[From pp.58-59 of Cop in the Hood] To meet the standards needed for a formal prosecution, one must follow the informal rules imposed by the state’s attorney. Rule number one is don’t take your eyes off the drugs. Drug charges against a suspect will not be prosecuted in Baltimore City if an officer fails to…
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[From pages 65, 83, 49, and 55 of Cop in the Hood] Clearing the corner is what separates those who have policed from those who haven’t. Some officers want to be feared; others, respected; still others, simply obeyed. An officer explained: “You don’t have to [hit anybody]. Show up to them. Tell them to leave…
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There are some excerpts from Cop in the Hood that seem particularly relevant in light of the DOJ’s report on the Baltimore police. This is from pp.30-31.] The 1968 Supreme Court case Terry v. Ohio gives officers the right to frisk a suspect for weapons if they have reasonable suspicion that a suspect might be…
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From the DOJ report on Baltimore Police: This data reveals that certain Baltimore residents have repeated encounters with the police on public streets and sidewalks. Indeed, the data show that one African-American man was stopped 34 times during this period in the Central and Western Districts alone, and several hundred residents were stopped at least…
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Update: The links have changed (oops!) since these were first published. Here are links to all my August 2016 posts on the DOJ report on the BPD. 1 https://qualitypolicing.com/initial-thoughts-on-doj-report-on-2/ 2 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-doj-is-wrong-1-2/ 3 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-dojs-war-on-broken-window-2/ 4 https://qualitypolicing.com/cant-you-take-joke-2/ 5 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-doj-is-wrong-2-n-word-2/ 6 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-doj-is-wrong-3-that-damn-kid-on-2/ 7 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-doj-is-wrong-4-on-diggs-dig-2/ 8 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-doj-is-right-1-2/ 9 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-doj-is-right-2-actual-department-is-2/ 10 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-doj-is-right-3-actual-department-is-2/ 11 https://qualitypolicing.com/the-doj-is-right-4-actual-department-is-2/ My take away is that the…
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Dan Rodricks in the Sun: Anticipating the Department of Justice’s release of its civil rights investigation, Davis clearly staked out a position as the man who is trying to fix the department’s broken relationship with large sectors of the community it serves. … Getting ahead of police reform is no easy task, but it’s much…
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Yeah, I had never heard of him either. But apparently he was a big deal to a good number people in Baltimore. They liked his music. So what does he stand for? I don’t know. Google and read up if you want. What’s amazing is all the tears shed by some people who had never…
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One thing that may be worth considering is the position of former commissioner Anthony Batts and current Commissioner Kevin Davis as to whether or not the officers should have been criminally charged in the first place. Perhaps Batts thought of Gray’s death as more of civil issue (which was the correct position) and Batts pushed…
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Forgive me for speaking ill of the dead, as I did a few days ago. But today the Baltimore Sun has a feature about a man who has had two sons murdered. Tragic. It really is. Nobody should have to deal with one child murdered, much less two. But being cynical and a former Baltimore…
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Here’s another one for the record books. This isn’t the first time somebody has been shot at a funeral. Kevin Rector and Justin George of the Sun observe, “Gunfire has marred other services in recent years to mourn deceased victims of violence in Baltimore.” And this is probably not even the first time a father…
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