• I know my tray table is in its locked, upright position. If you know what I mean.
• After two deaths, Charlotte police department shelves tasers pending a safety review.
• Some good perspective on “Leiby’s Law.”
• Amazing how the verbiage changes in these stories when the home invaders who shoot the dog aren’t wearing badges.
• Massachusetts plans to use high-speed license plate scanners to create massive database to indefinitely store driver whereabouts. Sure. This isn’t creepy at all!
• Newark cop arrests, puts choke hold on TV camera man, then charges him with “disorderly conduct.”
• Republicans for limited government.

The Clash, “Guns of Brixton”

 . . . is on the jaywalking prosecution of Raquel Nelson.

One interesting tidbit I found while reporting the article: The hit-and-run happened on April 10th. But Nelson wasn’t charged until May 17th, three days after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a big “Jaywalkers Are Courting Death” article, which mentioned her case, and that she hadn’t been charged.

So for this first video, I’d only toss in the caveat that if open carry is legal in your state, I don’t like the idea that you can expect to be periodically stopped and asked to explain yourself for carrying openly—you shouldn’t have to regularly explain yourself to police for any activity that’s perfectly legal.

That aside, this police officer is the epitome of professionalism. Good for him.

This on the other hand . . . well, just watch.

• This looks fun.
• The best of “Damn You, Autocorrect.” Hilarious, probably not entirely legitimate, and not for the easily offended.
• Headline of the day.
• Cop fired after beating dog, burying it alive.
• Another puppycide, this time a Saint Bernard. Again, even the slightest bit of training would have helped, here. Saint Bernards are about the gentlest breed of dog around.
• “Leiby’s Law” didn’t take long.
• Man convicted of “resisting arrest” after police mistake him for a burglar in his own home. The judge’s comments are particularly appalling.
• Americanisms the British loathe.
• Park Police in D.C. arrest, tase a pedicab driver.

Starts and ends strong, but it’s a bit of a mess in the middle.

Since you are such a Casey Anthony supporter I was wondering how often a day do you beat your children and drug them?  By the way the prosecution bought charges of first and second degree murder so saying the prosecution overcharged shows how ignorant you truly are.  It just again shows the stupidity and laziness of the jury .  Casey had a motive and the mental/physical elements where there for murder.  Most evidence in murder trials are circumstantial you moron because the murderer will usual try to hide evidence so he/she won’t get caught.  We should just say oh well if you are good enough at hiding evidence you should be set free!?  Professional jurors are needed because only ditch diggers work on juries these days.  Not a single juror on this case had a high school degree yet we are supposed to respect their decision?  Please, I don’t respect laziness and stupidity.  These idiots talk about ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ yet know nothing about it or how it works in the court of law.

So, if you think it’s Ok to allow your child to go missing over 5 days without notifying the authorities I can see you are as good of a parent as Casey Anthony and I hope your kids get taken away from you.

 

Patrick Gettrust

More victims of the unintended consequences of laws named after dead people:

Call it bullying or call it horseplay. Either way, a state appellate court panel says roughhousing with a sexual connotation by a pair of 14-year-old Somerset County boys was a crime that requires them to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.

In a decision handed down Monday, the three-judge panel acknowledged the severity of its decision, but said it was bound to uphold the law.

“We are keenly aware that our decision may have profound lifelong ramifications for these two boys as well as others similarly situated,” Judge Jose Fuentes wrote.

One of the boys, whose case went to trial, said he had sat on the faces of a pair of 12-year-old schoolmates with his bare buttocks in November 2008 “cause I thought it was funny and I was trying to get my friends to laugh,” he told a family court judge.

But an act is considered criminal sexual contact if it is done for sexual gratification or to degrade or humiliate the victim, and punishable by lifetime registration — even for juveniles — under Megan’s Law, which requires a person convicted of a sex crime against a child to notify police of changes of address or employment.

The trial judge concluded the teenager intended to humiliate or degrade his victims and found him guilty of criminal sexual contact. The second teenager who was implicated pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact and received the same penalty . . .

The prosecutor who charged these kids ought to lose his job.

A recent report (PDF) by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation claimed that the state is a major hub for sex trafficking. The report generated outraged media coverage and, of course, a full slate of new laws. (Not of all which are necessarily bad.)

But as we’ve seen with similar reports, there are some significant problems with the data.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), Coffee County is one of four major locations across the state for human sex trafficking.

However, not a single report from the Tullahoma Police Department completed during the past two years indicates any human sex trafficking incidents.

The TBI report released in June suggests that Coffee, Davidson, Shelby and Knox counties each have more than 100 cases of human sex trafficking during the past two years. The numbers were gathered from an anonymous e-mailed survey the bureau distributed to law enforcement agencies, juvenile and family courts and group homes that potentially deal with human sex trafficking and other sexual abuse crimes.

Although the Tullahoma Police Department and Coffee County Sheriff’s Department were listed as survey participants, officials aren’t sure who – if anyone – received the e-mailed survey.

“We’re unaware that anyone from this office participated in the survey,” said Police Chief Paul Blackwell. “We haven’t found any record that indicates Tullahoma has even one case of human sex trafficking.” . . .

Apparently, the report made no effort to actually define “sex trafficking” for survey participants, nor did it ask for any documentation or supporting evidence of any kind for the figures participants provided. Instead, survey participants were simply asked to estimate how many “sex trafficking” incidents they may have encountered in the past year, based on their own judgment of what might qualify under the term. (I’d imagine there would be problems with double counting, too.)

“People can say anything with no reason to be entirely accurate.” The report states human sex trafficking is often confused with prostitution.

“When I think of trafficking, I think of forced prostitution,” said Graves . . .

“Some participants who have limited or no training in identifying human sex trafficking would have difficulty recognizing a minor victim. …The conceptualization of human sex trafficking varies among individuals,” according to page 11 of the report.

Near the end of the report, a quote from Coffee County was included at the bottom of page 60.

“My experience with human sex trafficking was a father who was abusing his daughter and then letting his friends participate for a fee.” There was no source other than “Coffee County” listed for the quote.

Obviously, there’s no reasonable objection to laws against trafficking children for prostitution (or trafficking children for any other reason), or against using violence or the threat of violence to force adult women into the sex trade. The problem is how these sorts of reports, and the breathless coverage of them, conflate those clearly immoral practices with consensual sex-for-money between adults. Politicians then trumpet these reports and the unskeptical media coverage to demand laws cracking down on the consensual stuff. Which of course then pushes the sex trade further underground, exacerbating the actual sex trafficking problem.

(Hat tip: Maggie McNeil)

So remember how Indiana was launching a big investigation into errors at the state crime lab? Remember how hundreds of convictions could have been called into question?

Turns out it would be cheaper to just pretend the whole thing never happened.

A half-finished audit of drug and alcohol test results from the state’s toxicology lab already has found serious problems that raise the possibility of wrongful convictions.

But just how bad the situation is might never be known.

The Indianapolis Star learned Tuesday that the state has abruptly halted the independent audit. It was one of the first recommendations offered by a new three-person board appointed by Gov. Mitch Daniels.

Linda Chezem, chairwoman of the advisory board overseeing the state Department of Toxicology’s move from Indiana University to a stand-alone state agency, said it’s prudent to review the audit. She cited the cost — more than $250,000 — and the need to make sure the state is “spending money to get the best information we can.”

Chezem said she has “no idea” how long it will take to review the audit. And it’s uncertain whether the state will restart the audit . . .

IU hired Colorado-based auditor Forensic Consultants Inc. to examine the paper records for every positive test result from 2007 to 2009. Auditors found errors in 10 percent of marijuana cases and 32 percent of cocaine cases. They were working on the substance involved in the most cases — alcohol — when informed by email to “place a hold” on the audit.

“What they have done,” said prominent Indianapolis defense attorney J.J. Paul, “is open Pandora’s box, and now they want to close it just as they get to the greatest number of cases that affect the greatest number of people.”

Chezem, a former judge, questioned the value of a comprehensive, paper-only audit of results without retesting samples.

“The question is, ‘What does this mean?’ ” she said of the audit results. “We’re asking other experts to work with us on this. . . . Until you have a retest result that’s false-positive, I don’t know if anyone has been denied civil liberties.”

Of course, it would be much more expensive (and probably impossible) to go back and retest every individual sample. You do the general audit to get a grip on the extent of the problem, which you then use to figure out which batches of individual samples need to be retested. Without the audit, you’re left only with the impractical option of going back and testing every sample over the period in question (which is never going to happen), or leaving it up to individual defendants to take it upon themselves to go to court, at their own expense, to request that their case be reopened.

This reeks of sweeping the problem under the rug. Gov. Daniels can still override the panel’s recommendation and continue the audit. I hope he does.

USA Today reports:

Federal employees’ job security is so great that workers in many agencies are more likely to die of natural causes than get laid off or fired, a USA TODAY analysis finds.

Death — rather than poor performance, misconduct or layoffs — is the primary threat to job security at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Office of Management and Budget and a dozen other federal operations.

The federal government fired 0.55% of its workers in the budget year that ended Sept. 30 — 11,668 employees in its 2.1 million workforce. Research shows that the private sector fires about 3% of workers annually for poor performance . . .

The 1,800-employee Federal Communications Commission and the 1,200-employee Federal Trade Commission didn’t lay off or fire a single employee last year. The SBA had no layoffs, six firings and 17 deaths in its 4,000-employee workforce.

When job security is at a premium, the federal government remains the place to work for those who want to avoid losing a job. The job security rate for all federal workers was 99.43% last year and nearly 100% for those on the job more than a few years . . .

White-collar federal workers have almost total job security after a few years on the job. Last year, the government fired none of its 3,000 meteorologists, 2,500 health insurance administrators, 1,000 optometrists, 800 historians or 500 industrial property managers.

The nearly half-million federal employees earning $100,000 or more enjoyed a 99.82% job security rate in 2010. Only 27 of 35,000 federal attorneys were fired last year. None was laid off.

Meanwhile, Atlanta teachers were caught egregiously cheating on standardized tests, including holding parties where they erased and changed student answers. And yet . . .

Depending on the specifics of a case, the teacher firing process in Georgia can range from days to weeks to years. Costs mount as legal fees accrue. Atlanta has put the accused teachers on administrative leave, meaning the district will continue to pay their salaries as the termination processes unfold.

“Since Georgia is a right-to-work state, [the termination process is] probably about as streamlined as any in the nation,” said Hayward Richardson, a professor of education at Georgia State University. But even so, the process can wear on, running officials thousands of dollars in legal fees and salaries paid to the teachers who face dismissal . . .

Completing the Atlanta terminations could take a number of years, says Michael McGonigle, counsel for the Georgia Association of Educators.

“There’s an unprecedented number of these cases coming out of the gate,” McGonigle noted. “I’m not sure how they’ll process them at this point. … If they mess up [on legal grounds], and we can argue on appeal for reversal, we will do that. Or if the evidence isn’t strong enough … we would appeal that.” . . .

If they were fired, teachers could still work in different districts in Georgia — but they would have have a note of termination in their records, which is why, according to Bromery, Davis gave implicated educators the option to resign.

And Georgia is one of the states where it’s least difficult to fire a public school teacher.

• No rest in the war on lemonade stands.
• Pittsburgh police commissioner orders cops to make at least 10 traffic stops per month in predominantly black district.
• Hope you have a permit for that imaginary gun.
• Another lefty activist group that’s demanding transparency from free market groups . . . but won’t disclose its own donors.
• When al-Qaeda is defeated, will we get our civil liberties back? (This is a rhetorical question.)
• Photo of Pete Eyre with one of the jurors who acquitted him yesterday.
• More on that study of Alabama judges who override juries in death penalty cases: Not only do they overwhelmingly override juries in favor of sentencing defendants to death, they’re more likely to do so in an election year.
• Prosecutor still on the job after two DWI arrests in two weeks.
• Utah woman pulled over for driving too slow,  then arrested for recording the stop.

Skip the Prozac today, Agitatortots.

Word from Greenfield, Massachusetts is that a jury has acquitted Adam Mueller and Pete Eyre on all counts. They were facing felony charges for wiretapping (openly recording on-duty police officers) and resisting arrest.

Just heard that Cory Maye was finally released yesterday from the processing facility in Rankin County.

Oddly, no one bothered to notify his attorneys before releasing him. But he’s now home with his family.

More to come.

Over the weekend I linked to an excellent essay from a police officer explaining why good cops have no need to worry about citizen-shot video.

Jonathan Last now points to a less encouraging blog entry on the same topic, from a guy who claims to be a Chicago police officer:

Once again, it falls to the sane who walk among the thin blue line to point out that these provide exactly the same amount of “protection” to officers as our Blue Light Cameras offer to the citizenry – that is to say, “none.” This device is a witness that might provide assistance in the event of a bad beef in Oakland, but we can still count on one hand exactly how many prosecutions have been brought against bad beefers who have lied on sworn affidavits against CPD members.

And you can also can count on one hand the number of times a cop has been prosecuted—or even disciplined—after citizen-shot video showed him to have lied in a police report. Or the number of cops who have been prosecuted for destroying citizen cameras or deleting videos in jurisdictions where such recordings are legal.

And while it may be true that citizens shown to have lied in a sworn complaint against an officer are rarely prosecuted, it’s also true that CPD doesn’t take complaints all that seriously, even after a number of high-profile excessive force incidents in recent years. From an article I wrote a couple years ago:

The most famous incident was footage of an off-duty cop viciously beating a female bartender who refused to continue serving him in 2007. He wasn’t even charged until three months later, after the surveillance video surfaced on the Internet, generating worldwide outrage. There are other examples: six cops beating two men in a bar brawl; a video of a fatal police shooting in a subway station where officer accounts of the incident don’t match the video footage. The department also recently disciplined two officers after a video showed up on the Internet showing a Chicago PD unit posing for a trophy photo with a protester they had apprehended earlier this year at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

This is a police department still under federal investigation for an officer-run torture ring in the 1980s and, more recently, for a major scandal in which officers in the department’s Special Operations Unit—alleged to be made up of the city’s most elite and trusted cops—have been convicted of a variety of crimes, including home robberies, theft, physical abuse and intimidation, and even planning a murder. The “best of the best” unit was disbanded last year.

A 2008 study by University of Chicago law professor Craig B. Futterman found 10,000 complaints filed against Chicago police officers between 2002 and 2004. That’s more than any city in the country, and proportionally it’s 40 percent above the national average. Of those 10,000 complaints, just 19 resulted in significant disciplinary action. In 85 percent of the cases, the complaint was dismissed without even interviewing the accused officer. The study also found that about 5 percent of the department’s 13,500 officers accounted for more than half the complaints.

Yet the Chicago PD recently went to federal court—and won—to prevent the release of the names of 662 officers who had more than 10 citizen complaints filed against them between 2001 and 2006. Even members of the city’s Board of Aldermen aren’t allowed to see the officers’ names.

Now, the police department is working to become even less accountable. Last October, a study from the Chicago Justice Project found that on those rare occasions when Chicago police brass want to fire an officer, the Chicago Police Board—the agency that oversees the department—nearly always overrules them.

Not to mention the petulant reaction from Chicago cops and their union when Officer William Cozzi given prison time after he was caught on tape beating a man handcuffed to a wheelchair.

I should add when I’ve talked about this issue on radio call-in shows, I’ve heard from a lot of cops who take the less hostile, more encouraging position on this issue articulated in that first link. I’ve received lots of email from cops in the same vein. Most who say they’re fine with it say they’re fine with it because they’re good cops, and because citizen video is far more likely to protect them against false accusations than to incriminate them.

This is just awful.

For the second time in a year, Lawrence County Children and Youth Services has been accused in a federal lawsuit of removing a child from a mother’s custody after a positive test for opiates allegedly triggered by poppy seeds.

Eileen Ann Bower, a Lawrence County resident whose residence and age were not provided, gave birth to a son, Brandon, on July 13, 2009, according to a complaint filed late Friday. She was stunned, it said, when a blood test at Jameson Hospital came back positive for opiates.

Brandon was taken into foster care three days after his birth, it said, and only returned on Sept. 29. In the interim, Ms. Bower came to the conclusion that the test must have come back positive due to her ingestion, at her last meal before childbirth, of Salad Supreme dressing with poppy seeds . . .

In October, New Castle mother Elizabeth Mort sued the county and Jameson Health, alleging that a poppy seed bagel spurred a positive test for opiates in April 2010 that prompted the seizure of her baby, Isabella Rodriguez. She is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, and the litigation is ongoing.

I guess it could be worse. At least she wasn’t charged with attempted murder.

(And yes, poppy seeds can set off a drug test.)

When I’ve pointed out some hypothetical situations where an innocent parent or caretaker could be unjustly charged with the death of a child—cases where a parent may be guilty of poor decisions or bad parenting, but hasn’t broken any laws—the response is usually that prosecutors would never a grieving parent or caretaker under those scenarios. If you’re a regular reader of this site, you’re probably already darkly chuckling at the naivete of that assumption. There already seems to be a rush to find criminal culpability when a child dies. This ProPublica investigation, which coincidentally came out just before the Casey Anthony verdict, documents a number of child death cases in which law enforcement officials have pressed for and won criminal convictions when the evidence strongly indicated that the death was an accident.

Enter the Marietta, Georgia, case of 30-year-old Raquel Nelson, which has been bandied about in the comments section the last few days. Last April, Nelson was crossing a street with her three children when her 4-year-old was struck and killed by a car. She was crossing at an intersection, but was apparently not in a designated crosswalk. The driver who killed her had been drinking, taking painkillers, and was blind in one eye. He also has two prior hit-and-run convictions. Nelson and her daughter were also struck and injured. Residents of Nelson’s apartment building have complained to the city about the intersection. The nearest crosswalk is a half mile away.

If we have as little to fear from overly aggressive prosecutors as supporters of Caylee’s Law claim, we could expect the prosecutor in this case to show some discretion and mercy for Nelson, right? Yes, she admits to jaywalking. Yes, she erred, and subjected her kids to unnecessary risk. But she just lost her son. It’s hard to fathom a more punishing, heartbreaking sentence. Moreover, the underlying “crime” here was a misdemeanor, one most of us commit every day. So mercy, right?

Of course not. Nelson was charged with second-degree vehicular homicide. Which is insane. She was convicted last week. When she’s sentenced later this month, she could spend more time in jail than the man who struck and killed her son. The prosecutor will say he was just enforcing the law. The jury will say they were just applying it. Both are excuses to duck responsibility (prosecutors can decline to bring charges, juries can nullify). But if both are true, then the time to prevent unjust the unjust application of well-intentioned laws is to anticipate those applications while the laws are being written and proposed. That means interpreting the most ridiculous, merciless, farfetched possible applications of the law, then assuming that somewhere, some prosecutor will attempt to apply the law in exactly those ways.

This morning, I debated Caylee’s Law on Oregon Public Radio with the legislator proposing the law in that state. He said prosecutors need another “tool in their toolbox” to go after bad parents like Casey Anthony. At the same time, he also acknowledge tha cases where the law would be necessary were probably extremely rare. (Challenge to supporters of this law: Find me three other cases where a parent failed to report a missing child for days on end, was widely suspected of killing that child, but was acquitted of murder charges in court.) But just because legislators intend for the law to be used in very limited circumstances doesn’t mean prosecutors won’t attempt to use the law more frequently.

Prosecutors don’t need more “tools” in these cases. They have plenty. They need more discretion. And empathy. And a more complete understanding of justice.

• It’s gonna’ be this kind of week in Nashville.
• Gould, Arkansas city council attempts to ban a civic organization from existence.
• Great photo of Jimi Hendrix.
• Google may be altering your memory.
• Steve Chapman on Caylee’s Law.
• Media helps government bury a story about a secret CIA prison in Somalia.
• Jesus story of the day.

I’m currently working on a story about a pot raid in which the cops emptied a woman’s “lady drawer” onto her bed, lined up her sex toys, took a photo, then mocked her for what they found. That’s only a small part of the story. But it’s a weird part.

As it turns out, there’s also a Facebook group dedicated to cops’ fascination with the sex toys they find on drug raids.

When Oakland County Narcotics Enforcement Team raided several businesses and homes in August they confiscated guns, cash, a computer, business records from the safe and filing cabinet, and at least one vibrating dildo out of the one of the victims bedrooms.

Cannabis Attorney Matt Abel relayed a similar situation with one of his clients, victims of a drug raid who had personal items taken by the SWAT team. Matt’s take on it is that the Narcotics Officers hope the victims won’t go to trial for fear their highly private devises will be publicly displayed.

“What do they think?” he asks, “that the vibrators were used in a crime? Used to transport drugs? Bought with drug money?’

Well folks, I figure it’s likely that those fellas at Oakland County Narcotics Enforcement just need a little more love in their life. Perhaps a cup of hot tea, a good friend that listens unconditionally, and more dildos might assist in elevating their compassion level.

That’s why we’re starting the Dildos For Justice Campaign.

Also, an oldie but goodie:

• Three members of Kansas City SWAT team indicted on federal conspiracy charges.
• Jogger arrested for warning motorists of a speed trap.
• Video of police in California detaining a man who is not violating the state’s open carry law.
• Alabama allows judges to override jury sentences in death penalty cases. Study shows that 92 percent of overrides are when judges impose a death sentence over the wishes of a jury.
• Yes, it’s true. If the government monitors you for every minute of every day, there’s a good chance that if you’re ever falsely accused of a crime, footage from government cameras could get you off the hook. This is not a persuasive argument in favor of government monitoring you every minute of every day.
• Adam Mueller and Pete Eyre go on trial tomorrow in Greenfield, Massachusetts. They’re charged with felony wiretapping for openly recording at a police station.

• San Francisco may try to outlaw circumcision.
• Headline of the day.
• A rare photo of the Koch family dog.
• I don’t know what this is from, but I want to see the whole thing.
• ATF “Fast and Furious” scandal may have had a sister operation in Florida.
• U.S. formally recognizes rebel group as the official government of Libya that we’ll be bombing again in 10 years.
• “Nice prisons you have here. Be a shame if they were to break out into riots.
• “They’re considered among the top SWAT teams in the nation.” This video would seem to contradict that.
• Noble public servants continue to protect us from unlicensed lemonade stands run by children.

I spoke with one of Cory Maye’s attorneys this morning. He’s still being processed in Rankin County, Mississippi, and has not yet been released.

As I understand it, part of the problem is that the Mississippi Department of Corrections had no record of Maye’s incarceration from the night of the raid in late 2001 until his trial in early 2004. I’m not sure why that is, though I guess it might have something to do with the fact that on the night of the raid, Jefferson Davis County Sheriff Henry McCullum had Maye surreptitiously moved from his jail to the Forrest County jail for Maye’s safety.

Anyway, in order to give Maye credit for that time, they had to clear up the clerical error. Technically, Maye has only served 9 1/2 years of his 10-year sentence, though with time for good behavior, he should be well over his sentence. It apparently also took some time to calculate that good behavior credit, which obviously wasn’t a factor when Maye was sentenced to death, and then to life without parole.

Maye attorney Abe Pafford said this morning that this all now seems to be taken care of, and they’re just waiting on a release date. For reasons that also aren’t exactly clear, it could be another week or more before that happens.

From the Detroit News:

Charges against the woman who planted a vegetable garden in her front yard have been dropped, her attorney said Thursday.

But other charges against Julie Bass have been resurrected for not having licenses for her two dogs — even though she took care of that issue, lawyer Solomon Radner said.

“This is really nothing other than a personal vendetta against the Basses either because somebody doesn’t like them, or because they had the nerve to fight this unjust prosecution,” said Radner, who plans to file a motion to dismiss . . .

. . . Bass got licenses for her dogs after she was charged in June, and showed the paperwork to officials. Typically, cases are closed after the issue is addressed.

But Radner spoke to an Oak Park city attorney colleague who informed him that the dog license charge is not dead against Bass, something he called “a very dirty move.”

Misdemeanor charges — including failure to have a dog license — typically carry a 93-day jail sentence, Radner said.

If a bureaucrat wants to make your life hell, they’ll find a reason.

MORE: At her blog, Bass says the garden-related charges were dismissed not by the city, but by a judge. And they were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could potentially be brought again.

The Casey Anthony verdict!

No, really.

Maybe the jurors in Orlando were able to acquit Anthony of child abuse, the most defensible and best-documented charge that the prosecution had, because they didn’t see anything strange in a mother who partied like a cheap trick during the month that her baby was “missing.” Maybe they were so steeped in the culture of individuality and “tolerance” that they found it hard to be judgmental toward a randy mom who reminded them of their own children, or even their younger selves . . .

Or maybe they’d just forgotten what neglect and abuse look like because, after all, criticizing a woman for expressing her sexuality is so . . . Victorian.

But, more than an inability to understand complex legal theories, I think the reason the jury was unable to convict Anthony was that it just didn’t buy the prosecution premise that a woman who enters a hot-body contest while her child is lost has both the motive and propensity to kill her. In a society where people have the fundamental right to enjoy themselves – others be damned – an immature and self-obsessed mother is no more likely to murder an innocent baby than your run-of-the-mill reality-show hausfrau. And anyone who criticizes her for those acts of carefree self-expression is a judgmental prude.

That’s where individualism of the libertarian model has taken us. The idea that no one has the right to tell us how to live our lives (Legalize drugs! Ban motorcycle helmets! Don’t ban violent videos! Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!) has led us to a place where caring about No. 1 has become a secular religion, and turned all of those who preach restraint into heretics.

So it’s not surprising at all that Casey Anthony got off, even in the face of strong evidence and the absolute implausibility of alternatives.

The only thing surprising in all of this is that she was put on trial in the first place. Because, after all, it’s not a crime these days if girls just wanna have fun.

This is clearly one of the stupidest things about this case yet to be written. And there’s been a hell of a lot of competition.

But I actually agree with the author’s conclusion. As a libertarian, I believe every criminal defendant should be afforded the full slate of constitutional protections; that suspects should be considered innocent until proven guilty; that the government must always prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt; and that guilt should be determined by an independent jury weighing the evidence, not by public opinion polls or lynch mobs. If adhering to those standards is what resulted in the “not guilty” verdict, I’m fine with taking the “blame” for that.

Mavis Staples’ “On My Way.” This song popped up on my iPod as I was driving to Monticello for the Cory Maye hearing a couple weeks ago. Seemed pretty appropriate.

• Comparing corporate vs. state funding of the arts.
• I was hoping someone would throw some cold water on The Filter Bubble. My former colleague Jesse Walker does here.
• In which the Internet answers your important questions, and offers you a dress emblazoned with Steve Buscemi’s face.
• This seems like a slight overreaction, doesn’t it? I mean, haven’t there been about a thousand beer commercials in which men are portrayed as infantile morons? And (some of) those are funny, too.
• Hey, the Fourth Amendment is all but dead. Let’s see if we can’t get to work on the Fifth Amendment, too.
• Smart editorial from a Florida paper cautions against Caylee’s Law. And it’s not just smart because it quotes me. It’s smart because it agrees with me! Here’s another dissent from the mob from a former Bronx prosecutor. (Last link via Mark Draughn.)
• Speaking of which, I was on the CBC last night to discuss the law. You can watch here. I come on at about the 8:15 mark.
• The perils of one-size-fits-all regulation: ” . . . so basically I’m responsible for periodically surprising myself with a random drug test.”