Corruption
Three Whistleblowers Talk About Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning
The US government's pursuit of those who break rank to expose its secrets has emerged as the dominant narrative of this decade's war for information. I thought I'd speak to a trio of high-profile whistleblowers who know all about the repercussions of...
Asset Forfeiture, the Cash Cow of the Drug War
Cops routinely seize assets—like cars, money, and even hotels—that are linked to criminal activity, even if the property owner hasn't been convicted of a crime. This leads to a dangerous system of incentives whereby cops seize property in drug busts so...
Big Money's Obama
Once upon a time, Obama was apparently devoted to reining in the influence of money in politics, but after a couple of elections and some time inside the machine, he doesn’t seem to care about it at all. Instead of fighting against casual corruption...
Horrible Bosses
Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice abused his players. He called them nasty names, hit them, threw balls at their heads, and was a generally awful human being. Now he's fired, and for good reason, but that he was more or less allowed to do these...
Corpse Brides, Forced Abortions, Infanticide, and Child Trafficking: The Modern-Day Consequences of China's One-Child Policy
China's one-child policy has created a long list of horrors that, besides child trafficking, includes infanticide, infant abandonment, and forced abortions, all used by families desperate to meet the set child quotas. Some sources estimate that 1...
The Journalist Who Was Arrested for Investigating a Pedophile Orphanage
Jersey is an island of around 100,000 people nestled between Guernsey and the coast of Normandy. In 2008, small human remains were found at Haut de la Garenne, a former orphanage on the island. A subsequent investigation exposed a history of sexual...
Incorrect Officers
Daaamn! Look at this prison guard who’s having a cop killer’s baby after banging him behind bars! Over the years I’ve spent incarcerated, I’ve definitely run into a few slags working for Corrections.
Being a Brazilian Policeman Sucks
I’m a military police soldier in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and if I disclose my identity, I'll lose my job. I work downtown, in the heart of the city. It’s one of the areas controlled by the criminal organization PCC. We are at war, and the situation we're...
Chinese Officials at It Again: More Scandal from the People's Republic
This December has been like an advent calendar of folly in China. Hardly a day has gone by without the details of some misguided impropriety coming to light. In its own way, this is good news.
China Gets Its First Political Sex Tape Scandal
Unlike America, where a mistweeted cock shot can end a political career, for senior officials in China, sexual imprudence is almost always a coda to allegations of corruption. Only after an official’s political indiscretions are revealed do his...
World Peace Update
This week's World Peace Update doesn't veer too far from its default distress curve on the bruised and bloodied axes of planetary suffering: some Slovenians got really angry with their government, a group of Tunisian protesters were blinded, and the...
Is William Lantigua the Most Corrupt Mayor in America?
William Lantigua, the controversial mayor of Lawrence, Massachusetts, does not give a fuck. “Controversial” doesn’t really do him justice though, since that implies people have good opinions of him in addition to bad ones. Last week, he got married to...