Quality Policing Podcast and Blog

Lockdown Nation: How military-style policing became America’s new normal

If you care about the militarization of police, and Radley Balko makes a strong case you should, read his “fascinating and sometimes terrifying” Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. That quote is mine. And you can find them in the July/August issue of Pacific Standard, a great new (to me)…
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How much do blue crabs cost this week?

The questioneverybody is asking, for sure. I don’t even know, when is the cheapest time to buy crabs? Clearly not this week. (if you click on the link, you can see the crabs are still alive, which is pretty amazing for a cooked crab!)

Because one life isn’t enough: The Militarization of Police

I’ll be gracing the ever-mysterious world of Second Life again tonight. It’s a nice long-form discussion. And you can listen in in your first life as well. Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd. Tonight at 9pm, New York time. It’s about the militarization of police.

We are shocked…

As usual David Simon makes a lot of sense. But what I don’t understand, and what bothers me most about the whole deal, is why it had to be a secret. If this were really a “healthy” discussion we should be having, then why did it take a whistleblower to start it? hard to imagine…
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Two great things…

LEAP and Vice. Together at last.

Give Peace a Chance

“The years between 2000 and 2010 do not simply constitute a war on marijuana, but a war on black people who use marijuana.” Well said, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Hospital care and gunshot wounds

A contributing factor to declining homicide. Some more details about what’s gotten better about medical treatment over the past decade. In the BBC.

"It's Torching" — A Traincrash of Speech

There’s a a video on youtube of a guy and his friend (and baby, in babyseat in the back seat) driving toward a fire and then explosion of a train blowing up just outside Baltimore (don’t worry… according to authorities it’s just “toxic” but nothing to worry about). So I’m watching this video thinking, “These…
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End Mass Shootings? The Four-Percent Solution.

Of the twenty-five worst shootings in the US since 1994 only one was committed by an African American. The vast majority of shootings, twenty-two of twenty-five, were committed by whites and Asians. And these are the two groups most underrepresented in our criminal justice system. It’s entirely conceivable that African-Americans are underrepresented in the annals…
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Tic-Toc Like Clockwork

Jeanmarie Evelly of DNAInfo.com writes about a “massive drug sweep” in the Queensbridge* and Ravenswood Homes in Astoria/Long Island City. 28 people indicted; 23 others arrested for selling drugs to undercover cops on “hundreds of separate occasions over an eight month span from 2012-2013.” Well, slap my back and declare victory. Just like we I…
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