The worst thing about this tale of a Sri Lankan maid’s suffering at the hands of her Saudi Arabian employers is that it’s completely unsurprising. Though the torture the woman endured is notable for its brutality, such abuse is evidently commonplace in Saudi Arabia—to the point that foreign workers are taught to expect beatings: The [...]
Entries Tagged as 'crime'
Off the Books
August 26th, 2010 · 4 Comments
Tags:crime·immigration·law·Philippines·politics·Saudi Arabia·Sri Lanka
Risk and Reward on the Gulf of Aden
August 4th, 2010 · 3 Comments
If you haven’t yet checked out the Financial Times much-discussed breakdown on the economics of Somali piracy, do yourself a favor and allocate a few minutes’ worth of reading time. The piece won my heart by using buccaneer salary estimates to convey some perspective on how the notion of “dangerous work” differs so sharply between [...]
Ring the Alarm
July 28th, 2010 · No Comments
A Wired deadline just snuck up on me, so off to hit the keyboard. In my brief absence, please check out this excellent history of Tenor Saw, the dancehall legend who never made it to his 23rd birthday. The singer’s violent demise remains one of music’s great unsolved mysteries: It shouldn’t have come as a [...]
Ice Van Wyck
July 9th, 2010 · 7 Comments
At the end of Wednesday’s post about one of the least heralded pioneers of refrigeration, we noted that the “ice lobby” had been instrumental in frustrating John Gorrie’s dreams of freezing water via mechanical means. This notion struck us as rather humorous since we can scarcely think of a less valuable commodity these days than [...]
Tags:Charles W. Morse·crime·economics·Ice Trust·New York City·politics·pseudoscience
It’s a Family Affair
July 8th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Yesterday’s arrest of a suspect in the long-running “Grim Sleeper” killings was made possible by familial DNA searching—in a nutshell, the suspect’s genetic material wasn’t in California’s database, but a family member’s was. A paper from earlier this year explains how the Golden State decides when such a search is enough to warrant further investigation: [...]
Tags:California·crime·DNA·Grim Sleeper·law
Twilight of the Encounter Specialists?
July 6th, 2010 · 5 Comments
The man to the right is Pradeep Sharma, once renowned as one of Mumbai’s top “encounter specialists”—that is, a cop whose not-so-secret mission is to assassinate underworld figures. Though these killings are said to take place during chases or confrontations gone awry, the Indian public knows full well that they are usually the product of [...]
The Fugitive Bake-Off
June 29th, 2010 · No Comments
One of our favorite cop-show cliches is the one about the streetwise detective who’s consigned to desk duty after committing some grievous procedural sin. The implication is that doing paperwork is significantly less useful than pounding the pavement, not to mention less manly. “Pencil pusher,” after all, is invariably an insult, is it not? In [...]
Tags:crime·FBI·Joe Luis Saenz
Grand Illusion?
June 28th, 2010 · No Comments
In response to a rash of homicides, the bedraggled city of Chester, Penn., has instituted an unusually harsh curfew, which mandates that everyone be off the streets of certain crime-plagued neighborhoods by 9 p.m. A noble effort to reduce violence, perhaps, but the evidence doesn’t bear out the crime-prevention strategy. Just ask the good citizens [...]
Tags:crime·curfews·Pennsylvania·Scotland
The Risk of the Chase
June 23rd, 2010 · No Comments
Those of you who follow Microkhan’s microblog know that the situation near headquarters was beyond hectic yesterday—not just because we had the kid on our hands, but also due to our physical proximity to a senseless tragedy. A police pursuit of two robbery suspects ended with a massive collision about 50 feet from our front [...]
High-Stakes Capture the Flag
June 16th, 2010 · 6 Comments
If you’ve ever been curious about the day-to-day operations of outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMGs), the recent federal racketeering indictment against the Outlaws is an absolute goldmine. The lengthy document lays out exactly how a multi-chapter “one percenter” organization generates revenue, enforces discipline, and has a raucous (albeit morally objectionable) good time. What struck us most, [...]
What Sand and Cocaine Have in Common
June 10th, 2010 · 3 Comments
Despite a government ban, Cambodian dredgers are once again raking the floor of the Koh Pao River in search of vast quantities of sand. The risk of running afoul of the authorities is apparently far outweighed by the riches to be gained from exporting sand to Singapore, which desperately needs the granular commodity to expand [...]
Tags:Cambodia·crime·economics·Indonesia·sand·Singapore·smuggling·trade·War on Drugs
Jamaica’s Crossroads
May 26th, 2010 · 1 Comment
As the violence continues in Kingston, let’s pause to consider the scope of Jamaica’s problems. By any measure, the nation should have long ago started working its way toward the middle of the development tables. Think about how much the place has going for it: lots of bauxite, fertile soil, an English-speaking populace, a thriving [...]
Tags:Christopher Coke·corruption·crime·economics·Jamaica·politics
Where the Sharks Swim
May 25th, 2010 · 4 Comments
In the latest account of NBA big man Eddy Curry’s never-ending money woes, this passage jumped out at us: On Friday, a Manhattan court ordered Curry to pay $75,000 a month to lender Allstar Capital Inc. to resolve a debt that swelled to $1.2 million with interest. The court also has issued an order letting [...]
Tags:basketball·crime·economics·Eddy Curry·loan sharking·Nevada·sports
St. Helena Off Santa Barbara
May 24th, 2010 · 3 Comments
The politics in our native state never cease to entertain, especially when the gubernatorial elections roll around. Who could forget, for example, the ill-fated candidacy of Gary Coleman? This year’s contest seems similarly likely to offer its share of oddities, starting with reactionary Douglas Hughes. Though he has positions on all the major topics of [...]
Tags:California·crime·exile·law·politics
The Provider
May 24th, 2010 · 5 Comments
America’s long-running (and endlessly futile) War on Drugs is on the verge of claiming another casualty: the government of Jamaica. The Caribbean nation’s capital is partly in flames today, as residents of Tivoli Gardens battle police with fire bombs and heavy weaponry. The reason for the bloodshed is the government’s call for the surrender of [...]
Tags:Christopher Coke·corruption·crime·economics·IMF·Jamaica·poverty·War on Drugs
Thugged Out
May 6th, 2010 · 2 Comments
A treasured Friend o’ Microkhan recently directed us toward this insightful yet depressing Foreign Policy piece, about the seemingly endless nature of Africa’s various armed conflicts. The author makes a convincing case that we do ourselves a disservice by trying to understand these ultra-violent clashes as wars, since one side usually has no interest in [...]
Tags:Africa·British Empire·crime·Foreign Policy·India·thuggee
The McGruff of an Earlier Age
April 19th, 2010 · No Comments
The always excellent Early American Crime just wrapped up a multi-part series on Levi Ames, a Massachusetts burglar who was hanged in 1773. Ames’ story survives in large part because of his last words, delivered on the gallows and commemorated in an illustrated pamphlet bearing the ridiculously non-concise name An address to the inhabitants of [...]
Tags:burglary·crime·Massachusetts·McGruff the Crime Dog·U.S. history
A Price on the Priceless
April 16th, 2010 · 1 Comment
Our hearts got out to Roy Glauber, a Nobel Laureate physicist who was recently victimized by an extremely dumb burglar. (Note to aspiring master criminals: Don’t leave your food-stamp cards at the scene.) Though the local cops have nabbed the crook, they’ve so far been unable to locate Glauber’s Nobel gold medal, which he received [...]
Tags:commodities·crime·gold·Massachusetts·Nobel Prize·Roy Glauber
Fake Can Be Just as Good?
April 15th, 2010 · No Comments
With the start of the World Cup less than two months away, South African cops are working hard to stem the tide of counterfeit jerseys: A Swazi man was on Saturday night arrested at the Oshoek Border gate after allegedly being found with 12,000 fake World Cup soccer shirts worth E3.6million. SAPS spokesman Colonel Vishnu [...]
Tags:counterfeiting·crime·economics·soccer·South Africa·World Cup
Your Tax Dollars at Work
April 12th, 2010 · 2 Comments
What initially struck us about the downfall of Kentucky fireworks dealer Sam Droganes was the Greek-tragedy element to the tale. To hear Droganes tell it, this was a classic tale of hubris gone amok—the man desperately wanted to be the biggest fireworks tycoon in the Bluegrass State, and that ambition led him to make some [...]
Let It Grow
March 1st, 2010 · No Comments
Whenever we find ourselves wandering around a massive Chinese supermarket, we inevitably gawk at the price of dried abalone. The delicacy has never crossed our lips thanks to its exorbitant cost. But millions of Asian consumers are willing to fork over the pretty penny, in part due to the marine snail’s reputation as an aphrodisiac. [...]
Tags:abalone·China·crime·drugs·economics·methamphetamine·South Africa·wildlife management
A Taxidermist’s Best Friend
February 26th, 2010 · 8 Comments
Nearly a year ago, we marveled at the way in which ancient physicians used ant jaws as sutures. Blame our childhood Flintstones habit, but we have a soft spot for techniques that require the assistance of live animals. And so imagine our glee upon discovering the role that dermestid beetles play in the twin disciplines [...]
Tags:crime·dermestid beetles·insects·paleontology·taxidermy·tigers·wildlife management
Fake It ‘Til You Make It
February 9th, 2010 · 4 Comments
Nations at odds have long resorted to counterfeiting one another’s currencies, on the theory that doing so can severely undermine a foe’s economy. But the tactic just doesn’t sting like it used to, in part because cash is so less essential today, but also because the increasing sophistication of anti-counterfeiting technology has made the gambit [...]
Tags:Alabama·counterfeiting·crime·economics·Iran·North Korea
Anatomy of a Hoax
January 28th, 2010 · No Comments
A great piece out of small-town South Carolina on an alleged attempted murder that turned out to be nothing of the sort. The “victim,” Pearl Brown, wasn’t very detailed oriented, and that was ultimately her undoing. She probably should have researched the link between head trauma and amnesia a bit more, a line of inquiry [...]
Tags:amnesia·crime·fur-bearing trout·hoaxes·psychology·South Carolina
In Defense of Hitchhiking
January 25th, 2010 · 2 Comments
It’s not often that we read a piece as boldly contrarian as this letter to the editor from the pages of The Bellingham Herald. The correspondent comes out hard in favor of a practice that’s likely to get you arrested if you don’t take care: hitchhiking: As a person who has traveled thousands of miles [...]
Tags:cars·crime·hitchhiking·Rutger Hauer·sociology·The Hitcher·urban legends
Pants Are the Enemy of Freedom
January 12th, 2010 · 6 Comments
For reasons too drab to mention, we recently stumbled across this sordid 1982 tale about a self-described “mountain man” who turned murderous. We were struck not so much by the brutality of Henry Burton Merrill’s crimes, but rather by the media’s insistence on referring to him as a “hermit.” And that got us thinking, naturally, [...]
Tags:California·crime·divorce·eremitism·Herman the Hermit·Los Angeles·religion
The Land of Ersatz Arthropods
January 11th, 2010 · 3 Comments
Atop one of our record shelves sits a fossilized trilobite, given to us by a dear friend of the Grand Empress. We’ve long cherished the gift, but as we went about some cleaning chores while catching yesterday’s Ravens-Patriots tilt, a troubling thought entered our consciousness while giving the arthropod a shine: how do we know [...]
Tags:arthropods·crime·fossils·fraud·Heinrich Harder·Morocco·trilobites
A Bitter Price Tag
January 7th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Last night while cooking dinner, we decided to rev up a documentary that’s been languishing on our Netflix Instant queue for ages: Witch Hunt. Suffice to say that we weren’t anywhere near prepared for the ensuing 90 minutes, in which the filmmakers unwind a completely devastating J’accuse regarding the Kern County child-abuse panic of the [...]
Tags:California·crime·economics·John Stoll·law·movies·South Korea·Witch Hunt
What Young Men Still Do
December 30th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Headhunting of the literal sort figures quite prominently in Now the Hell Will Start, our 386-page labor o’ love. We dedicated an entire chapter to the practice, and thus field frequent questions from readers regarding whether or not the tribal inhabitants of North-East India and northwest Burma still take skulls. Our stock answer is that [...]
Tags:anthropology·Assam·Borneo·crime·Dayaks·headhunting·India·Indonesia·journalism·Madurese
Gravity Denied
December 28th, 2009 · 6 Comments
Growing up in Los Angeles, we were annually subjected to a series of PSAs cautioning against celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve. In fact, we distinctly remember a police officer visiting our elementary school one year before the holiday break, in order to caution us against going outside in the initial minutes after they calendar’s [...]
