Being in NYC, I miss a lot of what happens west of the Mississippi (and sometimes even west of the Hudson). So I haven’t really been following California’s Proposition 47. Recently I posted about a minor increase in property crime in LA, which was both news to me and made intuitive sense. Sure, it sounds…
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It’s amazing there are any drug kingpins left since we’ve gotten so many of them. It seems there was one last to get: “La Tuta.” Now he’s history. (I’m a bit disappointed in the monicker. “The teacher” is a pretty lame nickname by drug lord standards, I have to say. We may not be running…
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No point here. I just like old pictures. From Shorpy.com. Caption: Washington, D.C., circa 1925. “Protesters” is all it says on the caption card for this National Photo glass negative showing what seems to be a meeting of the “Communist Party Young Communist League.”
The BBC has a short (2 min) and surprisingly informative clip on body cameras. But the real reason I’m posting this is because this attack on a police officer took place in Basingstoke, England. Now you may know Basingstoke for its roundabouts (traffic circles)… actually you probably have never heard of Basingstoke. And that’s OK.…
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From LA, where Proposition 47 reclassified many crimes as misdemeanors. Drug arrests are down by about one-third. Property crimes are up nearly 10 percent. The problem seems to be this: “The new law specifies that the financial savings on the incarceration side be reinvested in truancy, drug treatment and mental health programs. But that provision…
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Ron Smith ain’t your average police union president.
The other day my wife and I visited a friend from way back who now works in a coffee shop. Actually a famous one, the Bulldog, which is soon to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary. Mostly I just love how a legal and regulated drug trade becomes, well, boring. There actually is a worker on duty…
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So a few months ago in Amsterdam, a couple British tourists died from a drug overdose. The Brits are kind of like the canaries in a coal mine of tourists. Brits are usually the first to somehow kill themselves, if given the opportunity. (It has to do with alcohol.) Anyway, they did die. It turned…
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I’m in Amsterdam. It’s been three years since I’ve been here, which is the longest I’ve ever been away since 1991, when I first visited (and then lived in) this fine city. Like New York or Chicago, Amsterdam has gentrified. A lot. The city is also less interesting. It’s called vertrutting: dulling. There’s a movement…
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NYC style. Greenpoint, Brooklyn.