Top all-time · #4501
Radley Balko
Personal blog · radleybalko.substack.compoliticsscience
Radley Balko writes The Watch, a personal blog at radleybalko.substack.com about politics and science. Since 2022, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 17 times, most often “Devil in the grooves: The case against forensic firearms analysis (2023)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Radley Balko's Substack for its critiques of forensic evidence, especially ballistics, and for its commentary on Substack, free speech and a dispute with Garry Tan over reporting.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Reporting and commentary on civil liberties and the criminal justice system. Plus other stuff.
Most-linked posts?
- Devil in the grooves: The case against forensic firearms analysis (2023)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-08-20
- Garry Tan, the CEO of venture YC, accused me of unethical reporting3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-05-15
- The Courage to Be Decent2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-04-24
What Hacker News says?
In the United States, illegal immigration is largely a humanitarian crisis. A crisis in some ways caused by the United States and their involvement in Latin America the past century. Opposition to the incoming administration’s plan for mass deportation does not have to do anything with wanting a cheap labor pool to exploit or a lack of desire to enforce the law but potentially to avoid exasperating the humanitarian…
Comment linking /p/trumps-deportation-army
on “Mass Deportation: Devastating Costs to America, Its Budget and Economy”Submitted Another scientific body has debunked bitemark analysis as a story · 406 points
HN discussionHow is this different from Subsack saying they're pure from degeneracy because they don't allow sex worker blogs? Their free speech schtick is bullshit*. It's not that nazi ideas can't be allowed to exist (you don't hear me calling for 4chan to not exist because of /pol/ for example), but declining to help monetize them is also free speech. * https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/some-thoughts-on-the-subs...
Comment linking /p/some-thoughts-on-the-substack-controversy
on “Platformer announces it's leaving Substack”Submitted For police PR flacks, quack lives matter as a story · 13 points
HN discussionRadley Balko has a great overview on the fundamental flaws with ballistics forensics[1]. The tl;dr is that the core claim of ballistics forensic analysis, that it is possible to reliably differentiate between two models of the same gun using just casings and shells fired from those guns, has never been proven to be valid. [1]: https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/devil-in-the-grooves-the-...
Comment linking /p/devil-in-the-grooves-the-case-against
on “Cellebrite asks cops to keep its phone hacking tech ‘hush hush’”Submitted Garry Tan, the CEO of venture YC, accused me of unethical reporting as a story · 5 points
HN discussion> Direct gdrive link I'm confused where this came from. I cannot find this link in the original article as submitted: https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/truth-power-and-honest-jo... The most I can find is "But I found another place where someone has posted all 81 pages. It’s here. Feel free to look them over." Where "here" links to: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21011168-responsive-... That is the 81 page…
Comment linking /p/truth-power-and-honest-journalism
on “Garry Tan, the CEO of venture YC, accused me of unethical reporting”Submitted Two Cities Under Siege as a story · 5 points
HN discussionForensic bullet analysis is phrenology for bullets: https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/devil-in-the-grooves-the-...
Comment linking /p/devil-in-the-grooves-the-case-against
on “Close to 2k Environmental Activists Killed over Last Decade”Submitted The Courage to Be Decent as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Courage to Be Decent as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted “Nobody Gives a Shit” as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Devil in the grooves: The case against forensic firearms analysis (2023) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The police militarization debate is over as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Truth, Power, and Honest Journalism as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why would ChatGPT "confess" to a crime it didn't commit? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted On broken brains, a broken system, and burning it all to the ground as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
