TheAgitator.com
Speaking in Philly Tonight
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009Once again, I’ll be speaking at Drexel University tonight on the topic of police militarization.
Details:
Tuesday, May 12 – 9-11 pm.
Campbell Auditorium, 113 Stratton Hall
3201 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA
When are you coming to Minnesota?
My mind is in the gutter today. I read that as “Spanking in Philly Tonight”.
break a leg, careful on your drive home. Lots of stories involving phillys finest on the news lately.
I’m no where near old enough to be your mother, but I can imagine how she feels. You really are terrific.
Best,
Marta
Just got home from Drexel. I had the pleasure of meeting Radley, and I can tell you that he did a great job, both in the planned presentation, and also thinking on his feet to answer questions from the audience.
Great to hear. Any questions and answers you recall and could report here?
Anarch, the audience was primarily college students, who seemed to have varying levels of knowledge coming in.
One student, apparently with the Ryan Frederick case in mind, asked whether it was illegal to shoot a police officer who entered your home if they had not identified themselves as police (I’m paraphrasing wildly here). Radley explained how in practice, “knock and announce” is not much different from “no-knock”, recommending the exercise of laying down in your bed and then having somebody stand outside and yell something. He went on to discuss the disparate treatment of officers who accidentally shoot innocents during raids, versus innocents who shoot officers, believing they are acting in self-defense.
Another asked how the government finds constitutional justification for things like the Byrne grants. Radley’s short answer was, “they don’t”, but then he went on to talk about the “Drug War exemption to the Fourth Amendment” and to illustrate how the courts “find” justifications for Drug War excesses. He used the example of how courts have agreed with claims of reasonable suspicion that someone was carrying drugs based on being the first off the plane, being the last off the plane, making an effort to be in the midst of those getting off the plane, etc.
Radley gave a much better answer than I could have as to the paramilitary nature of European police, and then confessed to not having researched that aspect of police militarization much.
Another question was about the effectiveness of “stop and frisk” — something Phila’s Mayor Nutter campaigned in favor of — vs. community policing — the notion that the police and the community are partners, and should get to know one another, through cops walking beats, and being proactive, rather than reactive — something our police chief claims to be in favor of. Radley said he’s not aware of any evidence that “stop and frisk” makes a community safer, but that he IS very much in favor of community policing, something that was supported especially in the Clinton administration, and which he says Biden is a big fan of. But then Radley argued that it’s impossible to track how federal grant money for community policing is actually used — that sometimes, in fact, it is used to set up SWAT teams (the opposite of community policing). I would actually like to hear Radley elaborate on why it is so impossible to hold communities accountable for using federal funds for community policing. It seems to me that it should not be impossible to set up outcomes-based accountability, but what do I know? I would also love to know how Radley thinks community policing *should* be funded, if not through federal dollars.
One more thing, a personal anecdote: I live on a block in Philadelphia where there is plenty of drug traffic — sometimes more subtle, sometimes really blatant. Much as I hate the “drug war,” I have to admit, I hate living among drug dealers at least as much. One summer we were finally able to get the attention of a narcotics unit after one neighbor spent an entire day looking out her window and taking notes — cars would pull up all day long, one of the guys hanging on the porch would lean in, have a brief exchange with the driver, shake hands, and the car would peel off. All day long. Not to mention that the sidewalk was littered with tiny blue zip-lock bags that summer …. So a narcotics officer and an assistant DA met with some members of the block club, and we described ALL the suspected drug activity, including another house which also had a steady stream of traffic, not to mention some lovely pit bulls. The police said they would stake out the block for awhile and try to get enough evidence for a raid. Some time later, we learned that they had indeed raided a house — but you guessed it, the WRONG house. The house they raided is inhabited by a quiet, mild-mannered, middle-aged, gay professor (total non-sequitur: he has a bumper sticker on his car that I LOVE that reads “Geezer and Dingbat” in the style of the McCain/Palin logo). He happens to host a radio show on a local singer-songwriter type public radio station, and he receives sample CD’s in the mail all the time. Apparently sometimes he also needs to ship CD’s as part of his work, so he has a small postal scale in his home. This was the closest the cops came to finding anything drug related, and fortunately, my neighbor was not home when the raid happened, and everything got cleared up pretty quickly (though heaven forbid he had had a joint in the house, something not unthinkable I would imagine). That’s pretty much the last we ever heard from the cops and/or the DA’s office, but the dealing continues unabated. It’s just a little more subtle these days. As for community policing, believe it or not, there’s actually a police officer who LIVES ON THE BLOCK! Totally worthless; the drug dealers are completely undaunted. I’m convinced that the “war on drugs” is not working, but I wish I knew what *would* work. Last night Radley said that an end to the drug war “is not gonna happen,” which was the most depressing thing he said in a long litany of depressing things. Sigh.
Thank you. Wish I could have been there.
Marta,
I think they don’t check up on these things simply b/c of the administrative costs.
I’m from Philly too and as against the drug war as I am, I still think that it’s worth keeping in mind as long as any drugs are illegal there will be street dealing – which is horrible to live with. Philly has enough vacant blocks that they should be able to find somewhere to set up a “Hamsterdam.” :)
I’m with #1, when are you coming to Minnesota?
How about coming to Wisconsin? We need a dose of reality here in Madison, aka “60 square miles surrounded by reality”.
I hope Radley comes to Texas. We need him here even more than most states.
In Radley’s one day absence, this has come across the wire:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/78571/
“Automotive News [sub] reports that the Obama administration has abandoned plans to nominate the CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to head the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA). Although neither the White House nor Charles Hurley’s MADD men (and women) are saying Jack about the decision, it appears Hurley ran afoul of . . . environmentalists.”
Good news, although it looks like they did it for the wrong reasons.
Is anyone else surprised that Danny Gokey didn’t make the finals of American Idol?
Hey, the WSJ is reporting that Obama’s Drug Czar… wait for it… wants to stop using the term “War on Drugs.”
First the War on Terror, now this?!? Is nothing sacred!?!?
Chanel Number 5 sprayed on a skunk doesn’t magically make it a striped kittycat.
Anything but complete abolition of of drug prohibition is still a DrugWar, and you can bet your last Fed Reserve Note that it will be conducted as a ‘war’. And the ‘collateral damage’ from this ‘war’ (namely, our savaged civil rights) by setting the precedent, made the abominations of the (choke, cough, puke) PATRIOT Act and MCA possible.
It’s raise or call; enough perfumed skunk BS, we can’t freakin’ afford the War on (Some) Drugs anymore. And it’s not just because the damn skunk stinks, it’s rabid, and needs a bullet, quick.
Marta,
I also noticed that Radley seemed a bit more pessimistic about the possibility that the War on Drugs would end than he usually seems. This is one case in which I wouldn’t mind seeing him proven wrong, but I guess politically it’s easier to change the name of something than to actually try something different.
Bill, yeah, I was kind of depressed by his pessimism too. It will be interesting to see what he says about the change in nomenclature. I do think it matters what we call it, and I think Radley thinks so too.
Wow, Marta. So people leaving plastic bags in the street justifies your participation in wrecking their lives?
Starting the new breed of law enforcement recruits:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?_r=1&hp
“I like shooting them,” Cathy said. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”
In any other teenager, that would be considered a “warning sign” of a school massacre waiting to happen.
Hahahaha! Just when you think the world can’t possibly get any more full of shit.