Author: Moskos

Crime is up then down than level then down slightly (then up)

The Atlantic has a fun guess-the-homicide-rate-over-timegame! Turns out I’m really good at this game. But I shouldn’t boast; I have no excuse not to do well. I show this chart literally half a dozen times in each and every class I teach. What I don’t like is how dismissive they are of the current increase…
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Hands up don’t shoot

“As long as I got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me. This is what I’m thinking. Wow. Was I wrong.” What the f*ck? Charles Kinsey is almost obscenely complaint. And unarmed. Does anybody have a link to a video that shows the moment he’s shot? I’d like to see it. But unless…
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Princeton in the Nation’s Service

My alma mater sent this out to their graduate-student mailing list. From: W. Rochelle Calhoun [rochelle.calhoun@PRINCETON.EDU] Sent: Friday, July 08, 2016 2:44 PM To: allgs@Princeton.EDU Subject: Letter from Vice President Calhoun and Deans Dolan and Kulkarni Dear Princeton Students, Within the past few days, we have been faced with the tragic deaths of Alton Sterling…
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Reducing police-involved shooting & “The List”

This past week John McWhorter and I were both (separately) on Bloggingheads.tv with Glenn Loury to talk about race and all the recent shootings. McWhorter emphasized race as a factor of those shot by police and: challenged those who disagree to present a list of white people killed within the past few years under circumstances…
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Bloggingheads with Glenn Loury

Me on Bloggingheads with Glenn Loury.

Obama’s Dallas Memorial Speech

I like Obama (as do most Americans). And I know he couldn’t win over all cops with his speech in Dallas at the memorial for Officers Zamarippa, Ahrens, Krol, Smith, and Thompson. I knew, and this turned out to be correct, that even before the speech was done Obama haters would find a line or…
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Tone it down

I wrote thislast night for CNN, about the massacre in Dallas: Words have the power to inspire, inflame, provoke. Or else we wouldn’t say them. When words inspire others to kill, however deranged those others might be, we must see the consequences. When those on the political right speak against immigrants, Muslims or abortion, those…
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Philando Castile

This police-involved shooting is bad. And unlike the killing of Alton Sterling in Louisiana, I’m willing to call this one before the polls have closed. This more recent shooting in Falcon Heights, Minnesota reminded me of Joseph Schultz. Schultz, you probably don’t remember because you’ve never heard of him, got shot in the face in…
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Alton Sterling

Alton Sterling was shot and killed by police yesterday. Maybe you’ve watched the video. I have. And I’ll tell you what: Other than a tussle and Sterling being shot, I have no friggin’ clue what is going on. And I’m what they call a so-called “expert” on these things. So I really don’t know how…
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Low Police Morale (or: the more things change…)

Last night a police captain said: I’m in the Department and had better keep my mouth shut. But I must candidly say that I have never known the Police Department to be in such a bad state as it is it right now. One day we receive one imperative order, and on the next another…
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