geoffrey Breitkopf was killed in case of mistaken identity. In Brooklyn, NYPD Officer Alain Schaberger was killed trying to arrest a violent man, who pushed him over a stoop railing. “Mr. Villanueva had been arrested at least three times on charges of domestic violence against the same woman he was accused of…
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Say What?

“Nuclear facilities in Japan … were built to withstand earthquakes — but not an 8.9 earthquake.” What?! And why not? It’s not like such big earthquakes have never happened before. The idea that nuclear plants (and waste) need to be kept safe FOREVER seems to be the fatal flaw of the pro-nuclear position. Hubris, people.…
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NPR Video

I love NPR. And if I didn’t live in a big city, I’d be more passionate about cutting federal support for what is truly an essential public service in small-town and rural American (public radio is essential here in New York City, too–but it would survive just OK without federal funding). This is from Glen…
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