Advertise on podcast: Black and White and Thin Blue Lines

There IS something new under the sun! Tom Mauriello, the mastermind of FORENSIQ, has organized decades of law enforcement expertise in a CSI phone app that is exceptional, affordable, and practical. Any criminal justice stakeholder can access an investigative blueprint for every type of investigation from arson to mass casualty event. In this episode of Black and White and Thin Blue Lines, Tom sits down with Clarke and explains his incredible professional experience, the idea for a systemic approach to investigations, and the development of this modern technology. 

The Black and White and Thin Blue Lines podcast began in spring of 2021 as the effort of Serge Antonin and Clarke Ahlers. The podcast concerns itself with issues of criminal justice, particularly at the intersection of race in America. Since then, Serge and Clarke have learned the technology of podcasting, produced and edited 100 episodes (to date), met wonderful guests and enjoyed the positive feedback of thousands of people who have listened to one or more episodes. First of all: thank you!  In this episode, Serge and Clarke briefly reminisce about how the podcast came to be, and update our listeners on several of the important stories we have discussed in our podcast production. Serge and Clarke commit to more episodes to come and to continue to strive to be a voice of reason in the cacophony of criminal justice. 

The Maryland General Assembly proposes an excise tax on the sale of guns and ammunition, the Howard County Council debates a ceasefire in Gaza, and several state senators propose to eliminate good time credits for a very small number of convicted felons. Is our government fiddling while our community burns? Serge and Clarke add their two cents in the latest episode. 

Dateline Harlem: Friday night January 26, 2024 about 6:30 P.M.  A NY City police officer stops city councilman Yosef Salaam for unlawful tinted windows on a BMW sedan. The officer was polite and professional and sent Mr. Salaam on his way after Salaam, the driver, identified himself as a city councilman. Professional courtesy? Presumably so. After all, why else would Mr. Salaam identify himself as a city councilman unless he wanted courtesy. But Salaam was not satisfied with professional courtesy. He thinks the stop was unwarranted and is reversing his decision to participate in police ride-alongs to better understand the job. Bottom line: no good deed goes unpunished.

In 1968, Graham Nash, later of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, wrote a song about the difficult relationship he had with his father who was sent to jail for receiving stolen goods. The song “Teach Your Children” has beautiful lyrics including this stanza: “Teach your children well, Their father’s hell did slowly go by, Feed them on your dreams, The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by.” In Michigan this week, the first of two trials of the parents of a convicted school shooter — Ethan Crumbley — began. Serge and Clarke discuss the legal issue of proximate causation and the morality play which is — like the song by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young — about what James and Jennifer Crumbley  taught their child Ethan. 

On the afternoon of January 10, 2024, more than 20 police officers in tactical gear carrying long arms and deploying flash bangs served a search warrant in Elyria, Ohio. Sure ... the usual stuff. You know. The guy the police were looking for hadn't lived at the residence the cops trashed for more than a year. Oh, and there was another hiccup. It seems the police deployed a flash bang grenade that blew out a glass window over a bassinet where a 17-month old baby was breathing on a ventilator. Not to worry. The Police Department issued a press release assuring the public that no baby was injured in the fiasco (because flash bangs don't use caustic chemicals). In other news, the baby was admitted to the hospital for treatment of his non-injuries. Don't let the baby's picture fool you; the child always looked like that. Clarke vents and Serge analyzes the unintended battery on the baby and the intentional assault on our intelligence.

Serge often observes that America is declining into anarchy. Clarke is sometimes pessimistic. Serge and Clarke bring their inclinations to the story of a young man who jumped the bench in a Las Vegas courtroom and beat up the judge who was sentencing him to prison for beating up a person with a baseball bat. What the heck is in the water in this country? Also, New York Governor declares war on shoplifting. Welcome Governor to the chaos you and others have created. 

Almost six decades after the United States Supreme Court's landmark Miranda decision, police administrators in Maryland are claiming that a 2022 Maryland law that requires police adhere to Miranda during juvenile arrests is making their job more difficult. In a now familiar whine, our state and local governments blame their inability to fight crime on a document designed to protect citizens from the overreach of government. In this episode, Serge and Clarke discuss the Maryland Child Interrogation Protection Act. This episode is a counterbalance to official state propaganda. 

Police Commissioner Worley has implemented 8 hours of empathy instruction for every Baltimore Police Officer. In this episode, Serge and Clarke discuss the instruction. Serge begins with the valid premise that it is a good idea for victims of trauma -- like most police officers and many Baltimoreans--to learn understanding. On his part, Clarke is a bit more "Doctor, Heal Thyself." 

This week, the Mayor of Baltimore filed suit in federal court against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It turns out that ATF sends gun trace information to the Police Commissioner but does not send the same information to the Mayor. Rather than figure a workaround, the Mayor -- represented by Everytown Law -- filed suit. The lawsuit is largely a press release in the form of a lawsuit pretending that Mayor Scott is stymied in his war on crime by federal authorities. Serge and Clarke discuss this farce. 

For three decades, the United States Congress has passed laws to fund forensic examinations in sexual assault cases. But it  doesn't seem to matter.  The country is awash in untested rape kits while repetitive sex offenders continue to violate. In fact, Maryland leads the nation in rape kit backlogs at the forensic lab. But at least the rape kits make it to the lab in Maryland. In New York, cops ameliorate the crime lab backlog with a new strategy: just leave the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination kits uncollected from the hospital. In this week's episode Serge and Clarke discuss SAFE nursing with Marcia "T" and she provides insight into the process, the protection afforded to victims, and a great way to re-think the "she asked for it" bias. 

After Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, the federal government permitted anarchists to loot and burn communities across the country. The State of Minnesota successfully prosecuted Chauvin and he was sentenced to 22 years in prison. But the federal government was not satisfied. A federal grand jury was convened. Chauvin was federally indicted. Chauvin pled guilty to civil rights violations and a federal prison sentence was imposed to run concurrently with his state sentence. Then the federal government moved Chauvin to Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tucson where a former FBI informant stabbed Chauvin 22 time before correctional officers intervened. Did the federal government ship Chauvin to a notoriously dangerous and poorly run federal prison and permit Chauvin to be stabbed for the same reason it let anarchists loot and burn communities? Please listen to this episode of Black and White and Thin Blue Lines and you be the judge.