Linking to anything from Slate feels weird these days — they themselves have starting reflexively using #slatepitch in articles and tweets. But I never feel weird linking to Justin Peters’ Crime blog over there. Guy is always on point.
Perfect example: a post he put together recently linking to crime writers’ best pieces of the year. I’m working my way through the list now, and it’s already great. Like Doug Brown’s piece on a series of Cleveland heroin arrests. A sample:
The 2008 music video, for example, of “Out Tha Roof” with Chip Tha Ripper and Ray Jr., has all the classic “Chase” elements: holding handfuls of $100 bills, making it rain, driving his Mercedes Benz, wearing expensive jewelry. One shot that accompanies the line, “Money ain’t a thing so we throwing stacks out the roof” shows Chase standing through the sunroof of a moving Rolls Royce tossing an amount of cash worth more than many of the vacant homes away on those streets. Growls Ray Jr. in the song: “Fuck what you heard / Nigga I’m the truth / This is a hundred grand / And now it’s out the roof.” In another cash-tossing scene, he’s leaning against his Mercedes parked in front of the local corner store with a clearly visible sign that reads “WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS”.
