Gangsters in Blue

• Seattle PD loses 45,000+ dash cam videos.
• More terrifying stories from Mexico.
• Lightning storm at the Grand Canyon.
• The Economist looks at false confessions.
• Photos Tweeted from space.
• Over five years, the federal government paid at least $600 million in entitlements to dead people.

• Interesting study on power and corruption.
• Libertarianism happens to people: foodie edition.
• Why pro-death penalty and anti-government are incompatible.
• Ugandans beaten, forcibly removed from land to make way for carbon credit forests.
• “Professional courtesy” in Houston. Nice to see the meting out of some discipline, though.
• And here’s another example of a police chief showing some courage.
• Interview with a man who did 18 years for a crime he didn’t commit.

• The state of Georgia executed Troy Davis last night. Here’s a rundown of the witnesses who recanted. I honestly didn’t think they’d go through with it. Which only goes to show that however low your expectations of government may be, they probably aren’t low enough.
• California city is demanding couple purchase a permit to host Bible study sessions.
• The cops who beat University of Maryland student John McKenna have been indicted. This would never have happened were it not for social media and cell phone video.
• Telling stats on marijuana arrests.
• The McGurk Effect.
• Cops in the Kelly Thomas case charged with murder, manslaughter.
• RAND study: No connection between medical pot dispensaries, crime.
• Here’s a delightful shredding of Thomas Friedman.
• Government paternalism and overreaction trumped by government in competence.

• I think that if I were a death penalty supporter, I’d be fighting like hell to make sure Troy Davis isn’t executed.
• Write your own caption.
• A police department that gets it. Although you should be able to record someone else’s interaction with cops as well, so long as you aren’t physically interfering.
• Study: People with delusions of grandeur tend to become very successful. Other study: But subtler, reality-based optimism may actually hinder success. This totally explains politics.
• A defense of Lochner.
• The cop who killed former NFL player Deacon Turner in that case with the mysterious non-functioning security camera has shot another man.
• Signs that the DA may back down in the Kelly Thomas beating death.
• Feds spend $3.4 billion on anti-terror program for food supply, have little to show for it.
• Rick Perry vs. the lap dance lobby.

• Renton, Washington police just don’t know when to quit.
• Chicago man charged with attempted murder for shooting at police during a drug raid. Ready for this? Jury acquits.
• Wendy McElroy on war, peace, and passport control.
• Headline of the day.
• Hank Skinner once again files for DNA testing.
• Colorado cops fired after beating a man outside a bar, and after video showed they had lied on their police reports about the incident . . . have been reinstated. With back pay. Full video of the incident here.

• Touching video of two Louisiana men who became friends in prison, were both exonerated by DNA testing, now reuniting as free men.
• Related: Federal judge under fire for letting habeas petitions linger for years. One inmate died while waiting. The same judge was removed from another case after an appeals court questioned his impartiality.
• New Jersey cop assaults man recording him.
• National debt jumps $4 trillion under Obama.
• Mother Jones has assembled a database of U.S. terrorism informants and trials of suspected terrorists.
• Missouri teacher says new law banning online contact with students means she can’t communicate online with her own kids.
• Obama administration encourages health care providers to organize, then sues them for doing so.
• New Gallup poll: Hypothetical matchup puts unelectable Ron Paul within two points of Barack Obama.
• More problems for the Fullerton, California, police department.

(CORRECTION: Both Media Matters and Cato’s Dan Mitchell say the CBS article linked above gets it wrong: The 2009 fiscal year was set by the Bush administration, not Obama.)

• Puppycide in Birmingham, Michigan.
• Immigrant family says ICE agents raided the wrong house.
• There oughtta be a law.
• Looking at the effects of the Adam Walsh Act, five years later.
• The family of William Cooper, the Hampton, Virginia, man killed in a drug raid in June, plans to sue.
• It’s great that this officer was finally suspended, but there ought to also be some discipline for her colleagues who pulled over, suspected she had be drinking, but granted her “professional courtesy.”
• The return of violent rhetoric!
• Headline of the day.
• These drugs have soul.
• “It takes balls to execute an innocent man.”

• The NYPD cop who ordered whistle-blower Adrian Schoolcraft admitted to a mental facility has been disciplined (lightly) for possession of steroids.
• Ben Stein valiantly sticks up for the rights of rich, white, powerful, diplomat, economists accused of rape. He isn’t necessarily wrong on some points (though he is wrong on others). It’s the selective outrage. If you read/watched/listened to some on the right, you’d think the only victims of the criminal justice system are French diplomats and wealthy white lacrosse players.
• Mississippi man gets 10 years in prison for twice attempting to vote in a municipal election four years after a nonviolent felony conviction. I only know what’s in the article, but does it seem odd to anyone else that the guy would plead guilty and still get the maximum sentence?
• Not sure about the source here, but a local talk show host says an Indiana sheriff is contemplating random, warrantless searches of homes after the Barnes decision. Bad as that decision was, it certainly didn’t authorize this. And if the sheriff carries out his promise, he ought to be arrested and charged with violating the civil rights of the people he searches.
• Speaking of which, more good reactions to the Barnes decision from Scott Greenfield and Popehat.
• Long and sad story in the Washington Post about a Fairfax County, Virginia, teacher wrongly accused, arrested, and tried for sexually molesting a 12-year-old girl. The jury took 47 minutes to acquit. The story shows how an acquittal doesn’t mean “the system worked”.

• ACLU alleges mass civil rights abuses in Puerto Rico.
• More fun in Maricopa County: Woman suing for $2.5 million after being exonerated of daycare murder. Our old friend Andrew Thomas pushed for a conviction and death sentence despite a lack of medical evidence. The grand jury twice refused to indict. Which means his case had to be really damned weak. Thomas is still facing an ethics complaint that could strip him of his Arizona law license.
• Let’s ride motorcycles.
• This is a really interesting project. The idea is to see what specific sexual content causes the MPAA to issue an R or NC-17 rating.
• Witnesses say a Houston cop—and police union office holder—tossed a tear gas canister into a tent full of people attending a barbecue cook-off because someone in the tent was critical of the military. He has been suspended—with pay, of course—pending an investigation.
• ….but it’s pronounced “steeeeen”.

• Florida may be illegally detaining motorists for using large bills.
• Despite the title, this Reddit thread is more touching than sad.
• Seems like there may be a professionalism problem with the police in Beacon, New York.
• …and Portland, Oregon.
• Grits for Breakfast has a good post on some recent exonerees in Texas, including a heartbreaking story about Tony Hall, who served 15 years for a crime he didn’t commit . . . and had no family left to greet him when he was finally released.
• And it’s AARRRrrrrrrr by a head.