Police

1871: Two classes of police officer

This is from an 1871 newspaper article. It seems as if times never change. The average police officer may be divided into two classes, the honest and untiring patrolman, constantly on post when duty calls, alert in performing his rounds, and courageous when confronted by sudden peril or danger, and the one who shirks his duty and skulks at every…

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A Sociologist’s Response To Anthropology

I have a short article in the journal PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. “Policing: A Sociologist’s Response to an Anthropological Account.” You can read the PDF here. I love reading other people’s summary of my work. This is from the issue’s introduction: In his commentary on Karpiak’s article, sociologist and criminologist Peter Moskos praises Karpiak for presenting an (in…

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Success is Not an Option

From the BBC: “Mrs Clinton said there was ‘no alternative’ to confronting the cartels, despite rising violence that left more than 15,000 dead last year.” Actually, there is an excellent alternative. The US government just won’t consider it. “Under a security cooperation programme called the Merida Initiative the US is spending around $1.7bn (£1bn) on helping Mexico and Central America…

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Bike Bangkok

Here are some more pics from a good day in Bangkok last week.

Police

Do you know where your comments are?

Some of you may have posted comments and wondered why they didn’t appear (or think I deleted them). Turns out blogger/google automatically sorts out the spam comments. Problem is all the comments it thinks are spam, aren’t (including some of my own). I’ll try and check that “spam” folder more often, now that I know it exists.

Police

Revolution in Egypt

Inshallah, Hosni Mubarak, the latest in a long line of Egyptian Pharaohs, will soon be history. I think about Egypt more than most people. My wife studied in Cairo and speaks Arabic, I’ve visited Egypt three times, and one of my best friends here in New York is Egyptian-American, from Alexandria. He hates Mubarak, of course, and what Egyptian wouldn’t?…

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Thailand Pictures

I’m back in New York. Twenty-one hours of flight back was not nearly as bad as it should have been. And now it’s good to be home, but strange to see snow after a few weeks in Bangkok. Here are some pics from our trip. Mostly of our day trip to the Maeklong market, which features a train running through…

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Gun Control? “Your Side Won”

Tom Tomorrow, one of my favorite cartoonists, summarizes gun control and killings quite well. Click through to read. “Barring some seismic realignment in this country, the gun control debate is all but settled–and your side won. The occasional horrific civilian massacre is just the price the rest of us have to pay.” As if we need it, the horrible shooting…

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