There’s something bordering on the absurd when newspapers write stories about police racism based on claims like, “90 percent of those arrested are African-American while African Americans make up only 65 percent of the population.” The assertion, sometimes explicit and sometimes implied, is that cops are racists hunting black men. Same thing with papers that…
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I received a courtesy call from John Jay’s legal department about a FOIL (freedom of information law) request made for my records. One person, whom I won’t name but I presume reads this, wanted A) my letter of appointment and B) to know how much I make. You’ll have to trust me that I did…
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To paraphrase Tip O’Neill, “All policing is local.” But that doesn’t mean that something in one town can’t have an effect on policing nationwide. And a trend can be large and worrisome — and national — without being universal. That’s why they call it a trend. I don’t know what’s going on everywhere (or even…
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Usually I focus on the Eastern District, because that is where I policed. But I was looking at stats for the Western District, where Freddie Gray died. Homicides in the Western went from a long-time record low (but still shamefully high) 21 in 2014 to a record high 66 in 2015. Holy mackerel, that’s a…
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Like Dan Aykroyd, I continue to “embrace the police,” here in Catania, Sicily. (Though I’m currently in Malta.)
I and Nick Selby wrote this one for the Washington Post.
There’s a nice article about Alice Goffman in the Times magazine. Overall it’s a great piece about Alice Goffman, who has written one of the best sociology books ever, and the state of sociology in general. One line I find funny is the assertion that she “panders to audience expectations” by this description of a…
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So I go to my school office today (the first time since before X-mas), and what’s there for me? A nice letter from somebody thanking for my blog. That’s very sweet. You’re very welcome. But you know what made it even better? No, you don’t, because it wasn’t from you, you cheap lazy bastard! (Except…
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It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten a Kingpin. Almost a year. El Chapo. We’ve gotten this guy before. Like non-sequel movies, are we running out of Kingpins?
I don’t know if this is good or bad, but why does it take years? That’s what’s so f*cked up about police discipline. And these charges were placed only, 18 months later, to beat the statute of limitations. The story in the Times.