Can we blame legal pot? We do not know whether legalization has anything to do with it. But we do know that reputable news organizations should stop relying on the Big Marijuana lobby for statistics.
I've never had the chance to say these words to him face-to-face. And I don't know if I'd actually waste even one breath on him if he were right in front of me. But if I did have that chance and some breath to spare, here is what I would say.
Ferguson has resonated across the country, not because of the merits of this one particular interaction -- where the facts are still uncertain -- but because of other similar, but less deadly policing tactics in certain urban communities.
While many items are prohibited in American jails and prisons, some are still allowed. And it is these items that can make a stay in the slammer that much more bearable and less toxic.
To say the least, the shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager in Ferguson, Missouri raises highly disturbing and troubling issues for law enforcement agencies everywhere.
A city with limited resources and stubbornly high crime rates, Detroit is ripe for justice system innovation. Police Chief James Craig has seized on this opportunity, implementing a broad range of changes to the department.
Botched executions are in danger of becoming the new normal in America. But unlike the other top execution nations, where people have no control over their government actions, the citizens of the United States have a choice. As soon as we say that it is not acceptable for our government to kill our fellow citizens in our name, then the death penalty will die.
There's one born every minute. Many scammers use the names of valid lottery organizations, but this doesn't mean the legit entities are involved. The latest con is to tell someone they won a Powerball jackpot while planning on stealing their identity.
How far can government go in forcing people to reveal their identities, or protecting people from being forced to reveal their identities?
Ending up here, with thousands of kids imprisoned for life, was by no means inevitable, or even predictable, when we look back in our nation's history. For much of the last two centuries, very few would have accepted the idea that the legal system should treat children exactly like adults, or that a child who breaks the law, even egregiously so, is unredeemable.
With the college football season set to officially begin on August 23, many collegiate teams find their rosters in question, with a number of football players accused of sexual assaults against other students. Should the university's investigation override a legal presumption of innocence? Maybe.
When execution ended in my country, a shadow faded. Something grim and primitive was gone. There's still violence and murder in England, of course, but its citizens -- including children -- no longer have to be accomplices in the most premeditated of all killings.
American prisons foster a culture of violence, hatred, bigotry and dominance. They take the criminally inclined, and not so inclined, and turn them into hardened convicts who, after a period of years, become dangerous men.
Whether it's James Brown or Eric Garner, police shouldn't be trained or allowed to go above the law in the name of enforcing the law.
In June the Manhattan district attorney and the New York City police commissioner garnered significant media attention after a pre-dawn raid resulted in the indictment of more than 100 gang members in Harlem. But what happens after the headlines fade away?
Crime recognizes few boundaries - urban or suburban. That's why it's so important to have police departments cooperate as regional crime fighters, especially to slow the movement of guns and drugs. But fighting crime is more than just good police work.
All of that now is rendered moot. Reading the Court's decision today, as persuasive as it is, still leaves me with this gnawing feeling that justice was not served.