Mark Obbie

Trump Budget Would Slash, Close Many Anticrime Projects; Will Congress Agree? The U.S. Justice Department’s budget for state and local crime fighting is likely to suffer a larger reduction than has been previously reported, concludes a new analysis from the nonpartisan…

The cuts (and proposed cuts) keep coming. Feels like a throwback to the early '90s. Or maybe, in keeping with Trump's image of crime and cities, the mid-'80s. We (speaking broadly) have learned so much more since then.

crimjj.wordpress.com/2025/06/19/t...

I was honored to be a regular contributor of big news features in The Trace's early days, and have admired its growth and powerful contributions to journalism that advances understanding of gun violence.

Really important that no one read this @orlandosentinel.com reporting when it publishes. I'm setting up alerts just to make sure I don't accidentally read it and share it widely when the time comes

Tom Robbins, Versatile Muckraker for The Village Voice, Dies at 76

RIP one of my journalism heroes, whose own backstory I knew little of until I read his obit. When I taught an investigative reporting class at New School, Tom was kind enough to speak to my class, even though I cold-called him as a stranger. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/b...

Mass Shootings Take a Psychological Toll. Other Forms of Gun Violence May Be Even Worse. A recent study found that survivors of everyday gun violence endure long-lasting effects.

Surviving gun violence is traumatic no matter the form. But a new study shows that survivors of everyday gun violence tend to endure longer-lasting mental health effects than survivors of mass shootings.

America Is Having a Showboater Moment The Trump administration talks tough on crime but shrugs off the work of real law enforcement.

"Any goon can impose repression. Real cops impose the law. That’s the kind of toughness we need now." Jill Leovy's insights echo my own after decades of reporting on the mutually destructive views on left and right, and why the truth can be found in the middle. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

148. Suspending Habeas Corpus In response to adverse rulings in numerous immigration cases, Stephen Miller is raising the specter of suspending habeas. His argument is factually and legally nuts, but it's worth explaining *why.*

Trumpers talking abouu suspending habeas corpus. If your fuzzy on what that is, read this. If you know but say, “just talk,” read this. If you’re one who says, “I can’t even with the news,” read so you’ll know how and why this is next level bad. www.stevevladeck.com/p/148-suspen...

Brilliant legal analysis, if you've never actually researched the law and the Constitution.

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How To Reduce Gun Violence Without New Laws, Court Rulings Chicago problems like corruption, pension debts and population decline might seem impossible to solve. Perhaps the city’s biggest problem — gun violence — only feels that way, writes…

Crime and Justice News, the free daily digest of the top criminal justice stories for journalists and CJ professionals, has moved. It's still a free email, and still covering important stories like this one today. crimjj.wordpress.com/2025/04/22/h...

There is growing evidence that crime is plunging incredibly fast across a wide swath of the country so far in 2025. There's still time for these trends to change, but the first 3+ months of 2025 have likely brought an enormous decline in crime. New this week: jasher.substack.com/p/crime-is-l...

I think this is the best one I’ve seen so far.

I'm not saying anything novel here but it really is just truly despicable to watch them use THEIR OWN COLOSSAL SCREW UP to slander the reporter THEY INCLUDED ON THEIR CLASSIFIED GROUP CHAT

There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing How regime change happens in America

"Suddenly, and not accidentally, people who work for the American federal government are having the same experience as people who find themselves living under foreign occupation"
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row Sisters from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited the prisoners—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance.

"If a nun and a condemned woman could exchange their past lives, might the nun be on death row and the condemned woman in the convent?" The great Lawrence Wright serves as eyewitness to this profound exercise in empathy. What a masterpiece of reporting and writing. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Pam Bondi Instructs Trump DOJ to Criminally Investigate Companies That Do DEI Civil rights advocates may well file suit immediately against the Justice Department to secure an injunction.

So we've already moved to the "thought crime" phase. slate.com/news-and-pol...

I actually wish the media would stop using "DEI" and "diversity hiring" and just get to the essence of the thing and ask:

"Are you saying that this crash was caused by desegregating the races?"

And see what happens.

The most incompetent white people on earth blaming black and brown people for a plane crash is peak weak whiteness.

What Happened When America Emptied Its Youth Prisons Lessons from a radical 20-year experiment and a quiet triumph of public policy.

When James Forman writes about the life and work of David Muhammad to humanize a critical data point — how juvenile crime dropped in sync with juvenile imprisonment — you know it's going to be a smart and compelling read.
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/m...

Biden’s Gun Violence Prevention Office Is Empty. Here’s How Its Work Can Continue Under Trump. Greg Jackson says there's still momentum for countering the crisis — it just might come from outside the White House.

"Why is it so far-fetched to have a permanent office that thinks about this issue across government and agencies, in both the short and long term?" www.thetrace.org/2025/01/whit...

Screenshot of White House 404 / PAGE NOT FOUND message.

The new administration took down the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention website: www.whitehouse.gov/ogvp/

Tweet from America Shaman saying he's going to buy guns now that he's pardoned

Feeling safer already 😔

Call log showing multiple calls from the dept of justice

Sergeant Gonell @sergeantaqgo.bsky.social sent me this picture. This is his call log. Each call is an automated Dept of "Justice" notification saying "The defendant you testified against is being released from the dept of corrections."
Each defendant assaulted him.

Mark Obbie article archive, 2004-2024 FREELANCE ARTICLE ARCHIVE, 2004-2024 MARK OBBIE markobbie@gmail.com In 2004, I left my position as executive editor of The American Lawyer magazine in Manhattan to work full time as a freelance repor...

As my valedictory, I made a list of the stories that I devoted the past 20 years of my work life to producing — and explained what I was trying to prove.

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

On the bright side, it's a welcome relief from lead stories every day touting the latest restaurant and bar openings.

LA Wildfires Spawn Bizarre Claims Plus: Doctored MSNBC Video Shows Anchors Joyful Over Ukrainian Deaths; ‘Fogvid-24’: A New Foggy Health Conspiracy

Whenever I begin to lose hope that Americans have lost all media literacy skills, the work by @newsguard.bsky.social gives me hope that the disinformation peddlers will be called to account. www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/la-wildfir...

Great thread. Too bad the dipshits who celebrate with their finger on a trigger won't see it or care.

He wasn’t a migrant. He didn’t cross the border. All Trump does is lie. Minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day. A firehouse of lies spewing an alternate reality for the MAGA cult to live in.

The high level of violent crime Trump keeps talking about will be an easy problem to solve because Trump made it up. Violent crime has been falling sharply and is at historically low levels.

Predicting The 2025 Crime Trends The final post of 2024 looks ahead to 2025.

My final newsletter of 2024 looks at where US crime trends stand now to predict where they will head in 2025. Thanks to all who have read, shared, and commented this year!

jasher.substack.com/p/predicting...