Gangsters in Blue

• It’s funny because it’s true.
• Barney Frank challenges George Will, Paul Ryan on legalizing marijuana.
• Why good cops should want more video, audio recordings of their interactions with citizens.
• Artist makes statues of people, then submerges them. To beautiful effect.
• Who said it, Newt Gingrich or a Super Villain?
• Good enough for government work: Head of low-income house agency in Massachusetts worked 15 days, pulled in a $360,000 salary.
• This seems like a good way to start a horror movie.

• Rick Perry “retires” in order to engage in some pension/salary double dipping.
• Dog disguise kits to get around breed-specific prohibitions.
• Police meet man at airport baggage claim, then arrest, book him over expired vehicle tags.
• DOJ report finds that Seattle cops violate the Constitution one out of every five times they use force.
• Grandmother of convicted drug dealer fights to keep her home from the asset forfeiture brigade.
• If you’re a secretly gay mayor who preaches conservative politics, you probably shouldn’t fund trips to the adult bookstore with taxpayer money.
• Feds spend tens of millions of dollars to put Barry Bonds on probation for lying to a roomful of professional liars.

• The most uplifting, faith-in-humanity-restoring thing you’ll read today.
• Tennessee dealing with fallout from judge’s “ignominious descent into drug addiction, criminality and professional impropriety.”
• State police in Massachusetts refuse to release information about Lt. Gov. Tim Murray’s car accident, even though they’re required to do so under state law.
• “Another officer used his Taser and made contact, but the man knocked one of the wires away with the light saber.”
• Federal report finds mass violations of civil rights by Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
• An op-ed arguing to decriminalize marijuana in Missouri. There’s a petition drive underway to put the issue on the November ballot.

• This won’t end well.
• Norway is out of butter.
• Police union alleges commanders are misspending forfeiture money.
• Ron Paul could pull an upset in Iowa. I predict that if he does, whoever comes in second will be declared the winner.
• Militarization watch: “Texas now has its own Navy!”
• 15-year-old shot by cop posing as pizza delivery guy.
• Want to be a tour guide in New Orleans? You’ll first need to pass a drug test, provide a fingerprint, pass a criminal background check, and take a history exam.
• Columbia, Missouri police chief Ken Burton does the right thing by firing a cop caught slamming a prisoner into the wall. Naturally the police union is calling for Burton’s head.

• Great piece by my HuffPost colleague John Rudolf about an Alabama woman trying to find out why and how her son died in police custody.
• Marist poll (PDF): In hypothetical general election matchup with Obama, Ron Paul is tied. All the other GOP candidates would lose.
• Mississippi Supreme Court admonishes DA Forrest Allgood. (PDF)
• DEA has laundered millions of dollars from Mexican drug cartels. Hey, why not! It’s our policy that made them rich in the first place. Not to mention that we’re also arming them.
• Mitt Romney’s staff spent $100,000 in public funds to wipe out all email from his tenure as governor of Massachusetts.
• I did an interview yesterday with Wall Street Journal Radio about police militarization. You can listen here. My interview starts at about the 22 minute mark.
• New threat: drunken gummi bears.
• The Durbin Swipe Fee Amendment: the latest consumer protection measure that isn’t protecting consumers.
• How Rand Paul prevented World War III.

• Disgraced former “Sheriff of the Year” arrested, now jailed in the building that’s named after him.
• The cognitive benefits of gum chewing.
• The reproductive perils of Wifi.
• Tennessee officials want to protect Tennesseeans from “synthetic drugs” by putting them in jail for trying them.
• Wonderful old color photographs from Russia.
• Federal prosecutor argues in a court brief that advocating jury nullification is a crime, “no matter where it occur[s].”

• “The American people want an adult, and no one has a stronger record of adultery than I do.”
• Arthur Brooks on fairness and the Occupy movement.
• Video shows UC-Davis students were clearly warned about use of force before pepper spray. I don’t think this justifies it. It’s hard to see what harm the students were causing by sitting on a sidewalk at a quad. But it does mitigate the casualness with which the cop appears to spray them.
• The Occupy crackdowns have at least forced more people to start paying attention to police militarization.
• FDA: U.S. facing severe Adderall shortage that is causing real harm to people who use the drug. DEA: Shut up.

All are included in my new piece for Huffington Post.

The broader theme is how drug war incentives encourage police departments to go all out while investigating consensual drug crimes and to brush off crimes with actual victims.

• Mr. T plays Santa with Nancy Reagan.
• OWS takes aim at Black Friday.
• Speaking of which, here’s the dumbest thing you’ll read about Black Friday.
• Federal judge tosses lawsuit brought by targets of that violent drug raid in Columbia, Missouri.
• William Anderson on prosecutorial misconduct.

• Ice finger of death!
• Man falls off bicycle. Cop kills him.
• Red light camera vendor sues Knoxville, Tennessee for not issuing tickets when people turn right at a red light.
• The Pentagon’s $3 billion mercenary war on drugs.
• AFL-CIO, Teamsters, other unions firmly backing SOPA.
• All your fish are belong to government.
• A good reminder as the country goes into panic—and politicians go into “there oughtta be a law” mode—in response to Penn State: False allegations of sex abuse can also ruin lives.