My friend Dan Baum has written an excellent book about New Orleans. Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans. Baum was the New Yorker reporter covering the aftermath of the flood. And it’s not just me who says this book is great. The New York Times gave it a great review. You can read…
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Police Officer Pogan, who tackled a bicyclist in Times Square, has been fired. I told you so. Here’s the the story in the Times. A friend of mine has claimed that there’s “more to the story” and that the officer was specifically trying to stop thisbicyclist. I don’t buy it. If that had been the…
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The DEA makes up numbers about the price of cocaine and used the funny numbers to claim rising prices and victory in the war on drugs. The UK is more honest and admits that the price of cocaine has fallen by half in the last 10 years and is set to decline even more. The…
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“Hundreds of people in Mexico have blocked key crossings into the US in protests against the deployment of the army fighting drug traffickers.” Read the complete story in the BBC.
Philadelphia has seen seven officer die in less than three years. That is seven too many. From an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer: The police say it’s not their fault that career criminals aren’t in prison; they keep arresting them, but judges’ sentences are too lenient. The judges say it’s not their fault; they follow…
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Lott is the guy who wants to lockup Michael Phelps, the Olympic swimmer, for smoking mari-ju-wana in his county. That at least made me suspectthat Lott is an idiot. But this picture, of Lott in front of his new “peacekeeper”, confirmed it. Talk about putting the war back in “war on drugs.” What a dope.…
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I was just informed that Cop in the Hood won an award. How exciting! I won the 2008 PROSE Award for best book in Sociology and Social Work. PROSE is the Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence. You know… PROSE… recognizing the best books for 33 years and, uh, er, well no, I actually…
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No doubt timed to sync with the release of the Kindle 2, Cop in the Hood is finally available via Kindle. Ten dolla. What a bargain! Buy it to-day!
Officially, the NYPD stopped and frisked 531,000 people last year. That’s a lot. They resulted in 31,665 arrests and 34,081 summonses. Because of the 4th Amendment, you need “probable cause” for a search or arrest. A search happens once you go inside pockets or look for anything accept weapons (drugs do come to mind). Because…
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