"Hard cases make bad law" is a widely used legal maxim. It refers to how difficult it can be to have an individual case involving complicated facts stand for a general legal principle.
Still, even amid sometimes conflicting details, particular cases do fit within a broader legal system. This includes tragic cases, such as the accidental police shooting of a Hofstra University student.
The case has gripped the attention of people in New York City and across the country this week.
Continue reading Hard questions after a tragic police shooting
Google may yet have found a way to make YouTube profitable. But the Internet video-sharing site is immensely popular. It is still the go-site site for videos of all types.
Not surprisingly, some of the videos posted there depict police engaging in excessive use of force. And the New York City area certainly has its share of those incidents.
Continue reading Video evidence can cut both ways in excessive force cases
“Justice delayed is justice denied.” This well-known saying dates back to the 19th Century, when it was first uttered by William Gladstone, the British prime minister.
The saying is as timely as ever, however, especially in the Bronx. Court delays in getting a day in court stretch on and on there and in other parts of New York City.
How bad is it? In felony cases, it can take as long as five years to get a court date. Delays in misdemeanor cases, such as for misdemeanor marijuana possession, are also intolerably long. When delays get this long, it becomes a civil rights issue.
Continue reading Justice delayed – especially in the Bronx
In the last two decades, DNA evidence has exploded the myth that eyewitness evidence is usually the best evidence in criminal cases. In fact, it is often the worse. In many cases, witnesses make mistaken identifications — and this can easily lead to wrongful convictions, even when a defendant receives an aggressive criminal defense.
A recent New York robbery case is merely one example of the problem. It’s a case in which a federal appeals court ruled last week that a man who has already served 19 years in prison on an armed robbery conviction must be given a new trial on one of the counts.
Continue reading Eyewitness errors and wrongful conviction: a New York case
In a culture consumed with constant media access, it is more important than ever to be media savvy. Especially when a longstanding legacy media outlet - in this case, the New York Post - get it wrong about a story as important as the New York Police Department's overly aggressive stop-and-frisk practices.
Those practices are now being challenged in a major class-action lawsuit. They are widely believed to be constitutionally flawed and to flout the civil rights of those who are searched. The disproportionate impact of these stops on racial minorities has been widely documented.
But could it be, as the Post asserted this week, that stop-and-frisk is a key causal factor in driving down New York City's murder rate?
The notion of using layers of oversight as check against arbitrary government power is an ancient one. The ancient Romans knew it well. It was expressed in a Latin phrase that was widely taught for centuries: "Quis custodet ipsos custodies?" Who will guard the guards themselves?
Context like this is helpful for understanding New York City's deliberations about whether to create an inspector general position to oversee the police department. The department is currently facing a class-action lawsuit, Floyd v. City of New York challenging civil rights violations growing out of overly aggressive stop-and-frisk practices.
George Orwell wrote his famous novel 1984 in a bygone world of newsreels and black-and-white photography. Telephones were bolted to the wall and required going through a switchboard operator. Television was not even available yet, much less the Internet.
Today, of course, this world seems downright quaint. Video surveillance by the government - synonymous with Orwell's notion of Big Brother - is increasingly a 24 / 7 operation.
In New York City and across the country, law enforcement officers are recording citizens' movements as never before. A few years ago, the new development was mounting cameras in squad cars so that police could record traffic stops and arrests.
Continue reading Police and wearable video cameras: a check on excessive force?
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A generation ago, when the original Star Trek television series hit the airwaves, the weapon of choice for the spaceship crew was typically a "phaser" set to stun. Few people could have anticipated then that stun guns would become widely used by law enforcement. It's an example of how the stuff of science fiction sometimes translates into everyday reality.
In New York City and across the country, however, there are now concerns that police are far too quick on the draw with stun guns. These guns are often referred to as "tasers," after Taser International, a company that manufactures and sells them.
The lawsuit is called Floyd v. City of New York. It is a class-action lawsuit against the New York Police Department for its aggressive and arguably illegal stop-and-frisk practices. The suit challenges these practices as a violation of constitutional rights - specifically the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
The lawsuit went to trial last week in federal court. Its resolution will have important implications for civil rights in New York City. And it should help clarify what tactics police are permitted to use, particularly in areas that law enforcement agencies view as having high concentrations of crime.
The basic facts of the fatal police shooting in New York City ten days ago can be fairly quickly recounted. Two plainclothes officers from the N.Y.P.D. pulled up in an unmarked car on a street in Brooklyn on March 9 around 11:30 pm. There was a group of boys on the sidewalk. Before long, the two officers had shot and killed a 16-year-old boy.
At that point, the basic facts are in dispute. The officers claim the boy pulled a 38-caliber revolver on them. But several witnesses at the scene say the boy was simply adjusting his belt when the officers fired on him. The officers fired eleven rounds and seven of those hit the boy.
Continue reading Fatal police shooting points to tip of the iceberg of stop and frisk
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