Jim Cozzolino wasn’t afraid of serving jail time. He was just afraid of where he’d be serving that jail time. Two months ago, Cozzolino was sentenced to four months in jail for illegally discharging a weapon (“The Trial,” December 25). No matter that his gun accidentally fired during a melee…

In 2002, the department had only 140 Tasers in use. Now it has 1,556. You may remember the startling headlines from early last year: In 2002, Phoenix police officers shot 28 people, killing 13. It was a record year for police shootings, but not much worse than the previous five…

As Governor Janet Napolitano and Department of Corrections officials portrayed it, the end of the 15-day standoff at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis was a triumphant love fest. The remaining hostage was released unharmed into the arms of the governor, the result of state officials’ brilliant strategy of subtle negotiation…

President Bush was just in town, which meant a city of three million got its bowels put in a security vise so the incumbent could look interested in education. On Wednesday, he was at Mesa Community College to congratulate college officials on their job-training efforts. It was basically just another…

MARANA — George Johnson watches stonefaced as two Black Hawk helicopters rise from the tarmac and tilt toward Ragged Top Mountain, the heart of Ironwood Forest National Monument southeast of Phoenix and home to one of Arizona’s last remaining native herds of desert bighorn sheep. The Army helicopters are loaded…

I’ve been here too many times before to muster much outrage or amazement. Watching Joe Arpaio’s guys dismantle a little guy through gross abuse of police power has become a routine event in this county. The banality of evil, played out methodically over never-ending seasons, does that to a human…

Frank Nickman, formerly Farzin Nikmanesh, knew he would be your devil the moment he stepped back into the terminal in Farmington, New Mexico, the morning of September 11, 2001. He looked at the televisions; he looked at the drained white faces beneath them. Ah, this is why we were ordered…

Once again, Arizona taxpayers have been stung with a classic bait-and-switch. This time, the financial ruse comes under the guise of prison reform. Arizona’s prisons can handle 27,000 inmates. They currently house 31,000. So legislators went into special session with the goal of solving the overcrowding crisis. Prior to the…

The message was as clear as the image indelible: The inhumanity of Officer Jason Schechterle’s tragically burned face was a product of the inhumane Ford Motor Company. Ford built the police cruiser that engulfed the Phoenix officer in flames when he was rear-ended during a routine traffic stop in 2001…

The sheriff’s deputies at the door told Richard Schmidt that he and his four kids had 10 minutes to vacate their home near Central Avenue and Happy Valley Road. It was the night of September 11, 2002, a particularly bad night to hear that something is threatening your home and…

If you ask Child Protective Services officials to see copies of complaints made against the agency, you will receive pages of reports that look like the documents pictured at right. No joke. I’ve got a stack of such documents in front of me. Now, with such non-information in your ink-blackened…

“Town of Paradise Valley Police,” the dispatcher answers the radio. “This is Buck,” Sergeant Buck Boehm says. “Yes, Buck.” “You know where the Baskin-Robbins is by the Mobil station on Gold Dust and Scottsdale Road?” “Okay.” “Okay. This vehicle is parked right in front of Baskin-Robbins. Looks like either two…

On America’s top 45 AM radio stations, 310 hours of every week is occupied by bilious chatter from conservative talk show hosts. By comparison, liberal hosts account for only five hours of programming, or, my computer calculator says, 1.6 percent as much. Phoenix is devoid of any major liberal-leaning talk…

Arizona’s prison system is in crisis. The state’s prisons are built to hold 26,000 inmates. They now hold more than 30,000. Under Arizona’s current sentencing laws, the state’s prison population is expected to continue exploding with more than 1,000 additional inmates every year. By next summer, Arizona prisons are estimated…

Lame duck mayor Skip Rimsza screwed up taking roll call for the new version of the Phoenix City Council at a recent council meeting. “Vice Mayor Simplot?” he asked. “Ah, jeez, sorry,” Rimsza quickly caught himself. “Not so quick. Councilman Simplot.” Maybe it was a Freudian slip. Sure, newly elected…

In this job, it’s difficult not to maintain a mental “coaches’ poll” of the state’s top scumbags. Sociopath Sheriff Joe is a perennial powerhouse in the dirtbag BCS. Former bishop Tommy “Speed Bump” O’Brien has the strong running game and defense necessary to challenge for the title. Russell Pearce, Dave…

I had been in this situation before. Last time I got a call about a mom and a young daughter arguing in a park, I nearly got my head blown off. I mean, you arrive and see a young woman sitting calmly on a park bench with a purse and…

I don’t get the adrenal cascade of rage much anymore, and I can’t even remember the last time I saw the thin veneer of civil society collapse before my eyes. I’m guessing that’s why it was so invigorating to sit in line for an hour last week in 105-degree heat…

Thank God I’m having 40-weight coffee with Phil Gordon at Starbucks. Because taken straight, Gordon can make a guy awfully sleepy. The position to which Gordon aspires apparently has the same effect on Phoenix voters. Of the 1.3 million residents of what soon could be America’s fifth-largest city, only 125,000…

The call came into the Phoenix alarm room at 6:38 p.m. last Monday. Within seconds, Phoenix notified Rural/Metro Fire Department to respond immediately. A mother had just found her 2-year-old girl floating face down in a pool in the 16600 block of West Hilton Avenue in the far West Valley…

I find myself on the couch excited about watching the last few innings of an Arizona Diamondbacks game. I haven’t felt this way since the postseason run in 2001. What the hell is going on here? I’m supposed to be mowing. My 10-year-old son joins me. I look at him,…

I still see you in your googly-wheeled Escalade, alone, cruising down the HOV lane at rush hour sporting your sky-blue “alternative fuels” license plate. But I no longer reach from my own fumigating jalopy to offer the spiteful spike of my middle finger. I have sold my portable tire spikes…