Nearly a decade ago, police in Richmond, CA agreed to a plan that included paying assassins. But here’s the twist. They were only potential assassins and they were paid not to kill. “Four times a year, the program’s street team sifts through police records and its own intelligence to determine, with actuarial detachment, the 50 people in Richmond most likely to shoot someone and to be shot themselves. ONS tracks them and approaches the most lethal (and vulnerable) on the list, offering them a spot in a program that includes a stipend to turn their lives around.” As MoJo’s Tim Murphy explains, it was a crazy idea, but it’s working.