I just chased two junkies off my stoop! This is, as they say, not that kind of neighborhood. Plus this block has something like four active and former cops living on it. I’m sitting here writing about drug legalization in my basement office, and I hear two guys outside the window. One goes on my…
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Me and Lee Brown (former Houston mayor, New York Police Commissioner, and federal Drug Czar) mano-a-mano in a no-holds-barred cage match! (Also known as 700 words in U.S. News & World Report.) I think I kick his ass. But then I would think that, wouldn’t I? And it’s not really a fair cage match. He…
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During any given year, a 15- to 34-year-old man in the Eastern District has about the same chance of being killed as a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq. That’s just wrong. The Eastern stats are from page 203 of my book. The Iraq stats are taken from DonHodges.com. I bring this up because of an…
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Back in January, the Baltimore City Paper published a good simple analysis of homicide numbers in 2007. I was just looking at it again. As we all know, violence is not equally spread out in society. It may not be politically correct to talk about race and violence, but homicide in America is disproportionately a…
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Last night I read a great article in the New Yorkerabout the new sort-of-legal-at-the-state-and-local-level but still very-federally-illegal California medicinal-marijuana industry. I’m very curious to see how this system evolves and is regulated. It just might work. And it may be a good model for other states. At the very least, it’s starting to make California…
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I’m skeptical of any law with a personal name. Initiative with cool sounding names, especially if it’s an acronym, are also trouble. For instance, ix-nay, I would say, to Initiative Hammer of Poseidon. Sure, Poseidon had a trident and Thor had the hammer, but it’s worth a little mythological inaccuracy to get a name like…
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Here’s an excellent review from Professor Arnold Ages published in the Jewish Post & Opinion. This is what the industry calls “a sleeper book.” There is no doubt that it will soon be auctioned off as a film script. Peter Moskos, a professor at the City University of New York, researched his Harvard Ph.D. dissertation…
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“The corner boys, as they are sometimes called, are part of what is perhaps the most visibly anonymous demographic in the country. Young and black, feared and marginalized, they are the ones most likely to be viewed as a suspect in a crime and most likely to become the faceless victim of one. Nevertheless, if…
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I’m no big fan of Tasers. Here’s the latest trouble with Tasers. From the Chicago Tribune. WINNFIELD, LA. — At 1:28 p.m. on Jan. 17, Baron “Scooter” Pikes was a healthy 21-year-old. By 2:07 p.m., he was dead. What happened in the 39 minutes in between — during which Pikes was handcuffed by police and…
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