A new study involving more than 2,000 police officers from eight departments in the United States and the United Kingdom produced some surprising results: Assaults on police officers who wore body cameras went up, while police use-of-force incidents remained unchanged. That flies in the face of all other studies I’ve seen so far, which have […]
Links: Bush administration silenced report predicting today’s prison health crisis
The criminalization of parenthood: A mother says she was “pinned to the ground by police, repeatedly accused of being drunk, frogmarched barefoot aboard a ferry in handcuffs, jailed in leg irons and charged with child abuse” after letting her 11-year-old son drive a golf cart at a North Carolina resort. A mentally ill Mississippi man has […]
Morning links: FBI confirms 2015 was an incredibly safe year for police officers
There has been a lot of talk about how Bill Clinton’s crime policy was well-intentioned, despite its disastrous consequences. This history of the awful Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 is a useful corrective. Clinton’s crime policy was cynical, destructive and crassly political. Colorado legalized marijuana. And then nothing bad happened. Louisiana legislature passes a […]
As videos expose wrongdoing by South Carolina cops, police agencies tighten control over footage
Editor’s note: This is the second part of a four-part series. Read the first part here. The emergence of video, whether it’s dash-cam video, security camera video or footage shot with a cellphone, has dramatically altered the power dynamic in police-citizen interactions. In South Carolina, the shootings of Walter Scott and Levar Jones resonated across the […]
Another forfeiture outrage
While driving through Arkansas, Guillermo Espinoza, a construction worker, had nearly $20,000 taken from him by a state trooper. The trooper found no drugs, no paraphernalia and no evidence of drug dealing. Espinoza was never charged with a crime. The case against him was so weak that the local prosecutor ordered it returned. That is, […]
Prosecutor finds a new way to avoid accountability
Recently, we’ve seen an encouraging trend in prosecutor accountability. Where state bar associations, courts and internal policies have failed, voters have stepped up to show wayward prosecutors the door. It first happened in Brooklyn. Then in Mississippi. Then in Chicago and Cleveland. You could make a good argument that also it happened in Caddo Parish, La. One […]
Morning links: Thousands of nude photos of defendants found on Arkansas judge’s computer
Jaw-dropping story: An Arkansas judge resigns after hundreds of nude photos of defendants are found on his computer. Let’s hope the word “arrested” enters this story soon. The dubious diagnosis of “excited delirium.” St. Louis installs a civilian oversight board for the city’s police department. One early flaw: Anonymous complaints aren’t allowed. Only eight of Tennessee’s nearly […]
South Carolina’s poisonous police culture: The death of Lori Jean Ellis
Editor’s note: This is part 1 of a four-part series. “To this day, if you live in Kershaw County and saw those media reports, you’d still think Lori Jean Ellis was just some crazy old black lady who opened fire on a bunch of cops,” says Robert Phillips. “You’d think she got what she deserved.” […]
This week in innocence
This one has to be close to some sort of record: A man wrongfully convicted in the 1963 shooting death of a Brooklyn artist has been exonerated 52 years after he was found guilty. Paul Gatling, 81, who now resides in Virginia, appeared in a Brooklyn courtroom Monday as Assistant District Attorney Mark Hale called […]
Morning links: The indigent defense crisis
How conspiracy laws help prosecutors abuse their power. More on the indigent defense crisis. The Food and Drug Administration agrees to reduce the amount of acetaminophen required to be included with prescription opioids. The mandated drug was supposed to deter abuse of opioids, but has likely led to deaths from acetaminophen poisoning. A deep dive […]
The D&D panic
Great short video from Retro Report on the great Dungeons & Dragons panic of the 1980s. The direct consequences of this particular moral panic weren’t as severe as some others. It mostly involved efforts to ban the game and, of course, led to ostracizing the kids who played it. (Not a small thing, given that […]
Morning links: Court says dog sniff alone doesn’t justify forfeiture
The CIA waterboarded the wrong man 83 times in a single month. Not that it would have been justified if it had been the right man. Atlanta cop caught on tape severely beating a man over an allegedly stolen tomato. Crackdown on prescription painkillers has chronic pain patients fleeing Montana. Seattle prosecutor is caught forging documents to win […]
NYPD bullies bodega owners
The infuriating story of the day comes from ProPublica and the New York Daily News. It seems that New York police have been using nuisance laws to harass immigrant owners of bodegas, laundromats, and other small businesses. They claim the businesses aren’t doing enough to prevent criminal activity, aren’t doing enough to prevent the sale of […]
Morning links: Tenn. cops arrest, cuff kids aged 6 to 10
Tennessee police arrest, handcuff several children between ages 6 and 10 — not for fighting, but for failing to break up a fight. Awful story about a 37-year-old black man’s death in jail, and allegations that deputies taunted him as he died. Colorado’s governor wants to give Corrections Corporation of America $3 million to keep open a […]
The culture of conviction
I’m not sure which is more disturbing, that a rule like this is needed, or that to propose such a rule is considered controversial. As four men sat in prison for a murder they didn’t commit, records show that state investigators sent proof of their innocence to a North Carolina prosecutor, but he never revealed […]
Late morning links: Minneapolis DA will no longer use grand jury in police-involved shootings
Be the first to comment on "Federal judge says no Fourth Amendment for computers connected to the Internet"