Police

This is a big deal

This is far more radical than anything Judge Scheindlin ruled in her well publicized stop and frisk decision. In a 3-2 decision (People v. Johnson is not long and worth reading in its entirety) the court managed to rule the following unconstitutional: In a New York City Housing Authority building, which the testifying officer characterized as a “drug-prone” location, the…

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Police

IRB: The Censorship You’ve Never Heard Of

Unless you’re an academic, of course. From Commentary and worth reading in its entirely (if you care about this sort of thing): Since the 1970s, the government has overseen the establishment of bodies called Institutional Review Boards, and these “IRBs” have suppressed vast amounts of talking, printing, and publishing—even mere reading and analyzing—for hundreds of thousands of Americans. This is…

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Police

“Police work is a thinking person’s game”

It’s worth highlighting this excellent comment to a previous post, from a anonymous police officer. You can file this under “if you don’t work, you can’t get in trouble.” What I’ve learned over my career, and what has frustrated me as a life-long progressively inclined citizen, is that despite all common sense and evidence to the contrary, well-meaning liberal types…

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Police

Since money grows on trees, why not?

New York City paid $167,731 for each prisoner last year. That’s insane. Crazy high. And much higher than even the highest estimates I had heard. The New York Times reports “83 percent of the cost per prisoner came from wages, benefits for staff and pension costs.” That means it’s not going down anytime soon. Rikers Island is overstaffed (despite what…

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Police

We Got Another Kingpin! (12)

That’s two in one month and it makes an even dozen. “Eduardo Arellano Felix is to serve 15 years in jail, after pleading guilty to charges of money laundering,” says the BBC. Though I don’t know if this should really count since he’s been in jail since 2008, and his nickname, “The Doctor,” is kinda lame. But I’m still chalking…

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Police

Busting the Polygraph Busters

The feds are really going after people who tell how and why lie detector tests are flawed?! Does anybody know what the actual crime these people are being charged with? I always tell my students that anybody who ever has to take a polygraph test buy and read Doug Williams’s manual on why the test is flawed and how to…

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Police

Stop & Frisk: They Had It Coming

A (cop) friend in Baltimore asked me with regard to stop and frisk: “What the hell is going on?” I emailed back: You know, leaving aside the decision was entirely predicable based on the judge not exactly being a friend of police, her decision is actually kind of mild. All she f*cking asks is for cops to stop making illegal…

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