There were two things about this particular horrific random attack that made it stand out. The first was that it was caught on video in such a way as there could be no doubt that it was so utterly lacking in any excuse, no matter how manufactured by fertile yet insipid minds, that no one could deny its brutality. The second was the image of the perpetrator of the attack was clear as could be.

The cops might not be very good at investigating crimes where thought and effort are required, but even the NYPD can find a guy when it’s this clear. Especially when they have all his info in their database already. Continue reading →

I’ve told the story a few times, about the cop who made the stop testifying that he smelled unburnt marihuana (that’s how it’s spelled under the New York Penal Law; don’t blame me) emanating from the car.

“Poignant,” the officer replied.

I turned to the judge. “What did he say?” The judge, Herbie Adlerberg, who was actually a former judge, now aged out but sitting as a Judicial Hearing Officer at the Suppression Hearing, knew exactly why I asked. “He said ‘poignant.'” Judge Adlerberg wryly replied, letting me know that he, too, heard it clearly. We both gave each other “the look.” Continue reading →

There is a curious belief that there is some duty on the part of the court to make trials available for all to see from the comfort of their couch, as if this lends legitimacy to a trial that wouldn’t otherwise be tolerable if unless every person who wanted to watch had complete access at their fingertips. It’s not about the case, or even the defendant, but about you, random watcher, and your entitlement. Strange days, indeed.

But without detached explanation, do people understand what they’re watching? The prosecution called the teenage clerk at the store where Floyd passed the counterfeit $20 to testify. While the testimony is proper and necessary as background for what followed, that wasn’t the part that’s being emphasized. Continue reading →

There are still eight (count ’em, eight!) candidates running in the Democratic primary for New York County District Attorney, seeking the chair that once held the behinds of legends like Hogan and Morgy, and most recently warmed by Cy Vance who doesn’t need this crap anymore. The flavors of candidates run the gamut, from prosecutors to public defenders, and whoever pulls down the nomination will eventually win the job, because that’s how Manhattan rolls and the Republicans haven’t even managed to find a sacrificial lamb to run against them.

But one has a little secret that makes her stand out from the crowd, and not in a good way.

Diana Florence touts her 25-year career as a Manhattan prosecutor as her biggest selling point in her campaign to be the borough’s next district attorney. She also aims fierce criticism at her former boss, the departing incumbent Cyrus Vance Jr. , saying he catered to the wealthy and powerful. Continue reading →

Hans Bader wrote in some depth about changes to Virginia’s educational focus, requiring its teachers to demonstrate a “commitment to equity” as part of its performance standard and educational criteria.

This standard is full of vague buzzwords and ideologically-charged phrases that can be used to punish conservative teachers, or reward bad teachers for mouthing politically-correct platitudes. Its adoption will make it even harder to get rid of bad teachers and attract good teachers. Continue reading →

That it was caught on video is fortuitous, a reflection of the reality that much of our world is preserved on video. This provides us with the ability to see what before we could only hear about, have described for us. When we watch it, the brutality is very different, very real.

NYPD says 65-year-old Asian American woman was walking to church this morning when suspect assaulted her and said “f*** you, you don’t belong here.” Happened in front of 360 W. 43rd St. 11:40am. Sources say building security guard not only failed to render her aid… 1/2 pic.twitter.com/ZLtQEHHJci

— CeFaan Kim (@CeFaanKim) March 30, 2021

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Is it the death of hostile environment harassment law? Northwestern lawprof Andrew M. Koppelman argues the point.

Andrew M. Koppelman, John Paul Stevens Professor of Law at Northwestern University, has written about the case as one of “free speech gone wild.” The Sixth Circuit “is being invited to invalidate the entire field of hostile environment harassment law,” he wrote last year in The Hill. If Meriwether prevails, “teachers at public colleges will have a constitutional right to subject their students to bigoted slurs. Much of anti-discrimination law would be deemed unconstitutional.”

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It was almost a tradition, in a dark humor sort of way. You were the victim of a “minor” crime. By “minor,” I mean not minor to you, because you were the victim, but minor to the cops. A hit and run without a dead body? A theft under a grand? Damage to your property? You called the police and were told to come to the precinct and make a report. Sometimes, you needed a police report for insurance purposes. Sometimes you did it because what else were you going to do?

Afterward, you would call up on occasion to ask if they found the perp and they said no. They gently told you that it wasn’t likely they would. What they didn’t tell you is that no one ever looked at your report again. No one ever tried to find the perp. No one ever would. Now they’ve said it out loud. Continue reading →

“Hey Greenfield, why don’t you only write about bad stuff cops do to black people?” Years ago, when video wasn’t yet readily available on smart phones and people’s knowledge of actual interactions between cops and others, particularly black and Hispanic young men on the street, was a cross between ignorance and fantasy, I spent a great deal of time, effort and space here trying to make clear what really happened. People were treated like scum, regularly beaten and occasionally killed, but it was invisible as the police always had an excuse and there was nothing to show they were lying about it.

Times have changed. People went from having no clue to being acutely aware, and then getting overripe and starting to rot. They now see racism everywhere, even when the cops did nothing more than their jobs, and their targets made choices resulting in the outcomes they received. Continue reading →

The push to eliminate qualified immunity as a defense to violation of a person’s constitutional rights by a government actor is beginning to bear fruit, which is great. It’s not that there is no rationale supporting it, or that it hasn’t been grossy oversold as the “cure” to police misconduct, but the doctrine was imposed by judicial fiat by the Supreme Court in Harlow v. Fitzgerald in 1982 has allowed flagrant violations of constitutional right to go unremedied. A right without a remedy is no right at all.

The Supreme Court made matters worse in Pearson v. Callahan, where the Court held that a court need not decide whether conduct violated a constitutional right before granting QI on the basis that the right in issue was not “clearly established.” It then made matters worse again in  White v. Pauly, where the Court required a level of exactitude to establish that conduct violated “clearly established law” as to allow a court to seize upon the most minute and quasi-relevant detail to distinguish the case at bar and allow the defense. Continue reading →