Seattle Times: "The federal government has agreed to pay $880,000 to settle a lawsuit filed over the death of Roxanna Brown, an Asian-antiquities expert who died last year while being held at [a] Federal Detention Center."
For background on Brown, see here.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
More Opportunity Cost (A Continuing Series)
Over the weekend came news that the Albright-Knox would now be open only four days a week.
Other cost-cutting measures include (1) eliminating extended hours on Thursday evenings, (2) reducing programming on free Fridays, and (3) reducing the number of major exhibitions. Earlier this year the museum also raised the admission price from $10 to $12.
Of course, to the Deaccession Police, none of this matters. It doesn't make a difference if the museum is open four days a week, or three days a week, or 15 minutes on alternating Tuesdays. The purpose of a museum is to hold onto the works it happens to have -- every last one of them -- so that they are accessible to future generations (even if they are only accessible for those 15 minutes a week). Questions of access, engagement, and so on are not permitted to enter the discussion.
In fact, as this WBFO story reminds us, the museum does have "a separate $67 million endowment dedicated to purchasing new work." (I assume as a result of this.) And, of course, from the AAMD anti-deaccessionist perspective, buying every one of those unspecified future works is more important than any other museum purpose you care to name, including keeping the doors open for people to see the work.
Other cost-cutting measures include (1) eliminating extended hours on Thursday evenings, (2) reducing programming on free Fridays, and (3) reducing the number of major exhibitions. Earlier this year the museum also raised the admission price from $10 to $12.
Of course, to the Deaccession Police, none of this matters. It doesn't make a difference if the museum is open four days a week, or three days a week, or 15 minutes on alternating Tuesdays. The purpose of a museum is to hold onto the works it happens to have -- every last one of them -- so that they are accessible to future generations (even if they are only accessible for those 15 minutes a week). Questions of access, engagement, and so on are not permitted to enter the discussion.
In fact, as this WBFO story reminds us, the museum does have "a separate $67 million endowment dedicated to purchasing new work." (I assume as a result of this.) And, of course, from the AAMD anti-deaccessionist perspective, buying every one of those unspecified future works is more important than any other museum purpose you care to name, including keeping the doors open for people to see the work.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Metropolis v. Gotham: The CrimLaw Community
So, I'm flipping thru late night TV and I come across an animated Batman film and the last day or so the cable channels have been running that horrendous "Superman Returns" film. Anyway, it got me to thinking. Where would various members of the crimlaw community prefer to be, Metropolis or Gotham?
Criminals:
In Metropolis if you point a pistol and say "This is a . . ." a red and blue blur picks you up and deposits you at the nearest police station. You are entirely unharmed and locked up with the other 43 men whom Superman caught committing crimes during a 3.6 second patrol of the entire city. Violent crime is low in Metropolis because Superman is everywhere, all the time. When you go to court Superman comes as the star witness against you and you will be convicted. However, Metropolis has a merciful judicial system and the odds are that you will get probation with some sort of rehab program.
In Gotham the odds are that on any given day you will get away with your crime. After all, Batman can only be at one place at a time. Of course, if it is your day a maniac dressed in a Bat costume will descend upon you and take his time explaining in painstaking detail why you shouldn't be committing crimes in his city. Then he'll leave you tied to a light pole on a corner until the police show up to render medical aid and eventually arrest you. When you are brought into court in your wheelchair, you know Batman is not going to be there to testify against you. You probably won't get convicted. However, if you are Gotham's judicial system isn't going to waste any time on that namby-pamby rehab stuff; you'll consider it a good sentence as long as they don't send you to Arkham.
Police:
In Metropolis, life on most days is very good for the officers. You stroll down the street, flirt with the girl at the LexCorp coffee shop, write the odd traffic ticket, and every so often a red-blue blur drops off three guys who tried to rob a bank and you take them into the station. Generally, life is good. Then come the days when Darkseid or Mongul or Doomsday show up to try and take Superman out and you're getting disintegrated because you were the first to arrive on scene or you spend the day dodging trucks, cars, and buildings they are throwing at each other as you try to get civilians away from indestructible beings fighting each other in the middle of a major city.
In Gotham, it's a good day when no one you know gets killed. There's a nutcase vigilante bouncing around the city dressed like a bat and the Commissioner seems intent on coddling him instead of putting him away. Meanwhile, one homicidal maniac after another keeps coming to town - the Joker, Two Face, Scarecrow etc. - killing any officer who gets in his way (not to mention citizens) until the vigilante accepts the maniac's challenge and they fight. The "bad guy" gets captured, but that just means he'll escape from Arkham Asylum and be back out on the street next month doing it all again.
Defense Attorney:
In Metropolis you have to cross examine Superman. It's your job to sell the jury on Superman as an out of control vigilante who is lying on the stand about your client. You know, the guy with the nickname of "the Big Blue Boy Scout" who has probably either saved the life of every person on your jury or helped their grandmother get her cat out of a tree.
In Gotham you don't have to worry about Batman showing up at a trial. As long as you stay honest you'll probably never see the Batman. And the fact that you keep wheeling in clients with broken legs and arms, who had to get out of the hospital before they went to jail makes a wonderful case for police sanctioned, vigilante brutality. You'll win a lot of cases. Then comes the day when the judge assigns you to be the Joker's new court appointed attorney (after he killed the last six) . . .
Prosecutor:
In Metropolis convictions are guaranteed. What jury or judge is going to rule against Superman? The man who stands for Truth, Justice and the American Way? Of course, also following Superman's lead, the courts won't believe anyone beyond salvaging and while it'll be easy to have a 99.998% conviction rate, the odds are most of the time the defendant will get an extremely light sentence and be given the opportunity to rehab and become a productive member of society (despite his 12 prior convictions).
In Gotham, as a prosecutor you live with a police escort and 24 hour guard. The Police Commissioner is constantly on you because you can't convict most of the bad guys his pet vigilante mangles and leaves for the police. There's either no witnesses or, in the case of the splashy villains, plenty of witnesses but a defendant who is clearly NGRI and who ends up getting sent back to Arkham, which doesn't seem able to keep a church mouse from escaping. And even living with 24 hour police protection the bad guys can get to you - remember Harvey Dent.
---------------------
I leave the decision to you. Where would you rather be?
Criminals:
In Metropolis if you point a pistol and say "This is a . . ." a red and blue blur picks you up and deposits you at the nearest police station. You are entirely unharmed and locked up with the other 43 men whom Superman caught committing crimes during a 3.6 second patrol of the entire city. Violent crime is low in Metropolis because Superman is everywhere, all the time. When you go to court Superman comes as the star witness against you and you will be convicted. However, Metropolis has a merciful judicial system and the odds are that you will get probation with some sort of rehab program.
In Gotham the odds are that on any given day you will get away with your crime. After all, Batman can only be at one place at a time. Of course, if it is your day a maniac dressed in a Bat costume will descend upon you and take his time explaining in painstaking detail why you shouldn't be committing crimes in his city. Then he'll leave you tied to a light pole on a corner until the police show up to render medical aid and eventually arrest you. When you are brought into court in your wheelchair, you know Batman is not going to be there to testify against you. You probably won't get convicted. However, if you are Gotham's judicial system isn't going to waste any time on that namby-pamby rehab stuff; you'll consider it a good sentence as long as they don't send you to Arkham.
Police:
In Metropolis, life on most days is very good for the officers. You stroll down the street, flirt with the girl at the LexCorp coffee shop, write the odd traffic ticket, and every so often a red-blue blur drops off three guys who tried to rob a bank and you take them into the station. Generally, life is good. Then come the days when Darkseid or Mongul or Doomsday show up to try and take Superman out and you're getting disintegrated because you were the first to arrive on scene or you spend the day dodging trucks, cars, and buildings they are throwing at each other as you try to get civilians away from indestructible beings fighting each other in the middle of a major city.
In Gotham, it's a good day when no one you know gets killed. There's a nutcase vigilante bouncing around the city dressed like a bat and the Commissioner seems intent on coddling him instead of putting him away. Meanwhile, one homicidal maniac after another keeps coming to town - the Joker, Two Face, Scarecrow etc. - killing any officer who gets in his way (not to mention citizens) until the vigilante accepts the maniac's challenge and they fight. The "bad guy" gets captured, but that just means he'll escape from Arkham Asylum and be back out on the street next month doing it all again.
Defense Attorney:
In Metropolis you have to cross examine Superman. It's your job to sell the jury on Superman as an out of control vigilante who is lying on the stand about your client. You know, the guy with the nickname of "the Big Blue Boy Scout" who has probably either saved the life of every person on your jury or helped their grandmother get her cat out of a tree.
In Gotham you don't have to worry about Batman showing up at a trial. As long as you stay honest you'll probably never see the Batman. And the fact that you keep wheeling in clients with broken legs and arms, who had to get out of the hospital before they went to jail makes a wonderful case for police sanctioned, vigilante brutality. You'll win a lot of cases. Then comes the day when the judge assigns you to be the Joker's new court appointed attorney (after he killed the last six) . . .
Prosecutor:
In Metropolis convictions are guaranteed. What jury or judge is going to rule against Superman? The man who stands for Truth, Justice and the American Way? Of course, also following Superman's lead, the courts won't believe anyone beyond salvaging and while it'll be easy to have a 99.998% conviction rate, the odds are most of the time the defendant will get an extremely light sentence and be given the opportunity to rehab and become a productive member of society (despite his 12 prior convictions).
In Gotham, as a prosecutor you live with a police escort and 24 hour guard. The Police Commissioner is constantly on you because you can't convict most of the bad guys his pet vigilante mangles and leaves for the police. There's either no witnesses or, in the case of the splashy villains, plenty of witnesses but a defendant who is clearly NGRI and who ends up getting sent back to Arkham, which doesn't seem able to keep a church mouse from escaping. And even living with 24 hour police protection the bad guys can get to you - remember Harvey Dent.
---------------------
I leave the decision to you. Where would you rather be?
Saturday, July 4, 2009
"In the US, the practice of 'deaccessioning' is more prevalent and even major institutions buy and sell robustly"
A republic if you can keep it.
Mr. President
I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.
On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.
--------------------
Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention
I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.
On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.
--------------------
Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention
Thursday, July 2, 2009
How Best to Remove Objects from the Public Trust
Daniel Grant examines the question in the Wall Street Journal. On the one hand, those concerned with keeping artworks in the public trust should favor private sales to other museums. But the hysteria that surrounds deaccessioning tends to push people to auction:
"In most cases, museums prefer going to auction. Whatever criticism these institutions receive for selling objects only increases if they don't do it that way. Take, for example, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., a museum devoted to contemporary art that sold 207 of its older artworks at Sotheby's, raising $67.2 million. There was some discussion at the board level of selling pieces directly to other museums or through art dealers, said Louis Grachos, the Albright-Knox's director, 'but in the end, it just seemed like going the auction route was the safest and wisest choice.' Certainly wise in this case, but why safest? 'We were under a microscope, and people were looking for any reason whatsoever to attack us,' he said. 'Going to public auction made all our actions transparent. No one could claim that we were pursuing back-room deals.'"
But Grant suggests that "museum directors fearful of public criticism might want to broaden their outlook. The Albright-Knox was probably right to take its disparate objects to auction, ... while artworks that ought to stay together ... call for a perhaps less lucrative 'friendly' sale to another institution. It made sense that when Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University sought to raise money by selling its painting 'The Gross Clinic' by Thomas Eakins, it gave first dibs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art .... The subject of the painting, Dr. Samuel Gross, was a renowned Philadelphia physician, and Eakins himself spent most of his life in that city. Raising money and doing well by the art aren't mutually exclusive goals."
"In most cases, museums prefer going to auction. Whatever criticism these institutions receive for selling objects only increases if they don't do it that way. Take, for example, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y., a museum devoted to contemporary art that sold 207 of its older artworks at Sotheby's, raising $67.2 million. There was some discussion at the board level of selling pieces directly to other museums or through art dealers, said Louis Grachos, the Albright-Knox's director, 'but in the end, it just seemed like going the auction route was the safest and wisest choice.' Certainly wise in this case, but why safest? 'We were under a microscope, and people were looking for any reason whatsoever to attack us,' he said. 'Going to public auction made all our actions transparent. No one could claim that we were pursuing back-room deals.'"
But Grant suggests that "museum directors fearful of public criticism might want to broaden their outlook. The Albright-Knox was probably right to take its disparate objects to auction, ... while artworks that ought to stay together ... call for a perhaps less lucrative 'friendly' sale to another institution. It made sense that when Philadelphia-based Thomas Jefferson University sought to raise money by selling its painting 'The Gross Clinic' by Thomas Eakins, it gave first dibs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art .... The subject of the painting, Dr. Samuel Gross, was a renowned Philadelphia physician, and Eakins himself spent most of his life in that city. Raising money and doing well by the art aren't mutually exclusive goals."
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Changes the General Assembly Should Make Post Melendez-Diaz
Here are my suggested changes to Virginia's demand statute:
§ 19.2-187.1. Right to examine person performing analysis or involved in chain of custody.I these changes would make the "demand" part of the close to bulletproof and keep the gamesmanship to a minimum.
The accused in any hearing or trial in which a certificate of analysisismay be admitted into evidencepursuant to § 19.2-187 or § 19.2-187.01shall have the right to require the Commonwealth to call the person performing such analysis or examination or involved in the chain of custody as a witness therein, and examine him in the same manner as if he had been called as an adverse witness. If the accused does not notify the trial court and Commonwealth of the requirement prior to the trial date he waives his right to require the person's presence at trial.
Such witness shall be summoned by and appear at the cost of the Commonwealth. Unless waived by the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth shall have no less than 30 days from the date of notification by the accused to subpoena and bring the person to court.
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