Since MTV’s Laguna Beach premiered on September 28, 2004, Kristin Cavallari has given countless interviews to the press about the nature of Kristin Cavallari. In 2007, she landed a five-photo spread with GQ, which was accompanied by a short but revealing Q & A.

Here’s one Q and one A about Kristin:

GQ: Are you one of those pretty girls who’s convinced she’s a nerd at heart?

Kristin Cavallari: No, I never say I’m a nerd.

Gross.

This has been 500 Days of Kristin.

[Photo via Getty]

This Sunday, the New York Times Book Review will publish a review of the first volume of Niall Ferguson’s authorized biography of Henry Kissinger, Kissinger: The Idealist. The reviewer is Andrew Roberts.

Roberts brings an unusual level of familiarity to the subject: It was Roberts whom Kissinger first asked, before turning to Ferguson, to write his authorized biography. In other words, the New York Times is having Kissinger’s preferred authorized biographer review Kissinger’s authorized biography.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/boo...

Here’s an interview/profile of Roberts from 2009:

He had previously, through his friendship with Henry Kissinger, been offered the job of writing his official biography, but faced with the 30 tons of material in the former secretary of state’s archive and his reluctance to employ researchers – preferring to sift himself – he passed it by. Niall Ferguson has now taken the job. [Says Roberts:] “Niall is a tenured professor and has a team of researchers – he’s also, and I’m the first to admit it, far, far cleverer than I am and will do a wonderful job.”

And now, in the New York Times, Roberts has confirmed his own forecast: If the second volume ends up being as good as he finds the first, Ferguson’s biography will be, Roberts says, a “masterpiece.”

Oh, and Roberts isn’t just close to the subject of the book he is reviewing. He has also been, for a quarter-century, a friend of the book’s author. In a 2006 profile of Ferguson, “The Empire Rebuilder,” The Guardian pointed out that Roberts, who is quoted calling Ferguson “the brightest historian of his generation,” might be “a little biased,” because Roberts had been, at that point, Ferguson’s “friend of 15 years.”

The Times, too, normally checks those things. When I’m approached about reviewing books there, I’m usually asked if I know the author or have a conflict of interest.

My friend Corey Robin had a relevant experience. When his book The Reactionary Mind was coming out in 2011, the Times contacted a widely respected intellectual historian to review it. The potential reviewer didn’t know Corey personally or professionally. Although they had never met, Corey had begun blogging that year, and he and the would-be reviewer began exchanging occasional comments on sites like Facebook. Minimal as the relationship was, the Times nixed the reviewer because of their putative entanglement.

Last May, the Times’ public editor, Margaret Sullivan, weighed in on the topic: How close a connection between reviewer and author (and in this case, between author, reviewer, and subject) is too close a connection? “It’s fine if readers disagree with our reviews,” the Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul told Sullivan, “but they should not distrust them.”

Paul also explained that the Book Review sometimes picks reviewers with strong opinions on the book’s subject, who might be able to write an engaging, provocative essay. Fair enough: writers with opinions are more interesting than those who hold to a “on the one hand, on the other” style. Still, it’s a “tricky challenge,” Paul said, “to get someone informed but not entrenched.”

If Roberts were any more entrenched, he’d be wearing a Brodie helmet and puttees.

A spokesperson for the New York Times offered the following statement to Gawker, on behalf of Pamela Paul:

“We always ask our reviewers about any potential conflict of interest, as we define it, and disclose any possible conflicts in the review if necessary. In this particular case, we asked Andrew Roberts and were satisfied with his assurances that no conflicts of interest existed that would sway his review one way or the other.”

The Times might as well have asked Kissinger to review his own biography. Or, better, Ferguson himself, since, along with Roberts, there’s not a nano-difference between the three men, at least when it comes to controversies about war. Like Ferguson and Kissinger, Roberts was an early advocate for a military invasion of Iraq. Kissinger supported torturers in Latin America; Roberts “approves,” according to The Economist, “of American support for some vile regimes and ghastly civil wars in Latin America.” Roberts also advocates torturing the West’s current enemies: “the defense of liberty requires making some pretty unpalatable decisions, but it was ever thus.”

So how is the review itself? Contrary to the bet that an opinionated yet informed expert might turn in an exciting piece, Roberts’s essay is ponderous, and, if possible, even more hagiographic than the authorized biography itself.

“Kissinger’s official biographer,” writes the man Kissinger first asked to be his official biographer, “certainly gives the reader enough evidence to conclude that Henry Kissinger is one of the greatest Americans in the history of the republic, someone who has been repulsively traduced over several decades and who deserved to have a defense of this comprehensiveness published years ago.”

Let me be clear: I think it would be totally legitimate if, say, Ferguson, with his well-known conservative politics, were to review my new, critical book on Kissinger. That might indeed make for an engaging, fun debate; readers would know where author and reviewer stand. However, asking Roberts to review Ferguson, without acknowledging their connections, not to mention Roberts’ history with Kissinger, is a trench too far.

Thus a new genre is born: the authorized review of the authorized biography.

Greg Grandin teaches history at New York University. He is the author of Fordlandia, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and The Empire of Necessity, which won the Bancroft Award in American History. His new book is Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman.

Photo credit: Getty Images

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Sometimes curiosity kills the cat, but sometimes it just gets the cat’s head stuck in a steel pot.

On Wednesday, a leopard—usually a stealthy creature—got thirsty, and went looking for water in the village of Sadulkhera, in India’s western Rajsamand district. There, NDTV reports, he got his head stuck in a pot.

Villagers said they became aware of the leopard—usually a stealthy creature—as he ran around trying to get the pot off his head. Villagers speculated that the leopard had come from the Kumbhalgarh sanctuary, 12 miles away.

Eventually, forest officials arrived to tranquilize the creature and remove the pot.

“The male leopard is about three years old. He is being kept under observation. He has been checked by vets and seems to be fine,” District Forest Officer of the Udaipur range, Kapil Sharma, told NDTV. “He will be released in the forest later.”

Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

Is this what passes for genius these days? Oh man, gotta get from this short-ass perch to right there—right there—on that carpeted floor. Better rearrange the whole goddamn bed situation. Guy probably needs crampons and a hundred feet of rope to get back on the bed.

You’re no Einstein, tiny baby.

A newly released email from Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State provides an interesting peek at the loudly, recently LGBT candidate’s private thought process of gender descriptors: they’re not worth the Fox News blowback.

http://gawker.com/remember-when-...

In 2011, Clinton, whose campaign now sells “pride” merchandise like this:

Said that she refused to “defend...in front of congress” the decision to drop “mother and father” in State Department usage in favor of gender-neutral terms (like on passports). Clinton reluctantly adds that she could “live with” another descriptor “so long as we retained the presumption of mother and father.” Anything else wouldn’t be worth “facing a huge Fox-generated media storm led by Palin et al.”

Contact the author at biddle@gawker.com.
Public PGP key
PGP fingerprint: E93A 40D1 FA38 4B2B 1477 C855 3DEA F030 F340 E2C7

Maybe this is one of those glass-half-full/glass-half-empty things: the Associated Press is reporting that Russian hackers attempted to infiltrate Hillary Clinton’s private email account back in 2011. Maybe they were unsuccessful! My God.

In the pre-dawn hours of August 3, infected emails disguised as speeding tickets were sent to Hillary’s private email account with instructions to print the attached tickets. Had she followed the instructions, information from her computer—this is the Secretary of State we’re talking about, not some other Hillary Clinton—would have been transmitted to multiple overseas computers.

Maybe it’s not so bad?

Hilariously, this attempted hack came just days after Hillary joked via email about Chinese hackers disrupting her private email. Who’s laughing now? Russian hackers, probably.

[AP]

photo via AP

One person who contracted Legionnaires’ disease in an outbreak in the Bronx neighborhood of Morris Park (unrelated to this summer’s) has died, authorities said Wednesday. Health officials specify exactly when the death occurred, although the number of confirmed cases in the area grew from 10 on Tuesday to 13.

http://gawker.com/what-is-legion...

According to CBS New York, eleven people have been hospitalized and one discharged. All had underlying health conditions, officials said, and contracted the disease before September 21st.

The earlier outbreak, in July and August, stemming from a contaminated cooling tower on top of a hotel, killed 12 people and sickened more than 120 in the South Bronx.

The current outbreak, however, is “different than what we experienced a couple of weeks back in the South Bronx,” Mayor Bill de Blasio reassured citizens on Wednesday. “This is a much more limited situation.”

There are around 200 to 300 cases of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City every year, the New York Times reports. Concentrated outbreaks are more rare

Image via Shutterstock. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

Lint-crusted dried apricot Donald Trump spoke tonight in New Hampshire, offering details of his tax plan, a pledge to deploy Carl Icahn to do pretty much whatever the hell he wants over in China, and his assessment of the long-standing relationship of fellow candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush:

At the 1:50 mark of the video above Trump launches into an animated aside about the Rubio-Bush bromance in which he briefly accuses Rubio of disloyalty for running for office, before describing the whole thing as “political bullshit.”

Trump leans pretty hard on those written talking points when outlining the virtues of his tax plan, but he really shifts into gear when going off the cuff on the topic of political bullshit. Let’s just say it’s a topic he knows intimately.

photo via AP

According to a report from the New York Daily News, a 25-year-old nursing student from Seattle is suing the NYPD after alleging earlier this year that two police officers—who had been assigned to investigate her rape case—got her drunk in a hotel room and sexually assaulted her.

The complaint, filed on Tuesday, alleges that the woman (Gawker has chosen to withhold her name) was sexually assaulted by a “social acquaintance” at an apartment in the city in January 2013. That June, having returned to her family in Seattle, she reported the assault to the NYPD by telephone and was notified—the complaint doesn’t specify whether she was told this on the initial call or later—that officers from the Special Victims Unit would travel to interview her.

On July 5, 2013, Detective Lukasz Skorzewski and his boss, Lt. Adam Lamboy, arrived in Seattle and met with the woman. The next day, Skorzewski requested a follow-up meeting; afterwards, he asked the woman to show him to the neighborhood where Lamboy was having lunch with a fellow NYPD officer, who the complaint alleges Lamboy was dating. Lamboy invited the woman to join them. When she hesitated, the complaint alleges, he reassured her: “We’ll protect you.”

This reportedly initiated a 10-hour-long “pub crawl,” during which time Skorzewski allegedly told the woman, “You’re my favorite victim!”

That night, the two officers allegedly convinced the woman to come back to their hotel with them. Lamboy, the supervising officer, left the woman in Skorzewski’s sole custody, telling him to “take care” of her. She slept in his bed while he slept on the couch. In the morning, Skorzewski, who is married, allegedly got into the bed and began attempting to kiss and grope the woman against her protestations. Eventually, the suit claims, he stopped, and she get out of bed, went into the shower, and cried.

Later, Skorzewski allegedly ordered the woman not to tell anyone what had happened. “It can’t leave this room,” he said, according to the complaint. Lamboy echoed this sentiment before the two officers left Seattle, allegedly telling the woman that her “credibility would be shot” if anyone found out what had transpired.

In November 2013, the plaintiff’s initial case was closed, without explanation. In December 2014, an Internal Affairs investigation “partially substantiated” the woman’s claims about the officers’ conduct. The Daily News first reported in January that Skorzewski and Lamboy had been transferred late last year:

Sources said Lamboy was bounced to the 90th Precinct in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in May. Skorzewski was knocked down from a detective to a patrol officer and moved to the 114th Precinct in Astoria, Queens, last week.

NYPD officials said Thursday that the Internal Affairs Bureau was investigating the allegations. A spokeswoman wouldn’t say why Lamboy, 44, and Skorzewski, 31, were still on the job.

Now, the woman is suing the city over violations of her civil rights, seeking $3 million for the officers’ “gross breach and abuse of their official police authority.”

“She was a victim made to feel re-victimized by the very people she sought for help: the police,” her attorney, Christopher Galiardo, told the Daily News this week. “The experience left her feeling exploited, helpless and alone.”

“I didn’t want to ruin his life,” the woman said in January, after the officers were transferred and demoted. “I just wanted somebody to know that this happened.”

Image via Shutterstock. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

Here’s the scoop, via the Associate Press: dozens of grumpy Secret Service employees conspired to publicly embarrass the chairman of the House oversight committee in retaliation for his committee’s ongoing investigations into recent Secret Service fuck-ups.

It’s been a pretty rotten, embarrassing 12 months for the Secret Service. A year ago tomorrow Director Julie Pierson resigned in disgrace after highly publicized and, frankly, terrifying lapses in which the service allowed a man with a knife inside the White House, and a man with a gun onto an elevator with President Obama. Times haven’t improved, much: the very next day it was reported that the service leaked President Obama’s campaign itineraries to the Romney campaign; later in the month a Secret Service dog was punched by a White House fence jumper; back in March a couple of drunk agents drove into a White House barrier, disrupting an active bomb investigation; and employees were suspended and arrested for sexual assault and breaking and entering, respectively.

Now this: a mere 18 minutes after the start of a March congressional hearing about the drunk driving incident, Secret Service employees managed to access an old 2003 application to the service filed by committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). The application was unsuccessful, for unspecified reasons, and it was circulated among Secret Service employees in an apparent plan to use the document to publicly embarrass Chaffetz. Secret Service Assistant Director Ed Lowery articulated this plan about as clearly as possible in an email to fellow Assistant Director Faron Paramore:

“Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out. Just to be fair.”

Days later, the unsuccessful application was reported by The Daily Beast, in an article entitled “Congressman Who Oversees Secret Service Was Rejected By Secret Service.” Not a lot of dots to connect, here. Low bed baby could probably crack this one.

The AP’s report indicates Homeland Security Secretary* Jeh Johnson personally apologized to Chaffetz earlier today, and the question now is whether the accessing and subsequent leaking of the application represent a criminal violation of the U.S. Privacy Act. It seems impossible that there won’t be another round of resignations from within the department’s leadership—at least under Pierson’s watch the fuck-ups were good old-fashioned incompetence.

[AP]

Photo via AP

Pop quiz: should you feed the bears? You should not.

An old woman in Montana will presumably do a lot better on this quiz if she manages to survive what has been described as a “severe” attack by a bear inside her home on Sunday. What prompted this close encounter, you ask? The bear had been “extensively fed” bird feed and “other food” by the woman, at the home. Bears do not make good houseguests! Do not feed the bears!

The bear’s point of entry into the home is undetermined, probably because grandma rolled out the red carpet for feeding time. After enjoying a free snack and savaging his host, the rude bear exited via a window and vanished into the wilderness, which is the only place bears should be because they are wild animals who have no business visiting the homes of the elderly for regular meals. So far, attempts to trap the dark-hearted beast have been unsuccessful.

Do not feed the bears, guys.

[Missoulian]

Photo via Shutterstock

Hooooo, boy. Matt Damon sure has a lot to say lately! Having already touched—oh so delicately—on the topics of diversity in film and the intricacies of being out in Hollywood, he’s now moving onto his best bud Ben Affleck’s former relationship with Jennifer Lopez. Timely and relevant!

Via US Weekly:

“There’s nobody who’s more misunderstood,” the Martian actor, 44, said of his old pal. “Ten years ago, the public image of him could not have been farther apart from who he actually is. It was like he was being cast in a role, that he was a talentless kind of meathead, with his whole relationship with Jennifer Lopez.”

[...]

“He just got cast as this person that he wasn’t,” Damon said of Affleck, 43, when he was with J.Lo, now 46. “It was just really painful. It was painful to be his friend, because it wasn’t fair, you know? To my mind, nobody really got him at all.”

Okay, Matt!

Congratulations to my beautiful siren queen Naya Rivera and her husband Ryan Dorsey on the birth of their baby boy. Josey Hollis Dorsey was born on Sept. 17 at Cedars-Sinai in L.A., beating Kim Kardashian’s baby by a FULL SEASON. [E! News]

Kate Winslet’s divorces or a Nancy Meyer’s movie? Either way, IT’S COMPLICATED. Talking about her first two marriages, Winslet told the Wall Street Journal, “I know lots of people who are not in the public eye who have gone through several marriages, I really do, and it’s just those are the cards that life dealt me. I didn’t plan on its being that way.”

She continued:

And fuck me, it hasn’t been easy, you know...No one really knows what has happened in my life. No one really knows why my first marriage didn’t last; no one knows why my second didn’t. And I’m proud of those silences.”

[WSJ]

• Have tickets to an upcoming Kelly Clarkson concert? Too bad! [Page Six]
  
• This is what happens when a kid stars on a Disney show instead of going to school. [E! News]
• Either that, or this. [Billboard]
• Wait, did we know that the girl on The Knick is Bono’s DAUGHTER? [Page Six]

Contact the author at madeleine@jezebel.com.

Images via Getty.

On Wednesday, six months after a volunteer reserve deputy, Bob Bates, shot and killed an unarmed man, Eric Harris, a grand jury indicted Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz on misconduct charges. The New York Times reports that Glanz will step down as sheriff.

http://gawker.com/police-reserve...

Glanz has served as sheriff for more than 26 years; his friend Bates, an insurance broker, led his most recent re-election campaign. Bates (the circumstances of whose training as a reserve depity are murky at best) has plead not-guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter in Harris’ April shooting death.

http://gawker.com/tulsa-authorit...

According to the Tulsa World, the grand jury returned three indictments: two misdemeanors (refusal to perform official duty and willful violation of the law) and a third, sealed indictment—its charge unknown. The grand jury also recommended that Glanz be removed from office.

From the World:

The first count charges the sheriff with failing to turn over a report on the 2009 internal investigation into Bates despite lawful requests for it from media outlets. Glanz directed employees to “hold on to it,” the indictment alleges.

The second accuses Glanz of “regularly” using county vehicles for official business despite taking a $600 monthly stipend to use his personal vehicle.

In addition to leading Glanz’s re-election campaign, the Associated Press reports, Bates donated thousands of dollars to the department in the form of cash, cars, and equipment.

Glanz’s attorney did not give a date for the sheriff’s official resignation, but said that Undersheriff Rick Weigel would take over his duties immediately.

Photo credit: AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

The New York Times reported yesterday on the shocking case of 33-year-old Jennifer Berry, who was charged Tuesday with the murder of her newborn baby. Now police are reportedly reviewing the details of the unexpected death of Berry’s infant son in 2008.

Berry’s newborn daughter was found Monday in an alleyway beneath her seventh-floor Bronx apartment, with the baby’s umbilical cord still attached, having apparently fallen from the apartment’s window. The New York City medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, indicating that the fatal injuries were sustained in the fall, and that the baby was alive when she was thrown from the window. Berry had reportedly told friends and family she’d miscarried at some point prior to giving birth to the child in secret.

The case has presented investigators with the occasion to look with fresh eyes upon the 2008 death of Berry’s two-week-old son, at the time ruled a case of sudden infant death syndrome. Officials are reportedly keeping information related to the death of Berry’s son under wraps for the time being, other than confirming the decision to re-open the investigation.

[New York Times] [again]

Photo via AP

The federal trial for Carmen Lechin—a former beauty queen whose alleged assault on a flight attendant got her flight turned right around in 2013—has everything you need for a first-class drama: namely, an international flight, a drunken fight and a scorned almost-ex-husband.

Lechin, a former Miss Venezuela who competed in the Miss Universe pageant, was taken into custody by FBI agents after a fight over a pillow turned into an alleged drunken air assault on a Borgota-bound international flight. Via the Houston Chronicle:

In opening statements, Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Winter said Lechin became increasingly agitated after being denied a pillow, which United no longer offers to passengers, and after several confrontations with her husband.

She finally received a written warning that said: “Your behavior is violating federal law” – which she allegedly threw at [the flight attendant.]

Prosecutors say an off-duty police officer was forced to handcuff her with zip ties after Lechin began kicking and screaming, and the pilots returned the plane to Houston citing safety concerns. But Lechin says her husband, with whom she is currently embroiled in a bitter divorce, was the one at fault.

The flight attendant overreacted to Dr. Lechin’s claims that his wife was “invading his space,” Carmen Lechin’s lawyer, Houston attorney F. Andino Reynal, told jurors.

“My client, who is in the midst of a very emotional situation with her husband, is getting scared and worried because this man keeps calling the flight attendant,” he said.

“We’re going to prove to you that [the flight attendant] did not follow regulations,” Reynal said, “that he became hysterical, that he overreacted and that he displayed poor judgment.”

According to the Chronicle, a jury of Lechin’s peers will decide her fate this week.

Contact the author at gabrielle@gawker.com.

Five brothers of the University of Alabama chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity were arrested and jailed this week after an alleged hazing event left several pledges badly burned.

According to AL.com, the brothers were arrested after a joint investigation between the University of Alabama Police Department and the University of Alabama Office of Student Conduct concluded criminal hazing had occurred. Via AL.com:

The fraternity members several weeks ago reportedly made pledges stand in buckets of ice and salt, a combination which led to burns on the pledges’ feet. University officials didn’t confirm those specifics, or the time of arrests. AL.com asked school authorities midday about the hazing allegations, and they said they weren’t aware of any. They then released a media statement about 6:30 p.m.

The five men—21-year-old Colter K. Anderson, 21-year-old John Patrick Buckley, 20-year-old Hunter Lee Wagner, 20-year-old Richard E. Markwalter, and 20-year-old Mark Allen Powers—have all been charged with varying counts of hazing and were reportedly placed on “interim sanctions,” the meaning of which is unclear.

The fraternity, which is currently barred from social activities and new member events, has not lost its charter.

Image via AP. Contact the author at gabrielle@gawker.com.

Next time you have your ass handed to you by a member of New York’s finest—be it a hotheaded rookie who plays by his own rules or a grizzled veteran who’s too old for this shit—you’ll have the comfort of knowing that the officer is under strict orders to carefully report every aspect of the smackdown. Will he actually do so accurately? That’s a good question.

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton is set to announce a new department initiative today that will require officers to file comprehensive “Force Incident Reports” every time they use their batons, punch farebeaters, or tackle world-renowned athletes outside of their hotels. Beginning early next year, the reports will track everything from the specific way in which the cop used force, to his justification for using it, to the race of the person he used it against. Officers who witness their colleagues using excessive force will also face punishment for failing to report it. The hope is that the new policy will teach the NYPD about the ways in which its own officers make aggressive contact with the New Yorkers they are tasked with protecting—something Bratton openly admits the department knows less about than it should.

Self-reporting by NYPD officers has led to real reform in the past. In 2008, a court ordered the department to publicly release its own electronic data about stop-and-frisk incidents, which helped the public understand how seemingly arbitrary many of those stops were. (“Police stop a 21-year-old in Brooklyn, citing ‘other.’ No weapon is found,” reads a typical entry, tweeted today by an automated bot that has been chronologically publishing, since 2013, every 2011 stop in the database.) Five years after the court order, a little-known progressive candidate named Bill de Blasio was elected mayor of New York on a platform that centered around curtailing stop-and-frisk.

But officers were incentivized to report street stops. Whether the department wants to admit it or not, it’s become clear in recent years that official or unofficial quotas were placed on beat cops for the number of stops and frisks they carried out. To file a report was to show your boss that you were doing your job. The use of force reporting will only be useful to citizens if it reflects the instances when cops aren’t doing their jobs, or aren’t doing them correctly. What incentive is there for an officer to fill out a form that says he shoved someone for no reason?

The New York Times, which broke the story, is right to compare the use of force forms to the weapons discharge reports that officers are required to file every time they fire their guns, whether they hit anyone or not. In the early 1970s, when those forms were first brought in, weapons discharges “reached a peak of nearly 1,000” per year, the Times writes. Last year, there were only 79 discharges, a record low. Surely, the vast majority of that statistical dropoff is due to a legitimate decline in shootings—maybe even all of it. Maybe not.

On July 13, 1977, years after officers were first required to begin filing firearms discharge reports, the power went out across all five boroughs for a full 24 hours. On Broadway in Brooklyn, along the Bushwick-Bed Stuy border, burning and looting were rampant, and cops were unreserved about using their guns in hopes of quelling the chaos. Jonathan Mahler described the chaos in his book The Bronx Is Burning:

Many officers were using their guns repeatedly, usually with the intention of clearing hostile crowds and scaring off snipers. Some cops recall Emergency Services vans combing the streets, tossing out extra boxes of ammunition to officers in need. One cop says he and his partner shot on the order of 130 rounds. Another remembers talking to a shaken transit cop who had defended a token booth at an elevated subway stop by running back and forth between the two entrances, firing his pistol to keep the looters at bay.

It’s impossible to know how many bullets were fired by the cops that night (or by the looters, some of whom had robbed a Broadway store that sold guns). According to the official record, the number was zero. “During a few successive roll calls, sergeants asked if anyone had used his gun that night,” Mahler writes. “No one wanted to deal with the paperwork that accompanied every shot fired, not to mention the elaborate examinations and reenactments mandated by the Weapons Discharge Review Board.”

The captain of Bushwick’s 83rd Precinct praised his officers’ restraint in a report to NYPD brass about the blackout. “The Officers were subjected to provocations of bottle and other missile throwing, and the stress of attempting to contain the unrestrained lawlessness,” he wrote. “However, no firearms were discharged.”

After the terror of the blackout—and of Son of Sam, who was still at large and murderously prowling the city—public opinion was firmly on the side of law and order. The cops of the 83rd didn’t kill anyone; if they had reported the discharges like they were supposed to, it’s hard to imagine anyone being seriously reprimanded for what amounted to warning shots on the most trying night of night of their careers. The NYPD chose to ignore a night of hailing bullets not to save its officer from punishment, but to save them from the hassle of filling out forms.

Now imagine a scenario, in 2015, in which a cop would face retribution for using force. He uses a chokehold against a man who isn’t resisting, or throws a public housing resident to the ground while conducting a search of her apartment. The most potent weapon against such individual abuses is the intrepid bystander with a cell phone camera, but this time, no one is around to film. The only people who know about the violence are the cop, his partner, and his victim. Maybe he’ll do the right thing and report it. Maybe he won’t.

Image via AP. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.

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Amazon has a pair of nice apparel deals running right now, but they’re both Gold Boxes, so be sure to grab them before the end of the day.

First up, you can save big on a small collection of Under Armour gear for the fall and winter, including a hoody, a zip-up, and a pullover. [40% Off Under Armour Team Gear at Amazon]

Next up, you can choose from a large assortment of Caterpillar work boots, including waterproof and steel toe models. Everything in the sale is between $49-$89, and you can’t go wrong with any of the styles at those prices. [50% off Caterpillar Work Boots at Amazon]

As always, be sure to check out our weekly apparel post for more great clothing deals from around the web.

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Let’s say you’re curious about action cams, but don’t want to drop hundreds of dollars on a GoPro...at least not yet. These DBPOWER alternatives certainly don’t have the same brand recognition, and their image quality isn’t quite up to par with GoPro’s high end offerings, but their prices are absolutely ridiculous.

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DBPOWER 1080p/12MP Waterproof Action Camera ($57) | Amazon | Promo code IWXPZCB9

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http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PF9MTJ6

Here’s a great chance to bundle and save two ultra-popular Logitech computing accessories.

$60 gets you the Logitech MK750 solar-powered keyboard, plus a wireless marathon mouse with up to three years of battery life. You guys have bought a ton of these individually, and their combined price right now is about $77, so this bundle represents a pretty solid discount. [Logitech MK750 Wireless Solar Keyboard and Marathon Mouse Combo, $60]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZVP73S/...

If you’ve been refreshing our site every day for months, thinking to yourself, “man, I wish Kinja Deals would post a deal on Clif Organic Trail Mix Bars,” I have some wonderful news.

Today at Target, 4-packs of the bars are marked down to under $4 each, and if you buy two, you’ll get a $5 Target gift card back. Suffice it to say, that’s probably the best deal you’ll ever see on this particular brand of trail mix bar. [2x Clif Trail Mix Bar 4-Packs + $5 Target Gift Card, $8]

Sennheiser’s Momentum Headphones sound as good as they look, and Amazon has the red ones available for an all-time low $65 today. Music to your ears. [Sennheiser Momentum On Ear Headphones (Red), $65]

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-Mom...

http://homeofthefuture.gizmodo.com/these-sennheis...

When in use, this Bodum electric kettle can boil 17 ounces of water in four minutes, complete with features like an unexposed heating element and boil-dry auto shutoff. When not in use, it’s like a little piece of modern art that livens up your kitchen. [Bodum 17-Ounce Electric Water Kettle, $25]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00851LRUS/...

If you haven’t heard of the Bondic Liquid Plastic Welder before, you’ll be sold after you watch that video. Liquified plastic comes out of one end, and only hardens once it’s exposed to the LED light on the other end. Judging by its solid review average on Amazon, it really does seem to work as advertised. If you want to try it yourself, Rakuten has the complete starter kit for $16, the best price we’ve seen. [Bondic Liquid Plastic Welder, $16]

http://www.rakuten.com/prod/p/q/selle...

If you aren’t enamored with the current state of smart watches, but find the idea of notifications on your wrist appealing, the Pebble Steel is a great gateway drug. It doesn’t have a (barely) color screen like new Pebble Time, but I actually think the Steel’s stark black and white looks better. [Pebble Steel Smartwatch for Select iOS and Android Devices, $90]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/pebble-st...

Yesterday, we found great deals on the DJI Phantom 3 Standard and Phantom 3 Advanced (both are still available), but if you were holding out for the 4K-shooting Professional model, today’s your lucky day. This deal from Sears is about $150 off the popular drone’s typical selling price. [DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter Drone with 4K UHD Video Camera, $1099]

http://gizmodo.com/dji-phantom-3-...

Every modem rental fee you pay to your ISP is padding for their bottom line, and a total rip-off for you. Fortunately, you can buy your own modem for a relatively small upfront cost, and knock a few bucks off your monthly bill.

http://gizmodo.com/5948616/how-to...

There’s a general consensus that Motorola’s SB6141 is the best modem for most cable internet subscribers, but it usually runs in the $80-$90 range. Today only though, you can score a refurb from Woot for $55 shipped. It’ll pay for itself eventually no matter what it costs, but this is a great opportunity to save a decent chunk of change on this particular model. [Refurb Motorola Surfboard SB6141 Modem, $58]

http://computers.woot.com/offers/motorol...

http://lifehacker.com/5957578/the-mo...

UE’s new Roll Bluetooth speaker is the company’s smallest offering, and early reviews indicate that it lives up to its UE Boom predecessors. If you’ve been waiting for a discount to pick one up, Amazon’s taking $10 off every color they offer right now. That’s not a huge discount, but it’s the best we’ve seen. [UE Roll Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker, $90]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...

http://gizmodo.com/this-waterproo...

This vacuum-sealed storage container is designed to keep coffee and tea fresh by removing excess air, but you could use it for snacks, sugar, flour, or pretty much anything else you store in your kitchen. At $12, you might as well buy several. [Tightvac Coffeevac 1 Pound Vacuum Sealed Storage Container, $12]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0046JB136/...

I bought the FitDesk 2.0 on a whim last year and was surprised both by how viable it was to work at, and how compact it gets when folded up. It fits easily into a closet, or opens up for use while working, gaming, or marathoning Netflix, and is particularly nice out on the balcony. Today’s price isn’t the cheapest it’s ever been, but it doesn’t get a discount often. [FitDesk 2.0, $205]

http://www.woot.com/offers/fitdesk...

Check out our Office Gear Guide for more upgrades and recommendations.

http://gear.kinja.com/buying-guide-u...

Yesterday, we posted a (short-lived) deal on an electric leaf blower, but today, we’ve spotted something even better.

The Worx Electric TriVac is a leaf blower, yes. But with the flip of a switch, it reverses suction and becomes a leaf vacuum and mulcher. At $53 for a refurb, it’s a bit more expensive than most electric blowers, but its added versatility means that it’s probably worth it. [Refurb Worx Electric TriVac Leaf Blower, $53]

GoPro’s official eBay store is currently blowing out refurbs of last generation’s GoPro Hero3+ Silver for just $169. As long as you don’t mind that it’s “old,” that’s a really fantastic action cam for the price.

Let’s compare specs to the new $200 GoPro Hero+ (Hero3+ Silver bolded).

• Up to 1080p/60 or 720p/120 video vs. 1080p/60 and 720p/60
• 10 MP stills vs. 8 MP
• Removable battery and case vs. built-in case and non-removable battery

So basically, you’re saving $30 vs. the new Hero+, getting slightly better image quality, and a lot more shooting flexibility. That’s what they call a no-brainer. [Refurb GoPro Hero3+ Silver, $169]

Even if you don’t like Call of Duty, hell, even if you don’t own a PS3, you might want to buy Call of Duty: Ghosts Prestige Edition for $30. In addition to the game, you get an actual 1080p action cam and a survival paracord bracelet. That’s easily worth more than $30, game excluded. [Call of Duty: Ghosts Prestige Edition, $30]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EEMLPR2/...

Delta’s In2ition line recently took home the title of your favorite shower head, and one of their high end models is on sale right now.

Update: It seems that there’s an updated version of this shower head available for $125 on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/58480-PK-H2Oki...

The H2Okinetic In2ition features a flexible handshower that docks directly into the main shower head, and gives you the option of four different spray settings. Plus, a built-in pause feature can help you conserve water without actually turning the water on and off (cough, cough, California).

$136 is still a pretty big chunk of change, but it’s about $20 less than its usual price, and the cheapest its been since April. And if you’re using the (probably terrible) shower head that came with your home or apartment, it’s worth investing in a superior alternative that you’ll use (hopefully) every day. [Delta H2Okinetic In2ition Shower Head, $136]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009MLXJY2/

If you have even a passing interest in science fiction, film, Pink Floyd, or Dali, you owe it to yourself to watch Jodorowsky’s Dune.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J5LXMTG/

Amazon just activated one of their awesome Prime preorder discounts on Rise of the Tomb Raider for Xbox One. As long as you’re signed into a Prime account, you should see a $10 discount at checkout. [Preorder Rise of the Tomb Raider, $50]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KVRNIQU/...

Intocircuit’s Power Castle USB battery packs are some of the most popular on the market, and you can save big on a pair of high capacity models today.

Intocircuit 13000 mAh 4.8A Dual USB Power Castle Portable External Battery Charger ($15) | Amazon | Promo code 1NEWDEAL

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GFDHNLA

Intocircuit 15000 mAh 4.8A Dual USB Power Castle Portable External Battery Charger ($18) | Amazon | Promo code 2NEWDEAL

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OSYLXKU

For a limited time, Amazon is giving away a year of unlimited Cloud Drive storage ($60 value) for FREE with the purchase of a $50+ camera or photography accessory.

The list of eligible items is basically endless, and runs the gamut from SD cards to GoPros to drones to professional movie-making equipment. You’ll receive an email with instructions to set up your Cloud Drive account within 48 hours of your item shipping (full terms here). Just note that after one year, your Cloud Drive account will automatically renew at $60, unless you explicitly opt out.

To clarify, unlimited Cloud Drive is not the same thing as the free photo storage you get as a Prime member. That product runs $12/year a la carte, and includes unlimited photo storage, but only 5GB for videos and other files. What you’re getting with this deal is truly unlimited cloud storage for any files you choose. [Amazon]

We see deals on wine accessories every so often, but this $11 kit includes four of them. Even if you don’t need it for yourself, it would make a great gift. Here’s what you get:

• Decanter
  
• Vacuum Sealer
• Drip Ring
• Corkscrew

Bevan Wine Accessories 4-Pack ($11) | Amazon | Use code JIG9ZA3U

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015LLUV7O

Amazon Instant Video is currently offering every episode from the first four seasons of Game of Thrones for just $.67 each. Unfortunately, the deal is only available on standard definition downloads, but if you bought all 40 episodes, your grand total would come out to under $27. That’s less than the cost of a single season on Blu-ray, so you won’t need to take out a loan from the Iron Bank. [Game of Thrones Digital Episodes are Just $0.67 Each at Amazon]

Co-Op: Five Best Point-and-Shoot Cameras

Tech

Storage

• SanDisk Ultra 32GB Micro USBUSB 3.0 Flash Drive ($11) | Best Buy

Audio

• Omaker Orange M4 Water Resistant Bluetooth 4.0 Speaker ($19) | Amazon | Use code OMAKERM4
• Harman Kardon Onyx Studio Bluetooth Universal Wireless Speaker w/ Subwoofer ($100) | eBay
• LG Electronics TONE INFINIM Bluetooth Stereo Headset ($80) | Amazon
• Onkyo In-Ear Headphones with Control Talk ($50) | Woot
• Sennheiser Bluetooth NC On-Ear Headphones ($175) | Woot
• Ausdom M04s Bluetooth4.0 Stereo Wired / Wireless Stereo Headphones with Built-in Microphone and NFC ($41) | Amazon | Use code LVVUB5JW

Home Theater

• Westinghouse 60-Inch LED 1080p Smart HDTV ($600) | Best Buy

Computers & Accessories

• Acer GN246HL 24-Inch 1ms 144Hz HDMI LED LCD 3D Monitor ($180) | Newegg | After promo code QDEXT92820
• Logitech MK750 Wireless Solar Keyboard and Marathon Mouse Combo ($60) | Amazon
• Cyber Acoustics 2.1 Ch Speaker System ($35) | Woot
• D-Link DGS-1016D 16-Port Gigabit Unmanaged Desktop Switch ($30) | eBay
• Belkin F9K1106 Dual Band Range Extender ($35) | Amazon
• BUFFALO AirStation Extreme AC1750 Gigabit Dual Band Open Source DD-WRT Wireless Router ($120) | Amazon
• Dell Tek Backpack - 15.6’ w/ $25 Gift Card ($40) | Dell

PC Parts

• AMD FX-6300 Vishera 3.5GHz Six-Core CPU, Gigabyte MOBO w/ Radeon Graphics, 8GB MEM, 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD, Case w/ 480W PSU ($290) | Newegg
• Seagate 2TB Desktop HDD SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ($72) | Amazon
• EVGA 600 B 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified 600W Continuous Power Supply ($40) | Newegg | After $20 rebate
• Antec P280 Black Aluminum / Steel Super Mid Tower Computer Case ($60) | Newegg | After $30 rebate

Mobile Devices

• Pebble Steel Smartwatch for Select iOS and Android Devices ($90) | Best Buy
• Verizon Wireless Prepaid LG Optimus Zone 2 No Contract Phone ($12) | Best Buy
• Cocoon Grid-It CPG20BK 15 x 9.5-Inch Organizer ($15) | Amazon

Photography

• Lowepro LP36504-PWW Flipside Sport 20L Camera Daypack ($120) | Amazon

Home

• Select LED Lighting and Wall Switches are Up to 85% Off Today at Home Depot
• Panasonic 4 Channel, 2 Camera Outdoor Wireless Surveillance System ($150) | Best Buy
• Born Free BPA-Free High Heat Resistant Classic Baby Bottle Gift Set ($30) | Amazon

Beauty & Grooming

• Bassion Blackhead and Blemish Remover Kit ($8) | Amazon | Promo code Y3YD9YOX

Kitchen

• Tightvac Coffeevac 1 Pound Vacuum Sealed Storage Container ($12) | Amazon
• Zojirushi SL-JAE14HG Mr Bento Stainless Lunch Jar ($40) | Amazon
• Bodum 17-Ounce Electric Water Kettle ($25) | Amazon
• IMUSA USA GAU-80305 1100W Electric Single Burner ($12) | Amazon

Fitness

• FitDesk v2.0 Desk Exercise Bike with Massage Bar ($205) | Woot
• Stamina 1215 Orbital Rower with Free Motion Arms ($255) | Sears

Camping & Outdoors

• FuelBelt R20 Outdoor Hydration Belt ($19) | REI
• Uniden Bearcat 500 Channel Alpha Numeric Hand Held Radio Scanner with CTCSS and DCS ($85) | Amazon

Tools & Auto

• Leyaron Car Support Handle 4 in 1 Vehicle Escape Safety Tool ($11) | Amazon | Promo code BMVAIZIC
• Milwaukee Hand Truck, 800 lb. Capacity ($47) | Sears
• Up to 49% Off 3M Safety Products | Amazon
• Up to 68% Off Rubbermaid Commercial Products | Amazon

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Send deal submissions to Deals@Gawker and all other inquiries to Shane@Gawker