Posts by Diane Dimond
Time For States to Cut the Cord With Washington
When our Founding Fathers established the framework for this country they were careful to limit the powers of the federal government. As James Madison wrote in The Federalist Papers, the primary and central job of the federal government is to “provide for the common defense.”
Read MoreGhost Gun Kits Gotta Go
Okay, here I go with another flip flop. Regular readers of this column know I’m not a big fan of more gun control laws. Generally speaking, I think we’ve got enough federal and state laws already on the books. And besides, criminals don’t follow the law when they go out to get or use a…
Read MoreShaking the Family Tree to Solve Crimes
It’s a scientifically proven type of crime fighting that is banned in all but a handful of states. The question is why aren’t more crime labs using it? It’s called familial DNA testing and it has been widely restricted because it is seen, by some, as an invasion of the privacy of innocent people.
Read MoreAttacking Bigotry Starts With Us
Here’s a crime story you likely didn’t hear about. It happened in the New York City subway. But it is not the hate-filled crime that matters as much as the response to it by a group of total strangers who happened to file into a particular subway car on a wintry-cold Saturday night. As the…
Read MoreThinking Outside the Box on Prison Sentences
Change is often a good thing. Thinking outside the box can bring about dynamic and fresh solutions to longstanding problems. That’s why I’m hoping that President Trump’s administration — which is on record as wanting to upend the status quo in Washington, D.C. — will employ this kind of thinking with the subject of prison…
Read MoreAmerica’s Murder Inequality Hot Spots
Here’s a thought. Maybe we’ve been going about trying to reduce the rising murder rate in this country the wrong way. Maybe, instead of taking an aerial view of the problem we should have been looking at things from down at the street-level. Analyzing crime reports neighborhood by neighborhood to specifically target the simmering pockets…
Read MoreWho Will Police the Police in the Trump Years?
If people want Washington to stop ignoring them they must stop ignoring their civic duty to become involved …. With the newly sworn-in president and a change in administrations I’m wondering what will become of the Justice Department’s practice of investigating troubled law enforcement agencies. I have a suggestion about…
Read MoreReaders Sound Off on the Death Penalty
Serial killers, guns and the death penalty. Whenever I write about one of those topics my mailbox blows up. Last week’s column about convicted murderer Dylann Roof and America’s policy of capital punishment — public support for it, the costs associated with it and its usefulness in deterring others – definitely stirred passions.
Read MoreIs America’s Death Penalty Dying?
Upon the birth of a new year let’s talk about death, shall we? The death penalty, to be precise. The topic loomed over a courtroom in Charleston, South Carolina last week where the self-proclaimed white supremacist, Dylann Roof, undertook a fool’s errand.
Read MoreGood Riddance to 2016 And a Wish List for 2017
As my father would have said about the year 2016, “So long, and don’t let the door hit you in the rump on the way out!” Although Dad surely would have used more colorful language. It was a confusing, divisive and extremely frustrating year, wasn’t it?
Read More