All about Policing with a sprinkle of Criminal Justice – written by a Secret Contrarian
The study, conducted by social scientists from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Pennsylvania blamed “systemic factors” for the disparity, not the actions of individual officers.
— Read on news.wttw.com/2026/02/19/chicago-police-disproportionately-used-force-against-black-chicagoans-study-commissioned
Read the full study and its executive summary.
The city’s Office of the Inspector General released a report today finding that the Seattle Police Department’s actions during the anti-trans “Don’t Mess With Our Kids” rally, held by an extremist group called Mayday USA last May, showed a bias against counter-protesters who showed up to demonstrate against the right-wing event. The report also found that officers didn’t understand why it was a provocation to hold an anti-LGBTQ event in Cal Anderson Park, at the heart of Seattle’s historic LGBTQ neighborhood.
— Read on publicola.com/2026/02/12/review-finds-multiple-police-failures-preceded-violent-response-to-counteprotests-during-anti-lgbtq-event-in-may/amp/
I just listened to the 2 part podcast “History of Police Oppression of Africans in America” and I have to correct the discussion about Broken Windows Policing in part 2 of the podcasts.
The podcast:
At the 16:00 minute make the discussion turns to what is Broken Windows Policing. The Interviewee Ronald Hampton is touted as a policing expert. Mr. Hampton presents that Broken Windows Policing in New York City (NYC) was used to victimize city residents. Hampton argues that incarceration grew because of Broken Windows Policing. More youths were arrest for just simply doing what youths do like hanging around street corners. At the 19:00 minute mark Dr. Ron Daniels (the host) adds that Broken Windows Policing criminalized person side hustles such as 3 card monte street games and squeegee men.
My critique:
The discussion about Broken Windows Policing was at the very least inflated or misconstrued at worst the discussion purposely misrepresented the facts about Broken Windows Policing. Broken Windows Policing transformed NYC to the safest large city in America. In the 1990’s the implementation of Broken Windows Policing as the predominate crime-fighting strategy lowered crime and made NYC safer. Broken Windows Policing was used to enforce the rules, violations, and crimes that affected New Yorker’s quality-of-life. Arrests for city ordinances or penal law violations alone did not increase incarceration in NYC. Youth did not go to jail for hanging around street corners. At most police would have the youth move on or take them to the police precinct and release the youth to their parents. Youths or juveniles can’t be arrested for any offense less than a crime. Lastly, 3 card monte street games and squeegee men are perfect examples of the type of quality-of-life violations that New Yorker’s wanted to end. Three (3) card monte street games are fraudulent schemes to trick people out of money. The fraudsters also worked the crowd to pickpocket observers. Squeegee men would spill substances on windows, step in front of vehicles, and threaten occupants to coerce the drive to paying for a car windshield cleaning. Both 3 card monte street games and squeegee men activities were crimes.
Dive deeper into Broken Windows Policing with these key resources:
Bratton, William, and Peter Knobler. Turnaround: How America’s top cop reversed the crime epidemic. Random House, 2009.
Kelling, George L., and Catherine M. Coles. Fixing broken windows: Restoring order and reducing crime in our communities. Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Kelling, George L., and James Q. Wilson. “Broken windows.” Atlantic monthly 249, no. 3 (1982): 29-38.
Maple, Jack, and Chris Mitchell. The crime fighter: Putting the bad guys out of business. Crown, 2010.
Part I — From slave patrols to modern policing, this Vantage Point conversation with Ronald Hampton examines the history of police oppression of Africans in America and the ongoing struggle for justice, accountability, and transformational change in public safety.
NOTE: Part 2 is also available on the website below.
— Read on HERE
Now with ICE dominating the law enforcement news, sometimes I like to revisit issues of yesteryear. The Washington Post used to keep track of how many people police shoot and kill. It was and is a useful database. And then in 2025 they stopped counting. So it covers 2015 to 2024. And given recent cutbacks at the Washington Post, it’s safe to say it’s not going to be restarted.
But at least we have a solid (if limited) 10-year database of fatal police-involved shootings. It’s also useful because it’s very accessible and easy for even the statistically adept. The only active accurate database now is kept by Campaign Zero and their Mapping Police Violence (ideologically anti-policing and into police abolition, but still, kudos to them). And no, shamefully, the federal government still doesn’t keep track.
— Read on qualitypolicing.com/a-look-back-on-the-washington-post-database-of-people-shot-and-killed-by-police/
From 2019 through 2024, officer resignations and retirements have increased, reducing staff at law enforcement agencies. Studies have shown that…
— Read on www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108495
This opinion piece by policing experts Seth W. Stoughton, Ian T. Adams, Geoffrey P. Alpert, Gil Kerlikowse, Maureen Q. McGough, and Jeffrey J. Noble addresses federal immigration enforcement tactics under the Trump administration. The authors argue that the conduct of agencies like ICE and CBP has departed from established norms in policing in a way that has undermined public safety, particularly through fatal shootings. They contend that these actions—marked by poor planning, aggressive field tactics, and a disregard for accountability—are not just unprofessional but dangerously authoritarian, threatening public safety and the legitimacy of policing itself.
— Read on verdict.justia.com/2026/01/29/what-federal-immigration-enforcement-is-doing-isnt-policing-and-it-isnt-normal
The need for law enforcement transparency, oversight, and accountability has never been clearer. We highlight data projects that have helped document and investigate misconduct, as …
— Read on www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2026/01/26/police_misconduct/
This is the link to the Podcast https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20260121-Wed1600.mp3
On this episode of Hard Knock Radio, host Davey D sits down with Joshua Davis, a history professor at the University of Baltimore and author of Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back. The conversation digs into a part of civil rights history that is usually blurred out of the frame: how local police departments, not just the FBI, designed and refined a playbook to crush Black freedom movements and the organizers who led them.
— Read on kpfa.org/episode/hard-knock-radio-january-21-2026/
The recent fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Minneapolis has already prompted intense public debate, much of it unfolding before the relevant facts are fully known. That instinct is understandable—police shootings, particularly those involving federal agents engaging in controversial actions, implicate profound questions about authority, accountability, and public safety—but it is also precisely the moment when caution is most warranted. It is far too early for anyone to offer a definitive conclusion; indeed, doing so would be professionally inappropriate. It is possible, however, to identify the questions that will need to be answered to come to a definitive conclusion about whether the officer complied with or violated applicable law.
— Read on verdict-justia-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/verdict.justia.com/amp/2026/01/09/the-legality-of-deadly-force-three-critical-questions-about-the-ice-shooting-in-minneapolis
All about Policing with a sprinkle of Criminal Justice - written by a Secret Contrarian
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