An arraignment is scheduled for Baltimore police officer William Darrell Welch, 40, of Quiet Stream Court, Timonium, at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow before Judge John P. Miller, 428 Mitchell Courthouse. The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Welch August 23, 2006 with one count of second-degree rape and three counts of misconduct in office. If convicted of the count of rape, Welch could be sentenced to imprisonment not exceeding 20 years. Misconduct in office is a common law offense that carries a period of incarceration in whatever amount a court deems is fair and reasonable. The indictment alleges that on July 16 in the Southeastern District Station Welch had sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old girl after she had been taken into custody by another officer.
More on the "testilying" cops of the SE-- there'll almost certainly be a lawsuit (good thing the city doesn't have any money any more!) ps., the story has been picked up by the AP and appears in papers from Los Angeles to the UK.
Sentencing for admitted quintuple-murderer Raymont Hopewell hearing has been delayed to 2:00 p.m. today. The hearing will be before Judge John M. Glynn, 236 Mitchell Courthouse, 110 N. Calvert St. UPDATE: Hopewell "issued a half-hearted apology" then was sentenced to life without parole.
Two homicide victims have been ID'd: the man killed on 8th St. in Brooklyn was Steven A. King, 19.
A man shot in Washington Village was ID'd as Geroge Young, 23.
They make the annual homicide total at least 191 and probably closer to 199. The State's Attorney's office reports 180.
At a hearing yesterday Penny Christian, 37, and Jerome Sutton, 33, of Ruxton Avenue, pled guilty to armed robbery. Judge Albert J. Matricciani, Jr. sentenced Christian to 18 months in prison (and three years' probation). Judge Matricciani sentenced Sutton to five years in prison (and three years probation). On February 2, 2006 the pair assaulted and robbed a Sun newspaper vendor at the intersection of North Avenue and Fulton.
Most interesting! Police, backed by the federal Maryland Exile campaign, passed out a flier to let the community know that murderer Charles Garrison is in jail. (It's like they're crime blogging, but in 2-D!)
International News
A double homicide in HarfCo, two brothers killed in Edgewood (not related to the home-invasion gunfire reported earlier.)
Horrible: In Westminister, under the watch of two 16-year-old moms, a 15-month-old child fell out of a moving car and was dragged 85 feet through a parking lot.
In MoCo, Doug Duncan got out of bed and removed his shoebox-slippers to demand that the county's election officials be fired.
...don't forget to mail your quarterly taxes, self-employed people... MoCo Franchot will be cashing your check!
30 comments:
Typo. It's thursday the 14th, not the 15th.
so anybody know the actual address of this pigtown murder?
Regarding the Stephen King murder, please note that this is he is from Ilchester Avenue in the Northern. Ilchester consists of two rather short, thinly-populated blocks in Harwood, from whence firebombing victim and former community president McAbier has fled. Two boys were already murdered by gunshot on Ilchester last month and a third is in critical. Two girls were shot there a couple of weekends ago in broad daylight.
Residents pay a supplemental tax for special district security services from Charles Village Benefits District, which is asking yuppies to move there and gentrify.
Is this city f***in' nuts ??? All that on two short, half-occupied blocks in a couple months within Bloods territory.
'Get In On It.' unBELIEVEable.
It's worth noting that the Northern District is huge-- and there are only (correct me if I'm wrong someone) usually three cars covering it at a given time. That location is at least 7 minutes away from the police station. It's steps from Hopkins.Same city, different worlds.
I remember that Charles Village "benefits district" BS very well, speaking of taxes. Charles Village is a horrible place to live.
What pigtown murder? Right now we've got Washington Village, Brooklyn and CV cooling on the slab.
washington village = pigtown
Washington Village = gentrifiable, kosher name for Pigtown
Pigtown = a really good name for City of Baltimore
What's wrong with Charles Village? There are far worse parts of the city.
A few of which border Charles Village.
Charles Village is spiffy, if you want to be 500 feet away from some of the worst parts of Baltimore. If you don't want that, you pretty much have to live within Johns Hopkins buildings by the Homewood campus.
Baltimore A and B are right up on top of one another in Charles Village. Walk down the wrong street at night and you can get killed. And nowadays, that dubious privilege costs an arm and a leg. Thank you for increasing the minimum cost of living just as badly as before, Mr. O'Malley.
And that extra tax for security is a total cheat, because you get NOTHING.
Charles Village crime map
This is in regard to the post about the Harwood community above. I am part of an Art on Purpose project (www.artonpurpose.org) in which residents of different neighborhoods were asked to take photos of things that could be changed in their area. I participated in the Waverly-area group. Yes, I live East of Greenmount (admittedly in a fairly nice neighborhood-Ednor Gardens); things could be better, but this area has a lot going for it.
This project has been going on for about 6 months now, and an exhibit with some of the images will begin at the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute & Cultural Center on October 5 at 6 p.m. There will then be another event with political and community leaders on October 25. We have been staging postcard-writing campaigns in each neighborhood with feedback from residents, which we will then try to use to effect some change (i.e., more police, cleaner alleyways, etc.). One of the postcards is of rowhouses on Whitridge Ave. in Harwood: things need to change in this area.
I have been looking for a community event in the Harwood area to set up an event for residents to voice their concerns, but I am having a somewhat difficult time in doing so. If anyone is familiar with this area and knows about some neighborhood event that is coming up I would appreciate it if you could publish it in the comments section.
Another reason for the long post is that I would love for someone (or multiple people) to post some comments concerning CONCRETE strategies (besides just more police) for turning around a neighborhood like Harwood (or corners like Gorsuch and Independence in Waverly). The massive stadium lights on Whitridge certainly aren't working.
Similarly-sized Guilford crime map for comparison
Warning: this is very long and may not hold any interest other than to Anon.
When you say concrete strategies besides just police, why would you rule that out ??
It seems to me this is sort of like asking how to get another 20 miles out of a car, without burning more gas. Yes, there are some steps, like keeping tires full, which will improve mileage at the margin, but the big contribution is going to come from the obvious solution: fill the tank.
Given a current set of socio-economic characteristics which typify residents/hangers-out in a community, policing is the best single feedback control you can apply. Yes, crime would be lower if the people involved suddenly inherited a million dollars or had never been raised in the inner-city to start with, but we have to deal with them in the here and now.
You cannot job-train yourelves out of this. You cannot have social workers counsel people out of this. Those are strategies which might yield beneficial changes in deep parameters a generation from now. Because relapse is so high among our people, drug treatment, while a good idea, does little other than to whittle away at the scale of the addict population, particularly as they age.
For today, you can police more effectively (notice, I did not say aggressively) or you can gentrify/urban renew the problem people into someone else's neighborhood. Changing the built environment doesn't change the behavior, it just price-restricts the poorly behaved into going to another neighborhood, which you can just as well (and less expensively to your remaining residents) accomplish by marching the offenders out at bayonet-point.
The economics are fairly clear. Citywide policing works. Simply local policing shoos crime around (the displacement hypothesis). Increasing the cost through excessive investment in the built environment does the same thing as strictly local NIMBY policing by price-restricting problem people (but also with them, lower-income nonproblem people) to the higher crime areas.
Section 8 availability in low-income areas actually works against gentrification by undermining the price-restriction, so you should never have Section 8 in a place where you encourage gentrification. NIMBY policing, in concert with Section 8, however, can encourage mixed-income communities with behavioral control.
The problem I see is that folks keep seeking a means of cutting the crime which doesn't respect resource constraints and underlying dynamics. They also seem to imagine themselves changing (with a snap of their fingers) those underlying dynamics. That's not how it works. Those things are deep and embedded. It's how people in our neighborhoods live and are. You might just as well posit the solution of changing their DNA. And that's why I've spoken of the desirability of (perhaps forcibly) separating the next generation from the parents and the cycle. That, of course, is ethically controversial. Far more so than proposing that 'why not just change how life is?' Far more pargmatic, as well.
I've participated in the Art on Purpose exercises. It's a nice event. I'm not convinced it has any analytic substance, however. Good policy generally comes from making hard choices, while I perceived participants to be seeking easy answers.
I have some experience working with the Harwood community. YOu have to understant that most of the people there are directly or indirectly involved in crime. When the BGE bill is paid for by the 19 year-old grandson who has no job and hangs on the corner all night, yet has a pocket full of cash and anew cell phone? Households are less neighbors than rival economic organizations, even if the grandmas never see the stuff. They still look out for their source of income. If you just go in as a bright-eyed community person, you run the real risk of stepping on someone's toes without even knowing it. And it can be deadly. My crew and I were cleaning a garbage pile in a certain alley, thinking everyone would certainly appreciate that. It happens that dealers sometimes stash a supply or weapons in those piles, so my volunteers were ... persuaded at home, late at night... not to return, if they wanted to live to see midlife.
You really, really need to understand all the relationships BEFORE you go in. That takes years of investment.
When you ask Mrs. Smith to voice her concerns, you will find that she is concerned that Mrs. Jones' grandson is dealing on the block. Mrs. Jones will tell you in turn that Mrs. Smith's grandson is dealing on the block. They both ask for police, yet they have no intention of eliminating dealing. Just competition.
That's what happens in Harwood. Edna and I worked in that environment for years. Think of it like a landmine field. You never know what piece of stable-looking ground will suddenly erupt because of things going on under the surface.
One of the reasons the white-lights at Whitridge don't work is because the local boys chase out the cops at night. They control the turf, so they just up-end the power supply and the lights go out.
Blue-light cameras are fairly effective at chasing activity from the corner of third and elm to the corner of fifth and elm. Not much further.
Independence & Gorsuch is just one convenient spot in the middle of a really entrenched crime-dominated ecosystem. Activity freely flows back and forth between Greenmount and Harford. The most effective barrier determining its flow has not been anything government- or community-based, but rather has been minigang violence between very local organized crime groups. That's who runs Better Waverly after dark.
Because Better Waverly has a median household income of about $14,000 and a massively criminal male population, most households there have some kind of criminality going on. It's only a question of degree, except for the white bohemians, of course. And they pull the shades on their windows, to avoid repercussions.
Since Better Waverly flows right into disastrous CHM with physical barriers, it has never, ever sustained a gentrification. It will always be in the 'hood. The only question for communities is which corner is designated the sacred cow? If that's to be Gorsuch & Independence, then they'll deal at Independence & 30th, by the Homes, but they WILL deal in Better Waverly.
If you want to see change in BW, the ONLY mechanism is high-intensity neighborhood-wide mega-policing, which costs a LOT of money over a period of years. It will not happen (much as I'd like it to) and no one in policy circles is banking on any real changes in Better Waverly in the long run. Old hands understand that BW goes as Harwood & CHM and those three neighborhoods would require the manpower resources of three full Districts.
Ain't gonna happen.
I'd be happy to coach you by email on doing Harwood projects.
1100 blk of Cleveland St for that homicide.
The more police in an area, the less crime, it's a fact people need to finally realize.
Baltimore is a strange city, not like any I've ever lived in. I'm constantly amazed at how people can live here with such high crime rates, trash, and general apathy from the regular joe on the street to the politicians.
Baltimore is a broken city that needs serious help. Unfortunately, in our democratic system we get the government we deserve. Case in point, the city's top crime fighter, the State's Attorney Patricia Jessemy, is continually re-elected despite the terrible condition of her fiefdom.
It's as if the citizens of Baltimore like keeping things the way they are. It's hard to understand.
I think the better question is, why did no one of consequence run against Jessamy? Fogelman was barely even a lawyer. Why didn't, say, a Stu Simms run for her job?
Galt and Chuck I'll be out of town tomorrow i you care to post...
Understand, the foremost voter in Baltimore is an older, black mother. She has several kids, which almost guarantees (statistically) that she has a son in prison,jail, or probation.
Even if he's a felon without a vote, his mother and sister are important constituents of the State's Attorney seeking re-election.
Being an aggressive prosecutor is not necessarily going to get you reelected. Prosecuting the most eggregious offenses probably will, because the victim is more likely to be in the category of the constituent's relative than the offender. This changes as offenses become less serious.
There's a basic incentive problem when doing a good job can prevent your re-election. It's largely why Jessamy is such a quixotic player.
dear "art on purpose" person,
Some people are blind to the beauty in front of them. You have to love a place to be able to work to make it better.
-H.
H,
It's becoming apparent to me that you would 'find' beauty no matter how dismal the picture.
I have certain neighbors who have been insisting year after year at the annual community meeting that "the neighborhood's reaaly starting to come together." This has been said for about 14 years. Nothing has changed for the better, little for much the worse. The optimism amazes me, because I don't understand how to make myself hallucinate like that.
It's wonderful when you can make a silk purse of a sow's ear, but when all you're gonna get is a chunk of necrotic pork cartilage, I'd just as soon you call it by its name, rather than entertaining with delusion.
Many of the people who voted on photos in Art on Purpose have never done any 'work' in all the years they've lived in this community. They've participated, met, discussed, held parties, organized, planned, etc. But they've mostly done no direct work. The've always wished it better, which is why it still rots.
It would be far better if they would round up their political reps and tell them "This is horrendous. Get the public work done. Now! YES, with the tax money!"
Have you seen the recent news about Dog the Bountyhunter? That is unbelievable. Mexico lets all their criminals come to America and basically pisses on us when we remove a derelict from their country. Yet we help their businesses and made one of their citizens the 3rd richest man in the world. This is unreal. Maybe we should invade Mexico and take it over and make all these illegal immigrants legal citizens of the US country of the new state of Mexico. Here is a great website I found earlier for cleaning cloudy headlight lenses on your car - Restore cloudy, yellow headlight lenses to new and save big money over replacements New Lite headlight restoration and cleaning kit at www.mdwholesale.com!
Okay,
But do you _love_ where you live?
If you hate it (sounds like you do) and there is no realistic hope of it getting better-- then WHY DO YOU STAY??
-H.
All summer long i begged for help
in my neighborhood about the "DRUG DEALING" and Steve Fogelman was the only one in this CITY to RESPOND to my concerns....Not O'Martin, Not Hamm sandwich, Not Jello Jessamy..
"Ms. Thompson--Can I call you ? or can you call me? My cell is 443-570-2726. Tipline is 410-522-2688.I rode by the eastside neighborhoods you mentioned earlier. Would you like to advise me on my campaign? I could use some knowledgeable advice. How do you know about all these stashhouses? We need more citizens like you!"
Thanks,Steve
• 2711 Jefferson Street STASH HOUSE
• 2713 Jefferson Street STASH HOUSE
• 2715 Jefferson Street STASH HOUSE
• 2719 Jefferson Street STASH HOUSE
"I'd like to meet you and talk more about this. These are exactly the kinds of things I want to change. I'm tired of everyone thinking that there are too many insitutional problems in this town, and we're all supposed to accept this. I know we can turn this town around, and it isn't as hard as everyone seems to think. I'm not a very long walk from many of the houses you mentioned. In fqact, I'm going to drive by there tomorrow to talk a long look myself. And I think I might bring my camera. I think we should all carry a camera and even pretend to take photos of this stuff. we are ALL stakeholders in the future of this city. Let me know if I can come to see you or meet you on N. Kenwood. I am inspired by your story and others exactly like this."
Thank You.
Steve
thanks for that address, anonymous.
also, wjz says someone got killed at the waverly blockbuster tonight.
what do you mean "another?" that's the first one this year. unless you can't that kid that was found in the train tunnel under greenmount back at the beginning of the year, which i don't because i don't consider some train tunnel to be a part of any neighborhood.
also, wjz says the person who got shot was the store manager AND the brother of a city police detective, so i imagine they're gonna pour a lot of resources into solving this one.
by "can't" i meant "count." oops.
Actually, the train tracks are the geographic feature which defines the Harwood 26ers community identity.
yeah that was last year
The feature of neighborhoods such as ours which determines the extent of murderous violence is primarily the industrial organization of its retail drug sector.
Where organizational territories meet up and where new (or newly displaced) entrants present themselves unexpectedly, things will tend to happen. Alliances shift, leaders may be repositioned. Boundaries move. But it takes bloodshed.
When the City makes a big push into the Eastern District, it always pushes the action up into Northern. It may surprise you to know that Eastern meets Northern around 23rd & Greenmount. When operators from Eastern come up Greenmount into Harwood, bullets fly.
So, why don't Harwood operators collide with Waverly operators?
That's something called 29th Street Rules. It's a ... peace treaty of sorts... negotiated quite a few years ago among warring operators after a particularly deadly set of exchanges. It has been durable, largely because 29th is a good, natural point of delineation. Accidents are easier to avoid when geography is on your side.
If BW has been relatively low on murders this year, it would only be because 29th Street Rules are keeping the peace.
A few years back when the Cator-McCabe boys in Pen Lucy were shooting cops like fish in a barrel, they also infringed on Waverly dealers, who were less violent. Their success sent the signal that Harwood boys could take the lower stretch.
We had a lot of murders, kinda randomly, the kinda which take bystanders with them, for a while, sorting out who would keep which corner.
When the police finally had the big shootout with the Cator-McCabe boys in which their leader was shot in the spinal column, the dealer group in Better Waverly, based in the Waverly Projects, combined with certain fringe elements west of Greenmount on Barclay Street, to push the Harwood guys back past 29th street. That was the genesis of 29th Street Rules.
Things will change again, the City keeps stirring the pot. For now we have lotsa robbery and burglary, somewhat less agg. assault, and relatively low murder. This too is subject to rather dramatic change. Last year, Better Waverly was one of the most murderous parts of town.
When you hear that the police are reporting success in Eastern, cringe. That always means Waverly's about to take it on the chin. It comes right up the Greenmount corridor, first to Harwood, then to Waverly.
galt, you should write a book. your posts during the past few days on the history of the greenmount corridor have been seriously fascinating.
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