Do You Have the Right Not To Be Framed?
The Supreme Court hears oral argument today in Pottawattamie County v McGee, wherein they will have to decide if prosecutors have immunity from lawsuits even if they frame someone for murder. On one side of the case being argued are Iowa prosecutors who contend "there is no freestanding right not to be framed." They are backed by the Obama administration, 28 ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 4, 2009 12:59
Three Felonies a Day
Radley Balko argues we are now seeing the fruition of Ayn Rand's fear that government would eventually declare "so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws" in order to extend its power. Part of the drop can of course be explained by mass incarceration—America leads the world in the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 20, 2009 09:10
Fire Chief Shot in Court Over Tickets
Yes, that headline is not an exaggeration. The Chief of the Jericho Fire Department went to court and was shot by the police for disputing two tickets requiring two trips to the court house. JERICHO, Ark. – It was just too much, having to return to court twice on the same day to contest yet another traffic ticket, and Fire ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 4, 2009 14:11
Bob Dylan Arrested for Walking
Bob Dylan was on the pavement, thinking about the government. And they arrested him. Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 16, 2009 08:34
Riots at Town Hall Meetings
The theme of Wednesday's edition of OTB Radio was "Crazy Politics." Spurred by the bitterness of recent discussion threads on seemingly innocuous topics, Dave Schuler and I wondered where it was all headed. Well, we got a pretty good clue last night. Six people were arrested last night in St. Louis after one of the many town hall meetings going on ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 7, 2009 09:55
Justin Barrett Kills Two Jobs with One Stone
Justin Barrett, a 36-year-old soon-to-be-former Boston cop and Massachussetts Army National Guard captain, is making the headlines with a letter he circulated describing, a bit too enthusiastically, his views on a Boston Globe column on the Henry Louis Gates incident. Alan Colmes has the background: His palpable anger appears to be directed at Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham, to whom he refers as ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 30, 2009 07:58
Police Taser Use: Cost-Benefit Analysis
In response to a commenter's assertion in my Police Taser Deaf, Retarded Man post that "officers are killed in the line of duty are the time," Jim Henley retorts, "Define line of duty and all the time." Kelley Vlahos does just that in a piece for The American Conservative. The numbers are surprising: According to federal statistics, the number of police officers ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 29, 2009 14:29
Police Taser Deaf, Retarded Man
Before turning in last night, we watched Monday's "Colbert Report" which featured this segment on the increasing use of tasers by police forces, including on helpless old women: The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Current Events - Tasers www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Tasers This morning, I see that several people are commenting on a story about Mobile, Alabama police tasering a deaf, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 29, 2009 07:59
Obama: ‘Cambridge Police Acted Stupidly’ in Gates Matter
In last night's press conference, President Obama weighed in on the disorderly conduct arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. “The police are doing what they should,” he said. “There’s a call. They go investigate. What happens? “My understanding is that Professor Gates then shows his I.D. to show that this is his house, and at that point he gets arrested for ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 23, 2009 05:56
Gates, Hazelton, and Chappelle
Robert Cox passes on the story of Demetrius Hazelton, the 17-year-old son a New Rochelle police detective, who is suing said PD after he was arrested after using a "white racial monotone voice" which police claim is the same voice used by Dave Chappelle "when making fun of white people." Bob supplies the following Chappelle video, which is decidedly R-rated: Dave Chappelle ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 21, 2009 13:10
Irvine’s Little Police State
Kevin Drum links an LAT piece on the "charm" of Irvine, California, a "little planned community" that both conforms perfectly to Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes" stereotype - with houses made out of ticky tacky that all look the same -- and seems to make everyone who lives there feel safe and happy. And, mostly, it is indeed quite charming. But ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 7, 2009 09:53
Radley Balko on No-Knock Raids
And why they are bad as a general rule. Even if police always got the right house and every raid were performed flawlessly (and that's obviously not the case), the image of police dressed as soldiers routinely breaking into private homes to serve warrants for non-violent crimes is one we ought to find disturbing. At one time we did. There's an ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 18, 2009 19:20
English Iran’s Lingua Franca
Hilzoy and Andrew Sullivan pass along this interesting tidbit from Slate's Christopher Beam: Post-election protests continued in Tehran for the fifth day on Wednesday. In many photos, riot police wear uniforms with the English word police on them. Ambulances, too, bear the word ambulance in English. Why not use Persian words instead of their English equivalents? Because everyone knows English. Like many ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 18, 2009 08:01
UK Court: Blogger Anonymity Not a Right
A British judge has ruled against a blogger who sought an injunction against having his secret identity published in the Times. Thousands of bloggers who operate behind the cloak of anonymity have no right to keep their identities secret, the High Court ruled yesterday. In a landmark decision, Mr Justice Eady refused to grant an order to protect the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 17, 2009 07:02
Biden to Cops: Sotomayor ‘Has Your Back’
Vice President Joe Biden has a bit of a mouth problem, he just can't shut it, and whatever he thinks tends to come tumbling out. In this case, while speaking before a Law Enforcement group Vice President Biden told the cops present that "Sotomayor has your back". Vice President Joe Biden may have crossed the line when he assured national ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 11, 2009 00:50
