How A City Commits Suicide
The Wall Street Journal today has an article about how Minneapolis is remembering George Floyd. Buried ten paragraphs down is the real story about what’s happening in that city.
Category: Policing
More Cops, Less Crime, Big Data
Common sense tells us that more cops on the beat should reduce crime. That was why, at the peak of America’s crime rates, Bill Clinton’s promise to put 100,000 cops on the beat struck a resonant chord with a great many Americans. But while common sense is usually right it is not always, so empirical research is needed.
Charles Lehman reports in the City Journal on research by Sarit Weisburd of Tel Aviv University using GPS data from Dallas police cars. “Weisburd demonstrates that cutting police presence leads to a dramatic increase in crime and offers compelling evidence that this effect is driven by a drop in routine patrols. Cops on the beat drive down crime.” Continue reading . . .
Arrests Down, Shootings Up in NYC
In mid-July, this article in the WSJ noted an increase in shootings in New York City as the lockdowns started to ease. Not to worry, though, Mayor de Blasio was ready with “new tactics to curb violence, including deploying additional officers to areas where shootings have taken place, and increasing efforts to foster coordination between police and communities.” Additional cops can’t hurt, but if you have a fixed number in a city deploying more one place means fewer someplace else. “Foster coordination between police and communities” sounds like the kind of vague generality that typically means nothing worthwhile will get done.
So how is it looking four months later? Continue reading . . .
Defunding the Police, Minneapolis Edition
While, as Mike notes, other cities are making ready to defund their police, Minneapolis has a head start. Here are the results, as reported by none other than the Washington Post. Its headline is, “Minneapolis violence surges as police officers leave department in droves.” The story underneath the headline doesn’t get any better; instead, it gets considerably worse. Continue reading . . .
Protest Organizer Liability for Injury to Police Officer
When is a protest organizer liable under state tort law for injury to a police officer when the protest turns violent? When is such liability blocked by the First Amendment?
The U.S. Supreme Court today summarily vacated and remanded a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Court of Appeals had ruled on the constitutional question without first adequately resolving the state law question. Continue reading . . .
Anybody Want to Be Chief of Police?
Who want a job where your boss (or council of bosses) throws you under the bus at the first sign of trouble, whether you had anything to do with the trouble or not?
Zusha Elinson reports for the WSJ that cities are having difficulty filling their top cop slots. Continue reading . . .
Mobs, Myths, and Courage
Mob action is often premised on falsehoods. The most notorious in recent years was the “Hands Up” lie in the Ferguson, Missouri matter. See this post. Now we have the facts in the death of Breonna Taylor, and once again the mob has been calling for the prosecution of the wrong people. Today’s Profile in Courage award goes to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron. Continue reading . . .
The Disparate Impact of Crime
The soft-on-crime side likes to pride itself as being somehow the champions of the poor and downtrodden. They are not. Rafael Mangual has this article in the City Journal on growing inequality in the impact of crime on New Yorkers. Continue reading . . .
A Voice of Reason on Defunding the Police
Who would you guess said, in response to a question on defunding the police, “to take all policing off is something a latte liberal may go for as they sit around the Hamptons discussing this as an academic problem. But people living on the ground need proper policing.” Continue reading . . .
A Sigh of Relief in California
In California today, people of sense breathe a sigh of relief when the Legislature adjourns for the year. In public safety, particularly, that body now passes much harmful legislation and very little that helps.
Christine Mai-Duc and Alejandro Lazo report in the WSJ that anti-police activists are disappointed that the Legislature adjourned without passing much in the way of what they call “police reform.” We can all exhale now. Continue reading . . .
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