Category Archives: Victimless Crimes

Four decades ago, Mahmood Ansari immigrated to the United States from Pakistan, determined to make a good living in this country. Like many immigrants, he put his nose to the grindstone, building a business from the ground up while caring for his family. He started the store City Souvenirs along the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, working day and night to grow the business, which has now been in operation for more than 30 years.

In early April, Ansari was working late one night when a 12-year-old boy with a knife and 14-year-old girl decided to rob his store. After some sort of brief altercation, Ansari collapsed. Onlookers as well as police and medical personnel performed CPR on him, but when he was transported to the hospital, he was pronounced dead.

"He was friendly. He was always smiling, everybody loved him," Asif Ansari, one of his surviving sons, told the local press. "We all miss him. We just wish he'd come back."

At a rally held by local merchants calling for greater security along the Boardwalk, Mayor Marty Small Sr. offered words of support. "Senseless violence has no place in our community," he said. "I'm sure that the police are going to bring the perpetrators to justice."

In this case, he was right: Both of the suspects in the case have been arrested. But some of those familiar with the situation on the Boardwalk describe a wave of rising crime and little support from the city.

I spoke to Rizwan Malik, a good friend of Ansari's, who like Ansari immigrated to the United States from Pakistan. Malik was the first Pakistani-American and Asian-American to be elected to Atlantic City's city hall. He served from 2012 to 2016. Today, he's a private citizen who owns several businesses along the Boardwalk. His family has four stores on the Boardwalk. And they, too, have recently been hit by robberies.

"There were four robberies I would say within three weeks right on top of each other in our stores," he told me.

For weeks before Ansari's death, Malik and other merchants had been begging the city for more policing to help secure their businesses. Again and again, they were told that the city simply does not have enough police to meet their demands.

"If they were doing something about it, [Ansari] would maybe be alive by now," Malik told me.

More than anything else, he just wants to feel safe running a business along the Boardwalk. "I'm asking the city, the police department, the city officials to open their eyes and do something about it," he pleaded. "I don't want more people dying."

Over the past year, we've lost so many people like Mahmood Ansari. Perhaps you've heard of the tragic death of Mohammad Anwar, yet another Pakistani immigrant who came to the United States seeking a better life, who met his death at the hands of criminal violence during a carjacking in Washington, D.C.

While federal lawmakers mobilized enormous resourcesincluding thousands of National Guard unitsto protect themselves following the riot on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6th, there has been less attention paid to last year's wider surge of criminal violence in Washington, D.C., where there has been a 350 percent increase in carjackings.

Over the past year, America had one of the largest increases in homicides in its modern history. This could mean as many as 4,000 extra murders over the previous year.

Criminologists are still puzzled as to what exactly caused this huge increase in violence; possible explanations include the onset of the pandemic, reduced legitimacy of the government, or a decline in proactive policing. What we do know is that many other types of crime, like larceny, for example, actually went down, while violent crime like shootings and homicides went up.

In other words, this is not an explosion of victimless crimes; it is an explosion of violence.

New York City, for instance, saw a 97 percent increase in shooting incidents from 2019. And as in every other year, 2020's violent crime wave was not equally distributed. Low-income, minority areas tended to suffer the most; the city's official data shows that around 74 percent of shooting victims were African-American and 22 percent were Latino.

These statistics aren't just numbers on a page; they represent real people whose lives were suddenly and abruptly upended by terrifying acts of violence.

Sadly, there is little evidence that 2020's national violent crime wave is letting up. A New York Times analysis of FBI data found that "a sample of 37 cities with data available for the first three months of this year shows murder up 18 percent relative to the same period last year."

We've been accustomed to living in a country where violent crime was plummeting. Through a combination of factors, ranging from more effective policing to the mass removal of lead, by the early 2000s we had successfully lowered murders to their lowest levels in decades, with murders generally declining year after year.

But it's time to face the facts: This trend is now reversing.

Some cities, like St. Louis, saw their highest homicide rate in 50 years in 2020. In D.C., a Special Victims Unit is tackling an increasing number of children being killed in gunfire.

Yet our current political moment is focused not so much on crime as it is on police abuse. The news media, the universities, the corporate sector, and our governing officials seem to agree that reducing incarceration and reining in over-policing is the most pressing objective, as opposed to addressing the waves of violence saturating American cities.

Of course, police and prison reform are important. There's a reason I reported this story about police racially profiling a county commissioner back in 2015 and worked on the campaign to elect the most progressive prosecutor in Northern Virginia's history.

But too many of our nation's politicians, particularly the Democratic ones, are in danger of endorsing a libertarian view of the world where the only threat to our life and liberties is the state.

Ansari's story demonstrates that the absence of an effective state equipped to protect the lives of its most vulnerable citizens can be just as deadly. The victims of homicide tend to be poor people; they don't have the resources to hire private security and wall themselves off behind gated communities.

There's nothing progressive about leaving these people to fend for themselves. Nobody has the silver bullet to ending this crime wave, but you can't solve a problem you can't even bring yourself to acknowledge.

Zaid Jilani is a journalist who hails from Atlanta, Georgia. He has previously worked as a reporter-blogger for ThinkProgress, United Republic, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Alternet. He is the cohost of the podcast "Extremely Offline."

The views in this article are the author's own.

See the article here:

Denying the Crime Wave, Progressives Are Abandoning the Most Vulnerable | Opinion - Newsweek

CORAL SPRINGS, FL The coyote and the wolf. Sounds familiar? Hopefully, it does.

The last time Coral Springs hair stood on end at the sighting of a coyote, I wrote at some length about them. The city has put out some tips now that there has been another sighting, not surprising near a dog park. To a hungry coyote anything under 10 pounds looks like a quick meal and a delicious one. That meal could be your Pomeranian, Yorkie, or any like-size creature. Worse yet, some little breeds dont understand the adage, He who runs away lives to fight another day. They often tend to get in the face of the stranger and not worry about the danger. Cmon, big boy. Lets see what you got? they bark in soprano. It can be a deadly mistake.

Rule one is keep your pet on a leash. Even if its a long one, youve got control of the situation. If you are at the dog park, better to let the dog run with its leash attached than with no leash. While not as safe as being tethered, it increases the odds in your favor. Or your dogs favor. Now that coyotes are in evidence, before you go to the park, or hiking in the woods, call animal control and see if there are any reports of sightings. If there aredont go. If youre one of the folks who like a little diversity in pet ownership, and you happen to own a chihuahua and a Great Dane or boxer, bring them both. Coyotes have been around for so long because they are smart.

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Now comes the curve ball. If you think wolf-whistle youll get closer to where we are going. Stay with me.

Last week, TAPinto Coral Springs reported on one of the most depraved crimes imaginable: A man was arrested for placing a camera in the smoke detector of a ladys restroom. It had a photo hook up. Need I add any more description? I think not. Some of you, even repelled, may be prone to saying, Well hes sick. Wellyes he is. But where do we go from there? Even though sick, this guy needs to be unplugged and his screen turned off. My concern here is not the punishment. He will have a psyche eval and the court will decide if he goes to jail or to treatment or to jail for treatment. My concern here is how you and your daughter, niece, or the child for whom you are a nanny or babysitter defend yourself against such a crime. Remember no one is going to approach anyone; this is a crime in the sky. There are no phone calls, no texts, or emails. Most people dont know they are being spied on. What to do? What to do?

My wife takes this to an extreme, but it is an option worth considering. Unless she feels there is going to be a re-run of the Johnstown Flood she simply does not use public restrooms, not in theaters, supermarkets. Neiman-Marcus? Could be. Big box stores? Not happening. The reason is her assumption that the security isnt as tight or as well-trained. Thus going before you go and having an idea where you can go when you leave are key to this working.

My second suggestion may strike you as gross. Look before you go. For most men (those who arent thoughtless slobs) its easy. A man lifts the seat and that makes it a lot easier to see if something is in the bowl. Females should do the same thing. Pardon me but look before you leak.

There is more to it than this. You dont have to make a big deal about it but theres a little Colombo in us all. Use it. You are in a stall. The space, therefore, is small and confined. Look where the door and stall come together. Lets make it simple. Youre looking for anything because nothing should be in there. Look above you at the ceiling, especially if there is a joint where walls meet. What you want to do is give the space a thorough but reasonably quick overview.

Finally, this. If you see something, say something. So, what if you are wrong. Doing it is right in another manner. And lets say its there but not in your stall. Or lets say someone is scoping out the place and sees that now its being watched. Hes gone from that area probably for good. There is no such thing as a victimless crime. Youre not looking to tackle a criminal running away from the crime scene. Youre just trying to make your little corner of the world a little safer for you and those others who use it.

So what does a coyote have to do with all of this? Like being prepared against a coyote strike, be on the lookout for the wolves among us.

Remember, in this kind of case, there are more wolves than coyotes.

Hunt them.

Read William A. Gralnicks recent columnsfor TAPinto Coral Springs:

Lock Your Car In Coral Springs. Career Criminals Are On The Move During Pandemic.

Bring Back Barnes & Noble To Coral Springs. Itll Be Part Of Citys Cultural Garden.

Coral Springs - Dont Answer that Phone

Shop At Publix In Coral Springs And Support DeSantis and Trump

Coral Springs, Brooklyn, And Just About All Other Cities Have Something In Common: What To Do With Plastic?

Coral Springs: On This MSD Tragedy Anniversary, HitEm Where It Hurts: The Pocketbook

Coral Springs: Go Get Your Shot In The Arm

A resident of South Florida for more than 30 years, Bill Gralnick has written more than 900 op-eds and columns for newspapers around the country, including columns for the Brooklyn Eagle.

His latest book, found on Amazon.com, Kindle or paperback, is the coming-of-age memoir, The War of the Itchy Balls and Other Tales from Brooklyn.

His writings and a link to his book can be found on his website:williamgralnickauthor.com

Reach him here:wagmom@aol.com

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The Coyote And The Wolf: What They Can Teach Us About Fighting Crime In Coral Springs - TAPinto.net

We in the media are largely responsible. The insistence that sporting stars must be clean-living citizens developed during the 1980s and 1990s, along with the rise of a gotcha reporting culture. The theory makes for the odd prurient, page-turning scoop. But is it logical? Not especially.

No-one ever pursued Alice Cooper or David Bowie to complain about their cocaine habits. No-one said that boozy actors like Oliver Reed or Richard Harris were setting a bad example. But Paul Gascoignes night swilling tequila shots in a Hong Kong dentists chair? That was morally reprehensible and a betrayal of sporting values.

For a watershed moment, see The Suns front page of May 30, 1996. The photo of a half-cut Gascoigne under the headline Disgracefool and the sub-heading Look at Gazza a drunk oaf with no pride. Never mind that this was one big night out at the end of Englands far-eastern tour.

Never mind that Darren Anderton hardly a noted hellraiser would later say that the drinking session createda team club environment which is what you need.

There are several possible explanations for these double-standards. Do sports origins as a moral force in Victorian public schools still resonate? Do we resent rich athletes for their privileges and youth? Do we feel entitled to pronounce judgement on anyone who plays under the national flag, on the basis that like politicians they are representing us?

Whatever the answer, a sportsman is as much an entertainer as Katy Perry or Robert Downey Jnr. And the policing of off-field behaviour has produced an ironic consequence: modern sport is much less entertaining than it could be, or would be, given a full and varied cast of characters.

I am sure that the monochrome impression is illusory. And that there are plenty of picaresque goings-on under the surface. Wealthy, testosterone-fuelled young men will find ways to entertain themselves. But they all know the importance of keeping everything under wraps.

Here was the joy of 1970s sport not just in football but across the spectrum. It was the time of James Hunt, Ian Botham and Ilie Nastase (the Wimbledon finalist whom Worthington cited as his favourite player in a magazine Q&A). These men never pretended to be shrinking violets. What you saw was what you got.

As a member of the Fourth Estate, I should perhaps pull back from blaming newspapers for everything. We mustnt forget social media, enabling every punter with an iPhone to make an online citizens arrest.Nor the sponsors who will drop an athlete at the first hint of a transgression, plus the governing bodies who legislate for off-field activities such as recreational drug use. Some even punish crimes as victimless as the tennis racket smash.

So yes, like Agatha Christies passengers on the Orient Express, we are probably all guilty. But the upshot is that the likes of Worthington shine all the brighter in hindsight, birds of a different feather. Our obsession with sporting role models has a lot to answer for.

Continued here:

The age of the sporting maverick is over - and we only have ourselves to blame - Telegraph.co.uk

A victimless crime is an activity that the government has decreed criminal even though there is no identifiable victim. A victimless crime is an activity that is performed by one or more consenting people, that causes no harm, injury or violation to anyone outside of the people performing the activity.

One example of a victimless crime is smoking marijuana at home by yourself. You are acting as an individual and no one else is harmed by your activity. Another example is prostitution. When two consenting adults engage in a sexual act in exchange for money, no one is harmed and no ones rights are violated. Nevertheless, the government has labeled these activities as crimes.

Traffic crimes for the most part are victimless crimes. For example, if you are driving down the I-17 on your way to Phoenix after having visited the Grand Canyon, you will encounter many stretches of I-17 with a 75 mph speed limit. How many of you have been coasting down a hill on the I-17 with no other cars around and in perfect control of your vehicle, only to notice that you inadvertently hit 86 mph? If you happen to do this in front of a state-appointed revenue generator, otherwise known as a DPS officer, you could be charged with criminal speed. Where is the victim? What makes 85 mph not a crime, and 86 mph a crime that carries potential jail time?

Consider another example: Did you know it is a crime to drive a vehicle in Arizona if the registration is expired and that vehicle belongs to someone who is not a resident of Arizona? According to A.R.S. 28-2322, this is a class 2 misdemeanor, the same as assault! In other words, if you borrowed a friends vehicle, and your friend was not a resident of Arizona, and unbeknownst to you the registration was expired, you could be facing up to four months in jail if the police catch you.

A real crime has an identifiable victim and is an activity performed by one or more people that causes harm, injury or violation to someone not voluntarily participating in the activity.

In contrast to the victimless crime examples above, if I jab a syringe of heroin into the back of my neighbor without asking him first, I have caused him harm without his consent; he was not a voluntary participant in the heroin injection. I have therefore committed a crime in every sense because I violated his right to be free from unwanted contact. Similarly, while prostitution involves the voluntary trade of sex for money, rape involves one person forcing involuntary sex upon another and therefore rape is a real crime.

A good universal rule to use when distinguishing between a victimless crime and real crime is Was the activity completely voluntary? For example, lets say I go to Home Depot, pick up a box of screws and walk out the door without paying. That activity was not completely voluntary. My side was voluntary I voluntarily took the box of screws. Home Depots side was not voluntary Home Depot expects people to pay for items before removing them from the store and did not consent to me removing the box of screws from the store without paying. I therefore committed a real crime.

Now lets say the government just passed a Nails Not Screws law that outlawed the use of screws because the hammer lobby was concerned about a decline in business. I then go to Home Depot, provide the obligatory secret handshake, and hand over $10 for my box of black-market screws and leave. Under the Was the activity completely voluntary standard, I have committed no real crime. I voluntarily gave Home Depot $10, and Home Depot voluntarily gave me a box of screws. No one was harmed or violated. In fact, Home Depot and I both have a net increase in happiness because I got the screws I wanted and Home Depot got the $10 it wanted. Unfortunately, due to the governments arbitrary law, both Home Depot and I have committed a crime, albeit a victimless crime.

We do not agree with many of Arizonas exceptionally punitive traffic laws, many of which criminalize victimless activities, and we wish they did not exist. Fortunately, we have a strong history of protecting our clients rights and obtaining non-criminal resolutions in these types of cases.

Original post:

What Is A Victimless Crime And How Is It Different From A ...

Introduction

There is no real definition of a victimless crime because crimes of this nature do not really exist. There are however a number of statutory offenses that if engaged in, may not have an obvious victim. The dichotomy of these statements is that the word victimless can be interpreted as widely or as narrowly as one wishes. The traditional view is that laws are created to protect social standards and are derived from moral and ethical values. Some of these offenses are of a minor nature and impact individuals rather than society in general and include illegal drug taking; prostitution; drunkenness; pornography; gambling; and various sexual acts. There is a debate that argues offenses of this nature are invariably committed by consenting actors; there are no injuries to non-participants; the offense is against the state rather than society; and only police officers make the complaint. While the act may be illegal, there is no obvious victim. In these circumstances it is easy to see how a crime could be considered victimless. There are however other circumstances where victims of crime are not aware of their victimhood and their ignorance of the fact is perceived to be an acceptance of their victimhood. The victimlessness in these circumstances therefore lies on the perception of the perpetrator who ignores culpability because of a lack of complaint or where there is a complaint, a denial of the facts. Because the victim is oblivious of these circumstances it is easy to see how such deviant business practices can be accepted as victimless. To counter this perception there is an assumption that corporations act with integrity and do not knowingly provide flawed goods or services, or at the very least will rectify the situation without fuss. However, in the competitive world of business, organizations continually seek ways to maximize profit sometimes at the expense of the oblivious customer. Within the business world, entrepreneurs seek innovative ways to improve their business and increase profit by bending or even breaking rules in a manner that could be considered reckless or even bordering on illegal. A third form of victimlessness is the non-payment of taxes, required by the state to support the infrastructures necessary for social welfare, whose lack will negatively impact sections of society.

The disparate nature of victimless crime is such that there are no seminal works that address the broad range of crimes purporting to be victimless. Instead there are numerous texts that deal with single aspects of this phrase. Hughes 2015 succinctly identifies the issues of dealing with conscious victims engaging in consensual crime. Buchhandler-Raphael 2013 similarly criticizes the overcriminalization of consensual crimes. Slapper and Tombs 1999, Gorbert and Punch 2003, and Minkes and Minkes 2008 are all seminal texts on the impact of corporate crime as a victimless act. Brown and Jackson 1990 is a widely read undergraduate textbook which explores taxation and public expenditure.

Brown, C.V., and P. Mc. Jackson. 1990. Public sector economics. 4th ed. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

This book explains the relationship between government income through taxation and its ability to finance services and its relationship to taxpayers whether they are individuals, householders, or corporate entities.

Buchhandler-Raphael, M. 2013. Drugs, dignity, and the danger: Human dignity as a constitutional constraint to limit overcriminalization. Tennessee Law Review 80.2: 291345.

The article questions the justification for continuing criminalization of behaviors that either inflict harm on self or on other consenting adults. It also advocates consent as an acceptable form of defense.

Gorbert, J., and M. Punch. 2003. Rethinking corporate crime. London: Butterworths.

This is a critical examination of current criminal law as applied to business practice. It considers the ability of the legal system to control corporate criminality through a multi-disciplined approach. This book is suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate study.

Hughes, B.T. 2015. Strictly taboo: Cultural anthropologys insights into mass incarceration and victimless crime. New England Journal on Criminal & Civil Confinement 41.1: 4984.

This article undertakes an anthropological review of utilitarian social contract with respect to imprisonment for crimes that are not considered to be harmful to individuals or society.

Minkes, J., and L. Minkes, eds. 2008. Corporate and white collar crime. London: SAGE.

This book is an edited volume aimed at both undergraduate and postgraduate students within the disciplines of criminology, criminal justice, and business and management studies. It provides a comprehensive review of both white-collar and corporate crime through a collection of case studies.

Slapper, G., and S. Tombs. 1999. Corporate crime. Harlow, UK: Longman.

This book is suitable for undergraduate students. It provides a good introduction to the theoretical aspects of corporate crime and discusses its regulation and the punishment of transgressors.

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Victimless Crime - Criminology - Oxford Bibliographies

A man caught downloading hundreds of indecent images of children has avoided jail.

John Glynn told police the disturbing images appeared on his computer as pop-ups when he was arrested last year.

The 64-year-old used anti-forensic software in a bid to cover up his twisted crimes.

Police visited Glynn at his home on Hawthorne Avenue, Wigan, on June 14.

They seized his computers acting on information they had received.

On his devices, officers found 347 category A images, 252 category B images and 565 category C images.

Glynn, who has 14 grandchildren, told police he downloaded the images by accident after they popped up on his computer.

Bolton Crown Court heard how he ran the anti-forensic software in an attempt to conceal his actions 400 times in one year.

John Close, prosecuting, said a number of files had been deleted using the software. When arrested, Glynn gave no comment replies.

He was later charged with three counts of downloading indecent photographs of a child between December 2017 and June 2020.

Defending Glynn, barrister Paul Becker said: These are disturbing offences, one only has to listen to the description from the prosecution to understand.

I am sure the defendant sits ashamed in court.

There has been quite a history to this case, it has been adjourned several times due the poor health of the defendant.

Just a few weeks ago, he was admitted to hospital and had stomach surgery due to years of drinking far too much.

There is no question that the best mitigation in this case is a guilty plea.

He has never been in custody before and has been out of trouble for the last 40 years.

He is sorry for what he has done. He understands this is not acceptable.

Before passing sentence, Judge Walsh said: You are 64 years of age.

These offences of downloading images are not victimless crimes because the images that are downloaded show the real abuse of real children.

The people that are involved in manufacturing and distributing, if caught, can expect to go to prison for a very long period of time.

You effectively are of good character, being out of trouble since 1980.

Glynn was handed 45 rehabilitation requirement days, a community order and a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.

More:

Man caught with hundreds of indecent images of children told police they 'popped up' on his computer - Manchester Evening News

A large amount of counterfeit tobacco has been discovered during shop raids on Freeman Street.

Around 4,000 in cash was also recovered from several properties by police officers and Trading Standards officers from North East Lincolnshire Council.

Police visited several premises on the Grimsby street this weekend in a bid to root out illegal tobacco, often in the form of fake cigarettes or rolling tobacco.

It isn't known exactly how many were found, but similar investigations have recovered thousands of cigarettes with a street value of nearly 3,000.

They have warned that the fake substance is often dangerous, and is used to finance organised crime.

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A statement from Humberside Police said: Following an intensive two days of action at the weekend, a large sum of illicit tobacco and approximately 4,000 cash was recovered on Freeman Street, Grimsby.

Officers from our Grimsby Neighbourhood patrol joined Trading Standards officers in visiting a number of properties in the area.

Upon searching the properties a large amount of illicit tobacco was recovered. The investigation is now being led by Trading Standards.

PS Claire Jacobs said: These are not victimless crimes and agencies will continue to support one another- acting on information and intelligence that the public provide.

This offending is used to fund organised crime gangs and has been linked to modern day slavery and human trafficking operations.

When you buy these products, you could also be putting your own health at risk. Not only has no duty been paid on them but theyve not been tested to ensure theyre safe.

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Counterfeit tobacco products often contain all kinds of harmful substances.

We hope that this latest action will send a stark warning to anyone involved in this type of crime, that we will seek every avenue to disrupt them.

If you have information about counterfeit goods in your area call us on our non-emergency number 101 and let us help make our communities safer for everyone.

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Freeman Street shop raids uncovers haul of illegal tobacco and thousands in cash - Grimsby Live

By now, you probably know the basics of Operation Varsity Blues.

In 2019, the FBI announced a slew of indictments and arrests stemming from a yearslong college admissions bribery scheme. At its helm was William Rick Singer, a self-styled college counsellor who built a network of coaches at prestigious universities across the countryYale, USC, Stanford, UCLA. Using those connections, as well as fraudulent standardized testing, Singer worked with wealthy parents to provide what he called a side door into those schools: bribes, sometimes well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, to have their children earmarked as recruited athletes, in many cases for sports that they did not play. In the end, the FBIs investigation led to 50 arrestsincluding, most infamously, of the actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, who both spent brief stints behind bars. Loughlins husband, the designer Mossimo Giannulli, is currently serving a five-month sentence for his involvement. The crimes werent exactly victimless, but they were sufficiently preposterousmega-rich muckety-mucks gobbling up name-brand prestige on behalf of their good-for-nothing teens, already ensconced in leafy private high schools with sky-high tuition feesthat they made for sensational, and often twistedly funny, tabloid fodder.

And so it stands to reason that Netflixs go-to scam documentarians would get a crack at it. Debuting on Wednesday, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal is directed by Chris Smith, who also helmed 2019s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and executive produced last years Tiger King, and written by Jon Karmen, also a Fyre vet. Together, those two documentaries served both as definitive histories (OK, Fyre had to share the limelight with the Hulu competition) and viral flashpoints, imprinting onto the public consciousness not just the tales weird historiesan aborted music festival that left thousands of 20-somethings stranded in the Bahamas and the life of the now-imprisoned Oklahoma zookeeper Joe Exotic, respectivelybut also their oddball stars. In the two films wake, Andy King, one of Fyre Festivals producers, became a meme; Carole Baskin, the woman whom Exotic was imprisoned for attempting to have murdered, went on to, er, dance with the stars.

Netflix clearly hopes that The College Admissions Scandal will be the next entry in its stranger-than-fiction documentary line. Alas, it fails to cover much new ground, but it does offer the one thing that close reads of all those damning FBI wiretap transcripts couldnt: It lets you be a fly on the wall. The doc makes the unusual choice of relying on reenactments, deploying a coterie of actorsmost notably Matthew Modine as Singerto recreate the dialogue of the wiretaps. Between clips of the real parents hobnobbing at Davos and on cable news and giving self-congratulatory speeches in evening finery, we see their stand-ins making calls from plush libraries, gleaming pools, mansions, mansions, and more mansions. They hem and they haw, just like their real-life counterparts did during the calls, blissfully unaware of federal surveillance. And then they pay up. Are there drone shots of Greenwich, Connecticut, at night? you ask. Please: Smith and Karmen arent amateurs. (Which is to sayyes.) That Netflix couldnt improve upon the perfection of the busts FBI codename tells you everything you need to know. The facts themselves are sensational enough.

Its the details that make the whole thing so delicious, of course. In Guilty Admissions, Nicole LaPortes book on Varsity Blues, she writes about a student fraudulently portrayed as a water polo player who was into horseback riding and had a $40,000 horse. In that case, a clerical error at USC resulted in her water polofeaturing application being sent to the general admissions pile; plan B was to portray her as a soccer player to UCLAs admissions department. When the latter plan succeeded, the student finally encountered a problem her family couldnt pay away: UCLAs soccer team was too good. So good, in fact, that the school requires each and every recruit to play for their first yearand so there was the would-be rider, suiting up for a full season for a nationally ranked soccer team.

While he did not cooperate with The College Admissions Scandal, Singer himself makes for a strange and vaguely sad figure. His girlfriend-turned-employee gabs about their failed romance; Singer wasnt necessarily charismatic, says another woman who knew him. In one reenacted call, he jokes with one of the coaches in his network about moving to Sweden, saying that he would just need a good Swedish girl. When the feds finally brought him in, Singer rolled over immediately, working his way through his roster of parents at the agents behest and egging them one by one into confessions of their involvement. If he was talking to organized crime members, one lawyer remarks, he would have been made as a cooperator within 30 seconds. For now, as his onetime clients continue to work their way through the justice system, he is back in Sacramento, where another college counsellor, who dishes about how shifty Singer seemed in his early days in the biz, recounts sightings of him doing yoga and swimming at the local pool in a Speedo.

The documentarys biggest get is John Vandemoer, the Stanford sailing coach who was implicated in taking $610,000 in bribes and is the lone indicted person included. Vandemoer, too, cuts a hapless figure: He was, per LaPortes book, the eighth coach Singer targeted at Stanford, and the first to take the bait. His legal defense was, essentially, that he just didnt understand that he was being bribed; he was, at least, alone in giving the proceeds straight back to his university. Vandemoers own attorney discusses telling him that a jury would have lapped up the evidence incriminating him.

But however pitiful the principals might be, Varsity Blues never has been a case that engenders much pity for those involved. The College Admissions Scandal knows it, and if your only regret is not being able to see the looks on all those wealthy parents faces as they were led out of their mansions in handcuffswell, heres the next best thing.

It is here that I should say that I went to one of those leafy private high schoolsthe very same one, in fact, where two different fathers caught in Varsity Blues sent their kids. One of these parents, Agustin Huneeus, figures heavily in The College Admissions Scandal: We see him strolling alongside his in-ground pool overlooking the familys Napa winery in the midst of crimes for which he was ultimately sentenced to five months in prison. A second dad at my high school, Bill McGlashan, a prominent investor with ties to Bono (who at the time was also a member of the schools board), plead guilty to a wire fraud charge in February.

I am a bit too ancient to know any of the parties involved. But I knew, I suppose, people like them, or at any rate kids who came from families of the sort of ludicrous means that defined Varsity Blues. There were the children of movie stars, famous comedians, noted writers; there was the one who had a private driver. The going rumor was that George Lucas himself had paid for the state-of-the-art theater building, which wasnt hard to believemy freshman year, I snapped a blurry picture of him attending graduation. Somebodys parents always had a place in wine country or Tahoe for a party, or else season tickets behind home plate to see the Giants. Once, the Doobie Brothers played a concert in the gym during an assembly, because someones dad was, in fact, a Doobie Brother. It was a strange school, where my own substantial privilegebeing born into a family that could pay tuition to this placefelt pedestrian. But no one is more convinced of free will than a teenager. We were the ones making thingsgrades, thick envelopes from colleges, our presence at the school in the first placehappen. Werent we?

Tuition there has doubled in the nearly decade and a half since I graduated. By all accounts, college admissionsand particularly how parents and, to a lesser degree, students interface with the process at private high schoolshave undergone a radical militarization over that same time frame. Maybe it had not quite come to my high school when I was there. Maybe it was happening there then.

But given the brazenness on display in The College Admissions Scandal, any kind of discretion feels unlikely. The documentary captures Huneeuss entry into Singers scheme, as recorded in the wiretaps. He had learned about Singers methods from McGlashan, and called Singer to ask for specifics. Was McGlashan doing any of this shit? Huneeus wanted to know. Is he talking a clean game with me and helping his kid or not? Cause he makes me feel guilty.

McGlashan, Huneeus said, had explained that he had a limit. Look, Im gonna push, Im gonna prod, Im gonna use my relationships, McGlashan had explained, according to Huneeus, but Im not gonna go and pay to get my kid in. Pushing and prodding, leaning on the USC board members McGlashan knewwell, that was all above board, just the way of doing business in this world. Any more than that, this logic seemed to implythat would be something to feel guilty about.

Huneeus didnt seem too worried about it. In the end, he agreed to pay $50,000 to have his daughters SAT answers corrected, another $50,000 to a USC athletic department official, and a final $250,000 upon her eventual fraudulent admission as a water polo player. Before they were done, Huneeus asked Singer whether he should worry. Is there any risk that this thing blows up in my face? he asked.

Well, no, because shes a water polo player, Singer replied.

Said Hunneus, But shes not.

She was admitted to USC with an application that described her as a 3-year Varsity Letter winner. McGlashan, meanwhile, had his son apply to USC as a football kicker. You got an NFL punter? Singer joked to him. He does have really strong legs, his father replied.

The thing is, my high school doesnt even have a football team.

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Operation Varsity Blues Is Light on New Info, Heavy on Schadenfreude - The Ringer

When National MP Simon Bridges called Police Commissioner Andrew Coster a wokester recently, his intention was apparently to suggest the police are too soft on crime.

Debating the concept of policing by consent during a recent select committee hearing, Bridges asked Coster: Do the police still arrest people in this country?

One inference to be drawn from Bridgess statements is that crime in New Zealand is increasing, possibly due to lenient policing.

To test that, we collected publicly available crime data from New Zealand Police. To measure any recent patterns we looked at data for the past six years, 2015 to 2020.

The first category we looked at is what the police call victimisation. This includes the total number of cases involving:

Out of the six categories, it is clear most crimes involve injury, burglary and theft. The numbers for the other three crimes are negligible.

But the pattern is clear there is no significant increase in crime across the six years, and there is no significant increase in any of the individual components.

A potential concern with the broad victimisation measure is that it may not fully capture the specific nature of crimes. For example, it is possible some crime is concentrated in certain locations and some victims are falling prey multiple times.

Read more: Policing by consent is not woke it is fundamental to a democratic society

But if we look at the number of unique victims, we are now only counting each victim once, irrespective of how many times they were victimised during the 12 months in question.

According to the police, this data set can be used to understand repeat victimisation patterns.

Once again the pattern is clear there is no evidence of any significant increase in the number of unique victims over the past six years.

Victims, of course, are only one part of the story. We can also look at the number of unique offenders.

Here we see a steady decline in the number of offenders. Again, one could look at multiple ways of measuring this, but the evidence presented above does not suggest a massive increase in offending.

Read more: The Christchurch commissions call to improve social cohesion is its hardest and most important recommendation

In the next two figures we drill down a little further and look at two separate and specific types of crimes.

Figure 4 looks at illicit drug offences. This is important because the general data on victimisation does not include so-called victimless crimes (such as drug possession).

Here, there is evidence of an increase, albeit a modest one: roughly 13%, from 8,772 in 2015 to 9,924 in 2020. It is possible this is due to either increased drug offences or to increased prosecutions.

Finally, in Figure 5 we look at a category that tends to involve small numbers but receives great attention in political debates: prohibited and regulated weapons and explosives offences.

Again we see a modest increase of about 14%, from 3,747 in 2015 to 4,281 in 2020.

Objectively, it seems hard to make the case that crime in New Zealand has increased dramatically over the past six years. In fact, some categories of crime may have actually declined.

But even if crime levels are relatively static, are they still too high?

If we look at the first victimisation measure only, there were a total of 239,519 cases in 2020 from a population of five million. That is approximately five out of every 100 people.

That may not appear to be a very high number, but some of these crimes will be more serious than others. The ideal trend, of course, would be declining numbers to the point of no measurable crime at all.

Unlikely, perhaps, but something Simon Bridges and Andrew Coster might agree on, at least.

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Despite claims NZ's policing is too 'woke', crime rates are largely static and even declining - The Conversation AU

As the pandemic spilled into its third month on American soil, our nation was facing a desperate moment millions were newly jobless, two-week lockdowns had stretched into months and tens of thousands of Americans had died from COVID-19.

It is fitting, then, that amid this chaos, Americas original sin reared its ugly head. An exhibition of pure racism, the murder of George Floyd was a disgusting and heinous crime against not just a man but a nation. During one of Americas most politically and economically desperate moments, the police openly failed to protect and serve.

The weeks and months that followed showcased more police failures. Police departments that have been radically overmilitarized were woefully underprepared for the protests that devolved into riots. While cities burned, police failed to protect businesses but somehow managed to spare enough men to terrorize peaceful protestors. Early this year, the nation even witnessed how $516 million could not yield a police department strong enough to protect the Capitol.

Evidently, todays model of public safety with police on the frontline is backward. People are not driven to crime by a dearth of policing but by a complex web of economic and social stressors, so any public safety action should primarily respond to those stressors. Activists accurately recognize that policing victimless crimes, like drug-related ones, can inflict more harm than good. Even worse, when laws against victimless crimes are enforced, they are disproportionately enforced against marginalized communities.

But where some take it too far is when they suggest that this justifies the total abolition or defunding of the police. This notion is wholly wrong and is based on a flawed understanding of how public safety should be delivered. While policing should not be the frontline of public safety, it is an essential tool of public safety.

First, no functioning government can work without a police force. Influential sociologist Max Weber defined the modern state by its monopoly on violence in other words, a government that cannot enforce its laws or protect its citizens loses legitimacy and eventually collapses. Enforcing laws and protecting citizens may mean using force, so our government must be prepared to do so.

Second, there is no suitable replacement for some police functions. Some suggest that the scope of everyday policing could be scaled back and replaced with municipal processes geared toward mediating situations non-violently. Thats fine non-escalatory peacemaking needs to play a larger role in our approach to public safety, especially during the regular day-to-day operations of our communities.

But some episodes, such as riots, terrorist attacks and organized crime, require armed intervention under government authority. Good luck finding white-collared city staff willing to apprehend suspects of violent crimes without arms. Call them police or call them something else, but armed public servants will always perform these functions. Even if expanded social services reduce violent crime, no intervention is perfect cases will slip through the cracks, and someone will have to respond to them.

In these cases, defund movements would leave a vacuum that could be filled by neighborhood militias. From every perspective, this is a terrible consequence. Untrained and under-equipped civilians would be infinitely less accountable, effective and willing to step in when called upon. Without a doubt, in the absence of public police, well-off neighborhoods would choose to subscribe to private policing, capitalizing the human right to safety. If the government will not provide safety, corporations will.

Considering this, there is simply no world where our cities do not operate police forces public employees whose jobs are to deal with dangerous situations will always be necessary.

Reducing funding for police is a more palatable idea, but is still unripe. There are other ways to deliver public safety like with social workers and mental health professionals but many are underdeveloped and not yet scalable. Slashing police budgets prematurely could leave gaps in coverage before proven replacements are well-established. Smaller police budgets should come as a natural by-product of beefing up other public safety responses, not as the impetus for their creation.

When discussing police, Americans need to recognize that at their core, police are public servants tasked with engaging in dangerous situations they should be respected as public servants, but not placed above political debate. Many struggle with this: some elevate police to hero status, making them politically untouchable, while others denigrate them unfairly, failing to recognize the legitimate episodes that require government intervention.

The future of public safety starts by taking police off their pedestal. Not every incident can be resolved by sending in a blue-uniformed deputy, so more policing is not necessarily the answer. On the other side, activists need to help turn down the temperature by acknowledging that our government cannot and will not ever go without a police force.

Police should be the robust last resort of public safety in times of crisis, not the frontline. Instead of defunding or abolishing the police, we should repurpose the institution. Our communities deal with diverse and complex safety issues every day, from homelessness to reckless driving to domestic violence. These situations demand an army of local staff willing and ready to reach out and provide guidance an army that cities already have. Police should be dedicated to providing guidance rather than enforcing punitive ordinances. Instead of patrolling and policing endlessly, they would only emerge when called upon, leaving citizens to decide for themselves when officers are needed.

When needed, police departments would still be capable of responding to violent situations, but would not show up to each situation expecting and thereby manifesting violence. Officers would continue to respond to non-violent situations, but with pamphlets and advice, avoiding the escalatory practices that have traditionally plagued departments. If officers prove unwelcome in these settings, cities can utilize police for these tasks in the interim while they develop suitable municipal systems to replace officers daily duties.

This is the path forward: moving police off the frontlines and shifting some of their duties over time to trusted and proven professionals. Alongside repurposed police, preventative public safety can and should be delivered in new and innovative ways. Policymakers and activists must recognize that police are neither synonymous nor mutually exclusive with public safety, and that police are just one essential tool of any public safety repertoire. When we come together on this key reality, we can and will build a system that will protect more effectively and serve more equitably.

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McGough '23: There will always be police - The Brown Daily Herald