is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.

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More updates.

Day Three. Epilated leg still looks hairless but doesn't feel totally smooth. That's the thing. Epilating does not produce a smooth leg, shaving does. However, day three, shaved leg, well, it needs shaving again. Normally I would have shaved it, but I left it stubbly for the sake of SCIENCE.

Other update: I still don't know what was up with the hover-copter over my building. However, there has been increased police presence in general in my neighborhood recently, including one of those elevated police booths (it's a little booth on top of a crane type thing that sometimes ends up parked on Franklin Ave. I guess it allows a policeperson to get a birds-eye view of the territory and/or peek into people's windows?) so maybe there is a crackdown on drug activity? There is an area on Franklin Avenue where it seems pretty obvious that a person could buy drugs if a person wanted to. That area is right where the crane gets parked.

Or it could just be that my neighborhood has been targeted by the police department. That targeting may or may not have to do with an increase in crime in the neighborhood. I've heard and seen nothing about an increase in crime. And it is a known practice of many urban police departments of focusing on certain neighborhoods. That creates a vicious circle: the neighborhood gets to be known as a "bad" neighborhood because so many arrests happen there. But the increased arrests happen because the neighborhood has been targeted. And it is always a neighborhood where the population is predominantly dark-skinned. So who knows. Either there has been an increase in illegal activity and the police department is responding to that activity. Or the police department targeted the neighborhood to get its arrest numbers up, concentrating on residents with the least economic and political power. Maybe someone decided that there aren't enough black men in jail in New York City.

It's wrong to think that all New York City cops or police policies are bad, of course. I can't imagine how rough it must be to be a cop in NYC. When I was teaching judicial and correctional ethics at JJ, I had a conversation with a NY cop, one of my students, who was heartbroken (or at the very least ethically disturbed) at the practice of targeting neighborhoods. He grew up in one of those neighborhoods. But I also had a lot of students--cops, cadets, and civilians--who think that anything the NY police force does to get drug-related crime off the streets is worth doing. I see both sides of the issue.

It seems to me that the issue has to be given some more sides before anything can change. Either/or choices tend to produce polarizing disagreement because of the starkness of the yes/no option. Anyone for decriminalizing lower-rung drug-related offenses? Substituting treatment for punishment? There are problems no matter what route you choose. But also potential new solutions.

It's not like choosing between shaving and epilating.

1:29 p.m. - July 24, 2009

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