Spreuken over Man

[Samuel Sewall is America's counterpart to his slightly older contemporary, Samuel Pepys. Both men were essentially humane and humorous pragmatists, honest about themselves and endlessly inquisitive about what makes other people tick. Both started keeping diaries in the 1660s. Sewall, unlike Pepys, kept his up for more than 50 years, filling it with frank, earthy, often touching detail:] We can actually feel life's slither as it slides through our fingers, and his, ... Sewall was inventing what it is to be a private citizen.

In this case, the law enforcement officers felt that the jury's verdict was insufficient to the cause justice. Three men, good, veteran officers were murdered in cold-blood by a coward who surrendered to the tactical unit that responded because he was afraid getting shot himself. The jury's sentencing recommendation was not good enough.

There are men in that booth right there with guns, men in that [second] booth right there with guns, men right up there in that [third] booth with guns. All of our security officers, and there are several hundred of them, are former or retired military or retired law enforcement.

It's going to make it a lot tougher. We'd like to start where we left off, but my men don't submerge or go into houses with deep water. It makes searching almost impossible...

To say that a thing has never yet been done among men is to erect a barrier stronger than reason, stronger than discussion