Criminal Justice

The FBI’s Forgotten Crimes against Richard Jewell

by James Bovard July 1, 2020

A new movie about Richard Jewell is reminding Americans of one of the forgotten travesties of the 1990s. When he died in 2007 at age 44, his New York Times obituary was headlined, “Richard Jewell, Hero of Atlanta Attack, Dies.” But his heroism was recognized only after the FBI and the media sought to destroy him. On July 27, 1996, ...

Qualified Immunity Is How the Police State Stays in Power

by John W. Whitehead June 18, 2020

What’s been most striking to me is just how one-sided the rules are when Americans take on their own government…. It has been dismaying to learn the extent to which rules and laws shield the government from accountability for its abuses—or even lawbreaking…. It’s been a long and frightening lesson…. The rules seem rigged to protect government lawlessness, and ...

The Roots of Mass Incarceration

by Michael Swanson November 1, 2019

From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America by Elizabeth Hinton (Harvard University Press, 2016), 449 pages. Before the war on the drugs there was the war on crime. In 1975 the police department of Washington, D.C., launched “Operation Sting” in partnership with the FBI and the ...

The Police State’s Deadly Toll on America’s Children

by John W. Whitehead October 18, 2019

“Mommy, am I gonna die?”— 4-year-old Ava Ellis after being inadvertently shot in the leg by a police officer who was aiming for the girl’s boxer-terrier dog, Patches “‘Am I going to get shot again.’”—2-year-old survivor of a police shooting that left his three siblings, ages 1, 4 and 5, with a ...

Welfare Checks Turn Deadly

by John W. Whitehead September 30, 2019

“Anyone who cares for someone with a developmental disability, as well as for disabled people themselves every day in fear that their behavior will be misconstrued as suspicious, intoxicated or hostile by law enforcement.”—Steve Silberman, The New York Times Think twice before you call the cops to carry out a welfare check on a loved ...

Attorney General Barr: Defender of FBI Snipers

by James Bovard June 1, 2019

Donald Trump’s second attorney general, William Barr, was widely praised during his confirmation process earlier this year. Trump hailed Barr as “one of the most highly respected lawyers and legal minds in the country.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Barr has “an impeccable reputation” and is “a man of the ...

The Deadly Perils of Traffic Stops in the American Police State

by John W. Whitehead May 14, 2019

The Fourth Amendment was designed to stand between us and arbitrary governmental authority. For all practical purposes, that shield has been shattered, leaving our liberty and personal integrity subject to the whim of every cop on the beat, trooper on the highway and jail official. The framers would be appalled.—Herman Schwartz, The Nation We’ve all been ...

Predator Cops Are a Menace to Society

by John W. Whitehead May 2, 2019

“Sexual predation by police officers happens far more often than people in the business are willing to admit.”—Former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper How could this be happening right under our noses? That’s what readers wanted to know after my column went viral about the extent to which young children are being bought ...

The Essence of Evil

by John W. Whitehead April 26, 2019

“Children are being targeted and sold for sex in America every day.”—John Ryan, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Children, young girls—some as young as 9 years old—are being bought and sold for sex in America. The average age for a young woman being sold for sex is now 13 years ...

Don’t Shoot the Dogs

by John W. Whitehead March 22, 2019

“In too much of policing today, officer safety has become the highest priority. It trumps the rights and safety of suspects. It trumps the rights and safety of bystanders. It’s so important, in fact, that an officer’s subjective fear of a minor wound from a dog bite is enough to justify using potentially lethal force, ...

Jackboots in the Morning

by John W. Whitehead January 31, 2019

“This is jackboots in the morning. This is an American nightmare that they would arrest somebody like this.”—Judge Andrew Napolitano The American Police State does not discriminate. Whatever dangerous practices you allow the government to carry out now—whether it’s in the name of national security or protecting America’s borders or making America great again—rest assured, these same practices ...

Deadly Policing in New York City

by Matthew Harwood December 1, 2018

I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street by Matt Taibbi (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2017); 336 pages. On the first day of law school, Yale Professor Stephen L. Carter walks into his contracts class with a message: “Every law is violent.” He then proceeds to tell his students that they should be willing to ...