A Word About Prior Restraints

The Founders intended for prior restraints to apply to government powers, not to individual rights.

[Inspired by the last paragraph in this commentary by Jed]

Smile, You're on Canine Camera

Pictures are seen on a receiver unit carried by the dog handler who can watch the progress of the four-legged recruits searching for armed suspects.

Sounds like a great way to get an expensive, highly-trained asset killed.

You Say It's Your Birthday...

Has the South African government got a present for you!

Indicting the Gun Merchants

Judge Jack Weinstein spelled out how firearms makers flood New York with illegal weapons when he upheld the city's right to sue last week. Here's how he summed up the charges...

Am I reading this right? "[H]e summed up the charges"? It's the "Be Our Guest" column--did Weinstein write it?

If he did, this is straight out of the Brady playbook. He should have recused himself.

In a rational world, naked, one-sided advocacy for a plaintiff by a presiding judge would be grounds for dismissal, impeachment, and criminal charges to boot.

How about indicting the judge?

Feelin' Lucky, Punk?

A Pasco detention deputy stood over a jail inmate strapped hand and foot to a hospital bed. He drew his gun and pointed it at the man's head.

"We're not gonna have any trouble out of you today, are we?" he said, according to Sheriff's Office spokesman Kevin Doll.

Let's hope the deputy who turned him in isn't "ostracized" or worse. Anyone brazen enough to act so brutally in front of another officer is probably not exhibiting new behavior.

Deaths Mount in Rio's War on Crime

More Than 4,000 Have Died At Hands of Police in Violent Cycle

In Rio, many of the victims of police violence have been hapless bystanders. Others have undoubtedly been dope dealers who, human rights group say, never saw the inside of a jail cell because of rogue cops who sometimes act as judge, jury and firing squad.

"A lot of these killings are quasi-executions, with shots to the head and the heart," said Sandra Carvalho of Global Justice, a Brazilian human rights group that monitors the police...

Rio drew worldwide attention to the violence on its police force a dozen years ago when a group of hooded officers killed seven street children sleeping outside a downtown church. A month later, a police-run death squad massacred 21 civilians in a Rio slum. Only a few of the numerous officers charged in the two cases were convicted.

Yet Brazil's ruling elite, backed by a gaggle of "Nobel Peace Laureates", supported the recent gun ban referendum.