From the desk
Writing
Essays, op-eds, and mind wanderings on justice, policing, aging, the trail, and whatever else won’t leave me alone.
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An Armed Officer Is Still the Default Answer to a Crisis
When 988 Answers, but No One Can Come Rhode Island built an impressive front door for people in psychiatric crisis. Dial 988 and the call is answered in-state, around the clock, by trained counselors at BH Link, with one of…
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Investigate the Conduct, Not the Belief
“You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized.” George Orwell 1984 For twenty years I carried a badge, and for much of…
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Second Floor, Rear
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly…
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The Wise Old Trout
In a quiet bend of the river lived two trout: Old Finn, who had survived three floods, two droughts, and one summer involving a boy with a net, and young Skip, who had survived mostly on confidence. One afternoon, a…
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The Check Always Comes After the Election
By Joe Broadmeadow Investigators learn to distrust a particular kind of statement. Not the lie that collapses when you check the phone records. The dangerous one comes wrapped in a future tense. The money is coming. Call me after the…
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Borrowed Convictions
“”Why is my verse so barren of new pride,So far from variation or quick change?Why with the time do I not glance asideTo new-found methods, and to compounds strange?Why write I still all one, ever the same…”Sonnet 76, William Shakespeare…
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We Open Sourced Knowledge. Ignorance Came Along for the Ride.
I carry the Library of Alexandria in my pocket. So does everyone else. So does the guy who is convinced the moon landing happened on a soundstage in Burbank. For most of human history, knowledge sat behind gates: a university,…
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The Keeper of Echoes
The mill had been dead since 1981, yet it still made noise. Aldo Ferreira had gotten used to it the way a man gets used to his own heartbeat. Pigeons shifting in the clerestory. The river working patiently at the…
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What an $8000 Dollar Upgrade on British Air Buys You
Traveling long distance for international destinations is always a mixed physical and emotional experience. There’s the rush of anticipation for new sites, new people, new explorations. There is the tedium of check-in, the verifying, and reverifying, and one…
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What the Numbers Actually Say About Race, Police, and Lethal Violence in America
By Joe Broadmeadow — Retired Captain, East Providence Police Department I spent more than two decades in law enforcement, much of it working drug investigations, including time on FBI and DEA task forces. I’ve seen what violence does to families…
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A Beginner’s Guide to Mortal Peril: The African Safari Edition
A Practical Primer for the Willfully Optimistic It’s currently October 1st, which means we are on our way to Nairobi, Kenya. While we do plan on a return in the passenger compartment, not in a box in cargo, I thought…
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The Long Way Home
..The seasons are passing one by oneSo gather moments while you mayCollect the dreams you dream todayRemember, will you rememberThe times of your life?Gather moments while you mayCollect the dreams you dream todayRemember, will you rememberThe times of your life?Of…