Power corrupts

Incidentally, last week when I was in California I had dinner with another blogger I'm quite fond of. During the course of dinner we were talking about various blogs we like, and he said "No offense, but I think Radley Balko is the most valuable blogger in America right now."

None taken, as I quite agree. Radley is one of the few bloggers doing actual reporting on police and prosecutorial abuse, shining light on the darker spots of the justice system. If you're not reading him, you either need to rectify this situation, or get your head examined. I think most cops are fundamentally good people doing a dangerous and that is neither well-paid nor particularly rewarding. Likewise, prosecutors generally went into their work because they care deeply about justice. But both groups of people have vast and poorly supervised powers of coercion, which is a recipe for making bad things happen. The work Radley does actually makes America a better place, which is more than almost any of the rest of us can claim.