In 1990, New York City had 2,245 murders. People demanded that something be done, and over the ensuing years, the cops tried two things: the strategy called “Broken Windows” and the tactic called “Stop & Frisk.” While the strategy of the Rockefeller Drug laws had been an abysmal failure, ratcheting up sentences under the theory that they would eventually be so harsh that no rational person would risk going near drugs for fear of spending their lives in prison, there really aren’t all that many strategies around to address the phenomenon of crime.

Then something weird happened. Crime just faded. Crime rates dropped precipitously. The murder rate was at a tenth of what it was. The police claimed they were responsible for this miracle, but it was a lie. Broken Windows just ruined a lot of lives for petty quality of life offenses while Stop & Frisk, before it was held unconstitutional, was a spectacular failure both in its abuse of black and Hispanic young men and accomplishing almost nothing in terms of its sole justification, taking guns off the street. Continue reading →

Much like law school, where classes in social justice have displaced such banal subjects as Evidence, med school has also succumbed to the lessons of the passionate. And we thought they were the smart kids because they could do math.

There have been a growing number of calls for doctors to make the fight against racism central to what they do. The American Board of Internal Medicine, for example, recently decried “structural, systemic and cultural racism.” Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatrics has implored its members to “dismantle racism at every level” of society.

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What plot twist could make the unseemly events in Portland turn into a moment of sufficient farce that even the New York Times would notice that the protesters in Portland were still there even after the federal agents, who were the real reason for the renewed outrage until they weren’t, were forgotten? All it took was the Proud Boys to show up.

A group of about 200 protesters, including members of the Proud Boys and families supporting the police, gathered along the courthouse sidewalk beginning at 11 a.m. Many of them were holding American flags, while others carried assault rifles and wore tactical military gear.

Almost immediately, a similar number of Black Lives Matter protesters gathered across the street, many dressed in all black and carrying shields or paintball guns.

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Remember that part of Joe Biden’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention where he recalled his having been falsely accused of sexual assault by Tara Reade, and acknowledged the error of his long-standing support for the Title IX sex police on campus dedicated to denying male students of the opportunity to defend themselves, to have at least minimal due process when accused of heinous offense, now that he, himself, had suffered the same and survived it because he enjoyed the opportunity to challenge his accuser?

No, of course you don’t, because it didn’t happen. Continue reading →

Sergio Peçanha is what the Washington Post calls a “visual columnist,” meaning that he puts together charts and graphs to make his point. Whether you’re a charts and graphs kinda person or not, these can often be very persuasive devices to visualize a problem that the mind dismisses. As with any device, visual or rhetorical, it works for those for whom it works and is just another way to make a point.

But while the emphasis is on the visuals, it can also cause people to miss the fact that the point itself is fundamentally nonsensical or wrong. When that happens, focus on the graphs can help to clarify the significance of a point that goes without scrutiny, a point like this one: Continue reading →

Dear readers, we gather this week to mourn the death of Stuart Baker’s career.

Baker was until recently a voice actor on the Adult Swim cartoon “Squidbillies,” and booked musical acts as “Unknown Hinson,” where he sings “his own hilariously politically incorrect songs” while dressed like “Dracula’s nasty little brother.”*

His career death came last week when he did something no one with a soul, and no red-blooded redneck, could tolerate: he spoke ill of Dolly Parton. Continue reading →

Maybe she was right to be scared, since she was the only student living on a floor when she found a random person asleep in the common room. Maybe she was hypersensitive, irrationally frightened by her discovery. Either way, Sarah Braasch has been hung out to dry in one of the early “Karen” myths that have wound their way into irrefutable reality when she was identified as the white woman in the “sleeping while black” scandal at Yale.

Since then, she’s sought the Yale police body cam video to prove that her concerns weren’t racial. The issue isn’t whether the video will prove her right or wrong, victim or Karen. The issue is that she’s fought to get the video released, and to at least be in the position to vindicate herself as a scared student, maybe wrongly, but not a racist.

No dice, as the proposed order concludes. Continue reading →

Following the repeal of New York Civil Rights Law 50-a and the court’s denial of union efforts to block disclosure, the New York Civil Liberty Union has released a database of everything, every complaint made to the Civilian Complaint Review Board since 1985. There are a lot.

The records released Thursday include all allegations of excessive force, abuse of authority, discourtesy and offensive language investigated by the review board though mid-July, as well as the board’s findings and any discipline that the police commissioner imposed. They do not include complaints under investigation by the review board or those investigated by the Police Department itself.

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There was only one problem with the very woke adoration of “Latinx.” Hispanics didn’t want it, and no matter how passionately white saviors insisted it was for their own good, and they were just not woke enough to appreciate its glory, they weren’t buying. But just because the “x” factor didn’t fly there doesn’t mean it’s dead and gone. Oh no. It’s found a new target.

Maddie Luebbert teaches 9th grade English in a Philadelphia public school and, according to a recent NBC News report, is much admired by the students. As in most public schools, the teachers use “Mr.” or “Ms.” (and sometimes, “Mrs.”) as their title when addressed by students. Luebbert, 25, prefers “Mx.” (pronounced “mix”), a gender-neutral alternative to the usual titles. Luebbert herself identifies as “nonbinary” — which is to say neither male nor female.

Say what? Mx.

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There was a reason it was called the “gig” economy. The industries it tapped weren’t new. There were taxis and hotel rooms long before Uber and Airbnb. But they saw an opportunity to tap into a new resource to feed into the industry that would allow these companies to bootstrap a digital platform to connect people who wanted a ride or a room to people who had a car and some free time, or a spare room or apartment, to connect, and they took a cut out of the middle for their service.

And if they didn’t feel like driving that day, or decided to sleep in the room that night themselves, they could, because they were free to do so. After all, it was just a “gig,” like a band doing a Friday night at the local pub. They didn’t have to show up and play again Saturday night. Continue reading →