“Whether a country that was truly free would criminalize recreational drug use is a related question worth pondering,” says Princeton professor Kwame Anthony Appiah in the Washington Post. Thinking of that, Pete Guitherobserves: I think it’s clear that the drug war is one of those travesties that will be reviled in some way by future…
Read more
People normally don’t get very excited over the elections of a State’s Attorney. But the recent election lose of Patricia Jessamy (and victory for Gregg Bernstein) is the most exiting crime-fighting development in Baltimore in many years. Peter Hermann has a good story in the Sunabout the potential for corporation between police and prosecutors. In…
Read more
I guess this timewas the charm.
There are really two philosophies in running prisons. Some wardens and officers feel that the sentence is the punishment, not the way they treat them, and that they should treat the inmates as human beings, and that they have a future, and that they need to be prepared to return to the community. These wardens…
Read more
Cool maps! And interesting data presentation that shows the detailed racial and ethnic make-up of various cities broken down by very small units.
Sounds like a headline you might expect to hear out of Baltimore. But it isn’t! This story is out of St. Louis. (Though I’m a bit ashamed to mention that the only reason this probably isn’ta problem in Baltimore is because Baltimore brick isn’t particularly good. Hence Formstoneand painted brick. Baltimore brick is pretty enough,…
Read more
The FBI has slow work days? I kind of hoped they were pretty busy. But I guess we all have slow work days. But when I have a slow work day I like to listen to a Cubs game or write blog posts or play pinball. But when the FBI has a slow work day……
Read more
Fifteen percent of the department. The St. Louis Post Dispatchreports on a raucous city council meeting at which: East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks announced that the city will layoff 37 employees, including 19 of its 62 police officers, 11 firefighters, four public works employees, and three administrators. The layoffs take effect on Sunday. For…
Read more
Fascinating. And I think a great idea. Cost is irrelevant only to those who don’t pay. From the New York Times: But critics — prosecutors especially — dismiss the idea as unseemly. They say that the cost of punishment is an irrelevant consideration when deciding a criminal’s fate and that there is a risk of…
Read more
“Washington policeman Bill Norton measuring the distance between knee and suit at the Tidal Basin bathing beach after Col. Sherrill, Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, issued an order that suits not be over six inches above the knee.” June 30, 1922. From Shorpy.