So I’m wondering how many people saw the commercial below last night and not only didn’t find it farcical, satirical or horrifying, but were kind of okay with what they were seeing.

Maybe it’s my nutty libertarianism kicking in, but I actually initially thought it was some sort of PSA. Something like, “Do you part now, so it doesn’t have to get to this later.”

My crime column this week looks at that question in light of the 25oth DNA exoneration last week.

A quick roundup of recent stories on law enforcement officials and DWI laws…

• Ten police officers in Westchester County, New York admit to local newspaper that they routinely let other officers off after catching them driving drunk off duty.
• Off-duty, possibly drunk South Carolina officer pulled over after a chase demands “professional courtesy” she says is customarily granted to other officers. She was charged with reckless driving and disorderly conduct, but wasn’t arrested or given a breath test, and was allowed to go home.
• Chicago police officer shown to have faked dozens of DWI arrests won’t face criminal charges.
• Off-duty Massachusetts state police lieutenant crashes into pickup truck, causing the truck to flip several times. Officer admitted drinking earlier in the day and two open beer cans were found in his car. Other officers don’t administer field sobriety test for 2 1/2 hours, after allowing him to talk to his attorney. He was also never given breath or blood tests. He did get a $20 traffic ticket.
• From last year, DWI charges dropped against Nevada DA who caused two crashes within six hours while in California, and tested over the legal limit after the second. He was allowed to plead to reckless driving.

Via Mark Frauenfelder’s Twitter feed, this picture is pretty funny.

Noel St. John, quasi-official photographer of TheAgitator.com, made this very cool time-lapse animation of the D.C.-area’s blizzard this past weekend.

Writing in Politico, Chris Preble of the (right-wing extremist!) Cato Institute and Heather Hurlburt of the National Security Network debunk the bipartisan Washington consensus that military spending should always be off-limits to budget freezes. For a proposal so outside the Beltway mainstream, their action plan sounds pretty reasonable:

But ultimately, because our national security rests on our economic health as well as on the strength of our military, a liberal and a libertarian can agree that the Pentagon should no longer get a pass. Congress must stop funding projects to satisfy parochial domestic interests. The Pentagon must stop buying weapons systems that are already outdated, unworkable or both. And the administration must carefully define our vital security interests, reshape our grand strategy to more equitably distribute the burdens of policing the globe and reduce the occasions when our military will be called on to fight.

This one will be tougher to pull off…

For nearly two decades, Republicans and Democrats in Washington have deployed the U.S. military as a police force of first resort. Now is the time for a change.

We might also change the odd policy of not including war spending when calculating the federal budget deficit.

• Last night’s silliest attempt to make political hay of the Super Bowl comes from The Nation’s Katrina vandenHeuvel.
• Up . . . and over.
• South Carolina passes vague statute requiring “subversives” to register with the government.
• Super Bowl Sunday-domestic violence link debunked.
• GOP deficit hawks get dovish when it comes to spending on their favorite projects.
• Two Supreme Court vacancies may be coming.

Alexandria, Virginia.

Kudos to Mississippi State Rep. Bob Evans, who astute readers will also recognize is Cory Maye’s chief counsel.

Evans has introduced a bill (PDF) in the Mississippi legislature explicitly making it legal to videotape or record an on-duty police officer, firefighter, or conservation officer.

Two streets in my neighborhood that lie right next to one another. Photos were taken within seconds of one another. The street on the left is a main road. The street on the right is a service road. The service road is owned by the city, but for all practical purposes, it’s private. All of the parking spaces along the side are the property of the people who live in the houses that line the street. The street is one-way, and it’s only used by the people who own or rent those spaces. Anyone passing through obviously takes the main road. The city will eventually get around to plowing the main road. The city never plows the service road. Less than 24 hours after the blizzard, guess which road is clear, and which is suitable only for four-wheel drive vehicles?

More snow-themed econ here.

MORE: Some of you seem to have missed the point of the post. I’m not criticizing the city for not getting to the main road. It’s only been a day, and we got the largest snowfall in the area’s recorded history. The point is that where people expect the city to send eventually plows, the road is still snowed. Where the city has no history of sending a plow, and isn’t likely to, residents grabbed shovels, and cleared the road in 24 hours.

Got my front door open. Did some shoveling. Took some pictures. Today we have a bright winter sun. It’s beautiful on the snow, if a bit blinding. Hoping to get to Old Town before the Super Bowl this evening to snap some more pics.

On to the links . . .

• This picture should be a poster.
• From the files of great newspaper corrections.
• DEA agent accused of working with informant to frame innocent people is acquitted on all counts. Amazing how trustworthy these informants are when they’re being used against regular people, and how shady they become when they start accusing law enforcement of misconduct.
• New York City police no longer using flash bang grenades. This is a good thing.
• Puppycide in Colorado. I’ve made this point before, but how is that this “vicious” dog never bit or attacked a mailman, a deliver man, or a meter reader?
• Conjure your inner Paul Oakenfold. And waste an afternoon. The thing is pretty great, until it starts to drive you batty.
• Federal agent driving SUV hits blogger for The Daily Caller, breaks his knee. Cops then lie on police report. More here.

Part 1: Daisy loses the ball.

Part 2: Daisy forgets about the ball.

Part 3: Screw you. I finally found it, I’m not giving it back so you can just throw it again.

So I am quite literally snowed in right now. Front door won’t open. It’s been crazy. Photos and videos of puppy snow frolicking forthcoming.

In the meantime….

• Actual sentence from an actual news story: “It’s designed for young girls ages 8 and older, but some say the mysterious product is a “dangerous spiritual game” that opens up anyone, particularly Christians, to attacks on their soul.”
• Because anything that tastes good is obviously an appeal to children.
• Looks like the former DA Texas Gov. Rick Perry appointed to head up the state’s forensics panel is doing all he can to make sure the panel does nothing to help the state’s forensics system.
• Here’s a good cop story: Bozeman, Montana cop buys food for man caught shoplifting school supplies for his kids.
• Time to renew my ACLU membership.
• Gun-free snowball fights. Novel idea!
• Twelve-year-old Queens girl hauled out of school in handcuffs for writing on desk.

Love it when I get a Google alert because something I’ve written was assigned in a college composition or rhetoric class.

This week: Won one, lost one.

Joe Henry’s “Channel,” from his new album Blood From Stars.

This is a beautiful, beautiful song.

Pike Place Market, Seattle.

I mentioned last week that I’d have an update on the Anthony Smelley case, profiled in my Reason feature on asset forfeiture.

I have piece up at Slate today with a bit more on the case. Here are the portions not in the Reason piece:

Smelley’s case then got even stranger. At the preliminary hearing last February, Judge Headley actually ruled in Smelley’s favor. But under state law, Putnam County had an additional 10 days to amend its brief. Three days after his ruling, Headley mysteriously pulled himself from the case. Gambill thinks he knows why. “Several months ago, [the judge] asked the Putnam County prosecutor if he could have $5,000 from the forfeiture fund to buy some new AV equipment for his courtroom. He was turned down,” Gambill said. “Since then Judge Headley has had, well, I’ll just say he’s had a much different demeanor in forfeiture cases.” Gambill thinks that in his eagerness to question the county, Headley misstated state law during Smelley’s preliminary hearing, then took himself off the case once he realized his mistake.

Headley confirmed to me that he had made the AV equipment request. But he denied that the denial of his request for forfeiture funds had any bearing on his ruling. Maybe that’s true, and Gambill is wrong. But think about the impropriety of it all: A judge asked for $5,000 to upgrade his courtroom from a fund filled with money from defendants over whose cases he presides….

As for Anthony Smelley, he finally had his new hearing last Friday. But it could be another month or more to hear whether he’ll get his money back.

Freddie Peacock, 60, of Rochester, New York has become the 250th person exonerated by DNA testing. Peacock was convicted of rape in 1976 and paroled in 1982. He tried to remain on parole so he’d still have access to the courts to clear his name.

The Innocence Project breaks down the 250 exonerations over the last 20 years:

• There have been DNA exonerations in 33 states and the District of Columbia.

• The top three states for DNA exonerations are New York (with 25), Texas (with 40) and Illinois (with 29).

• 76% of the wrongful convictions involved eyewitness misidentification.

• 50% involved unvalidated or improper forensic science.

• 27% relied on a false confession, admission or guilty plea.

• 70% of the 250 people exonerated are people of color (60% are black; nearly 9% are Latino; 29% are white).

Dallas County, Texas alone has had 19 DNA exonerations, in part because it’s one of the only jurisdictions in the country with a district attorney who is actually seeking out false convictions. That’s a pretty good indication that the 250 figure would be higher if there were more DAs like him.

One other point: The subset of cases for which DNA testing is dispositive of guilt is pretty small. So it also seems safe to say that whatever flaws in the criminal justice system that allowed these wrongful convictions to happen are just as prevalent in the much larger set of cases where DNA isn’t a factor.