As I explained in a piece for Slate last October, studies have shown both programs to be ineffective at fighting crime. Worse, there’s good evidence that they actually cause harm. While designated for community policing efforts (generally a good aim), COPS grants have actually been used by many departments to start or outfit SWAT teams, a point I explicitly made in July 2007 to Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), when I testified before the House Subcommittee on Crime he chairs. Scott seemed surprised when I told him. But apparently, it didn’t affect him enough to prevent him from restarting the program.

Byrne Grants, meanwhile, are often tied directly to drug arrests, warping police department priorities by encouraging low-level drug busts to juke up department arrest statistics . . . so they can apply for more grants. We have Byrne grants to thank for the civil rights disasters in Tulia and Hearne, Texas, and for the continuing problem of out of control multijurisdictional drug task forces.

I guess the important thing is that individual congressmen can once again send out self-congratulatory press releases announcing the big pile of pork they’ve just procured for the local police department.

Mehserle’s body language after he fires the shot to me indicates panic and confusion, not satisfaction at having just carried out a deliberate execution, as some local politicians have portrayed it. I find the explanation that Mehserle thought he he had grabbed his taser to be not only plausible, but likely.

That doesn’t mean Mehserle should get off. He’s clearly at fault. Whatever line of work he finds next, a portion of his paycheck should go to Oscar Grant’s family for the rest of Mehserle’s life. That should probably go for the people who trained him, too (though that isn’t going to happen). Moreover, Mehserle should never wear a badge again. Oscar Grant’s death will either haunt him for the rest of his life, or it won’t. In either case, it disqualifies him from being a cop. If it’s determined that there was no reason for Mehserle to draw his taser (Grant appears to be handcuffed and on his stomach in the videos), then he’s guilty of excessive force, and a manslaughter charge might be appropriate.

The police should be held to a higher standard than those of us without a badge. As Glenn Reynolds points out in the New York Post today, the courts unfortunately seem to hold them to a lower one. The doctrine of qualified immunity, which affords police officers (and other government employees) protection from negligence not afforded to those of us who don’t get a government paycheck, is another example.

That said, there seems to be a mob-fueled rush to pin a murder charge on this guy. Given the videos, it just doesn’t seem warranted to me. Speaking as a journalist who has reported on plenty of aggravating stories where bad cops got off scot-free, Mehserle shouldn’t have to suffer the accumulated anger of all of those stories. He should be charged for what he did, nothing more.

At the same time, I’d pose this question to the Mehserle defenders I’ve seen on police forums and bulletin boards: I’m sympathetic to the argument that in the heat of the moment, Mehserle inadvertently reached for the wrong weapon. But Mehserle had training. He had other cops there backing him up. If we’re going to be sympathetic to him, where’s the sympathy for people like Cory Maye or Ryan Frederick?

Why should we assume good intentions when a cop with training, wide awake and conscious, with other cops all around him makes a mistake that ends with a fatality, but assume the worst when a civilian is awoken by the sound of police breaking into his home, and in the heat of the moment, fires a gun after mistaking them for criminal intruders?

Seems to me you can’t simultaneously argue that trained police officers should be forgiven for nervous mistakes made in the heat of the moment, but ordinary people should be expected to show impeccable judgment and restraint, even under unimaginably volatile and confrontational circumstances.

“I certainly respect the Constitution, but we have some issues that are much bigger than the Constitution.”

That’s the “worst mayor in America,” Jackson, Mississippi’s Frank Melton. Guess what issue he’s talking about, then click through to see if you were right.

It’s part of a drug war symposium they’re running today. I have to say, I took perverse pleasure writing a biting drug war critique for a website founded in part by William Bennett.

I also did a Bloggingheads.tv debate on the drug war with National Review’s David Fredoso, but it doesn’t seem to be up yet. Fredoso wrote in defense of the drug war for the symposium.

MORE: Here’s my debate with Fredoso.

Nope, even though that particular officer has had several complaints filed against him, and was involved in another altercation a year earlier.

How about three DWI incidents within a one-year span, including one in which the officer ran a roadblock, then had to be tasered, pepper-sprayed, and wrestled to the ground; another in which he hit another car, then left the scene of the accident; and another in which he fell asleep in his cruiser in front of a school, while in drive, with his foot resting on the brake?

Nope. It took a fourth DWI incident to finally get him suspended.

How about an officer with an otherwise stellar record, who has a reputation in the department for honesty, but who became an outspoken critic of the war on drugs, and on one occasion declined to arrest a man after finding a single marijuana plant growing outside the man’s home?

Yep, that’ll do it.

So Quintero responded (rather awesomely) by covering the mural with a banner depicting the First Amendment. All of which sets up this beautiful line from a local news report of the dustup:

Meanwhile, the city’s legal department is looking to see what, if anything, it can do about the First Amendment banner.

Thanks to Dick Nimmons for the link.

– The GOP’s “let’s see how long we can remain in the minority” stupid fest continues, this time with RNC chair candidate Ken Blackwell telling a radio host that you can “chose to restrain” the “compulsion” of homosexuality, adding, “I’ve never had to make the choice because I’ve never had the urge to be other than a heterosexual, but if in fact I had the urge to be something else I could have in fact suppressed that urge.” Too bad for Ken he couldn’t suppress the “behave like a giant douche” compulsion.

–So I have a Middle East Peace Plan. If they agree on nothing else, Israel and Hamas should be able to come to a consensus on this: Pajamas Media’s decision to send star reporter Joe the Plumber Journalist to the Middle East has been a cynical, embarrassing train wreck. If this is what “new media” is all about, I’ll take mine old and crusty, thanks.

– Delaware’s new governor plans to thumb his nose at the feds, and open the state up to sports bookmaking. I’m not much into wagering on sports, but this is great news, both because any lessening of prohibitions on consensual crimes is a good thing, but also because it will mightily piss of the professional sports leagues. They deserve all the angst they can handle for supporting the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act.

–In a last-minute diktat, the DEA has upheld the federal government’s monopoly on marijuana available for clinical research, despite a non-binding ruling by an administrative law judge in February 2007 advising otherwise. All research marijuana comes from one site in Mississippi, a site researchers and activists say produces crappy marijuana. More importantly, the monopoly lets the government dictate what marijuana research moves forward. That then enables the government to issue blanket statements like this one, alleging that there’s no credible research showing marijuana to have medicinal properties. That’s really not true. But even if it were, it’s because the government puts the kibosh on the most promising domestic research before it ever gets started.

– Slate’s Top 25 Bushisms from the last eight-plus years. I like 4, 15, 16, and 17. And I like 1, 13, 22, and 25 because in misspeaking, Bush actually ends up uttering some approximation of the truth.

When Walter Sharpe received the certified letter on Feb. 6, 2001, he knew the complaint for child support was a mistake.

Andre Sharpe had a different date of birth, a different Social Security number and different previous addresses.

Andre Sharpe also had an 11-year-old daughter with a woman in
Harrisburg, and Walter Sharpe knew he had been to Harrisburg only once,
to register a car. He also knew he hadn’t fathered a child to a woman
named Terri Jones on that trip.

So he ignored it.

Big mistake.

A
court entered a default judgment against Sharpe, and for the next six
years, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania hounded former trash collector to
collect child support for the girl. He lost his job, paid more than
$12,000 in support and fines, became estranged from his family (he has
four kids of his own), and was jailed four times for failing to make
payments. The county denied his repeated requests for a DNA paternity
test (and were backed up by the courts), arguing that its domestic
relations officials had sufficiently confirmed paternity “after
reasonable investigation.”

Walter Sharpe’s attorney alleges that
when he appeared in person with personal information proving he
couldn’t be the father, county officials merely changed the
biographical information on the custody forms to match Walter Sharpe’s.

After looking into Sharpe’s story, the Patriot-News newspaper
was able to determine the child’s real father, Andrew Sharpe, in less
than an hour. That’s because the girl has been living with him for the
last four years. The girl’s grandmother (who had custody for a time)
says the real father has supported the girl the entire time. The
article isn’t clear on where Walter Sharpe’s support payments have
gone.

In May 2007, a judge finally ruled that Walter Sharpe
isn’t the girl’s father.  But last October the same judge refused to
reimburse Walter Sharpe for any of his past payments, much less all the
damage done to him by the mistake. The county’s arguments are
incredible:

In court papers, the office stated it
repeatedly advised Walter Sharpe to file a “petition to disestablish
paternity” and he failed to do so for three years, so he is at fault.

It still claims he can’t prove he is not the father because there are
no DNA tests to show that, despite the fact the agency repeatedly
opposed his requests for DNA testing.

“Furthermore, [the
Department of Public Welfare] has experienced grave injustice as a
result of [Walter Sharpe's] failure to address this matter in a timely
fashion,” a joint answer filed by Domestic Relations and the state
Department of Public Welfare states.

The agency claims that
because of Walter Sharpe’s delay in challenging paternity, it is unable
to recoup support payments from the real father.

“As a result of [Walter Sharpe's] delayed actions in this matter, DPW is forced to suffer unfair and irreversible injury.”

I
don’t know if the office is correct about Sharpe failing to file a
petition to disestablish paternity, but the court papers do seem to
show the office really has no idea what’s going on with the girl, given
that she has been getting support her biological father all
along, including him actually raising her for a good portion of her
life. Meanwhile, Sharpe’s own kids not only weren’t getting the money
Sharpe was spending on wrongful payments and legal fees, the mess made
it fairly difficult for him to be an actual father for them, too.

Matt Welch wrote about this problem
for Reason back February 2004. Welfare reform laws require mothers to
name a father in order to get benefits.  State bureaucracies then hound
whomever the woman names for child support.  The problem is that
there’s little incentive for the agencies to get paternity right. Miss
that first chance to challenge–even through no fault of your own–and
prepare for years of hell trying to get your life back in order.

Related: A Canadian court ruled
last week that a Toronto man must keep making child support payments to
his ex-wife despite her admitting that her 16-year-old twins aren’t
his.