[BALTIMORESUN] Is the drastic drop in the number of arrests in Baltimore responsible for the increase in violent crime in the weeks since the post-Freddie Gray riots? We can't know for sure, and indeed, the evidence of a direct correlation between the number of arrests and the number of shootings and murders in Baltimore is scant. During the last 15 years, we saw crime go down amid an increase in arrests — and then we saw crime go down even further at a time when the number of arrests dropped. But one thing should at this point be certain: Something has changed during the last six weeks in the way police are doing their jobs, and neither the leadership in the police department nor in City Hall seems willing to fully acknowledge it, much less address it. More blather from the Baldymore Sun's editorial writer. What's happening is that the cops are still doing their jobs, but they're doing it a lot more carefully. The city administration has shown it's willing to toss its policemen to whatever wolves happen to be howling. The city's tax-paying citizens are there to be milked, whether by the municipal administration or the feral denizens of the west side. The citizens continue voting with their feet.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
They are doing their jobs---within the constrains imposed by Society (meaning you, Mr).
#2
What's happening is, after discussions with the lawyers at FOP (Fraternal Order of Police), the street cops are doing precisely their jobs. Nobody's got their back, so they have to watch it themselves.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/16/2015 7:32 Comments ||
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#3
Self preservation. First priority. When the bitches and bastards don't got your back, you look out for yourself.
#4
Two officers per car for safety reasons, no stops if there's a "sizeable number" of citizens that pose a potential risk; no stop-on-suspicion, no traffic stops unless an obvious violation is observed (and recorded,) all responses to calls within the specified time for response, etc.
I also suspect there'll be significant attrition in the younger of the patrol ranks, if it isn't occurring already.
[DAWN] Hersh has made certain allegations that, even if we assume for the sake of argument are accurate, could not have been confirmed by the Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Commission given the circumstances described. None of this, of course, establishes the credibility of Hersh's allegations. The Commission met with the widows of OBL and one of his alleged couriers. Their accounts flatly contradict Hersh's account. Were they coached or intimidated? Were they world class imposters? Was Shakeel Afridi a diversionary 'dummy'? Was it possible for our primary power and intelligence centres to be neither complicit nor incompetent and yet remain unaware of Osama's presence and unprepared for US responses over a whole decade? No clear answers are available.
The Americans never came up with a credible explanation for the alleged burial at sea of OBL or their refusal to show photographs of his corpse even privately to Pak authorities. But Hersh's account of OBL's disposal seems to stretch credibility. His account raises too many questions and he answers too few except through flat assertion. Even so, can Hersh's main thesis still remain credible? Only if there was massive lying and deception at operational command levels in both the US and Pakistain. Too many people at too many levels and at different times and places would have had to be involved to bring it off and keep it secret. The risks would have been unmanageable.
Yet there remain several unanswered questions which do not constitute evidence but justify a degree of scepticism. Official and semi-official accounts and responses were often marked by inconsistencies and questionable plausibility. This makes it even more incumbent upon the prime minister to rectify the outrage of burying the Commission report including the Dissenting Report.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] IT is a cliché that Pak society is being torn apart by ethnic, linguistic, religious and sectarian conflicts. From highbrow politicians to street vendors, the level of concern for the strife in society is matched by the depth of ignorance regarding its reasons or the cure. Can anybody think of an actual successful nation state made up of conflicting and antagonistic languages and cultures?
Little do we realise that there is a field of knowledge called social sciences, where students are trained to understand the changing dynamics of human societies by following long-established theories, frameworks and methods. The various fields of social sciences, if applied, have a lot to offer where contemporary challenges facing Pakistain are concerned. Social sciences are much more social than they are science.
The changing social and economic composition of cities, population kaboom, rural-urban migrations, spread of the road network and civic infrastructure to remote areas, growth of small towns, development of new technologies of cellular communications, satellite and cable television and the rise of social media, are a few of the drivers of rapid social change and transformation in society, about which we have little scientific information.
Development is taken to mean economic development in Pakistain. The social sector research by NGOs is not only limited to select fields such as poverty alleviation, health, education etc, but also guided by donor-driven policies that are strategically framed by Western academics and think tanks. Pakistani researchers are expected to fill in the details rather than pose independent research questions that might lead to different answers and unexpected policy outcomes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2015 00:00 ||
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[AEI] American strategy against ISIS does not need fine-tuning. It needs a fundamental change, starting with an acceptance of the fact that we must own this fight. The war before us is not a war of choice: ISIS is already at war with us. We can wait until ISIS manages a truly horrible attack in the US, as we have before, and then leap spasmodically to avenge ourselves, but that is surely the path of folly as well as amorality -- amorality because Muslim lives matter, too. We can save hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Must we not try?
There is no easy answer to the question: "What should we do?" But we must find the hard answer soon and gird ourselves for the pain and effort it will require.
If not us, who? If not here, where? If not now, when? An Isaiah 6:8 moment ?
Posted by: Blossom Unains5562 ||
06/16/2015 00:00 ||
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#5
"We can wait until ISIS manages a truly horrible attack in the US, as we have before, and then leap spasmodically to avenge ourselves,"
There was no "spasmodical vengeance!"
There was a military response to 9/11. But the Bush administration made a huge effort to avoid giving the impression that there was a retaliatory or punitive component to that response.
This is why "Operation Infinite Justice" was neutered and turned into "Operation Enduring Freedom."
The failed military response to 9/11 was an attempt at therapeutic intervention that increased muslim hatred for Western civilization and simultaneously reduced muslim fear of the West.
"If not us, who? If not here, where? If not now, when?"
Any military engagement will suffer from insane, self-destructive ROE and will end in a humiliating defeat for the West.
When the muslims look up and shout "Save us!" we should look down and whisper "No!"
#6
It wasn't or isn't just the ROE, it's also the hobbling of the tactics and techniques of aggressive commanders on the ground. Having to EXPLAIN to a JAG in Kandahar why your upcoming operation is essential to the security of your sector, then being told by the "leadership"... back off, stick to tribal council shuras and road patrolling.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
