Uh, yeah... About that last item... she was, uh, fibbing a wee bit because she didn't want her family to know she was still with her boyfriend. She's a real winner, that one. (Thanks for the heads-up, John.)
51-year-old Tony Campbell and 27-year-old Christino Purisima were the two men killed last week in the adjacent Furrow St. rowhouses in Southwest Baltimore.
The Police Blotter has a 43-year-old man being beaten in his West Baltimore home with a metal pipe, a pizza deliveryman being robbed by two young men with a knife, and a whole lot of theft (including a handicapped parking permit from a 1998 Pontiac).
Sex offender Karen Diane Hammond cannot be found by Howard County police. The 49-year-old heroin addict pleaded guilty to having sex with her then 17-year-old son three years ago. She is the only sex offender in Howard that cannot be accounted for.
A gunman in a double shooting in Hyattsville is still at large. In an unrelated incident, a Hyattsville teenager was shot in the face and stomach after giving up his North Face jacket with no resistance.
Mayor O'Malley is looking into opening a free boarding school after watching a The Boys of Baraka, a documentary about Baltimore students who moved to a boarding school in Kenya. That school then closed, forcing the boys back to the Baltimore school where they had been failing. WJZ writes, "O'Malley says city kids shouldn't have to be shipped overseas in order for them to get the breathing space they need to learn and grow."
In the "crime against art" department, the Dime Museum will be closing at year's end unless the money fairy pays it a visit.
18 comments:
So, O'Malley wants to open a school? What a novel idea!
Wait a sec. Doesn't he already have a few? Aren't they some of the worst in the nation? Yes, I know, I'm nit-picking, but this man has some of the WORST ideas.
I have a better idea. Let's bring the teachers from the Baraka School to Baltimore... and send Mr. O'Malley to Nairobi, yeah! I'd be delighted to teach him Swahili for Travelers.
The reason the Baraka School works is that it removes the young people from all the sordid influences which make up the City of Baltimore. The whole POINT is to send them away, dummy!
Please make contributions payable to the Campaign for O'Malley for Dog-Catcher.
Chuck:
The abduction at the Wheaton Metro was a fakeout. Your link is good, but your caption is counterfactual.
A fakeout? That is crazy i got amber alerts anfelt for the child because i have a 5year old myself. What some people won't do.....
Hmmm... since the Baraka school closed, your idea just might work. And the "Teachers for Mayors" swap is even more appealing than the old "guns for money" exchanges the police occasionally do.
Actually, I think boarding schools are a great idea, largely because of the exact reason you mention: the students are at least partially removed from the sordid influences that make up the city of Baltimore.
Of course, I also think it would be amazing if every parent who put their kid in private school because of the sub-standard schools in their district would join in a class-action lawsuit against the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland (and we might as well get the U.S. involved too, with their incredibly inane "No Child Left Behind." More like 40,000 left behind, and that's just in our city.), insisting that the government foot all or part of their tuition bills.
My problem with it, of course, is that it would merely widen the gap that already exists between the public and private school students in the city. Taking more money away from the school system isn't going to solve the problem. Firing the school board might be a good start.
I'm not up enough on city politics. Didn't we try that a few years ago, though? What ever happened with the big school board shake-up? It seemed so promising for a while there.
And I can't even fathom what would drive a mother to pretend that she and her child have been abducted. An enormous waste of resources, and a blatant "screw you" to everyone who actually cares.
I hope her punishment is quick and severe, and I hope it delivers a loud message that 'crying wolf' will not be tolerated.
And even moreso, I hope her child has a sane and stable relative with whom he can stay. I rarely support separating a child from its mother, but in this case, I seriously question if she is fit to raise a child.
Well, one could bring a class-action suit only on the basis that the school system violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment by denying access to a particular arbitrarily chosen class or category, such as a race or religious group.
If they deny a service to everyone equally, then they cannot really be sued. The City of Baltimore has no charter obligation to do anything... for anyone. And in that it succeeds with distinction.
Personally, I think we should have City Council obligate the municipality to provide for 1) the reasonable expectation of safety of person and property for all and 2) universal education through high school (provided students abide by the behavioral regulations of the school).
I don't understand that school story. He wants to open a boarding school so kids form other places can come here? Am I reading that right?
Baraka School is a school in rural Nigeria where numerous youths from Baltimore who were having nonclinical 'behavioral challenges' were sent to learn how to be... civilized human beings?
It worked pretty well for those who made it through. U.S. citizens were warned of political risk after the bombings in Nairobi, so they're being brought back. Now, O'Malley thinks he'd like to provide a healthy environment for them.
Great idea. The whole object of this blog is that his administration doesn't provide a very healthy environment for anyone. I think everyone should be sent away from Baltimore for their well-being.
Baltimore, Believe? Baltimore... be left.
Oh, has anyone noticed from the blotter the theft of handicapped tags and the robbery of a deaf, mute kid for his jacket?
Is it me, or isn't it kinda lame (no pun there) to steal from the handicapped?
Charm City hoods are so pitiful. And plentiful.
Now now, the object of the blog* (as far as I'm concerned anyway, can't speak for Chuck's motives) is not to make a point about O'Malley or any individual, or point fingers at anyone's office or performance. In fact, I think Marty's done a great job with many things, and if you compare him to Schmoke he's one TCB MF. I've just become increasingly indignant over the course of the year about his total non-addressing of public safety. He's been completely, totally invisible. And Duncan doesn't seem to be saying anything about it either, which makes me wonder if they're all in cahoots to keep everything status quo. WTF-- is no one opposing him for mayor in '06, he can be that smug?
Agreed. I didn't intend HIS administration as opposed to another lying baby-kisser.
The point was that the blog wouldn't exist if the job were being done.
Not necessarily.
I am, unfortunately, far more ignorant about local politics than I should be, and I would be a hypocrite if I either bashed or praised O'Malley. From what I understand of the past 20 years of Baltimore mayors, he's far from the worst.
I lived in NY during both of Giuliani's terms. He has become a figure of respect and admiration nationwide for his mayoral skills, but nobody ever really mentions the forgotten neighborhoods in the forgotten boroughs: East New York, Richmond Hill, Corona... all were essentially untouched -- or even worsened -- by Rudy's politics. Does this make him a bad mayor? No, not really. He did what he could with what he had, but he couldn't save everything. That takes more than one man. Fixing Baltimore takes more than O'Malley.
And while I'm really just a hanger-on to this blog, I would venture to say it would still exist even if the job were being done. Giuliani did his job very well, and he did many of the things that O'Malley is criticized for not doing. However, Giuliani's competence didn't mean jack when you were walking through Queens and stumbled upon what could only be an "unofficial" graveyard.
Crime exists, even in the best of times. As citizens, it's our responsibility to pay attention. In my eyes, this blog is a very noticeable way to remind people -- citizens and politicians -- of that.
Crime will always be out there in some degree. There are two distinct forms of exposure, however: systematic risk and idiosyncratic risk.
Residents of Guilford face approximately the same risk of being hit by a meteorite that I face in my more inner city environs. It is essentially exogenous to the participants and their actions.
On the other hand, a bystander in my neighborhood is exposed to a far greater risk of being agg. assaulted than if he were in Guilford on any day of the week.
A former New Yorker who lived in the East Village and East Williamsburgh BEFORE they were gentrified, I'd feel more at ease living in Bed-Stuy than where I live in Balto. Now, I could move to Guilford.
The question, I suppose, is this: while there may be some variation in systematic risk of crime across cities, is it ethical for a municipal government to decide to subject certain of its citizens to outrageous levels of idiosyncratic crime risk in order to fund discretionary programs, like convention hotels.
I take the view that as the sole policing entity in this jurisdiction, the Balto. City Police Department must either do everything reasonably within its power (regardless of competing political priorities) to minimize idiosyncratic risks across the board, or it must acknowledge that the laws of the State of Maryland do not really apply in this jurisdiction, which is startling, to say the least.
That is, if Maryland's Legislature makes murder illegal by statue, yet only the City can enforce within its boundaries and the City chooses as a matter of priorities to 'allow' murders, then has it not 'decriminalized' the behavior? If Maryland has no capacity to enforce its laws, then what meaning would we attach to its being the source of law?
Perhaps the answer is that the practice of delegating law enforcement to county-level governments doesn't work when those governments' fiscal authority creates conflict between performing the delegated functions (which are the basis for taxing authroty to be granted by the State) and engaging in discretionary programs which can have great local appeal within councilmanic districts.
Perhaps the answer is a two-tired system of taxation: first, funds which are necessary to perform the function of enforcing the laws handed down by statute from Annapolis and those under ordinance from the City and only once that is fully-funded, an additional fund for discretionary expenditures. That is, you only get money for hotels AFTER you've done the job of enforcing against reasonably anticipated crime. Is there still a residual probability of exposure? Yes, but no one area should be subject to a higher residual than any other.
1. No, it's not ethical. It's downright assholic.
2. I wouldn't be so sure about Guilford, in high school a a classmate of mine was home-invaded at gunpoint and tied up and robbed.
3. *the point of the blog is to inform city citizens (mostly me) so that they (meaning I) can assess risk and be appropriately wary, as opposed to living in a state of nebulous fear.
That damn Dime Museum was never open and it's in a horrible location.
4, and why is Karen Hammond not in a cozy padded cell?
and not least 5. thanks for rocking the blog with excellent research, coding and grammar.
Charles je t'aime plus étrange.
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