Rarely, by which I mean I can’t recall it ever happening before, has anyone been outraged at the New York State Board of Parole for releasing a prisoner. The reason is plain; the Parole Board has long considered its roll to be a SuperJudge, deciding that the sentence imposed, say, 20 years to life which means the sentencing judge determined that after 20 years imprisonment, the defendant should be eligible for parole release, wasn’t harsh enough.

But as Appellate Squawk notes, Diane Piagentini not only took issue with the determination of the parole board, those pinko commie crime-lovers, but brought an Article 78 proceeding (the NY statutory equivalent of a writ) to annul its decision to release Herman Bell on parole.

The occasion was a lawsuit filed by the widow of Police Officer Joseph Piagentini, who was ambushed and shot to death during the 1970’s enthusiasm for killing cops in the name of the Black Revolutionary Army.  Herman Bell, a college student at the time, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. Now that he’s 70 years old and a changed man after serving 40 years in prison, he was finally released to parole.

Continue reading →

New York City schools may have a problem. Or they are what parents and students in New York City have made of them. This doesn’t mean there aren’t significant exceptions, but in trying to identify whether a problem exists that it needs fixing, or whether a fix will accomplish something beneficial, it’s valuable to remember that the existence of exceptions doesn’t negate the reality of the majority of students. We have a tendency to obsess over the outliers at the expense of the many these days. You may have noticed that.

The School Diversity Advisory Group formed by Mayor Bill de Blasio found a problem, that black and “Latinx” children were underrepresented in the City’s gifted schools.

Today they have become proxies for separating students who can and should have opportunities to learn together. Most “screened schools”and “Gifted and Talented” admissions
processes are in tension with meeting the goals in Making the Grade, including and importantly, the goal of effective educational innovation that takes advantage of existing research. These schools and programs often fail to serve disadvantaged students and Black and Latinx students and have often failed to take advantage of some of the research and innovations that have developed since their inception.

Continue reading →

In a peculiar effort to explain why some of the conduct brought to his door hasn’t resulted in SWAT teams breaking down doors, New York County District Attorney Cy Vance asserted something that every heartbroken neo-feminist twitter lawyer knows is an absolute lie.

“Under current law, a voluntarily intoxicated individual is not considered ‘mentally incapacitated,'” the letter reads. “Therefore, prosecutors cannot bring sex crime charges in cases where the victim became voluntarily intoxicated and was unable to consent, even if a reasonable person would have understood that victim was incapacitated.”

It’s not that Vance doesn’t want to prosecute. He does. Or at least he claims he does. It’s that it’s a “loophole.” Continue reading →

There is no other word, none, that holds the power of the “n-word.” Lenny Bruce sought to take away its power, but failed. Instead, it’s become omnipotent. Elie Mystal explains that he can use it (though he doesn’t), but I can’t, and if I try to discuss the word with him, he’s going to vomit.

I can say it, you can’t, fuck you if that bothers you.

What he lacks in reasoning, he makes up for in passion. But as much as few of us would take issue with his view, because we don’t substantively disagree with him, it leaves a hole unfilled when it comes to certain academic issues. The New School’s Laurie Sheck found herself in that hole while teaching James Baldwin, but after a needlessly lengthy delay, relented. Continue reading →

It made the rounds of criminal law reform sympathizers, for lack of a better word. They “ooh” and “aww” at every outrage. They see everything as an outrage. Every cop is evil. Every law is oppression. Every interaction involving a black person is racist. They may not need to read the story behind the moment’s latest scream; they know already who is wrong.

For the most part, the cases, the conduct, the sentences are deeply wrong, and what happened should be the subject of public outrage. But the problem is that the information put out to whip up the outrage is false, half-truths crafted to mislead and delude. The people putting it out there know better, which means they know they’re lying and just don’t care.

Yesterday, a man was released after serving 35 years for robbing a bakery of $50.

Today, 2 NYPD officers accused of raping an 18 y/o woman in their van & bribery will receive probation.

Continue reading →

I remember my mother telling the salesperson at the store that I needed dungarees in “husky,” which was the description used because “fatso” wasn’t good for marketing. I was young and, though not obese, not thin. I was chubby, and so I required “husky” jeans to fit me. Here’s the thing: I didn’t like the idea that I needed to wear husky dungarees, but that was my husky reality at the time.

I grew out of it somewhat, although I’ve never been a thin person. I never had washboard abs, I was never in the running for Calvin Klein underwear model. Yet, I somehow managed to attract the most beautiful woman in the world and get her to marry me. Life’s good. So I will not be anyone’s victim.

A Google search of “getting your body ready for the beach” produces hundreds of millions of hits, often accompanied by ads for products that promise to whip you into shape. Yet, as ever, modern women are pushing back.

Continue reading →

The bastardization of reality known as “trauma-informed” approach to investigation, promoted by those who believe that female victims of sex crimes suffer for lack of belief, has proven itself wonderful for the sensibilities of women and pretty awful for ascertaining the facts of whether an offense happened and who did it. So naturally, the same pseudo-science upon which it relies has found its way into education. Not just Title IX issues, but how public school teachers address their students.

The viral post, shared by a veteran teacher, explained how she had her students write down the emotional baggage they were carrying around, wad up the papers, and toss them across the room. Each student then picked up a random paper and read it to the class. Students could share if they wrote it or remain anonymous. The teacher described how the students were moved by the activity, and how she felt it helped them develop empathy for one another. The bag of wadded papers hangs by the door to remind students “they are not alone, they are loved, and we have each other’s back.”

The faddish notion is that if you write down your problems and throw them away, you’ve somehow shed your problems, the “baggage” you secretly carry with you. Before they got tossed, they got read aloud so that other students would realize they aren’t alone in their fears, their pain, their feelings. Continue reading →

Deputy Miranda knocked on Sheriff Roy’s office door.

“Sheriff?”

“Yes, Deputy…um, “Si, Señor?”

Miranda sighed. “With all due respect, Sheriff, I don’t know if you’re screwing with me or if this is a good faith effort to show me some respect due to my Latinx heritage. You know I speak English fluently. You knew that when you hired me.” Continue reading →

Within the Department of Justice is a group of lawyers doing the lawyering for the Executive Branch of government. It reputedly has the best and brightest lawyers the DoJ has to offer, which would make sense since it’s lawyering for lawyers. It’s called the Office of Legal Counsel, and it’s putative mission is to be the legal adviser to a branch of government, including the president.

[T]he Office of Legal Counsel provides legal advice to the President and all executive branch agencies.  The Office drafts legal opinions of the Attorney General and provides its own written opinions and other advice in response to requests from the Counsel to the President, the various agencies of the Executive Branch, and other components of the Department of Justice.  Such requests typically deal with legal issues of particular complexity and importance or those about which two or more agencies are in disagreement.  The Office is also responsible for reviewing and commenting on the constitutionality of pending legislation.

Continue reading →

There are two things that invariably happen simultaneously when the wrong person is arrested. An innocent person gets burned and a guilty person remains free to do more harm. Even if one isn’t important enough to get the cops and prosecution off its butt to figure out whether it has the right guy, the other should be.

Charging documents state a male entered the couple’s home armed with a gun. Two cell phones were stolen, two teeth were knocked out of the family’s dog mouth and both the man and the woman assaulted.

The woman was raped and sodomized, court records state. Other details of their physical injuries weren’t made available.

Continue reading →