Sorry state of reportage part II: Anna Ditkoff reports four murders from last week; The Sun reported two of the four.
Three men were shot in a rowhouse on Park Heights Avenue. (If they were shot in the morning and taken to the hospital "last night," then they were shot on the 25th and taken to the hospital more than 12 hours later?)
Life imitates poll: In Glen Burnie, a family of four was duct-taped and robbed in their apartment in the middle of the day.
A teenage girl was stabbed in the chest in the Western, and an arrest was made for the shooting of one Leory Sanders.
For the second time this year, an officer has been killed in the line of duty at Jessup.
Did Park School fail to report the statuatory rape of a student by a teacher? And how is it there are 11 registered sex offenders who are also still "certifide" teachers? (That explains why WBAL's copyeditor can't spell... but he gives a hell of a hummer!)
From the Dully Wrecked: three leaders of the Old York and Cator Boys drug gang, Eric "E. Man" Bennett, Solomon "Monkey Bird" Jones and Tavon Bradley, will get a new trial after Judge Andre Davis tainted proceedings by encouraging them to take a plea deal. (ps. now there's also a Sun story.)
For a guy who welcomed a fund-raising visit form the smirking chimp himself, Michael Steele sure is talking a lot of smack. So running for senate we've got an alleged rapist, Josh Rales, whose PR firm bussed drug addicts to his rally, a guy who calls himself "The Wig Man", Queasy Fumes, with multiple babymommas and at least one son who's a criminal ... oy effing vay!
20 comments:
"For the second time this year, an officer has been killed in the line of duty at Jessup."
this sentence makes it sound like both corrections officers were killed at jessup.
Two found shot death in Balto. car
BALTIMORE (AP) - Police are investigating a shooting that killed
two men overnight in Northwest Baltimore
It happened about 1 a-m in the 55-hundred block of Wesley
Avenue.
The two men were found in a car and were pronounced dead at the
scene.
I had to find this article on the webpage for WMDT 47, "Delmarva's Choice!" based out of Salisbury. They only had it because they have a big listing of all AP wires involving Maryland or Delaware, but still...
The political liability that wouldn't go away? NO'Malley's buddy Sean Malone's office computer is being subpoena'd by maybe-fired Police Commissioner Clark because it contains a smoking gun on its hard-drive. He alleges the drive originally had sensitive police dept info as well as material on the MD4Bush scandal. Was it all created by O'Malley aides? Did they tinker with official police data?
Malone admits to WBAL that he certainly had porno on the department laptop. What else will be found? Oh, I'd guess that Mayor McCheese or his cronies will stroll past the thing with a supermagnet. Oops. Who woulda thunk it?
link to smoking gun story
Oh, and while we're on the subject of NO'Malley cronies, um, has anyone in city government investigated Deputy Mayor Michael Enright's involvement in understating crime statistics and other political chicanery, as alleged by our former Police Commissioner?
Hmmmm??
Interview with Commr. Clark about Enright
Interview about Enright and MD4BUSH
Williams Says City May Need More Police
D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams says the city may need as many as 5,100 police officers to make sure both residents and visitors feel safe from crime.
There are currently 3,800 officers on the force, with plans to increase that number to more than 4,200 already approved.
But Williams said Tuesday that the city may have to increase police staffing to levels not seen since the early 1970's, which would boost staffing by an additional 800 hundred officers.
Williams says he now supports the increased staffing because citizens expect lower response times and an increased police presence in their neighborhoods.
after a very brief online search, i can't figure out how many cops baltimore currently has, but according to wikipedia, in 2000 we had 3,034. d.c. has 60,000 fewer permanent residents.
"Queasy Fumes?"
Did Galt write that? I'm not sure that can really be considered journalism, though it does seem strangely appropriate for a comment or message board.
well, the sun has the double murder story now. also some guy may have been shot to death in hanover (md not pa).
No, Si, I didn't coin that one. I've always kinda liked Kweisi.
However, since you've raised my spectre, can we write in Anthony Williams for Mayor of Baltimore? At least he's prepared to admit how many sworn police officers are needed in an inner city to make it tolerable.
On that subject, NO'Malley is talking about the formation of a 'municipal militia' by city governments because the feds don't seem to have a reserve army to lend disaster assistance. It seems we here in Baltimore need to form a civilian militia because NO'Malley's police department fails to augment its manpower year after frickin' year. Mr. Governor, please declare Baltimore to be in a state of police emergency. Please.
Or, if not, then perhaps a mandatory evacuation order.
Why weren't the 3 inmates who stabbed the corrections officer shot? They were out of their cells and assualting an officer.
Shoot the motherfuckers.
... but the photoshopped muppets and poll about ass pimples ... hello Pulitzer!
Simon, it's a blog. If you want journalism read ... something else.
39 year old David McCray has been arrested for stealing from nine churches in Sharp-Leadenhall and in Upton, some of which were trying to help the ungrateful lil' SOB.
No good deed in Charm City goes unpunished. Fortunately, this particular bad deed didn't, either.
Who's interested in untangling the reasons why cases brought by the State's Attorney's office are null prossed?
For the calendar year 2005, the principal reasons were, for District Court and then for Circuit Court:
District/Circuit
Police Officer was a necessary witness and was not present (20%) (2.3%)
Witness/victim was a necessary witness and did not appear (28%) (11%)
Insufficient nexus (7.4%) (15%)
Pursuant to plea negotiations in unrelated case (1.3%) (18%)
Witness/victim substantially changed or altered prior statement (4.7%) (3.3%)
Witness claimed 5th Amendment privilege (3.6%) 0.8%)
Request of victim (4.9%) (2%)
Alternative to prosecution completed (3.8%) (13%)
No crime committed/ documented legal defense (3.8 %) (3.4%)
Necessary physical evidence not available (3.4%) (0.8%)
No identification can be made of defendant (2.9%) (2%)
4th Amendment violation (2.3%) (8.5%)
Restitution paid or promised to victim (2.2%) (1.6%)
Chemical analysis report not available (1.7%) (0.2%)
Negative chemical analysis report (1.6%) (0.8%)
Take home messages:
Why is unlawful search/seizure a bigger issue in Circuit Court? (possible explanation below.)
Plea negotiations are a much bigger cause of Null Pross in Circuit Court.
Why are witnesses more inclined to show for District than for Circuit?
Police Department no-shows are almost ten times as prevalent in District as in Circuit Court. This can be fixed. You just need more manpower.
About 25% of District court cases are null prossed because of Police Department defects. About half that number in Circuit Court suffer from defects associated with the Department.
Now, because jury trials are relegated to Circuit Court, it's a reasonable conjecture that Circuit Courts cases may entail better levels of legal representation on the part of defendants. Hence, challenges might be more sophisticated and this would bias outcomes in about the way we see here.
Nonetheless, it would behoove the city of Baltimore government (hello, councilmen???) to inquire into the absence of officers to testify in District Court cases. Seems to me that's an easy fix. Hire enough guys, dummies. Now, that said, keep in mind that this is a percentage of null prossed cases, which is only about half of cases actually brought. (Crazy-sounding, ain't that figure?)
Query: are police not showing because they already know the SA's office is gonna null pross specific cases or is the SA null prossing because the officers don't show? Let's find out. Have the officers show almost always for a couple of years.
Hate to sound like a broken record, but HIRE MORE COPS.
word up.
How furious would you be if you were a crime victim, you get all this crap in the mail for months including letters saying you can be arrested if you don't show up, and then the state doesn't show up. I would be spitting nails!
Sure, Galt, the city just has piles and piles of money sitting around waiting to be spent.
The department has enough trouble keeping themselves staffed, what makes you think they could hire even more cops, even if they wanted to?
To make matters worse, the salaries would have to be increased drastically or the standards would have to be lowered to get more applicants.
As the other complainers on this blog will confirm, lowering the standards for officers is probably not a valid option.
http://www.ogrish.com/archives/man_shot_point_blank_usa_Jul_26_2006.html
Baltimore even makes it on to the infamous Ogrish.com website, along with Baghdad,Beirut etc etc
we found money to build a city-owned hotel to add to the many other hotels in this city. I think we can find money to raise salaries and higher more police (maybe take a look at the police overtime budget for that).
Anon,
Yes, apparently, the City does have piles of money sitting around. Just ask Sheila Dixon's sister.
As for the task of hiring, yeah, it takes some effort. For steel mills, hospitals, advertising firms, and, yes, police departments. Fact: other jurisdictions in the mid-Atlantic manage to hire numbers of cops proportionate to their crime burden.
Does it sound like I advocate lowering standards? So, yes, one would have to pay a salary which is competitive with all the jurisdictions surrounding us. In fact, you'd actually have to pay a hazard premium for being daily disrespected and occasionally shot at. True.
And that's the economic cost of running a police department in a city with a high concentration of problem people. But you still have to do the job.
I totally don't get where you're coming from. If you were the administrator of a hospital, would you stand there and argue that surgeons are just too expensive to hire, so we'll just have to get by on one surgeon for 1,200 patients? Anon, were you perhaps previously a government official in the Soviet Union, or something ?
What you're proposing is positively third-world. And unacceptable.
Now, if the Police Commissioner cares to report back that he "cannot hire more cops even if he wanted to", which is what he's been suggesting, then he's gotta go. Period. It's a necessary and essential part of the job. If he needs more budget appropriation for salary, he should request it. He hasn't. In fact, he hasn't used what he's been given, instead blowing the money on very costly overtime deployments at time and a half.
It's called mismanagement, and if you're very pleased with it, go vote O'Malley. I won't be doing so.
If, as you suggest, Baltimore cannot provide a reasonable level of public safety, then it's time for a municipal receivership, but continuing to put up with Little Fallujah is not an option.
'Get in On S#It'.
In case you're wondering why I'm so intent on public safety, as opposed to trying to handle the problems myself, please read the following:
Gunshot in Waverly
The kid got shot because his brother had no faith in the capacity of the police to protect his grandmother's household. Like more and more in that neighborhood, he came to the conclusion that he needed a gun.
We need many more cops.
The court issue comes in when an officer has three different court appearances on the same day. If he is scheduled for circuit court and district court, he has to go to circuit court or he'll be fined. If he has disitrict court and traffic court, he has to go to traffic court or be fined. The judges fight over the officer's appearance for that day.
The officers can't be at all three courts at the same time on the same day and even though the asa's have been notified of the other court appearances, some judges insist the officer be marked FTA....never mind they know he is in another court room.
All of which argues persuasively for hiring more cops. Even in a small town, if your court cases outpace your officers' ability to appear, you gotta get more cops. It's something I once read about the right to confront your accuser. One o' them pesky constitutional thangs.
The only exception would be if the piling-up of cases is not typical, but is some artifact of cases being selected in some particular way. An example would be if officers make one arrest on an average day, but in fact make 12 at the end of the month to make quota. Then, the day with all those extraordinary arrests would be quite overbooked in court.
Hire more cops. Clearly, if you need more of them to comply with court requirements to process their (valid) arrests, you gotta get more. Doesn't matter who likes it or doesn't. Doesn't matter who wants to build a convention hotel or create fake jobs at DPW for unemployable cretins. Hire more cops. And, no, not the ones who take bribes to fail to show at trial.
BTW, I'm sitting here with my street in pitch darkness. This will go on for days in a highly criminal section of Baltimore teeming with hoodlums. The last time I had this occur, a neighbor and friend of mine had her whole household taken hostage, notwithstanding my request for police in the darkened area.
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