Author: Moskos

Bait Car naps bait

Cause it’s always fun to watch crooks get caught. Full story here. [thanks to David Bratzer]

Why Are So Many Violent Criminals Walking Free?

Because of the War on Drugs.

Celebrating six years as a blockhead!

Like fellow “blockhead” Jay Livingston, I can’t believe I’ve been doing this “writing for free” crap since 2007. Like Jay, I decided to look back at my more popular posts. Unlike Jay, blogger/google doesn’t allow one to look at the past year. The choices jump from “last month” to “all time.” So let’s look at…
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Two more prohibition deaths

These twodidn’t die from MDMA. They died from whatever they took that wasn’t MDMA. Why? Because of prohibition. To blame drugs rather than prohibition is exactly the same as when, during Prohibition, “alcohol” caused blindness, death, and (my own favorite) Jake Leg. These are prohibition problems. Of course during Prohibition, prohibitionists blamed the prohibited drug…
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This is a big deal

This is far more radical than anything Judge Scheindlin ruled in her well publicized stop and frisk decision. In a 3-2 decision (People v. Johnson is not long and worth reading in its entirety) the court managed to rule the following unconstitutional: In a New York City Housing Authority building, which the testifying officer characterized…
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IRB: The Censorship You’ve Never Heard Of

Unless you’re an academic, of course. From Commentary and worth reading in its entirely (if you care about this sort of thing): Since the 1970s, the government has overseen the establishment of bodies called Institutional Review Boards, and these “IRBs” have suppressed vast amounts of talking, printing, and publishing—even mere reading and analyzing—for hundreds of…
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“Police work is a thinking person’s game”

It’s worth highlighting this excellent comment to a previous post, from a anonymous police officer. You can file this under “if you don’t work, you can’t get in trouble.” What I’ve learned over my career, and what has frustrated me as a life-long progressively inclined citizen, is that despite all common sense and evidence to…
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Since money grows on trees, why not?

New York City paid $167,731 for each prisoner last year. That’s insane. Crazy high. And much higher than even the highest estimates I had heard. The New York Times reports “83 percent of the cost per prisoner came from wages, benefits for staff and pension costs.” That means it’s not going down anytime soon. Rikers…
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“Council Overrules Bloomberg on Police Monitor and Profiling Suits”

So reports the Times. I would not have voted for this because it’s perceived as anti-police, but once again, I say that Ray Kelly get what they had coming. You do work for the city, and you’ve shown nothing but scorn for those who try and make the NYPD better. The chickens coming home to…
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Sorry about the shooting, Brian, but it’s not profiling if it’s the totality of the circumstances

A few posts ago I linked to nice article by Brian Beutler. He explains very well how he didn’t succumb to the “ecological fallacy” (of assuming what is true for the individual is true for the group, or vice versa) even after being held up and shot. I particularly like the line, “Everyone who’s ever…
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