I recently received a letter from a long-time supporter of the ICLU, gently chiding me for -as he saw it -taking cases to "embarrass" authorities rather than "to improve general civil liberties". For example, he said, I doubt there would be an ICLU investigation if a policeman stopped you for speeding, but let you go with only a..
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Category Archives: Criminal Justice
When Perception Matters
News media throughout the state have reported on the fallout from an August 27th incident in Indianapolis involving a rowdy group of off-duty police officers. Seventeen officers were accused of getting drunk at a party in Mayor Goldsmith’s suite at Victory Field, the City’s new ballpark. According to the reports of nearly…
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Who Do We Curfew?
Among the current high-profile assaults on crime and social disorder is a renewed enthusiasm for curfews to keep young people off the streets at night.
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Paying the Piper
With the political season entering overdrive, all the candidates are promising to cut taxes, restore morality and make us safer. It is unclear how we will fund both the tax cuts and the public safety proposals, which come with high price tags — more government programs, more police, more laws, more emphasis by government on It…
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A Modest Proposal
It’s been a bad couple of years for the police in my part of the state. Late in 1992, a jury awarded Fred Sanders $1.5 million dollars after finding that officers had beaten him after his arrest and then conspired to cover it up. This January, our city settled a suit brought by a motorcycle club, following a raid based on inaccurate…
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