\u201cWhen Bail Is Out of Defendant\u2019s Reach, Other Costs Mount\u201d<\/strong>:<\/p>\n By the time Mr. Torrence was released from jail, for instance, his imprisonment had taken a toll on the family he shares with his girlfriend, Markeisha Brown. Since Mr. Torrence normally takes care of Ms. Brown\u2019s two sons, she was forced, she said, to stop working and drop out of cosmetology school, losing the $18,000 she had borrowed on a student loan<\/a>. The couple are still trying to come up with June\u2019s rent.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n more<\/a> (his case was dropped for lack of evidence, in case you\u2019re curious\u2013also HEY toward the bottom of this article a bail-bonds industry spokesman makes a 100% correct point, that non-bail instruments like ankle monitors can also become tools for criminalizing poverty, although why he thinks that makes money bail a good idea is beyond me) (oof, the story of the Wheelers at the end of this piece is awful)<\/p>\n \u201cThe Money Trail of Baltimore\u2019s White Supremacist Politics\u201d<\/strong>:<\/p>\n \u2026When running a candidate for a citywide race years ago \u2014 a nice person, likeable and with a great civil rights background \u2014 I went to a number of fundraising meetings where we met with major players at Venable LLP, the city\u2019s foremost corporate legal firm, T. Rowe Price, its foremost global investment management firm, and Whiting-Turner, its foremost construction firm, as well as the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). These meetings went far better than I had any right to expect, and unfortunately it was in the FOP meeting that I discovered why: My candidate had been pledging to support a policy of martial law for the poorest black neighborhoods in order to secure support.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to call it specifically racist, since the candidate was black. When I requested an explanation, the candidate was completely willing to give one: it was a policy they were being asked to endorse from which they did not perceive danger, one that secured money and support from those powers that were needed in order to be elected, and it had proven a successful strategy for two popular black mayors outside of Baltimore. And it worked. \u00a0I resigned from the campaign that day, but the candidate did secure money from the big firms and the endorsement of the police.<\/p>\n It seems that other city officials made a similar pledge. You may have recognized this policy of martial law, in not just\u00a0the curfew<\/a>\u00a0and use of\u00a0National Guard troops<\/a>\u00a0and surveillance aircraft<\/a> in the aftermath of the riots, but\u00a0in the actual police strategy that sparked the riots themselves<\/a> and the long-standing Bush-administration-supported state-city partnership to spy on protesters<\/a>.\u00a0It should be noted that the Baltimore Sun cited T. Rowe Price and Venable as the two firms that publicly declared early closures on April 27, on the advice of the Police, just hours before the outbreak of the riots.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n more<\/a> (also this gemlet: \u201cBut it must also be stated that\u00a0these fundraising consultancy firms are wildly successful in progressive causes such as marriage equality and environmental conservation.\u201d Gay marriage: It\u2019s like hand sanitizer for your soul.)<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s No Evidence of a \u2018New Nationwide Crime Wave'\u201d<\/strong>:<\/p>\n [quoting Franklin Zimring:] Is there a nationwide crime wave? On current evidence, probably not, and a careful analysis of official statistics in New York and Los Angeles provides reason for reassurance rather than alarm.<\/p>\n Zimring starts with New York.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the uptick in violence in New York City. The most recent official crime statistics indicate that so far in 2015, the city has experienced significant declines from 2014\u2019s ultra-low levels in burglary, robbery and larceny. At the same time, total homicides for the first five months of the year at 135 are higher than in 2014 \u2014 but quite close to the pace of 2013 and around 30% lower than in 2010.<\/p>\n At their current rate, killings in New York City would end 2015 as either the third or fourth lowest year in the city\u2019s modern history. \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So what is<\/em> causing the surge of murders in Baltimore and St. Louis? Perhaps Mac Donald is right that in those cities in particular, anger against police brutality is spilling over into violence. I haven\u2019t seen convincing evidence to prove or disprove the point. But here\u2019s another possibility: In the\u00a0meticulously researched book American Homicide<\/a>, historian and sociologist Randolph Roth argues that historically, that two of the\u00a0factors that cause homicides to soar in American cities are a sense of a\u00a0loss of government legitimacy, and a loss of a feeling of belonging among outcast or historically oppressed groups. That would certainly seem to be the case in both St. Louis and Baltimore. These are\u00a0difficult things to quantify, but so is Mac Donald\u2019s insinuation\u00a0that criticizing cops for alleged brutality\u00a0makes people\u00a0want to murder them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n more<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMemories of the Jefferson Park Pool\u201d<\/strong>: the past isn\u2019t dead\u2013it isn\u2019t even past.<\/p>\n It was a scorching hot day in 1961 and Jefferson Park Pool was packed to the gills when Walter Fitch got a call from his boss.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said \u2018Go let the water out of the pool,\u2019 and I said, \u2018What?\u2019\u201d Fitch said. \u201cI said \u2018How you going to let the water out of the pool when it\u2019s 98 degrees out? The pool is so thick [with people] you can only dip your foot in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fitch, a part-time Parks & Rec staffer, followed \u201crules and regulations\u201d and dutifully emptied the pool to everyone\u2019s shock.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n But it wasn\u2019t until later that he found out why. In response to pressure to integrate its public pools, the city decided to shut down all the facilities, including Jefferson Park, the lone pool for blacks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n more<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cJail for Missed Days at School? The Madness of Truancy Laws\u201d<\/strong>:<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen it happen again and again: libertarians are derided over some supposedly crazy or esoteric position, years pass, and eventually others start to see why our position made sense. It\u2019s happened with asset forfeiture, with occupational licensure, with the Drug War, and soon, perhaps, with libertarians\u2019 once-lonely critique of school truancy laws.<\/p>\n People<\/a><\/em>, the\u00a0Atlanta Journal-Constitution<\/a><\/em>, and\u00a0other outlets<\/a>\u00a0are reporting on the case of Julie Giles of Sylvania, Georgia, who was arrested and put in shackles after her son Sam, who has been on the honor roll and won a \u201cStudent of the Month\u201d citation, had nine unexcused sick absences when only six are allowed. Washington Post<\/em> columnist Petula Dvorak has reported on a 13-year-old straight-A piano prodigy charged with truancy in D.C. for\u00a0taking ten days off<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0play on international concert stages<\/a>, and another local mother charged with truancy because she\u00a0took her son on an overseas trip<\/a>\u00a0for purposes of adopting his little brother. \u2026<\/p>\n The criminal penalties, combined with the serious consequences that can follow non-payment of civil penalties, are now an important component of what has been called carceral liberalism: we\u2019re finding ever more ways to menace you with imprisonment, but don\u2019t worry, it\u2019s for your own good. Yet jailing parents hardly seems a promising way to stabilize the lives of wavering students. And as Colorado state Sen. Chris Holbert, sponsor of a\u00a0decriminalization bill<\/a>,\u00a0has said<\/a>, \u201cSending kids to jail\u2014juvenile detention\u2014for nothing more than truancy just didn\u2019t make sense. When a student is referred to juvenile detention, he or she is co-mingling with criminals\u2014juveniles who\u2019ve committed theft or assault or drug dealing.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately, if belatedly, a reaction is under way.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n more<\/a><\/p>\n And let\u2019s end on this note: \u201cNorth Carolina\u2019s \u2018Flip the Prison\u2019 Initiative<\/strong>\u201c:<\/p>\n \u2026What to do with closed prisons? One non-profit organization in North Carolina\u2013which has twelve of them\u2013has an innovative solution that could be a springboard for other states to follow.<\/p>\n\n