A few items ago I blogged about prosecutorial misconduct sinking convictions as angry judges freed, or ordered new trials for, the defendants involved. Well, what’s been sunk so far are rowboats compared to this: In the Costa Concordia of reversals a federal judge has ordered new trials for the New Orleans cops implicated in covering up the police massacre of unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The judge called the prosecutors conduct “grotesque,” much as the headline in the accompanying article characterizes the police shootings as “notorious.” What a day for the criminal justice system.
Tag Archives: Policing
Stop and Frisk
The “stop and frisk” policing tactic is currently very high profile, and a double-edged sword organizationally, since crime gets driven down, community resentment gets driven up and a fine 4th amendment line gets walked and, as recent court rulings regarding the NYPD have held, are sometimes crossed, (Posting this article is also a test of whether a public URL from this particular publication persists, so the answer is no if you click above and nothing happens.)
How to Run a Police Department
This is up here for benefit of one of my classes but is also is a very good look at the moment in time when the NYPD was transformed from a reactive department into a proactive force focused on relentlessly driving down crime.
How to Run a Police Department by George L. Kelling, City Journal Autumn 1995.
Law-Abiding Murderers
The New Orleans homicide rate leads the country, but the city does much better, relative to its big city peers, with other felony crimes. Some think this doesn’t compute.
Who’s Your Cop?
A self-indulgent post. I am interested in how the law enforcement officer role is morphing in myriad ways. This article is about one transformation–security guards walking the beat.
Boredom on the Beat
Cops misusing squad car computers to scope out dates or get dirt on one of their own who violated “the code”? The horror! New technology, old techniques. Law-enforcer misuse of driver database soars.