Gangsters in Blue

• It makes sense that they’d have their guns drawn. The bacteria in unpasteurized milk has been known to arm itself with assault weapons.
• Wow. Not sure whether I’d shake the man’s hand or run away from him screaming.
• Injustice Everywhere has posted its police misconduct map for the first half of 2010.
• Southern Republicans starting to question the wisdom of incarceration nation.
• Another police shooting where the police department in question, this time the Colorado Highway Patrol, is being very stingy with information.

• Emily Bazelon on the prosecutorial overreach in the Phoebe Prince bullying case. Kudos to Bazelon for a skeptical, in-depth, really well-reported piece of journalism.
• The i-dosing silliness gets picked up by the British papers.
• Man has identity stolen by a sex offender, now likely to remain on sex offender list for the rest of his life.
• Jury awards man $855,000 in suit in which he claims he was beaten by Maricopa County sheriff’s deputies. He had been arrested for sexually abusing and killing his infant son. He was acquitted on those charges. I’m sure his last name had nothing to do with any of this.
• ABC News picks up the “arrested for recording cops” story.
• Blind couple nearly lost custody of their child because . . . they’re blind.

Via the comments, here’s some interesting data on police shootings in California.

In most of the country, this information is extremely difficult to come by. There’s actually a federal law requiring the Justice Department to collect this information every year. The problem is that there’s no corresponding law requiring police agencies to provide it.

Speaking of which, I’ve received email demands that I post on the verdict in the Oscar Grant shooting. First, it’ll be the topic of my crime column Monday. Second, please stop demanding that I post on things, or drawing inferences about my opinions based on what I do or don’t write about. Most of the time, my failure to post on a story relevant to this site is usually a reflection of my having other things to work on. Or it may be that I’m preparing something longer than a blog post. Or that I need to find time to read more before I’m comfortable writing about it.

I think my favorite email in this vein said I’d be writing much more about this story if Grant had been white. There were two of those, actually.

• Another arrest for recording police, this time in New Hampshire. The charges were dropped soon after. This is the second such arrest I’ve seen in New Hampshire. A Nashua man named Michael Gannon was arrested in 2006 for recording police who had come into his own home. Those charges were later dropped, too.
• The miracle of orthodontia.
• Here’s a surprising headline. Remember Radley’s axiom: libertarianism tends to happen to people.
• Why journalists shouldn’t be fired for revealing their personal opinions.
• More federal drug raids in Obama’s post-federal-drug raid America. In San Diego and Saginaw.
• Download the Reason iPhone ap. It’s your chance to put me, Matt Welch, and Nick Gillespie in your pocket. And it’s free!
• William Grigg on a couple of disturbing “new professionalism” moments.

• Another arrest for recording police, this time in New Hampshire. The charges were dropped soon after. This is the second such arrest I’ve seen in New Hampshire. A Nashua man named Michael Gannon was arrested in 2006 for recording police who had come into his own home. Those charges were later dropped, too.
• The miracle of orthodontia.
• Here’s a surprising headline. Remember Radley’s axiom: libertarianism tends to happen to people.
• Why journalists shouldn’t be fired for revealing their personal opinions.
• More federal drug raids in Obama’s post-federal-drug raid America. In San Diego and Saginaw.
• Download the Reason iPhone ap. It’s your chance to put me, Matt Welch, and Nick Gillespie in your pocket. And it’s free!
• William Grigg on a couple of disturbing “new professionalism” moments.

Libertarian activists Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller have been arrested for filming police in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

• The pizza cone.
• Great post from Scott Greenfield on how evidence rules become malleable when the defendant is unsympathetic.
• Tony Woodlief on parenting and the case against happiness. The subsequent discussion in the comments thread is also interesting.
• Good Washington Examiner editorial on recording the police. And not just because it mentions me.
• Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer not only thinks illegal immigrants are beheading people, she also says most of them are smuggling drugs. Maybe we should put illegal immigrants and sex offenders on an island and have them fight to the death. Sell pay per view. Proceeds would go to the RNC, of course.

• Fun book review in the Wall Street Journal by Scott Greenfield. Reviews a book on New York City’s criminal justice system during the Gilded Age.
• Bart Simpson surrenders.
• Lawsuit claims man was arrested for photographing a cop who had illegally come into his home. Suit also says he was charged with public intoxication because the cop spotted a beer on the man’s kitchen counter. All the criminal charges were dropped.
• New report shows D.C. voucher program has been a success. Naturally, Congress has killed the trial.
• “The Writer Who Couldn’t Read.” Fascinating story.
• Victims of police brutality in Indianapolis start non-profit support group.
• “New Pixar Employees Required To Watch Adorable Sexual Harassment Video”

• Missouri lawmakers focus on the really important stuff.
• The one-sided immigration debate.
• Tennessee deputy threatens man videotaping police making arrests.
• Study: Blacks routinely excluded form juries.
• Atlanta woman wrongly arrested for asking “why?” to get $20,000. From taxpayers, of course. Not from the offending police officers.
• Here’s a great Vanity Fair interview with libertarian/magician/skeptic Penn Jillette.
• Harvard student illegally brought to America at age four, then threatened with deportation after trying to be board a plane earlier this month . . .  will be allowed to stay.