Jacob Sullum in Time: Why the Sandy Hook 911 Recordings Matter

Chicago Tribune

Today the city of Newtown, Connecticut, finally released recordings of the 911 calls police received during the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Deccember 2012. In a Time essay, Senior Editor Jacob Sullum argues that such primary materials can help people assess police and legislative responses to highly publicized crimes.

Read the article.

Comments

[Almanian!]

Yeah, I'd LIKE to donate to Reason again. But I'm still waiting for the completion of my magazine profile by Lucy Steigerwald....

Ohhhh, that's RIGHT. That's never going to happen now, is it? Nice bait and switch, REASON. If that's your REAL name...

So s'up with the dead kids again?

[AlmightyJB]

Sweet Lucy was a dancer
But none of us would chance her
Because she was a Samurai
She made electric shadows
Beyond our fingertips
And none of us could reach that high

[JuliaSimpson63]

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COPY LINK TO YOUR BROWSER

[Irish]

Dean of Undergraduate Education admits that the median grade at Harvard is A- and the most frequently awarded grade is an 'A.'

[Austrian Anarchy]

So calling a Harvard professor "The Fonz" is not totally out of line.

[Heroic Mulatto]

Shut your mouth! The Fonz is a Yalie

[Austrian Anarchy]

You say that as if they are different.

[Francisco d Anconia]

The Fonz is a Rutgers man.

[Almanian!]

Sit on it! Eyyyyyyyyyy!

[Francisco d Anconia]

Libertaaaaayyyyyeeee!

[SweatingGin]

I award you the worst possible grade!

A-minus-minus!

[MJGreen]

Penmanship counts.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

B students don't make it to Harvard.

[Winston]

So how do Postrel and Gillespie explain this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMecO38MZCc

Or that North Korea under the Kims have introduced TV and the internet?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

oh, nevermind this

The Associated Press @AP
BREAKING: Mexican nuclear official say stolen container of radioactive material found empty.

[Winston]

Isn't the plot of every spyish show on US TV right now?

[Ted S.]

It was done 54 years ago.

Ooh, and it's gotten a DVD release too!

[Winston]

Let me guess Pickup on South Street?...Er wait no it isn't?

[Austrian Anarchy]

LL Cool J will find it by the end of the week.

[Winston]

I prefer Ice-T. I mean he is Cool as Ice.

[Ted S.]

I mean he is Cool as Ice.

He's willing to sacrifice your love?

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Rob Ford tops Rob Ford

New bombshells from police documents suggest Rob Ford may have tried heroin, been blackmailed

[Austrian Anarchy]

What in the world could he be blackmailed for that matters to anybody? The launch code for his full-flow crapper?

[Paul.]

He needs to write a tell-all... should be called "Rob on Rob".

I'd buy that book. I wouldn't read it, I just want it on my bookshelf.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

Anyone catch this video that's been blowing up my Facebook news feed?

It's called 'How the Media Failed Women in 2013' and while certainly many of the things listed are objectionable, a lot of them are also pretty petty and silly.

[Heroic Mulatto]

That was nothing more than the po-faced look of stern disapproval from a decrepit harridan as she clutches her pearls digitized into a video montage.

I made it until about 1:14.

[General Butt Naked]

The making of that video probably ate up a lot of valuable sandwich making time.

For shame.

[Francisco d Anconia]

Why do these people believe that if a woman acts or dresses provocatively, it is somehow demeaning? Do they REALLY think men should not be attracted to beautiful women? And just because I think you're sexy, doesn't mean I can't also admire you for other qualities.

I think someone has a complex and needs to become more secure with themselves.

[Winston]

Why do these people believe that if a woman acts or dresses provocatively, it is somehow demeaning?

Wait, didn't the people who used to think that mocked as fuddy duddy reactionary prudes?

Does that mean long skirts and corsets will make a comeback?

[Sevo]

"Do they REALLY think men should not be attracted to beautiful women?"

I was looking at the LA car show pics last week and some had booth babes.
Once I got over the distraction, it seemed quite logical that men would be attracted to young, healthy looking women showing a bit of skin
BECAUSE THAT'S HOW THE HUMAN RACE BRED AND SURVIVED, YOU NINCOMPOOP! (not you; them)

[Winston]

Homophobe! But then again isn't male homosexuality misogynistic and stealing from Society since it produces no social benefit?

[Francisco d Anconia]

produces no social benefit?

Are you referring to screaming poop machines?

Mark me down as a heterosexual stealing from society.

[Winston]

Proper Term is Breeder. /Tony

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

screaming poop machines?

crotchfruit.

[Sevo]

Precious snowflake!

[Redmanfms]

Fuck trophy.

[Agammamon]

Its misogynistic because its basic premis is that women aren't *needed* for sex.

[General Butt Naked]

HuffPo attempts to totally, like gross us out and stuff with uber-gross, psedoscientific "facts" about the fast food industry. One citation is a comment from a reddit thread.

My question is: How are we gonna pay fast food workers fifteen bucks an hour after you've scared all the customers off?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Wendy's claims their chili has an "award-winning taste." Maybe that's because it has silicon dioxide in it. Also known as silica, silicon dioxide can be found in quartz or sand. It also serves as an "anti-caking agent," allowing the chili to stay looking fresh.

OMG!! Did you know if you don't thoroughly wash shellfish you might ingest some of that silicon dioxide? I blame Monsanto for poisoning our oceans with that crap! They also, thanks to BIG PHARMA, put that stuff in TOOTHPASTE!!!! Even Tom's of Maine has it!!!!

[Sevo]

Anyone reading that with an ounce of sense should see that it's quite amazing what uses food products satisfy outside of just food.
BTW, did you know the stuff that comes out of your bathroom faucet is the SAME STUFF THEY USE TO COOL NUCLEAR PLANTS???!!!

[Winston]

Did you know the stuff that comes out of your wall sockets is the SAME STUFF USED TO POWER NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS AND TO EXECUTE CRIMINALS? AND THAT PEOPLE DIE EVERY DAY BECAUSE OF IT?

[Almanian!]

Did you know that the stuff that comes out of your nostrils is THE SAME STUFF RESPONSIBLE FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE WARMING CHANGE GEDDON TOTALLY BURNING UP THE PLANET??!!!!11!

[Winston]

Did you know that CANCER PATIENTS ARE TREATED WITH DEADLY CHEMICALS AND THE SAME THINGS USED IN NUCLEAR BOMBS AND POWER PLANTS?

INFACT HOSPITALS USE THE SAME MATERIAL USED TO MAKE DIRTY BOMBS!

[Sevo]

Long ago, there was a commenter on the Chron web site who was one of the few who had some knowledge and concept of logic. S/he had some med background and was always there for med-scare threads; anti-vax, etc.
One thread had to do with chemikulz and food, and it went on for a while with various horror stories of chemikulz found wherever, and this guy kept at it until he suckered one ludite into posting what his heart-meds were.
Yep, rat poison.

[Winston]

Of course penicillin is from a fungus. Botox is from botulism. And insulin can be produced from E. Coli!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

And here I thought liberals were the rational ones with science and facts on their side!

[Agammamon]

Boogers are responsible for global warming?

[Winston]

Will Jacques run for California governor on this platform? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.....a_movement

[Winston]

the acorn from which evolved the tree of whatever liberalism we have in California

Worked out well now didn't it?

[Sevo]

From the link:
"While the controversy has been cleared up and we now know that Taco Bell is serving meat, there's something weird about the fact that it gets delivered in plastic-wrapped sheets."

Yeah, weird that food is packaged in something other than an organic gym-shoe, I guess.
I hope whoever wrote that chokes on a road-apple in his/her locavore egg-plant.

[General Butt Naked]

I thought the "OMG the meatz in teh PLASTIC!!" was strange as well.

Have they never bought ground beef at the store? Or was it because it was flat? I'd think that being flat would make it faster to freeze/thaw, thereby saving energy.

[Almanian!]

I, for one, welcome the time when all restaurants are Taco Bell.

[Winston]

So you prefer a world of Rob Schneider and Denis Leary?

[MJGreen]

Schneider wasn't there. That was the massively inferior Judge Dredd, you ingrate!

[So Conz Esq.]

you fool! he was in both.

[Francisco d Anconia]

And we remove excess shit from our anuses with three seashells.

[Winston]

Not environmentally friendly.

[SweatingGin]

John Spartan, you are fined five credits for repeated violations of the verbal morality statute.

[RishJoMo]

I dont see what the big deal is, Its over, move on already!

http://www.true-anon.tk

[Winston]

Need Moar Ranting about KKKorporate greed.

[Winston]

And bean footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X1SuLjnRcI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEhtsgu6bJg

[RannedPall]

Just keep it rolling baby!

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

7 things NEVER TO DISCUSS

[General Butt Naked]

Is there anything worse than hearing some twat prattle on about their dreams?

Christ, fuck, it sux.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I wish I had the guts to tell a talkative chick who annoys the crap out of me I fucked her in my dreams.

I should add it's my wife's friend.

[Sevo]

Don't DO it! The humor will never be appreciated.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I know.

I amuse myself in my mind only.

If only they knew...

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Humor? Er, right. "Humor."

/puts head down.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

Senior Citizens busting a move

[Winston]

So where's Nick?

[Almanian!]

OK, I vote this "Best Thread EVAR". So far.

Every post OT. I think that's a record...

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

It's so beautiful!
*weeping*

[Almanian!]

Yes. I had to give a stern tongue lashing to the brute downthread who ruined it.

The scoundrel!

[Francisco d Anconia]

I had to go back to the top and check what the story was. Then I literally loled!

[Rufus J. Firefly]

"This shouldn't be an ideological question. You know, it was Adam Smith, the father of free-market economics, who once said, they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people should have such a share of the produce of their own labor as to be themselves, to be well-fed, clothed and lodged," he continued. "For those of you who don't speak old English, let me translate: It means if you work hard, you should make a decent living."

So. Now this piece of work is claiming to be classical liberal like Palin?

[Almanian!]

"You know, it was Adam Ant who said, 'Don't drink, don't smoke. What do you do? I don't drink, don't smoke. What do you do? Sudden innuendo follows. Must be something inside.'"

[Sevo]

RJF,
Is that from some Min Wage rant?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes, it is. At the Center for American - get this - Progress!

Old English. Classic.

[Winston]

So when will Obama come out with a new translation of Beowulf?

[Sevo]

Once he gets someone on staff to read the damn thing and load it into the teleprompter.

[Winston]

And to ghostwrite it.

[Winston]

For a super-smart guy shouldn't he know that Old English was used in pre-Norman times and that Adam Smith wrote Modern English?

[Francisco d Anconia]

Modern English?

[cavalier973]

What if one works hard beating orphan children and slapping defenseless in the face? Does such a one deserve to make a decent living?

[Sevo]

Dunno, but if you get really good at digging holes, maybe you get to eat the dirt.

[cavalier973]

If you join the Union of World Hole Openers and Refillers for Equitable Sustenance, then you might get an extra portion of dirt.

[AlmightyJB]

"What if one works hard beating orphan children"

Send me your resume

[cavalier973]

Here.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I'm so sick of guys like Obama make a false claim that everyone works just as hard as the next person.

[Sevo]

Absolutely true! I do not, never have, never will, never hope to work as hard as those kids digging up the leaking sewer line across the street.

[cavalier973]

Adam Smith was good on some things (like trade), but he wasn't quite so good on others (like his "labor theory of value")

Here's the section from which the Prez quotes: http://geolib.com/smith.adam/won1-08.html

[cavalier973]

When the landlord, annuitant, or monied man, has a greater revenue than what he judges sufficient to maintain his own family, he employs either the whole or a part of the surplus in maintaining one or more menial servants. Increase this surplus, and he will naturally increase the number of those servants.

[20] When an independent workman, such as a weaver or shoemaker, has got more stock than what is sufficient to purchase the materials of his own work, and to maintain himself till he can dispose of it, he naturally employs one or more journeymen with the surplus, in order to make a profit by their work. Increase this surplus, and he will naturally increase the number of his journeymen.

[21] The demand for those who live by wages, therefore, necessarily increases with the increase of the revenue and stock of every country, and cannot possibly increase without it. The increase of revenue and stock is the increase of national wealth. The demand for those who live by wages, therefore, naturally increases with the increase of national wealth, and cannot possibly increase without it.

[cavalier973]

It seems that Adam Smith is arguing for "trickle-down economics".

[cavalier973]

And child labor!!

In the British colonies in North America, it has been found that they [the population] double in twenty or five-and-twenty years. Nor in the present times is this increase principally owing to the continual importation of new inhabitants, but to the great multiplication of the species. Those who live to old age, it is said, frequently see there from fifty to a hundred, and sometimes many more, descendants from their own body. Labour is there so well rewarded that a numerous family of children, instead of being a burthen, is a source of opulence and prosperity to the parents. The labour of each child, before it can leave their house, is computed to be worth a hundred pounds clear gain to them. A young widow with four or five young children, who, among the middling or inferior ranks of people in Europe, would have so little chance for a second husband, is there frequently courted as a sort of fortune. The value of children is the greatest of all encouragements to marriage. We cannot, therefore, wonder that the people in North America should generally marry very young. Notwithstanding the great increase occasioned by such early marriages, there is a continual complaint of the scarcity of hands in North America. The demand for labourers, the funds destined for maintaining them, increase, it seems, still faster than they can find labourers to employ.

[AlmightyJB]

Actually if you work hard you probably will make a decent living unless your an idiot.

[General Butt Naked]

So. Now this piece of work is claiming to be classical liberal like Palin?

No? Yes?

I really don't know what you want here.

[Winston]

I'm not sure if he is referring to Sarah Palin here or to Shriek? I'd assume the latter....

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Yes, the latter. Shriek claims to be a classical liberal.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

They both claim something they're not.

[AlmightyJB]

"help people assess police and legislative responses to highly publicized crimes"

What's to access. They always overreact and doubledown on whatever hasn't worked in the past.

[Archduke von Pantsfan]

scientists have figured out how to infect any computer even though they're not connected to anything. How? Sound.

Using nothing more than the built-in microphones and speakers of standard computers, the researchers were able to transmit passwords and other small amounts of data from distances of almost 65 feet. The software can transfer data at much greater distances by employing an acoustical mesh network made up of attacker-controlled devices that repeat the audio signals.

[Sevo]

It is obvious to any observer that the fed gov't is not wasting nearly enough taxpayer money. In order to rectify that sad condition, "President Barack Obama is ordering the federal government to nearly triple to 20 percent its use of renewable sources for electricity by 2020."
Yes, folks, we need to KILL MORE BIRDS!
http://www.sfgate.com/news/sci.....035982.php
Or your fave AP reseller.

[Winston]

Yes, folks, we need to KILL MORE BIRDS!

Learning the best like his hero Mao.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

America's economic policy seems to be "spend and waste to save for the future!"

[Winston]

I suppose the pundits will be busy ridiculing King Zero for thinking that Adam Smith wrote in Old English? Right? Right?

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Nope. What they WILL do is chastise those for taking it literally when all he meant was "old" as in Smith was an old guy speaking an old language.

[Winston]

No wonder the guy who said "The Constitution is so Old!" is a fan of Obama.

[Sevo]

The Chron will find an edi-cartoonist drawing an elephant asking what old English is, ignoring the foo-pah to begin with.

[Floridian]

Anybody here use kratom? If so what is a good brand and best way to take it? Just curious because there was some pants wetting article about on fox and now I want to try it.

[General Butt Naked]

Maeng Da is a potent variety. Find a reputable dealer online by googling, I use mu synergetics (they have great customer service and prices).

Don't buy "enhanced blends" or extracts, they're not worth the extra cash.

I take it by mixing it with OJ and gulping down. For your fist time I'd try 2 teaspoons.

[Floridian]

Thanks!

[Winston]

Oh the Obama speech brings me back to the days of 2008 when some libertarians thought he was going to bring sanity back to government after 8 years of BOOOOSH. Good times.

[Sevo]

Nothing good will come of this. All prices should be the same all the time since that's what those icky free-market people claim, right? I mean that's what my frat brother told me!
"'Convoluted' hospital pricing under scrutiny"
"Making the front page of the New York Times can be a cause for congratulation. Not so, unfortunately, for California Pacific Medical Center."
Yes, the NYT unleashes gallons or ink wasted on stupid words once more.
http://www.sfgate.com/business.....032279.php

[cavalier973]

From the comments:

"I'm generally a free market conservative, but a key health care reform needs to be a law that requires that everyone (insurance companies, medicaid, medicare, private individuals, saudi sheiks, etc..) be charged the same price, or at least constrained within a small range that allows for justifiable slight differences (i.e. if it is more or less cost efficient administratively to bill an insurance company than a person). Moreover, rates need to be made publicly available."

[cavalier973]

Sorry, Bub; you're not even "generally" a free market conservative.

You are generally an ignorant soul not fit for rational discourse.

[cavalier973]

Health care is unique in that it can be life threatening and in some cases urgent, which makes normal mechanisms of the free market (ability to shop for the best price, etc..) not function as well.

What does this even mean?

The "ability to shop for the best price" ceases to be an option in life-threatening circumstances? That's what insurance is for. That is, you "shop for the best price" before you get to the life-threatening situation. As for non-life-threatening medical services, they can be researched to find the best provider for a price one is willing and able to pay.

The failings in the health care financing system that we now have is wholly due to government intervention.

[Dave Krueger]

It really pisses me off how people are arguing (on CNN for example) that the tapes should not have been released because children can get access to them via the internet. This mentality that the world should be purged of anything (that might be) harmful to children is becoming so pervasive, and yet it is so idiotic on its face, that it is downright scary.

The second argument they were advancing is that, while the mainstream news outlets (like CNN) were responsible enough to take care in how the tapes were edited, letting everyone have them was reckless. I have now heard this perspective often enough to see that "responsible" mainstream news outlets will eventually be recognized as legitimate while freelance news outlets will be regulated and restricted.

Personally, I think CNN has degenerated into an entertainment network where sensationalism completely trumps accuracy and rationality. In terms of sleazy policies, it now ranks right up there with Fox and MSNBC.

[MJGreen]

You'd think adults would understand better than anyone: They'll get over it.

[AlmightyJB]

The Disneyfication of America has been going on for a long time. How about instead of making everything kid friendly, people just watch their fucking kids.

[Almanian!]

...aaaaaaaaaaaaand way to kill the perfection.

It was...perfect...while it lasted.

[cavalier973]

It's Mary*; what did you expect?

*I have it on good authority--i.e., someone claimed it was Mary in another thread.