Washington, D.C. listeners, tune in at 10 a.m. this morning (Tuesday) when I’ll be a guest again on Diane Rehm’s award-winning radio show, discussing developments in Ferguson, Mo., including a grand jury’s decision that officer Darren Wilson won’t face charges in the shooting of Michael Brown. Other guests include Julie Bosman, reporter, The New York Times; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and Andrew Ferguson, associate professor of law, University of the District of Columbia School of Law. (bumped Tuesday morning to keep at top of page)
One Comment
The homicide rate in new York City was roughly 2,500/yr. during the term of mayor David Dinkins. That number declined during mayor Rudy Guiliani’s terms to around 500. Would the rate rebound under Bloomberg? It didn’t, and the rate is roughly 300 a year now. This is one of the most spectacular statistical records in all of social science. It happened that the rate of police killing civilians declined even more percentage wise. My sense is that national crime statistics also declined remarkably. So when Eric Holder and various pundits show concern about police killing their children, they are talking through their hats. The Brown killing was an incident and was treated properly by officials in Ferguson. The various free speech demonstrations were idiotic, and the encouragement of mob rule was unfortunate.
At the end of the radio show was a call to have equal results for blacks and whites with respect to the police. Mr. Olson is well aware of the problems of using disparate outcomes as a basis for social policy.
Congress should put together a Ken Feinberg program to compensate the victims of terrorism in Ferguson.