Ramesh Nyberg I was an investigator for 22 years in homicide, working death scenes of all kinds, but I’ve never been to a scene littered with the bodies of innocent schoolkids. I’m thankful for that. And, so, on the very day I am writing this latest column, it is the same day that the students, faculty and staff of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas are returning to school for the first time since the shooting. I dedicate this column not only to…
Ramesh Nyberg Beware of falling iguanas. No…really. Though we don’t have any signs which actually say this in South Florida, it is a possibility. It even happened to my neighbor. Let me back up a bit. From Palm Beach County south to my neck of the woods, and all the way down to the tip of Key West, we are pretty much overrun with lizards of all kinds. In the last 15 years or so, though, the iguana population has…
Ramesh Nyberg The Monsters Among Us “Hey!” Steve Martin’s character yells to his boss in the 1979 comedy classic, The Jerk. “These oil cans are defective!” And, he chuckles as he watches them, one by one, spring leaks. His boss spots the bumbling, rifle-toting assassin across the street on the hill and yells back, “We don’t have defective cans; we have a defective person over there!” We are in the “defective people” business. Whether the people we deal with are…
Ramesh Nyberg Moving Forward in Reverse Mercifully, the door has closed on a summer which has been tumultuous, frustrating, violent, and divisive. But, even with fall being just around the corner, I can’t help but get the feeling that all of the anger, rage, mistrust, hatred, and misperceptions have only just begun. As I write this, there are reports of Confederate statues coming down and being dismantled in the middle of the night, and more vitriol and finger-pointing on social…
Ramesh Nyberg Underage Girls and Marriage (No, Not in Yemen or Libya…HERE) There are a ton of issues to choose from which I could write about so, before we continue, let me give you this gentle disclaimer: The many law enforcement issues I could (and maybe should) be writing about here are just too much of an emotional tornado for me, so I’ve chosen another topic. Not to worry, I’ll go back to tackling the obvious stuff which makes all…
Duty-Bound I’m sure you’ve seen the news stories over the last five to ten years about some soldier or airman who refused to be deployed for combat – this in an all-volunteer military. So, you join the military, train to use weapons, train for combat and, then, when your country tells you to go use your skills, you say you’re morally opposed. I missed Vietnam by a couple of years. I worked with guys who were there. You might be…
We’re a quarter of the way through 2017 and my home state of Florida is keeping its reputation for bizarre criminal justice news well in the forefront. You just can’t make this stuff up. However, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the image of the “Smallest Police Station in the World” (it’s a phone booth) located in the quiet fishing village of Carrabelle, FL, on US 98 at the corner of CR67. Do you want to learn more? Log on to their Web…
Why Don’t We Talk Anymore? You can chalk up this entire installment of “…and nothing but the truth” to me being old and outdated, I suppose. It’s definitely going to sound like an old guy railing against modern technology, but I need to vent and there’s no town square with a soapbox for me to climb. The closest I can come is this column and I thank you for reading it. By the way, this column is 30 years old…
Duterte’s “War on Drugs” Imagine this: You’ve decided to take a vacation to take in the sights and culture of the Pacific Islands: Bora Bora, Fiji, the Phillipines. You know, places where you can relax on some Pacific shore while sipping coconut juice and, well, kill a few drug dealers. What was that? If you haven’t heard already, Phillipine President Rodrigo Duterte, elected by a landslide vote this past June, is rather strong on crime. That’s always a good thing,…
“…exposing the tactics that law enforcement uses to make confessions happen.” Just when you didn’t think another punch or kick was coming, here it comes, late – after the whistle – and even from someone who was on your side. I’m talking about James L. Trainum’s new book, How the Police Generate False Confessions: An Inside Look at the Interrogation Room (Rowman and Littlefield). There’s so much to say about the timing, the title and the tone of the arrival…