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Thanks for Having Me

By Ethan Brown

I've been an avid Talk Left reader since the Rave Act days in the early 2000s, so I'm thrilled to be posting here for the first time.

A little bit about me: I've been writing about street crime and criminal justice policy for about a decade now for publications such as the Guardian, New York, and Mother Jones. I'm also the author of a couple of books: Queens Reigns Supreme--about the drug trade in Southeast Queens and a money laundering case against hip-hop record label Murder Inc--and Snitch, which exposed the dangerously unregulated world of federal cooperating witnesses and informants. [More...]

In 2007, I moved to New Orleans after living in New York City for nearly 15 years. I came to New Orleans to write my third book--about an Iraq vet involved in a big murder suicide case down here--but also because I've been completely taken with the city since I first visited way back in 2001.

So: I hope to be writing here about the numerous issues--affordable housing, transparent government, etc -- facing post Katrina New Orleans as well as criminal justice policy more generally. I'm particularly interested in federal sentencing policy, prison overcrowding, the rising body count from the battles between Mexican drug cartels and, of course, the disastrous criminal justice system down here in New Orleans. As some of you may know, conviction rates for murders are in the single digits down here and we've also got the highest murder rate in the nation.

Thanks again to Jeralyn for having me--can't wait to get going here...

Full post as published by TalkLeft on January 12, 2009 (boomark / email).