Blacks shot dead by US police by threat level, January – April 2016

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Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

This is what the Washington Post and The Guardian said on the 5 blacks the Washington Post classified as unarmed and not attacking police:

“Antronie Scott, an unarmed 36-year-old black man, was shot on Feb. 4, 2016, in San Antonio, Tex. Undercover San Antonio police officers were monitoring Scott, who had outstanding arrest warrants. When a uniformed officer approached Scott, he spun around with something in his hand. Police later determined that Scott was holding a cellphone.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

"David Joseph, an unarmed 17-year-old black male, was shot on Feb. 8, 2016, in Austin, Tex. Austin police were responding to reports of an erratic, aggressive person. Joseph, who was naked, rushed toward the officer." Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

"Calin Roquemore, an unarmed 24-year-old black man, was shot on Feb. 13, 2016, in Beckville, Tex. Roquemore fled a traffic stop by a Texas state trooper. Roquemore refused the trooper’s orders to show his hands. No weapon was found at the scene."  Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

"Marquintan Sandlin, an unarmed 32-year-old black man, was shot on Feb. 21, 2016, in Inglewood, Calif. The man was a passenger in a car stopped at an intersection. Inglewood police approached the car and noticed that the woman who was driving had a gun. Officers shot and killed Sandlin and the woman, Kisha Michael."  Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

"Peter Gaines, an unarmed 37-year-old black man, was shocked with a stun gun and shot on March 12, 2016, in Houston, Tex. A Houston police officer approached Gaines after he vandalized a traffic sign. Gaines lunged at the officer.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

I will leave it up to readers to work out how many of these police shootings were suspicious and indicate police misconduct.

The risk of physical abuse of children declines with age

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More police reduces crime

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Source: Executive Office of the President of the United States,Economic Perspectives on Incarceration and the Criminal Justice System (2016).

.

Recycling Dumpster Diving: A "Victimless" Crime?

“Each week my family separates our recyclables from our regular trash.  The former are put in our blue bin and are placed out on the curb for pickup on Wednesday mornings. 

Last Tuesday night, I walked to Westwood Village to attend a dinner when I saw two individuals diving into all of my neighbours’ recycling bins (which were on the street curb) to extract the recyclables. 

These "entrepreneurs" had a large truck filled with plastic bottles and aluminium cans that they were clearly loading up to take to a place to collect the recyclables fees.  Is this a crime?

I view it as an economic crime for the following reason.  The only reason this "trash treasure" was easy to access in the blue bins on the street was because the well meaning law abiding citizens wasted their time sorting their trash and kindly placing it outside. 

Our tax dollars goes to the unionized guys who drive the recyclable trucks to pick this stuff up.  If there is nothing to pick up, because the pirates have stolen the treasure, then recyclable trucks are losing $ as they are bringing in no revenue. So, this operating profit loss is just a transfer from the city to the pirates. My tax dollars and my time are being used to transfer $ to pirates.  

The environment is no cleaner and is likely to dirtier because of the duplication of transportation (the recycling truck and the dirty private pirate trucks).   I saw the same thing in Berkeley.   What is to be done?  A green cop shooting tranquilizer darts?”

Source: Environmental and Urban Economics: Recycling Dumpster Diving: A "Victimless" Crime?

The importance of talking to your children @GreenCatherine @jacindaardern @Maori_party

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@jacindaardern @NZLabour’s Healthy Homes Bill will raise rents to poor tenants and students

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Source:  David Friedman, Chapter 1: What Does Economics Have to Do with Law?

The LDP on Marijuana Legalisation

why the world isn’t even more corrupt than what we observe

The science of attraction

322 killed by US police by threat level, January – April 2016: updated

Again, surprisingly few people who are unarmed and not attacking police end up being shot by police.

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Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

I reworked the data published by the Washington Post because as usual it does not put it in a form that illustrates how many people were armed or attacking police when shot.

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Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

This is what the Washington Post and The Guardian said on the 12 the Washington Post classified as unarmed and not attacking police:

“Ciara Meyer, an unarmed 12-year-old white female, was shot on Jan. 11, 2016, in an apartment in Penn Township, Pa. A Pennsylvania constable was serving Meyer’s father with an eviction notice. Meyer’s father pointed a rifle at the constable, who opened fire. The bullet travelled through the father’s arm, striking Ciara.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Kelsey Rose Hauser, an unarmed 25-year-old white woman, was shot on Jan. 16, 2016, in El Cajon, Calif. Hauser was a passenger in a stolen car that El Cajon police were pursuing. After a high-speed chase, the driver of the car drove toward an officer, who opened fire.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Daniel Shaver, an unarmed 26-year-old white man, was shot on Jan. 17, 2016, in a hotel in Mesa, Ariz. Mesa police were called to the hotel to investigate reports that a man pointed a rifle from a window. When police questioned Shaver in a hallway, he reached toward his back and didn’t cooperate with the officer’s orders.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Antronie Scott, an unarmed 36-year-old black man, was shot on Feb. 4, 2016, in San Antonio, Tex. Undercover San Antonio police officers were monitoring Scott, who had outstanding arrest warrants. When a uniformed officer approached Scott, he spun around with something in his hand. Police later determined that Scott was holding a cellphone.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

image

Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“David Joseph, an unarmed 17-year-old black male, was shot on Feb. 8, 2016, in Austin, Tex. Austin police were responding to reports of an erratic, aggressive person. Joseph, who was naked, rushed toward the officer.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

image

Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Calin Roquemore, an unarmed 24-year-old black man, was shot on Feb. 13, 2016, in Beckville, Tex. Roquemore fled a traffic stop by a Texas state trooper. Roquemore refused the trooper’s orders to show his hands. No weapon was found at the scene.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

image

Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Marquintan Sandlin, an unarmed 32-year-old black man, was shot on Feb. 21, 2016, in Inglewood, Calif. The man was a passenger in a car stopped at an intersection. Inglewood police approached the car and noticed that the woman who was driving had a gun. Officers shot and killed Sandlin and the woman, Kisha Michael.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

image

Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Travis Boyd Bradley, an unarmed 36-year-old white man, was shot on March 2, 2016, in Bel Air, Md. Harford County deputies responded to a report of a person who was suicidal. After a standoff, Bradley came out of the residence and charged toward a deputy.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Peter Gaines, an unarmed 37-year-old black man, was shocked with a stun gun and shot on March 12, 2016, in Houston, Tex. A Houston police officer approached Gaines after he vandalized a traffic sign. Gaines lunged at the officer.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Joshua Grubb, an unarmed 30-year-old white man, was shot on March 13, 2016, in Lenoir City, Tenn. Lenoir City police were investigating the report of a drunken driver. Grubb attempted to flee with an officer in the back of his pickup truck.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Cristian Rene Medina, an unarmed 23-year-old Hispanic man, was shot on March 16, 2016, in Florence, Calif. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were responding to a report of a robbery. When they encountered Medina, who matched the description of the robbery suspect, he held his hands together as if he was holding a gun and pointed toward deputies. His family said he suffered from depression.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

“Eric John Wilson, an unarmed 22-year-old man, was shot on April 17, 2016, in El Paso, Tex. El Paso police responded to a call about a suicidal person. Wilson told officers that he had two handguns and an assault rifle. He reached behind his back and pulled out a dark object, which turned out

to be a cellphone.” Source: Fatal force: A Washington Post investigation of people shot and killed by police in 2016 – Washington Post.

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Source: The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive | US news | The Guardian.

Why Is Marijuana Legal in Some States and Not Others?

@jono_naylor only question was why wasn’t this career criminal deported sooner

When a non-citizen spends 10 of his 40 odd years in Australia behind bars, most recently in 2011, the only question that should be posed is why was not he deported much earlier?

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Source: Former criminal deported and separated from family after 40 years in Australia | Stuff.co.nz.

He is a career criminal who deserves no sympathy. He is the author of his own misfortunes in being separated from his family in Australia. Sympathy should go to his many victims, not to him.

More fool him when he spent 9 months in immigration detention because he chose to appeal his deportation. The criterion for automatic cancellation of Australian visas for criminals is accumulating 12 months in prison. That is a low threshold for automatic deportation unless the minister grants a waiver.

With 10 years behind bars, his appeal had no chance of success. He was a career criminal Australia could well be shot off.

#MorganFoundation errors about @nzinitiative’s Health of the State – part 1

The Greens have joined that Morgan Foundation in playing the man rather than the ball on the recently published report of the New Zealand Initiative on sin taxes.  Green Party health spokesperson Kevin Hague said:

The New Zealand Initiative cares more about junk-food barons’ bottom lines than it cares about Kiwis who are getting sick and dying because of obesity-related illnesses

The Morgan Foundation was just as keen to argue that their opponents on sin taxes are both ignorant and steeped in moral turpitude as a way of avoiding substantive argument:

The New Zealand Initiative are not interested in reducing obesity, or preventing the looming diabetes crisis where 1 in 3 Kiwis will have the disease. They make no attempt to understand the causes, and don’t propose any way to deal with these issues…

Is there no room for honest disagreement and different views on the ability of further government intervention to be a net benefit? As Aaron Director said:

Laissez-faire is no more than a slogan in defence of the proposition that every extension of state activity should be examined under the presumption of error.

One of the specific claims by the Morgan Foundation that seems to be in error is:

In fact, the report seems devoid of any research outside a narrow economic focus. The food industry has funded an enormous amount of psychological research on how to influence people to eat more junk food through packaging, advertising, product placement etc, much of which is publicly available, but which the New Zealand Institute has roundly ignored. Ironic, given that they funded by the same organisations that funded this psychological research.

The Food industry’s own research shows our choices are hugely influenced by the environment that surrounds us, but the New Zealand Institute conveniently prefers to cling to the oversimplification that we are all rational economic units – known as homo economicus.

The report of the New Zealand Initiative has a nice discussion of the limitations of rationality which did not weigh as heavily as it should in the critique by the Morgan Foundation part of which is in the snapshot below:

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Source: Jenesa Jeram, The Health of the State, The New Zealand Initiative ( April 2016, p.10).

George Plunkitt of Tammany Hall on the difference between honest and dishonest political graft

In the book Plunkitt of Tammany Hall William Riordan published many of George Washington Plunkitt’s thoughts about government and about big city machines.  In the link below, you can find the passage that explains the difference between honest and dishonest graft.

Honest graft is using your connections and knowledge as a government official to enrich yourself.  It is essentially what we would now call “insider trading.” 

Honest graft is when a goverment official goes out (for example) and buys up land because he knows a city project will need that land and he will be able to make a lot of money by buying the land now while no one else knows that it is about to be bought by the city.  He can buy it cheap and then sell it at a higher price to the city.

Dishonest graft consists of doing things like blackmailing people who are doing illegal or semi-illegal things.  It can also consist of actually taking money directly from the city treasury. 

It is more of what you would expect mobsters to do–things like forcing prostitutes to pay money to police in order to be allowed to work in a given area rather than being arrested.

Source: How does George Plunkitt define “honest/dishonest graft”?   | eNotes.

I thought men was supposed to be superficial, but maybe the increase is not statistically significant

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Source: In the 21st Century, We All Want Smart, Gorgeous Mates | Mother Jones.

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