Quality Policing Podcast and Blog

Police video cameras in Baltimore

Here’s Peter Hermanm’s report in the Sun. The short: Surveillance cameras are helpful, but video is no ‘slam dunk’

Harm Reduction

I enjoyed attending “New Directions for New York: A Public Health & Safety Approach to Drug Policy” sponsored at the New York Academy of Medicine and the Drug Policy Alliance. I was speaking on the Harm Reduction – Coordinating Strategies panel. Unfortunately, because I broke one of my rules and wrote on the back side…
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If you believe in gun control…

…this articleby Nicholas J. Johnson in the Wake Forest Law Review might ruin your day. My summary: Stop wasting time trying to take away people’s guns. It won’t work. Deal with it. 300,000,000 guns is a lot of guns to confiscate, especially from people armed with guns. (thanks to D.K. for sending me the article)…
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Ghetto Court

The Detroit News reports: Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr.’s administration was dealt an embarrassing blow Friday, after his top lawyer ignited a racial flap by saying the city’s 36th District Court was “acting like a ghetto court.” Kathleen Leavey, who is white, resigned as the city’s corporation counsel Thursday, but said the comment was misinterpreted. That…
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One more thing…

This might be the last thing I write about the inauguration. But the Onion, as usual, has a very funny story.

It’s official: Obama is a great black

The Great Blacks in Wax Museum unveiled their Obama statue. Pictures in the Baltimore Sun. That’s Rep. Elijah Cummings on the right. He’s flesh and blood. Now you might think I’m writing The Great Black in Wax Museum because of some thinly veiled hipster irony in this supposed post-racial era. Actually, no. I just like…
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They tried to warn us

See the cartoon by Tom Tomorrow in Salon.com.

Obama’s Inauguration

Three Cheers! I enjoyed the afternoon but was a little disappointed with Obama’s speech. I thought he said all the right things. I liked it. But I don’t think, unlike his race speech, that this was a speech for the ages. Oh well. [update: John Dickerson at Slate.com agrees with me.] I wonder when right-wing…
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Inauguration Day

Here’s to the peaceful transition of power and a belated thanks to George Washington. Washington started a great tradition more than 200 years ago: he voluntarily stepping down from power rather than become a power-hungry dictator. Thanks, George. Here’s just a sampling of reports from elsewhere. One from Kenya and another from Turkey.

Adolphus is a nice name for a boy

File this under B for “bad parents.” Naming Children for Nazis Puts Spotlight on the Father That’s putting it mildly. And to think I have a friend who hated being named Nimrod. Better a Biblical Mighty Hunter than Adolf Hitler Campbell, Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, and JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell! The children have been taken…
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