Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
- No criminal charges against the NYPD officers who shot groom-to-be Sean Bell in 2006.
- A history of tech panics, going back to Socrates.
- Meet George Hutchins, the man who wants to lead North Carolina’s 4th Congressional District . . . into 1995.
- Make of this story what you will. Even if the guy was acting erratically, seems like the cops ought to show some restraint. And if true, the show of force at the hospital was ridiculous. Also, for goodness sake, drop the charges. Interestingly, the comments aren’t as pro-police as you typically see in these stories.
- Gulp!
- Audit finds the Census has already wasted millions, and it hasn’t officially started yet.
- Interesting article on the use of food and drink in police interrogations.
- How the Beatles contributed to soaring health care costs.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 2:51 pm by Radley Balko
and is filed under General Criminal Justice, Police Professionalism.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
TheAgitator.com
The NYPD headline is misleading. The officers were charged and acquitted at the state level. This article is about the Justice Department choosing not to prosecute a federal charge of a civil rights violatoin.
Shooting dead an unarmed man not a Civil Rights violation? Hmmm.
Maybe they can make some bucks at least, like Amadou Diallo’s mom.
“On April 18, 2000, Diallo’s mother, Kadiatou, and his stepfather, Sankarella Diallo filed a US$61,000,000 ($20m plus $1m for each shot fired) lawsuit against the City of New York and the officers, charging gross negligence, wrongful death, racial profiling, and other violations of Diallo’s civil rights. In March 2004, they accepted a US$3,000,000 settlement. “
Wow, that George Hutchins website is an abomination of design.
I just checked out the George Hutchins site; I think my eyes are bleeding now.
Holy crap! What an ugly website. Totally agree on the “abomination” and “eyes bleeding”.
The only thing missing from that website was some links to crystal healing, “9/11 truth”, some info on the NWO and a geocity web address.
Ooh, ol’ George used FrontPage…so that puts us in early 2000s with 90′s design. At least he didn’t use HotDog or HoTMetaL.
I’m not all that perturbed about the “pizza” interrogations.
No, the suspects weren’t warned that what they said could be held against them, but it doesn’t appear that they were coerced.
There is a chance that some blowhard might try to “impress” a police officer by try to show that he was badass and falsely say that he had committed, but I would consider such a person a Darwin Award candidate.
(Now, if the cops were to force the guy to eat something from Pizza Hut, I would consider that torture.)
…say that he had committed [a crime],
Proofread, dammit!
The Beatles (and CT scanners) didn’t make the prices go up. Insurance and the ‘doctor knows best’ attitude did. Just trust the doctor, he knows what he’s doing (running up your bill as high as possible).
Aresen.
What part about the Police Interrogation process don’t you get? These guys aren’t trying to uncover fact, as far as they’re concerned, they HAVE the facts.
They’re just trying to get a conviction.
In all too many cases, that means grabbing the first guy that might have done it, and is too stupid to resist their techniques.
EVERYTHING the police do in an interrogation is coercion. That’s the point of the interrogation. The minute the “Best candidate for conviction” is found amongst the possible suspects, the process of coercion starts. Best outcome for the police? A confession.
Just because you or I know enough to shut the fuck up and say only “No Comment” to any police interrogation, doesn’t mean the streets aren’t lined with people that will freely try to ‘help’ the police, only to get themselves convicted for it.
I can’t stop reading that George Hutchins site. I came for the craptastic design, but I stayed for the spelling errors, horrible sentence structure, and totally batshit ideology!
Get a load of this bit:
“In the 21st Century Modern Age, of DNA and Crime Scene Investigation Technology, anyone convicted of FIRST DEGREE MURDER, which warrants the DEATH PENALTY, {Capitol Punishment}, if INNOCENT, should be able to prove their INNOCENTS, within one year after conviction, through Modern Science.”
==>”IF INNOCENTS cannot be proven after conviction, within ONE YEAR, this convicted person is obviously, very Guilty of Murder, based upon Modern Crime Investigation Science.”
“Police cannot legally interview potential suspects once they ask for an attorney. And without being in police custody, they are free to leave at any time. If reasonable and innocent people did not believe they were free to leave — without being read their constitutional rights — any statement they made to police could be declared inadmissible in court. ”
WTF?
I always wondered why Right-wing political discussion
websites were so dopey.
Little green footballs? Jawa report? Baa!
At least give your opponents something to chew on before they spit it out.
Or why Fox news shows lots of outer-spacey purple and blue and red lights in the background, not to mention the other distractions.
The people on that side of the the spectrum are dumb.
Abraham Lincoln’s party, founded by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, has transmogrified into
the knuckle-dragging, emotion-based, idiot-Politics
of the misguided, ill-informed and otherwise unenlightened.
It’s no longer Left vs Right. It’s critical analysis versus hype, hate and hubris.
There, I said it.
re: George Hutchens – I saw that some time back (last fall?), but it still brings plenty of chortles every time I see it. And, you know, almost have a seizure.
However, it’s missing one truly AWESOME late 90′s webpage ingredient: fractals!
Right Yizmo, liberals never use emotion based politics to pass any legislation, like a stimulus bill that was passed out of fear of grave economic collapse. Domocrats never put up law and order-hardline neanderthals like Martha Coakley to run for US Senate. Nor do they use class warfare to scare the masses into voting for them.
Good to know you aren’t biased or anything.
Cheney & Co need to send George Hutchins to Gitmo and make an example out of him. Before the GOP can police the world, they need to learn how to police themselves. George is Party Enemy #1.
Glad Yizmo Gizmo sorted the extremists out for me.
Now that my eyes have been opened, I suddenly remember all the critical analysis coming from the left with respect to healthcare reform, energy policy, banking, trade, the drug war, the 1st and 2nd amendments, property rights …
–FYI, I do agree that Hutchins’ site is horrible in both design and content, but painting one extreme as nutty and the other as somehow brilliant and above it all diminishes the first argument.
Ooh, ol’ George used FrontPage…so that puts us in early 2000s with 90’s design.
Oooohhhh, there’s so much additional fun to be had with the page’s source code. Some of the choice meta keywords included in the code:
* gay right, gay marriage, fags, faggots
* Gangs of New York
* brandenburg gate, Germany, Berlin
* FOX NEWS, Glenn Beck, Udo Voigt
I dunno… frankly, I kinda miss 1995, sometimes.
Got to love the irony of the placement of the “Don’t Tread on Me” image next to the “Stop Marijuana Use” image.
That’s where Republicans just make me chuckle.
I live in the 4th District. Needless to say I’m disgusted, especially considering how great a candidate BJ Lawson was last election.
I was really looking forward to working on Dr. Lawson’s campaign until he announced he wasn’t going to challenge Price again.
This guy on the other hand, is the kind of Republican I love to hate. I think I’ll stay home in November….
I think we should elect George Hutchins. Just imagine what we could accomplish if Congress had the power of the timecube!
Technically his website has a copyright violation there on the front page. Hutchison’s use of the Alamo poster from the movie staring Dennis Quaid and Billy Bob Thornton is almost surely being used without permission. Now if someone were to notify the copyright holder who then sent a DCMA notice to his servie providers…..
@Mike O.
WT everlovin’ F is *that*??
The Slate piece is slightly in error. A quote attributed to Socrates is actually Plato’s, from his Phaedrus, where Plato spoke through the character of Socrates. A minor point, but important, I think, since we only really know Socrates directly from the Apology, and even there I don’t think scholars are sure of the transcription.
“The Slate piece is slightly in error. A quote attributed to Socrates is actually Plato’s, from his Phaedrus, where Plato spoke through the character of Socrates. A minor point, but important, I think, since we only really know Socrates directly from the Apology, and even there I don’t think scholars are sure of the transcription.”
Check-out the big brain on Chris!
Of course the police try to appear friendly to the suspect. Must the police only
interrogate suspects by threatening them?
The real problem has nothing to do with the food, or with the police trying to appear friendly to suspects. The problem is the twisted way the courts interpret the word “voluntary”. Technically when the officer says “how about we spoke about this in the precinct”, you aren’t required to come with him. Unless you are under arrest you aren’t required to do anything, you can leave at any time. Thus, anything you tell the police counts as a “voluntary” statement. However, the truth is that the average person treats these requests from the police as orders which must be obeyed. If the police says “may I search your car”, the average person treats it as an ordered phrased in a polite way without realizing they have the option of saying “no, you may not”. If you are in the interrogation room but not under arrest you are free to get up and leave, but the average person will be so intimidated by the police that they won’t. So in practice people find themselves being questioned without knowing they are free to go — they feel compelled to answer the questions. Then the courts turn around and say “technically, you were free to go so the confession was voluntary”, when the police did everything in their power to create the impression that the suspect had to talk without stepping over the legal line.
What should bother us is not that the police offer the person food. It’s that they first create the impression that you must answer the questions.
After viewing Hutchins website I had to email him. This is what I wrote:
How dare you claim to be a TEA Party member while advocating continuation of the war on drugs (and especially on cannabis) among other atrocities of government. I am a longstanding member of my local TEA Party and I would not vote for you if you were the only name on the ballot! Shame on you for trying to appropriate the success of the grassroots TEA Party for your own aggrandizement, you do NOT share the values of the TEA Party which wants government OUT of the personal and economic lives of the populace. You, sir, are a fascist!
“If you’re in favor of laws against consensual behavior, regardless of alleged ‘harm’, you’re a FASCIST!” –Robert A. Cook
I completely agree!
May your campaign fall flat on its face, tomorrow.
PS, your web page is gaudy, obviously, you are seriously lacking in good taste and common sense.
Jozef @ 18
I thought you were trolling with the comment about the Meta tags. However, I had a look at the page source and saw them with my own two eyes.
My apologies.
I noticed that. I also noticed the irony of the “Stop Marijuana Use” near the one supportive of the NRA. When are gun-enthusiasts going to wake up and realize that the war on drugs is also a de facto war on guns?
“It’s no longer Left vs Right. It’s critical analysis versus hype, hate and hubris.”
No, I think it is hype hate and hubris vs. hype hate and hubris. Politics has little to do with critical analysis.
Food, drink and cigs were all shown on the series ‘The Wire’ as means to obtain info- ‘good cop-bad cop’ scenario. At least it is not illegal.
Food, drink and cigs were all shown on the series ‘The Wire’ as means to obtain info- ‘good cop-bad cop’ scenario. At least it is not illegal.
That last link could be, “How the Beatles contributed to early cancer detection.”
#10 Juice,
You are absolutely correct in your analysis of the CT situation.
About five years ago, my ex had a CT for acute right lower abdominal pain. CT’s had become the standard of care for determining whether or not a patient had appendicitis. Had here father not been a local pediatrician and I (ex-general surgeon) not consulted another surgeon, they would have sent her home with a perforated mucocele of the appendix. It was a completely useless exam in that clinical situation (obvious acute abdomen on exam). The latest literature pints out this exact fallacy in using CT’s to diagnose appendicitis! Maybe that is one of the reasons, I, lately, read that the number of ruptured appendix cases seem to be rising. (more in rural areas more than cities, noted also)
More recently l my wife had a CT scan for a bladder condition called interstitial cystitis. I feel it was not, really, indicated. That was also a big waste of money that we are expected to pay on a poverty level ($12,000/yr, [long story]) income. (no kids, so, no Medicaid for us!) The medical care scene needs a lot more changed, than, just, who is going to pay for our “right” to care!
I just moved away from the NC 4th…it is probably the bluest district south of the Mason-Dixon and north of Florida. That guy will get about 10 votes Durham and maybe 3 in Chapel Hill. Two of which will be ironic.
I liked Lawson, too…he was the only Republican I voted for in 2008.
“No criminal charges against the NYPD officers who shot groom-to-be Sean Bell in 2006.”
It’s this kind of stuff that will lead to another Bell getting involved, one with the first name Jim.
It seems that some Pennsylvanians got an education about the class differences between State agents and regular people.
The regular people need to gather a posse of about 1000 like-minded individuals and revolt against the State of Pennsylvania, force a media event.
Taxpayers also need to end the perks that State agents receive, such as defined pension benefits and six-figure salaries, by armed revolt if necessary.
It’s time for all decent people everywhere to push their chips all in and rebel against the State. It’s enough already.
Hutchins promises “More better Jobs.”
No word yet on “More better funding for Grammar.”