Police

New Orleans Police after the flood

Dan Baum wrote an excellent, award winning, best selling book about New Orleans, Nine Lives: Death and Life in New Orleans. He first spent time there as a reporter and writer for the New Yorkerin the days after Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent devastating flood. A few years ago I cold-called (or email) Dan after my wife realized that we…

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Police

I Like Art

I’m not a “quote of the day” kind of guy. But I just came across this one from Art Buchwald. I always like his moxie: We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don’t think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years…

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Police

A felony just ain’t what it used to be!

Lost in all the talk about the NYPD juking the stats is the simple fact that each and every year, the value of felony theft (“grand larceny” in NY State) goes down with inflation. New York State defines felony grand larceny (§155.30) as over $1,000. And this is where it’s been for the past 25 years. This makes the 64%…

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Police

Juking the Stats

A recent report of retired New York City police officers warns that the NYPD is playing fast and loose with the numbers. Knowing when and where crimes occur is essential to good policing and Compstat, a system of crime-data analysis created in 1994, played a large role in bringing down crime in New York City. But ever since, numbers have…

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Police

Sean Bell officers won’t face federal charges

Nor should they. The story from the New York Times. You can read everything I’ve written about Sean Bell. This post is probably the best, if you just want one. Also, on principle, I’m against recharging people at the federal level. Smacks of double jeopardy to me. The Fifth Amendment is pretty explicit: “[No person shall] be subject for the…

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Police

Historical Memory

National Public Radio just announced the death of some guy who was known for helping fund, “freedom fighters in Afghanistan fight the Soviet Union.” And then, without any further talk, segued right into a story about the dangers of the Taliban’s links to Al Qaeda. Oh, the irony! [For those who don’t get it, those guys that Reagan called “freedom…

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Police

No Sh*t

“A doctor testifying for the defense in the NYPD sodomy trial told jurors on Wednesday that the alleged victim’s injuries couldn’t have come from a police baton. … ‘Do I have an opinion on it? I don’t believe it happened.’” Both these quotes are from this Daily News article on Mineo.