Police News Roundup
The NYT has an interesting thought piece about the use of informants in Federal prosecutions after an Eastern District Judge overturned a murder conviction citing dishonesty by government informers. The story points out some of the potential abuses of the wide use of informants in the federal system and the unintended consequence of the federal sentencing guidelines on prisoners tailoring their testimony to reduce their jail time. The person in the federal prison system with the worst bargaining position is actually the non-professional criminal. If you can't generate a case against someone else, you end up serving your entire sentence.

In a very sad story today, the Post reports a recently retired NYPD sergeant who returned to the force two days ago, was found dead of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide. Base10's deepest sympathies for the family.

Newsday reports the NYCLU, the self-styled protector of our civil liberties, has filed suit against the use of drug and explosive detectors in screening visitors to certain state prisons. Citing a large decrease in the percentage of prisoners testing positive for drugs, the policy seems to work.

Also in Newsday, federal authorities arrested thirteen Guyanese immigrants who are accused of smuggling 800 pounds of cocaine and generating more than $10 million in income. As I've noted before, this is an immigrant group not usually associated with the cocaine trade. Base10 wonders if this is a trend.

Newsday also cheerfully reports that the Bronx has had a complete week without one shooting, something that has not occurred in ten years. I'm just curious about what became of all those media reports declaring outrage at the fact that week after week, there are always shootings in the Bronx, as compared with other boroughs.

And in the "please stop me from making a bad pun" department, S.I. cops arrested a man for stealing $150 worth of frozen calamari (and some other food) from a S.I. pub. As the Post points out, there's certainly something "fishy" about this case. (Come on, like you weren't going to say it!)
- posted by Base10 @ 7:55 PM