Peter Moskos

Mrs Hatbird appreciates!

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani hosted immigrants and refugees for a friendly game of soccer at Gracie Mansion for the World Cup: “As someone whose family was at one point refugees … we have 8.5M people who call this place home and more than 3M were born outside of this country.”

When I was originally assigned the book that became “I Can’t Breathe” by Penguin/Random House, editors kept suggesting I explore the premise, “Why do we even need police?” I thought it was a joke, but they were serious. The issue never once came up in reporting. There was a lot of anti-police sentiment in the Staten Island neighborhood where Eric Garner was killed, and a lot of justified anger in particular toward the one precinct most responsible. But even the dealers and hardcore gangsters in Tompkinsville Park didn’t protest when a squad car was permanently parked on the spot where Garner was killed. It cut down on low-level violence while junkies did their thing. The point is, police abolition is not an issue coming from the streets - at least not that I ever saw - but a niche idea coming from above. There are a lot of things that can be done to reform policing and the better cops know it (getting rid of quotas, targeting more high-end crime) , but this “We don’t need armed cops” thing is a weird fantasy from grad school outer space that refuses to die - incredible that it’s being pushed seriously.

Abdul El-Sayed: "Do police really need to use guns? Do we need as much of a police force?”

"I can't vote for Democrats, they believe crazy things!" Uh huh, and what about our Republican run government is saying we should deport 100 million people! That's crazy-town!!! (Less than 50 million Americans are foreign-born, and only around 12 million of those are illegal.)

Matt Damon says the Knicks winning made New York feel like a musical "When the Knicks won, I went out into the street with my kids, and it was like being in a musical" "The cops and the firefighters were hugging each other. It was unbelievable, the most fun" "I was like, ‘Maybe the world should be like this.’ It felt like everyone was about to break into some horrible number" "Even as a Celtics fan, it was impressive. It was a lot of joy"

If we trust the disciplines to reform themselves, reform will not happen because people like the interviewee—denialists who think there is no problem and they’ve done nothing wrong—are the reformers. If admins step in and dictate the reform, academic freedom is functionally dead.

being a cyclist kinda sucks politically because your options are always Candidate A: loves bike infrastructure, but refuses to jail bike thieves Candidate B: wants to send bike thieves to the gulag, but hates cyclists anyway my bike was stolen last week, RIP