Gangsters in Blue

From the January 12 2010 Meeting of the Board of Prison Commissioners:

Tonya Brown stated she had a private autopsy performed on Mr. Klein and passed out the updated death certificate to the Board. She stated had he been properly treated, he would still be alive today and the State of Nevada will now be charged with a wrongful death suit.

Ms. Brown stated an innocent man died for a crime he didn’t commit. She stated if the Pardons Board had granted a pardon for Mr. Klein he would be alive today and said his medical condition went untreated. Ms. Brown stated inmates are coming into the prison system and leaving with a death sentence because they were not being treated properly. She submitted the Death Certificate for the record. See Exhibit C.

For more information about Nolan Klein and his case, please visit JusticeforNolanKlein.com

David Boaz points to two surprisingly strong editorials in the Washington Post with libertarian themes, one on problems with the criminal justice system, and one on the Obama administration’s troublingly expansive view of human rights (and its rather casual treatment of actual human rights).

Bruce Schneier: “Only one carry on? No electronics for the first hour of flight? I wish that, just once, some terrorist would try something that you can only foil by upgrading the passengers to first class and giving them free drinks.”

The top ten Top 10 lists of 2009.

This is a positive development.

Gay rights, leftist groups in D.C. fight other gay rights, leftist groups in D.C. over right of anti-gay rights groups to take out ads on the city’s Metro trains. Good on the pro-speech folks.

Zero tolerance strikes again.

Federal judge won’t toss the obscenity charges against John Stagliano. I think his attorney is right. This is a good chance to bring Miller v. California into the Internet age. “Community standards” means something quite a bit different now than it did then.

This smug op-ed by the guy wrongly arrested in the Snowball Fight Heard ‘Round the World is almost enough to make me support the gun-waving cop.

I can’t believe people still make these kinds of arguments. What a vapid waste of electrons.

Santa Monica city council looks to ban exercise in city parks.

Baltimore man slays burglar with Samurai sword. But can he slice bread with it?

Manhattan has a new district attorney for the first time in a generation. Scott Greenfield likes him. That’s a pretty good sign.

Cretinous Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) trying to bring back law denying all federal higher ed aid to anyone convicted of a drug crime, including possession. Congress votes on the measure today.

Some states changing witness ID procedures after spate of wrongful convictions. More need to.

Louisiana appellate court says cop caught on tape beating man after Hurricane Katrina can return to the force.

Recession shrinks wealth gap, promotes income equality. Progressive groups expected to promote recession as official economic policy.

States face drop in gambling revenues.

Massachusetts law would require all schools to “professionally sterilize” band equipment. Conveniently, there’s only one company in the state that provides the service. And that company is of course pushing the bill.

The Innocence Project is trying to raise $25,000 for DNA testing for some of its current clients. They say 100 percent of your donation will be used for testing.

Michael Moore hangs with speech-suppressing, press-shuttering, human-rights abusing Hugo Chavez.

Off-duty Georgia cop accused of harassing woman who was talking on cell phone, falsely arresting her, breaking her wrist.

Length of original U.S. Constitution: 11 pages. Length of most recent energy/cap-and-trade/global warming bill: 1,200 pages.

Cross-dressing clown robs liquor store.

Sued if you do, sued if you don’t–the real problem with the Ricci case.

Good interview with Peter Neufeld, co-found of the Innocence Project.

There, I Fixed It.

Via John Tabin, if the U.S. Senate confirms Sotomayor, last week’s SCOTUS ruling granting criminal defendants the right to cross-examine forensic experts who author reports submitted into evidence may already be in trouble.

Police bring six cruisers, eight cops, a helicopter, and use pepper spray to break up . . . a fundraiser for a Democratic congressional candidate.

Cool Google Maps ap plotting the spots featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. That show makes me want to eat my television. Can’t believe Guy Fieri hasn’t come within 45 miles of D.C. yet, though.

Another woman comes forward to claim she was sexually assaulted by the rogue police narcotics unit in Philadelphia.

Germany set to ban violent video games.

Oklahoma officials plan to charge the paramedic, not the cop, in the fallout from the videotaped confrontation, in which the cop pulled the ambulance over, then gripped and choked the paramedic’s throat, all while a patient was inside the ambulance.

Poker Players Alliance vows to fight fed seizure of players’ winnings.

Envisioning a post-secession United States.

The man I wrote about earlier who was imprisoned an extra 16 years because of an opinion joined by Judge Sonia Sotomayor before DNA exonerated him, now has an op-ed in the Politico questioning her alleged “empathy.”

Via P.J. Doland, “play us off, keyboard otter.”

The NY Times Nicholas Kristof says the drug war has failed. Meanwhile, New York Gov. David Paterson says it’s time for a conversation about legalizing marijuana. Which isn’t exactly courageous, but it’s a start.

So you wanna’ be pals? Will be sad the day the pig catches the pup eating a Beggin’ Strip.

Oklahoma officials finally release dash cam video from the car of the cop who choked the paramedic. The cop also had his wife in the passenger seat when all this went down.

A day at the wiener dog races.

Another DNA exoneration in Dallas County, Texas.

NYPD cops go on trial for fabricating a drug bust. Were it not for the club’s security cameras, two innocent men would almost certainly be in prison.

Yes, there are still innocent people at Gitmo.

A federal judge will hold a hearing on whether to bar the media from publishing photos of a New York legislator in handcuffs. He was arrested for tax evasion. The judge says he finds the photos “especially troubling to me” because Newsday could have used other photos. I’m astounded that this would even be considered. I wonder if the judge has expressed similar concerns when newspapers run mug shots, perp walk photos, and prison jumpsuit photos of people accused of crimes who don’t happen to be politicians?

Florida congressman wants a federal law mandating a week of paid vacation each year. Eventually, he’d require two. Best quote: “The idea: More vacation will stimulate the economy through fewer sick days, better productivity and happier employees.”

Matthew Yglesias likes the idea of taxing alcohol to pay for universal health care. I obviously disagree with Yglesias about the merits of a single payer health care system, but even assuming that disagreement away, paying for it with an alcohol tax (a) is regressive, and (b) would seem to be be somewhat counterproductive, given the almost universal consensus now in the scientific community about the health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption.

Colorado Springs police department refuses to release arrest report in the case of a man who claims he was beaten for videotaping the police as they were arresting another man.

Journalism layoffs may hamper fight against the death penalty.

FTC looks to regulate blogger credibility. Another government solution in search of a problem.

Maureen Dowd plagiarizes Josh Marshall. Kinda’ funny that this would happen the same weekend the Washington Post ran an op-ed about how Congress needs to protect traditional journalism from having its content stolen by the Internets.

Chicago alderman orders a mural on private property destroyed, apparently because it was anti-police.

Former Texas prosecutor writes about what it was like to convict an innocent man.

Here’s the full write-up of what happened to the Motorhome Diaries crew in Jones County, Mississippi.

Cancer deaths expected to rise in next 20 years. Be watchful of how this will be exploited by the public health crowd. This is entirely predictable, and nothing to be alarmed about. The boomers are getting older, and your likelihood of getting cancer jumps with age. Both incidence of and deaths from cancer have been in decline for several years now. We’ve also been setting new life expectancy records each year. But you have to die of something. And if you live long enough, odds are, you’re eventually going to get cancer.

Fascinating article on Indonesian carpool jockeys, poor, mostly young people who motorists pay to ride along so they can use the carpool lanes. The jockeys then hop buses back to high-traffic areas and do the whole thing again. Several years ago, I wrote about a similar, though not entirely the same, phenomenon in D.C. called slugging.

Police captain fired after stealing from department fund for another fired police officer. Injustice in Seattle asks, will there be a fund for him, too?

Great piece on Law Enforcement Against Prohibition at the Washington Post. The comments are encouraging, too. At least those I read.

ACLU says former U.S. attorney, now candidate for New Jersey governor, was routinely tracking American citizens on the cell phones without a warrant.

The director of Omaha’s crime scene investigation unit has been charged with felony evidence tampering. I first wrote about this case last December. It includes a false confession from a mentally handicapped man after a police interrogator said that unless he admitted to the murder, he’d do “do my level best to hang your ass from the highest tree.”

I missed this when it came out: The Mercatus Center ranks the 50 states by freedom. New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota finish at the top. Alaska is tops in personal freedom. New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and California bring up the rear.

Illinois man officially declared innocent after serving 26 years for a murder he didn’t commit.

Miami-Dade cop steals money and drugs from arrestees. Internal affairs tries in vain for three years to get him off the force. Doesn’t happen until he actually shoots and nearly kills a man.