Unless there’s more to this story that hasn’t come out — and there may be (though I wouldn’t bet on it) — this is inexcusably shitty. The video: So is this unrelated incident in 2013 when a cop made a left turn into and killed a teacher crossing the street. It’s all too common for…
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Somebody got it all figured out:
Dan Baum has written a bunch of good books about a variety of subjects, and I’ve mentioned him many times on this blog (search for his name, if you want). I first met Dan and his wife, Margaret, in New Orleans in 2007. The title of my book, “In Defense of Flogging,” was coined the…
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Baltimore homicides, year to date, are only up a bit compared to last year. Through March 24th, 50 this year compared to 47 in 2015. Rarely is more murder good news. But it’s certainly an improvement from last year, post riot. From May through December 2015, there were 269 murders in 244 days. So 50…
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From AP: In all, Chicago has paid a staggering sum — about $662 million — on police misconduct since 2004, including judgments, settlements and outside legal fees, according to city records. The payouts, for everything from petty harassment to police torture, have brought more financial misery to a city already drowning in billions of dollars…
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Great story in the Baltimore Sun about taser use: • Nearly 60 percent of those hit by Tasers in Maryland were described by police as “non-compliant and non-threatening,” according to data from 2012 when the state began collecting data through 2014. • In one out of every 10 incidents, police discharged the weapon for longer…
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It makes homicide — which kills “just” 40 Americans a day — look positively benign. 47,000 Americas died from drug overdose in 2014. That’s a shocking figure. 47,000 is the number of US soldiers who died in Vietnam combat. And that was over 20 years. Heroin deaths have shot up since 2010: From the Times:…
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“The shot that struck and killed Detective Colson was deliberately aimed at him by another police officer,” Stawinski said. “It’s another tragic dimension to this unfolding story.” Ouch. A black cop in civilian clothes being killed by other cop? This is not exactly frequent… but it is all too regular. In 170 years of US…
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Here’s how Broken Windows works in real life. A “subway swiper” — a minor crime — causes disorder, and then swiper gets into a fight and is murdered. Herbert Burgess, the Metrocard swiper — “58 prior arrests and sent to prison in 1993 for 18 years after confessing to fatally strangling his roommate” — was…
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The ATF released a version of this photo taken during the April 27 riots. The guy (“repeatedly captured in photographs and other images on the day of the rioting”) was later identified as Donta Betts: He confessed to creating the explosion to ward off the cops “so people could finish … stealing whatever they was…
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