Clunkers, cops and cluelessness.

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Attorney General Eric Holder has clarified the new administration's medical marijuana policy (see #145) by stating that the DEA will only go after pot dealers who violate both state and Federal law; i.e., anyone not sanctioned by a state where medical marijuana is legal.  So dispensaries in California and patients ...

Qat scratch fever?

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

135. Washington, D. C. cops crack down on qat users, arresting dozens of people and seizing 30 pounds of the mildly stimulating plant commonly found in Africa and the Middle East. The next night, seven people are murdered in "a spasm of violence" in the eastern part of the District, bringing ...

Purity squads, then and now.

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

127. But now, they call it "community policing": from 1947project's always-fascinating social history blog On Bunker Hill, the Los Angeles "Purity Squad" raids the Saratoga Hotel in 1919, arresting 32 people "on charges of living in a house of prostitution." And some alibis never change: Many of those arrested said ...