In an interview with the Guardian about diversity and the NYPD, department commissioner Bill Bratton said something that at first seems baffling in its racism and stupidity: “We have a significant population gap among African American males [in the NYPD] because so many of them have spent time in jail and, as such, we can’t hire them.”

On Tuesday evening, 69-year-old William Groomes, a retired corrections officer, was riding a Brooklyn-bound 4 train when he got into a confrontation with two younger men. The specifics of their quarrel aren't totally clear, but two things are certain: Groomes shot Gilbert Drogheo dead, and he wasn't arrested for it. Why not?

A day after New York City agreed to a $17 million settlement with three wrongfully convicted brothers, Dewey Bozella, who spent 26 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder, has reached a (likely multimillion-dollar) settlement with a New York county. Investing in stronger safeguards to prevent this makes good economic sense, considering how many more victims fester in prison today.