police

7 posts

The New World of Cop Blanche

Cop blanche
/käp blänSH/
noun
1. Complete freedom of police officers to do as they wish against the people, even committing crimes or violating their constitutional and legal rights, without repercussion.

The last two weeks have seen a pair of high profile grand juries fail to return indictments on police officers that utilized lethal force on unarmed suspects. In the 1987 novel Bonfire Of The Vanities, author Tom Wolfe quotes New York State chief judge Sol Wachtler, saying “a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich, if that’s what you wanted.” Continue reading

Waze Has Made All Radar Detectors Obsolete

Even casual motorists are always on the look out for the 5-0, not wanting to get pulled over. But for road warriors the speed trap is less of a statistical likelihood and more of an absolute certainty. You don’t want to get a huge ticket (with hefty fees on top of the fine) just for accidentally going 5MPH over while passing that hyper-miling Prius that refuses to budge off 63MPH.

For years I held onto the greatest radar detector ever made, the Valentine One. But the Google owned Waze smartphone app has finally convinced me to put away the V1 and sign onto the future. Continue reading

UC Berkeley Police Captain: Linking Arms is Violent Protest


After University of California, Berkeley campus police and Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies initiated violent action against Occupy Cal protesters on Wednesday, UC Police Capt. Margo Bennett has come up with a justification for the police action captured on video above. Continue reading

FBI Report Shows Violent Crime Down, War on Drugs Still Alive in 2010

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program released their annual report on Monday. The 2010 data shows a continuing downward trend in violent crimes while drug arrests remain high despite the Obama administration’s previously stated wish to change the nation’s drug enforcement policies.

Drug offenses made up the majority of arrests nationwide, with a total of about 1.6 million. A whopping 81.9% of those were for possession, rather than sale or manufacturing. Marijuana offenses led the pack with 45.8% of all drug arrests being for marijuana possession. Continue reading

Watching the Murdoch House of Cards Crumble

(Editor’s Note: Since ThereWillComeSoftRains did this excellent update on all the goings-on of Murdochageddon, I’m making this your open thread for all things News Corp.-related. Uncle Rupert is scheduled to appear before Parliament this morning. The fun begins at 1 p.m. GMT on BBC Parliament. ~Bots)

Week two of the News Corp. fiasco continues

Have you resigned yet? No? Well you just aren’t keeping up with the latest fashion trends coming out of London. So many people have now resigned in the phone hacking scandal, UK unemployment has been pushed up to 95%. Nobody is left to run the country; we’ve had to become an absolute monarchy again. Until next week when the Queen is caught hacking Kate Middleton’s phone trying to find messages from her hairdresser revealing the secret of her shiny locks and she quits as well. The only thing left for us now is to give the whole country back to the druids, which is why I have built a large wicker man in my front garden (well that is what I am going to tell the police should they ask).

It’s all coming tumbling down

So it’s been two weeks since the NOTW scandal broke and for some it has dominated the news since then, which to the ADHD-suffering UK media makes it the greatest epic since the Iliad, starting, as sagas are wont to do in medias res, years after the initial accusations. But it has proven to be the Marmite of news; Continue reading

Cops to Get Futuristic Arm Band to Make Punching More Effective

How often do comic books inspire real life? I’d say almost never, since I haven’t developed the ability to fly or incinerate anything with my eyeballs yet. But if you could devise something…would it be a super duper arm gauntlet that could stun criminals, house a video camera, and possibly incorporate GPS, biometrics, and chemical sensors. Well, maybe. Perhaps add a batarang and I’m sold! Continue reading

International Security and Local Law Enforcement

Occasionally, I’d like to touch on something a little more serious. Countless critics provide quality artistic and socio-political analysis of today’s high quality dramas: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Top Chef. But I’m afraid that this particular focus has led us to ignore the important lessons we can learn from America’s Top New Drama:  Hawaii Five-O.  Here are some important lessons from this week’s episode. Continue reading