By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Eight hundred years ago today, a group of rebellious English barons met with despotic King John at Runnymede near the Thames River and agreed to a peace treaty , the Magna Carta. Negotiated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the charter was meant to settle an aristocratic uprising over the unpopular king’s…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com If you haven’t viewed the NPR video of President Obama’s conversation with David Simon, the creator of the HBO series “The Wire,” on the subjects of drugs, criminal justice policies and law enforcement, it is worth watching. The President lauded the series as one of the greatest pieces of art in…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com A British study found recently that the risk of first time psychosis among users of high THC cannabis was three times greater than for non-users, regardless of the age of the user or the frequency of use. Frequent users were found to have more than five times the risk. The study…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Anthony (Tony) Bertoni, a legendary law man both at the Detroit Police Department and as United States Marshal, died this past Sunday at the age of 95. The Bertoni family grew up on the eastside of Detroit during the difficult years of post World War I and the Depression. Like many…
By Ross Parker If you run into Barb McQuade, the U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan some time in 2015, congratulate her for her Office’s milestone. This year marks the Bicentennial of the appointment of the first USA in Michigan Territory, Solomon Sibley in 1815. This makes the USAO the oldest law…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com With a couple of notable exceptions the Supreme Court continued to be good to law enforcement in general this past year of 2014, particularly to federal agencies. The functioning so-called “conservative” majority of Chief Justice Roberts along with Justices Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Kennedy was not invariably responsible for this…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Legal luminaries this week celebrated the distinguished judicial career of Michigan Supreme Court Justice Michael F. Cavanagh, the longest serving appellate judge in state history. Several hundred people attended the court’s extraordinary session in Lansing on December 3rd to express their appreciation for his exceptional service to the legal profession and…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com A recent trip with a dozen friends to Malawi in southeastern Africa provided much food for thought about the meaning of the character of a nation. We were a group of well meaning but amateur voluntourists from a nation many consider to be the most advanced civilization in the world and…
