As Lou Hayes explained at Fault Lines, SWAT raids don’t have to be violent paramilitary adventures, even though the alternative would be “boring.”

What got us to the point where the surround-and-callout as a default tactic rather than the stereotypical “raid” entry? The research on human decision-making under stress. We learned how our own bodies and minds reacted to compressed time, fear, confusion, smells, noise, anxiety…as I had been affected on my first raid.

But what about the acute stress and fear we caused in those inside the homes we raided? How about waking up a family at 4:30 a.m. from a dead sleep? Could we expect the best decisions (think: compliance) from them? Or were we inadvertently putting them into a state of primal, animalistic, reactive, survival-mode decision-making too?

Does this seem remarkably obvious, that the shock, confusion and adrenaline could make for poor choices all around, putting everybody at risk? And yet, Lou suffers the slings and arrows of his fellow cops for suggesting that everyone survive the day rather than just the cops. Or more to the point, that this may well prove safer for the cops, even if there is a risk of losing some evidence down a toilet. Continue reading →

Senate confirmation hearings are a staged show, as should surprise no one. The nominee is prepared and those senators on his side of the aisle lob softballs at him designed to let him hit them out of the park. If the other side opposes the nominee, it tries to throw screwballs, designed to make him swing and miss. The hope is that he will swing wildly and say something so embarrassingly foolish that it will shame other senators into turning away.

Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing, thus far, went according to script with the Republicans. As for the Democrats, the New York Times was terribly disappointed.

During the hearing, Republicans were ready with lavish praise and defenses of his character against charges of racism, while Democrats rarely offered more than tepid and predictable criticisms. Meanwhile, outraged protesters repeatedly interrupted the hearing with denunciations of Mr. Sessions and Mr. Trump before being dragged out by Capitol police officers.

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At Volokh Conspiracy, David Post writes about the sudden appearance of dogs on planes.

I have taken a number of airplane trips over the past month or so, and I noticed, on each of the flights I took, that there were dogs on board — not in carriers, but sitting on the laps, or in the arms, of their owners. It struck me as odd, and now, thanks to an interesting and informative article by Karen Elliott and Rebecca Lightle in The Washington Post a few weeks ago, I have an idea about what’s going on.

How he was unaware until a few weeks ago, or later if he just read the old post, of the comfort critter phenomenon is a question that only he can answer. It’s not like it hasn’t been mentioned before. But the “sudden” pervasiveness of comfort animals on planes gives rise to an epiphany. Continue reading →

He’s got problems. He’s not black. He’s not Muslim. He’s not undocumented. He’s not transgender, or even gay from what we can tell. And he doesn’t have a vagina. He lacks every apparent qualification necessary for nomination by the Democrats. But that won’t prevent Mario’s boy from doing everything he can to achieve what his father couldn’t. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has begun his run for the presidency.

Delivering the first of six State of the State addresses planned around the state this week, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday located the cure to the nation’s political fever in New York State, implicitly offering himself as an antidote to a president-elect whose name went unmentioned.

“New York knows that our progressive principles of acceptance and diversity are not the enemy of our middle class, and we know that middle-class success is not the enemy of our progressive beliefs,” he said. “In fact, it was the progressive policies that created the nation’s middle class in the first place.”

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Senate confirmation hearings will begin today over the nomination of Jeff Sessions, of all people, as Attorney General of the United States. This makes some people who are concerned about criminal law reform and civil rights angry. It’s understandable, as Jeff Sessions represents none of the qualities in an AG that we would hope for. But what did we expect? Did anyone seriously think Trump was going to nominate Ramsey Clark?

Will Sessions be as awful an AG as anticipated? Maybe. Maybe not. There are issues that should, under other circumstances, make his confirmation hearings contentious, such as his omissions on his disclosures, not to mention the same reasons why the Senate refused to confirm him as a federal judge. They will be raised. Sessions will be confirmed anyway.

And Sessions will join a group of others who served in the office of Attorney General. Like Dick Thornburgh, John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzalez. Remember them? They sucked, each and every one of them, if your concern was criminal law reform and civil rights. But it’s not just that we survived them, but that there was neither shock nor surprise that conservative presidents appointed conservative attorneys general. It’s what they do. It’s what they were expected to do.

If you want someone to be angry about, furious about, you’re looking at the wrong guy. Don’t blame Trump for nominating Sessions. Don’t blame Sessions for being Sessions. If you want someone to blame, blame Eric Holder. Blame Loretta Lynch. Blame Barack Obama. Continue reading →

For a brief and shining moment following the crash of 2008, there was talk of reform of legal education. There were some efforts made, such as the opportunity to complete school in two rather than three years. There were claims aplenty of law school turning out “practice-ready lawyers.” And there were academics decrying the dumbing down of law schools to trade schools.

It was all a big steaming pile of crap.

Nobody wanted the two-year grads. Even with clinical programs, externships and whatever pedagogical-sounding programs they dreamed up at faculty teas, new grads were hardly “practice-ready.” And as the prestige, and more importantly, the job opportunities and salaries for new lawyers outside of the smattering of biglaw jobs that remain following the retrenchment, dwindled, schools couldn’t even turn out graduates capable of passing the bar.

Then there were the Access to Justice fantasists, for whom an iPad would inexplicably make new lawyers capable of providing legal services at dirt-cheap rates while earning enough to eat that night. It was all so very social justice-y, and absurdly insane.  Continue reading →

Eric Bramwell was, as burglars go, lousy at it. He was no jewel thief on the French Riviera. He didn’t didn’t steal priceless art or antiquities. He had his eye on something smaller, more utilitarian, more . . . universal. A TV remote. Seriously, Bramwell was such a loser that he stole clickers.

Authorities alleged that Bramwell entered the common area of the apartment building in the 100 block of Cross Street on Aug. 1, 2015, and stole the universal remote to the television set.

Not only did he aim low, no, even lower, when he picked his chosen target, but he couldn’t even manage to pull it off without screwing it up.

But, prosecutors say, Bramwell dropped a glove while at the complex, and a DNA sample taken from it was matched to Bramwell’s DNA in a database of convicted felons, which led to his arrest.

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Myer Sankary wants you to sign a petition. Because something wrong is happening and it must be stopped. The wrong person is speaking.

One of the largest book publishers in the country, Simon & Schuster, just rewarded a white supremacist spokesperson with a massive book deal.

Milo Yiannopoulos – a Breitbart publisher and spokesperson for white supremacy – has made a name for himself as a mouthpiece for hate speech. Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter last year after leading a campaign of racial, anti-Black and sexual harassment against actress Leslie Jones. The harassment driven by Yiannopoulos was so severe that Jones had to temporarily quit Twitter. Now he’s getting $250,000 from Simon & Schuster to promote his hateful ideas.

Demand Simon & Schuster cancel the white supremacist book deal!

If you hate Milo and what he has to say, you can always not buy his book. If no one buys his book, then Simon & Schuster will get the message that they pissed away a quarter mil on a bad dude who says and does bad things that other people won’t buy. Continue reading →

Pete Wells was caught in a bind. He couldn’t complain about the mission.

To start, they intend to build a network of small restaurants that people in some of the country’s poorest, most neglected urban neighborhoods can afford. Beyond that, though, the chefs hope that their example of progressive labor practices, interior design attuned to the pulse of the city and cooking that shows responsibility for the health of both customers and the environment will spark a reformation of the fast-food industry.

The only problem was the food sucked.

“I’ll have the chicken noodle soup,” I said.

“It’s actually chicken no-noodle soup,” the woman at the counter answered, as nicely as possible. “It’s got rice, not noodles.”

It turned out there wasn’t any chicken in it, either.

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Public Editor Liz Spayd has been charged with breaking the news.

We did a story a few days ago that said we don’t have a reporter in New Jersey right now. Look, I wish we had the resources to have what we used to have in New Jersey and Connecticut, but the reality is that we don’t. And I think to do the window dressing of having one reporter running around doesn’t quite make it.

While the Gray Lady grasps to its “paper of record” legacy, New York is part of a tri-state region that includes New Jersey and Connecticut. Well, it used to, anyway.* Now, the Times can’t afford a reporter for these states? Not even one. The old Metro desk may not even bother with New York for much longer.

I’m not being coy. I don’t think so, if you think past the actual desks. I think of Metro as everything from local investigative reporting, which we do a lot of, to local culture reporting, which we do a lot of, to local business reporting, which we do a lot of. So I’m not sure people will see the word “New York” appear less in The New York Times. I think they will see less — and I have already seen less — incremental New York news coverage.

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