Law Enforcement
March 9, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I’m going to speak this afternoon to my high school alma mater’s legal history class on the subject of racial disparities in the criminal justice system. A few years back I had a personal encounter with the guy who helped create the firestorm over alleged racial profiling in traffic stops. It was an experience I will revisit briefly in class this afternoon with a citation to this post. Heather Mac
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January 14, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I’ve been wondering what rationale Haley Barbour could possibly have had for the blizzard of pardons he issued on his way out of office. Now that he has explained, in an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News, I’ve gone from mystification to anger. Governor Barbour explains that most of those pardoned had already been released from prison. What about the remaining 26 pardons and the pardons of murderers still
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January 7, 2012 — Scott Johnson
During my visit to Tulsa last month I noted a story in the local news involving the search of a used car dealership as the result of a lawsuit alleging that it received about $20.2 million from Hezbollah members or Hezbollah-controlled entities to purchase and ship used cars. I subsequently wrote a little more about the civil lawsuit filed in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New
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December 28, 2011 — Scott Johnson
We recently noted the search of a used car dealership in Tulsa as the result of a lawsuit alleging that it received about $20.2 million from Hezbollah members or Hezbollah-controlled entities to purchase and ship used cars. Now Glenn Reynolds notes that a Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, car dealership has been shut down on suspicion of ties to Hezbollah in the same scheme. The scheme involves a nationwide network of auto
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December 17, 2011 — Scott Johnson
I’ve been in Tulsa all week. The local news is full of a story I would otherwise have missed: “Terror suit spurs search at car dealershership.” Check this out: A Tulsa used car dealership was searched Friday by federal and local law enforcement agents in connection with an international scheme that has allegedly funneled $483 million through terrorist-controlled channels to Lebanon since January 2007. Ace Auto Leasing, 5717 E. 11th
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November 27, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Joshua Waxman is a prominent Washington attorney and friend of the late Nicholas A. Marsh, the federal prosecutor who had been involved in the botched prosecution of Senator Ted Stevens. Marsh committed suicide last year during the separate Department of Justice and court-ordered probes of misconduct in the prosecution of Senator Stevens. My recent post on the New York Times story occasioned by the completion of the still-secret report on
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November 23, 2011 — Scott Johnson
I don’t think much attention has been paid to the story of the scathing report that has been submitted to the court on the government’s prosecution of the late Republican Senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens. The jury returned a judgment of conviction on multiple felony counts of failing to report gifts 8 days before the 2008 elections. Senator Stevens narrowly lost his bid for reelection to Democrat Mark Begich because
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October 1, 2011 — Scott Johnson
We have followed the saga of Obama’s Uncle Onyango since he was apprehended for drunk driving in Framingham, Massachusetts, in mid-August. Uncle Onyango had a near collision with a Framingham police car outside the Chicken Bone Saloon a block from Uncle Onyango’s Framingham home. “I think I will call the White House,” Uncle Obama said when the the arresting officer offered him his one phone call. Uncle Onyango apparently hadn’t
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September 12, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Apart from a brief online update, the New York Times has yet to report on the saga of Obama’s Uncle Onyango. Obama’s Uncle Onayngo, you may recall, was apprehended for drunk driving in Framingham, Massachusetts while his nephew was vacationing over on Martha’s Vineyard. When apprehended, he announced that he wanted to make his one call to the White House. Uncle Onyango is not big into the news. He hadn’t
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September 6, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A friend writes to comment on today’s New York Times story by Scott Shane. Shane reports that the FBI eavesdrops on the Israeli embassy; FBI contract translator Shamai Leibowitz (pictured at the left on the home page) pleaded guilty to violating the Espionage Act. The facts underlying the plea are not entirely clear. We do know that Leibowitz’s plea was based on his having leaked transcripts of intercepted conversations to
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August 30, 2011 — Scott Johnson
The saga of the extended Obama family continues to amaze. In the closing days of the 2008 campaign, we met Barack Obama’s Aunt Zeituni, the woman whom he fondly recalled from his voyage to Kenya in Dreams From My Father. (Her name is Zeituni Onyango and she is the half-sister of Barack Obama, Sr.) In the closing days of the campaign Aunt Zeituni was found, not in Kenya, but rather
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August 25, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Terry Jeffrey draws attention to Vice President Biden’s remarks at Sichuan University earlier this week in Chengdu, China. Biden’s remarks weren’t entirely terrible, but they were terribly embarrassing. They were unfocused and incoherent. If Biden were a Republican, well, we would have heard a bit more about them than we have. Among other things, Biden paid tribute to America’s economic prowess. According to Biden: “The United States is hardwired for
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August 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson
We posted Professor Joyce Malcolm’s commentary on the British riots in “Malcolm’s moment” earlier this week. A commenter going under the handle of the scotsman has posted a vehement critique of Professor Malcolm’s commentary at Free Republic. Professor Malcolm responds: The information I have written, while obviously exciting the scotsman to the point of hysteria, happens to be accurate. To take just a couple of points: When the British police
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August 18, 2011 — Scott Johnson
As I read Paul Rahe’s recent Ricochet post “Rioting for fun and profit,” it occurred to me that events in England had made this Malcolm’s moment — Malcolm as in Professor Joyce Lee Malcolm. Professor Malcolm is a historian and constitutional scholar specializing in British and colonial American history who teaches on the faculty of the George Mason University Law School. Professor Malcolm has devoted much of her scholarly career
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August 9, 2011 — John Hinderaker
The news from Great Britain has been sickening: riots and looting that began in London have gone on now for three nights, and have spread to other British cities. The riots are uncaused in any rational sense. Some observers associate them with bad economic times, but that is an act of faith. When looters make off with iPod accessories, The Wretched of the Earth, it isn’t. These aren’t race riots,
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February 9, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Four years ago Koua Fong Lee killed three Minnesotans when he rammed his 1996 Toyota Camry into the rear of another car at the Snelling Avenue exit of Interstate Highway 94 in St. Paul. Lee’s car careened into the other car somewhere between 70 and 90 miles per hour and Lee was, not unreasonably, convicted of negligent vehicular homicide. Lee’s particular Toyota model was never part of the controversy over
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