Crime

Battle For the 'Burbs

Ron Tang — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:34:00 -0400

* This article is adapted from Reihan Salam's and Ross Douthat's Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.

It was only four years ago that conservatives -- and a great many liberals -- were convinced that the Democratic party was doomed to become a purely regional institution: "a national party no more," to borrow the title of Georgia Democrat-turned-Bush supporter Zell Miller's 2003 memoir. Pundits brandished county-by-county maps showing blue enclaves drowning in a sea of red; they talked up the growth of GOP-leaning regions and constituencies and the daunting demographic… more

Stealing Life

Articles — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:27:00 -0400

On a muggy August afternoon in Baltimore, trash scuttled down Guilford Avenue, the breeze smelling like rain and asphalt. It was the last week of shooting for the fifth and final season of the HBO drama The Wire, and the crew was filming a scene in front of a boarded-up elementary school. Cast members had been joined by forty or so day players -- mostly kids from the neighborhood. Earlier, the episode’s director, Clark Johnson, had been giving some of the kids the chance to say "Cut!," and they’d bellowed it like drunks at a surprise party. Now, when… more

Sex Trade: A Problem Greater Than Zero

Articles — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:32:00 -0400

Do you ever find yourself in a scary situation where you start spontaneously reciting the 23rd Psalm? You know, "The Lord is my shepherd ... "? Well, a new movie, Trade, gave me the shuddering feeling that I needed protection from wickedness -- that we all do, that America does.

Trade, starring Kevin Kline, opening Friday, is a fictionalized look -- sometimes lurid, always harrowing, and by the end, profoundly spiritual -- at the sex-trafficking industry, demonstrating clear and present danger to our national well-being.

The genesis of Trade was a 9,000-word article by Peter Landesman appearing in The New York Times… more

Crime or Punishment

Articles — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:28:00 -0500

Sacramento lawmakers are in a trap. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton will decide in little more than three months whether to set a population cap on the state’s vastly overcrowded prison system, potentially forcing the early release of thousands of convicted criminals. To keep the court at bay, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked the Legislature to approve billions in new prison construction money, and to consider revising sentencing and parole laws to put fewer criminals behind bars.

The trap is this: California voters want criminals locked up, as they demonstrated again last year when they overwhelmingly passed an initiative that toughened… more

Latinos and Gangs: the Hopeful Flip Side

Articles — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 21:47:00 -0500

In the opening sequence of Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-contender The Departed, Jack Nicholson’s gangster character recalls that when he was young, the priests used to tell the Irish American children of South Boston that they could either become cops or criminals.

The movie, which is essentially an urban morality tale played out between Irish American gangsters and cops, is only the latest in a long line of American films featuring the rivalry between good and bad in ethnic enclaves. (Think James Cagney and Pat O’Brien in the 1938 classic Angels with Dirty Faces.)

Such intra-ethnic competition is an overlooked drama within the… more

Bush Wimps Out as Gangs Cross our Border

Articles — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 23:39:00 -0500

So American troops are surging in Iraq, and withdrawing along our own border. What’s wrong with this picture? Nothing, say the journalistic and political elites.

Yet, before anything else, what we need is a surge of troops on the U.S.-Mexican border, which is a lot closer to home than Baghdad. On Jan. 6 The Arizona Republic reported that a small team of National Guard troops "abandoned their post near the border southwest of Tucson as four gunmen approached from Mexico."

American authorities assured the newspaper that this was all fine, all part of the plan. It seems that the National Guard, which… more

Amid the Babble, the Amish Lesson is Heard

Articles — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:35:00 -0400

It's a paradox of our time that the Amish, arguably the least technological people in America, have nevertheless proven to be extraordinarily effective at communicating what they believe. In a time of proliferating techno-clutter, they got their message across the old-fashioned way: through the blood sacrifice of martyrs.

Of course, there's no reason to think the Amish -- who lost five of their own in an Oct. 2 school shooting in Pennsylvania -- had any plan for teaching us a lesson in Christian forgiveness. But sacrifice and martyrdom are deeply woven into the history of Christianity, and what the Amish offered… more

Ready or Not?

Articles — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 16:20:02 -0400

Victor slouches into a bustling courtroom at Los Angeles County Children's Court. He would be tall, if he stood up straight, and broad, if his shoulders didn't follow his eyes to the floor. He doesn't look sullen or defiant. He just looks like a big kid, humble and out of place in this room full of busy grown-ups. When the judge glances up from her papers and smiles at him, he smiles back, just a bit.

At 19, Victor has already lived a life that takes a few tellings to get straight. His father has been in prison.… more

Reality is Difficult

Articles — Mon, 15 May 2006 16:20:01 -0400

The hottest movie coming out of Hollywood, The Anthony Pellicano Story, hasn't actually been filmed yet. Nonetheless, it's real; the action is taking place right now in corporate suites and law offices -- and jail cells -- all over Los Angeles. Perhaps I should explain.

The players in Pellicano are some of the most notorious and most prominent bold-print names in Hollywood. The most notorious, of course, is Anthony Pellicano, private eye to the stars. At present, Pellicano is in prison on a weapons rap, but he now stands accused of additional charges -- 112 counts and counting -- for… more

Trial by Media Choir Blankets Duke Rape Case

Articles — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0400

The Duke University rape allegations will be remembered as a turning point in the history of judicial-media relations.

Lawyers in the case have been shameless in their effort to manipulate the case to their side's advantage. And the media have been eager co-conspirators, such that the trial has, in effect, already begun. It is being conducted, not in the courtroom, but in news pages and on TV.

So here's a modest proposal: Why not make it official? Why not just turn the trial proceedings over to the media? Trials are expensive, and courts are overcrowded. By contrast, the cable news… more