Why men shouldn’t write advice columns.
My colleague Jacob Sullum has an update on Assistant U.S. Attorney Tonya Treadway’s continuing harassment of pain patient advocate Siobhan Reynolds. DOJ needs to be firing people over this crap. And paying Reynolds’ legal bills. I first wrote about this case here.
I would miss all of you. Well, some of you. The comments are funny.
Damn. If I were a betting man, I’d have wagered that liking Insane Clown Posse would be the reason a kid got punched in the face.
Interesting post by developmental economist Bill Easterly on “GrowthGate.” Contains mocking of Thomas Friedman, something every blog post could use a little more of.
Botched NYPD raid leads to confrontation between family/police.
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on Friday, December 11th, 2009 at 11:47 am by Radley Balko
and is filed under General Criminal Justice, Pain Treatment, Police Militarization, Police Professionalism.
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TheAgitator.com
The best part of that NYPD raid is that one of the victims is an auxilliary police officer.
The sound of chickens coming home to roost is deafening.
If there were no internet, I might actually get some work done.
While watching the video of the bullying incident I got the irresistible impression that we were seeing a future police officer learning to love the sense of tormenting helpless people.
That little episode is uncannily similar to any of a thousand or more police brutality incidents captured on video: We see a couple of frightened people cringing in the face of an alpha bully whose boldness is a function of being surrounded by a pack of supporters. The only real difference is that the bully in that video will probably face some kind of punishment, whereas bullying police are almost always vindicated for “following department procedure.”
#3, if that were my daughter I’d still be at that kids house beating his dad. Someone would have to bring me my lunch.
William Easterly wrote a great book called “The Ellusive Quest for Growth.” If you are an econ nerd like me, you should read it. He seems to be the only one at the Brookings Institute who isn’t nuts.
Ever think of doing an AMA on reddit?
^^
Go Tokin :D
The analysis of the engine problem was perhaps a bit incomplete, but I really didn’t see any major problems with it.
The bully is a chick on the wrestling team? I never heard of a girl wrestling before. Perhaps, in a fetish type situation, but not on an official team. However, I’m from Alabama, so we are probably behind.
Also, I didn’t realize people still listened to ISP.
Man, now I know why economics is called the dismal science. I found the comedic entries this morning much more readable.
We’ve been hearing some stories about houses in our neighborhood being robbed, so I’ve been experimenting with security cameras for my house. Ok, at the moment they are behaving more like puppy-cams, but they are migrating toward a security role.
The street in front of the house will be covered by at least one of the outdoor cameras
This is the way of the future, folks. My reason for pursuing cameras instead of a security service is because I want evidence if I get robbed and the cameras are as much of a deterrent as an ADT sign.
Security cameras controlled by private owners are going to be the ultimate deterrent for police thuggery. It’s one thing when the cops take your cell phone or camera away on a public street. It another when the pictures are recorded by cameras they don’t even know about and are transmitted to off-site storage where they can easily be backed up and protected from police confiscation. Also, they might eventually pass a law prohibiting people from photographing cops in the performance of their duty (it’s probably inevitable), but I don’t think they could prohibit people from having security cameras in the own residences or businesses.
Think how interesting the video would be of the NYPD cops who raided that family and drove their cars into them intentionally….
#9 Justin – some states allow girls to participate in boys HS wrestling and a few have acheived some level of success in the lowest weight classes. It is controversial for obvious reasons.
You live in one of three or four states that do not have HS wrestling.
That advice column is a fake, although I think it is based on something real. In the real one, the author is a woman not a man, and the age of the woman the husband was having an affair with was not an issue.
The only things the state can’t prohibit are those that they don’t know about. Sure, it’s unthinkable now that they’d prohibit private security cameras, just like it was unthinkable 5 or 10 years ago that they’d prohibit photographs of police.
#4 – You think think this girl’s actually got a dad in the picture?
Admitting it makes me cringe, but for a short period in high school, I was an ICP fan. But back then, none of the ICP fans thought they were “hard” – it just made good halloween costumes and gave us something “forbidden” to listen to during sleepovers.
But, somewhere along the line, something changed, and ICP started drawing a more depraved and mildly retarded crowd. In fact, crime associated with “juggalos” is so common, the true crime site I contribute to actually tags them seperately. And it’s always particularly slimy crime. Young adult “juggalos” stealing money and candy – yes, candy – from tweens; a group of 5 young adults who beat a father unconscious for trying to protect his family – his girlfriend and 11 and 17 year old daughters – from these losers who terrorized the ladies while the family took a walk in a park, etc.
If a parent had to identify a single faction of the teenage demographic as the “wrong crowd” – that clique that he absolutely cannot afford for his child to fall into – ICP fans would be it.
I would miss you, too, Mr. Balko.
I’ll bring a couple cheeseburgers for you, Tokin.
Nah, we had wrestling in HS. My old high school always did quite well. I just didn’t realize it was something that interested girls.
You’re right and it actually occurred to me when I wrote that that I should never say never. If the state can prohibit gun ownership based on the premise that protection from criminals is the province of the police, then it’s certainly possible for them to make the argument against security cameras.
In fact, if they can get away with confiscation and destruction of video evidence with impunity (as they routinely do) then no formal law is even necessary.
Well, formal law is a terribly effective illusion, so it will never go away unless it’s replaced by something even better (for the state). Even the most apathetic of citizens would likely be roused if Obama went on the TV tomorrow and announced that they’re going to do away with the judiciary, and simply have police throw people in prison for however long they like whenever they find somebody they feel is doing wrong.
Of course, the reality is frighteningly close to exactly that, but it will never serve the state’s interests to admit it.
Men can be *great* advice columnists (not that I agree with this guy’s politics, mind you…)
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=569
Its just the price you pay for living in the freest country in the world. The police could kick in your door and assault your family at any time. And where are our legislators to reign these guys in?