Legal Commentary

Friday Night Open Thread

By Jeralyn

Has anyone noticed Comcast just added dozens of new HD channels, including, finally, news channels like CNN, Fox and MSNBC? Also lots of the smaller cable channels. Mine went live yesterday, and they didn't even announce it, they just showed up in my channel guide. I feel a little bit better now about how much I pay them. A very welcome change.

Another good move by New York Governor David Paterson today: He signed a law preventing cops from storing information gained from their notorious "stop and frisks" when no charges are filed.

Last year alone, the New York Police Department stopped 575,304 people, mostly black and Hispanic men, and recorded their names, addresses and descriptions into an electronic database. The stops are based on a standard of reasonable suspicion, lower than the standard of probable cause needed to justify an arrest. Only about 6 percent of those stopped are arrested.

For those of you indoors and online tonight, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 17, 2010 (boomark / email).