Ten more people in this week's "Murder Ink." All 10 received at least passing mention in the Sun.
A 16-year-old girl accused a detective in the Southeastern of sexual misconduct during an interview at the station house.
Closing arguments are happening this afternoon in the Lamar Owens rape trial.
A suicidal, knife-wielding man was shot after advancing on officers in the Southwestern.
James Kraft, councilman for the city's First District, told the State's Attorney's Office that there is no excuse for dropping over half of their criminal cases in 2005.
Eugene Perry, accused of fatally shooting two police officers (his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend), has been deemed incompetent to stand trial.
Nine people were arrested in a major Howard County cocaine bust.
Police are cracking down on aggressive driving. The article doesn't mention if there are plans for a crackdown on aggressive shooting, stabbing, or beating.
Yesterday we had axes, today we get hammers.
A couple was arrested for stealing tools from garages and lawns in Baltimore County.
And I thought it was common knowledge that there is some serious price gouging happening in the region's poorest areas.
An Examiner editorial on policing (thanks, Galt) that is already inspiring some conversation in the comments.
18 comments:
And to think that Mr. Perry was competent to carry a gun for his law enforcement duties and then was found incompetent to be held responsible when he used a gun in a violent crime. This is hypocrisy at its finest. Mr. Perry engaged in threatening behavior for an extended period of time before this crime and he acted in an intentful, logical manner to locate Mr. Vasquez's residence. These facts alone would lead me to think that he was fully competent at the time of his crime. His disbelief and supposed grief about his crime should not overshadow the innocent victims' murders and their families' grief. In fact his reactions to the horrible crime that he committed would lead me to believe that he is in touch with reality, the seriousness of his crime and the potential consequences.
jablow's response to the examiner article was basically 'you stfu or you're next, punk!' WHAT A WASTE!
anon, you're confusing competency to stand trial with criminal responsibility. Two very different, but sometimes related, things.
Oh, I've kinda stopped looking for any sincerity coming from spokesweasel Jablow. I never thought that much of him as a newsman.
The District of Columbia council has passed the emergency crime bill. It seems to rely on overtime, rather than new hires, and is therefore best viewed as a band-aid.
http://www.examiner.com/a-184397~Council_backs_crisis_crime_bill.html
I still maintain that, barring rare exceptions, you really have to do something stupid to get arrested in this town.
It seems those cases in the article all had one thing in common: people giving flak to officers in stressful situations. Once an officer is arresting someone, he/she can't start justifying their actions to the general public. If he does, the situation can easily get out of control with angry people swarming around the scene. Cops are human, they get scared just like us, they want to go home safely and don't want to risk being attacked by a mob.
After witnessing numerous arrests myself-- and even having the cops called on me (no, I was not arrested), here is my advice if you are stopped by a cop in Baltimore...
1) Shut up. You are not in a persnickety high-school debate session. Don't attempt to explain the law to an officer, even if he is "wrong".
2) Keep your distance from a crime scene. Don't dare ask questions until everything is under control.
3) If you are stopped and being questioned, don't start gesticulating and shouting. This will get you handcuffed and seated on the curb. If you continue after that, they will lie you face down in the street and step on you for an arbitrary amount of time.
4) Answer all questions carefully and clearly. Don't lie and don't embellish. Don't get emotional or irrational.
Anon,
Your points are well made. People should not fear police, but there are also fundamental rules of communication that must be considered, especially in potential life-and-death situations.
Many of us who have been fortunate (or unfortunate, as the case may be) enough to navigate through the educational / political / corporate worlds have learned the basics of effective cultural communication. What I wonder is where the kids who are growing up in B'more's crappier neighborhoods and attending our crappier schools are supposed to learn these cultural rules, especially when there are many who turn to extreme violence to solve minor disputes.
Now, this is where you need that male role model Si and I've been discussing.
Anon, please believe it. I've seen numerous soft-spoken, well-behaved (but factually insistent)citizens just up and arrested because the officer wasn't going to have factual opposition.
It's wrong. It happens most when officers are in the wrong, and everyone involved knows it. It dimishes the stature of other officers in the community.
...Anon, please believe it. I've seen numerous soft-spoken, well-behaved (but factually insistent) citizens just up and arrested because the officer wasn't going to have factual opposition.
What is one person's "factual insistence" may in fact look like a the beginning of an out-of-control situation to the officer. A crime scene or a traffic stop or a questioning is not the time for "debate".
As for cultural rules for communication, as taodechuck mentioned, the lack of understanding of those things in this town is why the police here can't trust anyone. They don't know if the well-behaved person who is "factually insisting" at one moment may freak out later or may attract a mob of "less rational" people if the cop starts discussing the merits of arresting or not arresting someone.
I have seen women call the police because of an assault by her husband and assault the police when, upon arriving, they prepare to arrest the husband. This was done with a deadly weapon, so yes, it can escalate quickly, given the kind of people we have in this town.
I've also seen a storekeeper, aged about 65, arrested because he (verbally)contested the charge that he was loitering in front of his own store while he was locking up. If he contests the charge peacefully (but assertively), then arresting him because he might get agitated is way too pre-emptive a management strategy for a peace officer.
I'm sure I'll take flack for this, but I have observed a strong correlation between smallish, female officers and pre-emptive arrest. I speculate that their lack of physical superiority results in pre-emptive behavior. Big, guy cops are perhaps more able to maintain a credible physical threat.
Either way, the current level of improper arrests is just way, way too high. If cops feel compromised because violence can erupt unexpectedly, then assign them partners, which would require more hires.
But you cannot just run around arresting people who have done nothing. I'm not even referring to small crimes. This is about no crime committed.
So basically you want...
* A lot more cops.
* Big guys in pairs.
* Willing to discuss "facts" with "assertive" people.
In other words, you want to more than double police expenditures and police staff even though they have trouble maintaining their current staffing levels? Not gonna happen, ever.
Plus, I don't believe that a cop would arrest someone that they know was locking up their own store.
Just. Don't. Believe. it.
There must be more to the story. What about your own arrest exploits, galt, what happened?
Believe it. I saw it. I'm the one who called the District HQ all night because it takes the Commissioners a while to determine that they have no basis for charging. Meanwhile, you sit in a cell. I made it very clear that they were welcome to hold him for 23 hrs. 59 minutes and that if they held him that long I'd testify in a false arrest suit.
As for me, the first time it happened my house was broken into. I called 311 because the perps were long gone. The officer responding basically wrote it off because there were no perps to do anything with. Didn't want to take a report either, after I told her I wasn't filing with my insurer. She asked, I answered. (my mistake) Because I had seen some street people hanging around the block for several days, I gave her their description. She drove off (no report taken.).
I walked down the street and came back to find one of the street couple on my lawn. I told them the property was posted No Trespassing and that they were to leave. Immediately. She told me she had dropped her husband's prescription in my house when they broke in. I told her to leave anyway. Called 911 on my neighbor's cell phone as he watched the drama unfold..
The same officer came on the call. As her car approached the street gal fled down an alley. I told the officer that the perp was headed due north on XXXXXX avenue. She told me she wasn't taking the call. I explained that not only did she have a B&E, but also an admitted perp fleeing the scene.
The officer insisted that she had many calls that night (late on a Friday night in the Summer- yes, always very busy in my sector) and she was leaving again. I informed her that she should do what she thought best, but that I'd be referring the matter up the line on Monday. I asked for her badge number. Not screamed, not gestured, just asked in very even voice. At that moment, she placed my hands behind me, cuffed them, and told me I was under arrest. Incredulous, I asked "On what charges, pray tell?" No answer.
She ran my information and waited for a transport van. The van driver, with whom I've been doing neighborhood watch for a decade, asked her if she was sure of what she was doing. She steamrolled.
It was only when I got to central booking that anyone told me I was arrested for disorderly conduct. (The transporting officer told me he'd let the Commander know what she'd done in the morning.) I stayed there for just under 24 hours, fuming. I was in the right. I had witnesses. AND it was on camera. I was released because the Commissioner's office felt it would be unable to prove the charges. (that's because they were untrue. Funny, that way.)
After I was released, I had to wait a week for her supervising Lieutenant to get back from vacation. When I discussed it with the Lt., she went back to the officer with the facts I gave her, returned to me and indicated that it was an unfortunate misunderstanding. She asked if I wanted to get the officer fired. I said "No, it's not like she shot me. She just needs to understand that she cannot just arrest people for nothing."
The Lt. told me she'd call back. Never did. I called her, asking what the officer was going to do. She said "Nothing. You said you didn't want to bring formal charges."
I replied that an apology would still be in order. She told me officers never do that and volunteered that if she were having a very busy night and a citizen occupied her time with a call she didn't want to take, she'd do the same thing. I reminded her that I never held the officer in place, just required her badge number and she could go at any time. She repeated that the incident was unfortunate.
Oh, and there is one thing more to the story... we are in a lower-income black neighborhood. Makes all the difference. Interestingly, I saw a LOT of familiar faces in the various cells. All the guys we need out of this neighborhood. And you have no idea how many they pack into a cell on a Friday night/Sat. morning, right on top of each other. Prince Albert would be proud.
fyi,
The badge number is stamped prominently on the badge.
FYI:
It was dark by that time and it's a real bad idea to lodge a complaint about officer # 521 if in fact you were dealing with officer # 921. "Oops, I guess I read it wrong." is a bad answer when you're dealing with someone's reputation.
And Anon, this is why we have a crisis in Baltimore. To provide decent policing here REQUIRES many more cops. It's not really a choice. If you have a certain number of offenders, you're gonna need so and so many cops. We have THAT many offenders. To maintain the status quo on manpower is to underwrite both the inept deterrent capacity and the occasionally outrageously extralegal conduct of the Balto. City Police Department. Do we have a big pile of money that no one could spend on some other thing? Nope. Do politicians want to own up to spending what it takes? Nope. Will people live in the non-enclave neighborhoods of Baltimore without decent policing? Nope.
Gotta. Learn. To Believe. It.
'cuz it's all true. Baltimore is a mess. And we DO arrest lotsa people whom we shouldn't.
if police officers got to know the community and residents better, miscommunication would be reduced. That's a huge problem in Baltimore.
In order to control corruption and sitting around in dooughnut shops, uppr management at BCPD likes to keep moving personnel around. The downside is that when you know that getting acclimated is gonna get you transferred, you don't invest your time in that enterprise.
As a result, most cops take the personna of outsiders. Them, as opposed to us. The interesting thing is, sometimes officers who have worked among us for years have a bad day and act like complete strangers, which (for the moment, they think) means they act like total jerks. They then expect that somehow, magically, all will be forgiven on Monday.
The arresting officer I referred to earlier I speak with all the time. She's never even acknowledged the arrest incident. It's just one more surreal aspect of a surreal community. It's a coping skill among cops here. They just put all the wrongful actions behind them.
The concept of community policing is just dead here. It's a nonstarter in the neighborhoods. (You'll pardon my excluding the enclaves from that definition.) To have officers who have enough insight into what's going down in a neighborhood, you'd just need so many more. In my area they just drive from one high-priority incident to another all shift long. In this regard, the officer was correct. That night, she had at least seven backed-up calls of a high priority in her post. There were only TWO operators on dispatch.
A megadisastrous city just needs a lot more cops per capita, per hoodlum, per reported offense than a middle-class cosmopolitan urban village.
Wow, that's a hell of a story, galt.
And thanks for the tips 'non, I think they need a promotion.
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