Tuesday, April 3, 2007

April 3

An unidentified man in his early 20s was fatally shot near the 3600 block of St. Margaret's St. in Brooklyn.

Mahmud Faruq Brent (aka Mahmud Al Mutazzim) a Baltimore man who drove a cab in DC, pled guilty yesterday in Federal court to attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Police are investigating the murder of 16-year-old Estefany Gonzales. Some of the girl's friends think she might have been killed by a stray bullet.

The family of William Thomas Parrish III knew he was holding a woman captive, but they were too afraid to report him.

Blood was found on Charles Eugene Burns' car that links him to 25-year-old murder victim Jennifer Lynn Blankenship.

Sheila D. is trying a "conflict resolution and violence intervention program" called Operation Safe Streets, which she hopes will lead to a decline in crime by election time.

The senate has approved expunging records for people who are arrested but never charged. Now what about the ones where charges were "abated by arrest"?

A month-long undercover investigation by Anne Arundel cops led to 12 arrests, four cars, two guns, and about $50,000 in drugs.

Fredneck:
The Latinos of Frederick are horrified by the murder-suicide family of five.
If they were white the story would be on the cover of this week's People magazine!

Former sixth-grade teacher Michelle Dohm was convicted of making bomb threats directed at five students.

18 comments:

John Galt said...

It appears to be the City's explanation for exerting so little effort to curb the misbehavior. 'It's ok, he/she mighta deserved to die anyway, so it's not like we haven't done our jobs.'

taotechuck said...

It's simpler to dismiss the problem if we presume that all gunshot victims have a criminal background.

The New York Times' Quote of the Day on 2/9/2005 was from former Baltimore Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson, and it's a quote that still irks me: "Baltimore is actually a very safe city if you are not involved in the drug trade."

This mentality provides a layer of protection for city leaders by implying that the only people affected by violent crime are people who are involved in the drug trade. By extension, it absolves our leaders from blame, because they are protecting those of us who are wise enough to stay away from drugs.

This mindset propigates a belief in the region that the problem will self-correct as the criminal element kills each other. Unfortunately, the problem of violent crime actually grows exponentially worse the longer it is ignored. It's not all that different than Keynesian economic theory: classical economists during the Depression wanted to let the economy self-correct, but Keynes recognized that it would continue to spiral down unless the government intervened in an unprecedented way.

It's very easy for a society to dismiss murder victims with criminal records; it's harder to dismiss those who didn't "deserve" what happened. People like Antonio Gilmore (the manager of the Waverly Blockbuster who was killed last year), Dion Williams (the 15-year-old student who was killed for "being too loud" on Monument street last summer), Charles Erdman (the man who was killed after a minor traffic accident)... the list could go on and on and on. And that's only the list of murder victims, not the scores of innocent people who survived a violent attack.

What gives me hope is that there is a slight increase in articles -- like Luke Broadwater's Examiner piece yesterday and the WBAL piece on Christopher Clarke a few weeks ago -- that point out that these victims were not people who were involved in the problems of the city. If this media trend continues, then our politicians might actually be forced to accept some responsibility for the farce that passes for leadership in this city.

ppatin said...

I'm surprised that Peter Beilenson said something so stupid. He generally seemed like a good guy. I wish he was representing me in Congress instead of John Sarbanes, whose only accomplishment was being the son of a long-time senator.

John Galt said...

The city of Boston, comparable in size to us, has fewer murders in a year than we've produced in the first three months.

Think about it.

ppatin said...

Boston's colder. There was a guy who used to work at the Hair Cuttery near me who gave me a long lecture while cutting my hair about how the cold made people more law-abiding. He claimed that if we kept the temperature in all our prisons at 34 degrees then criminals would come out as law-abiding citizens once they finished their sentences.

taotechuck said...

Interesting theory about the weather, but it doesn't explain why, at least for the past three years, we've seen 10%+ of our annual homicides happen in January.

Of course, January might have a high murder rate for the same reasons it has a high suicide rate, including post-holiday depression and financial hardship.

I'm interested in compiling stats on temperature and time-of-day for murders. Not curious enough to have done it, but I wonder if any meaningful trends would appear.

John Galt said...

You'd really need to control for other correlated confounding factors, such as time-dependent natural lighting and time-of-day of activities, such as work (yeah,... right) and sleep (which in some communities is a daylight phenomenon.)

ppatin said...

Heh, I didn't take the temperature theory too seriously. I just thought it was kind of amusing.

Anonymous said...

The FBI includes "climate" in a list of reasons why they don't rank cities by crime:

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/about/variables_affecting_crime.html

Gor said...

You know, I hate to say it, but I can "understand" the reasons murder, I can "understand" the reasons for property crime, and I can even "understand" the reasons for sexual assaults. But for the love of god, I can not "understand" Michelle Dohm's actions at all.

SUPREME said...

time-of-day of activities, such as work (yeah,... right) and sleep (which in some communities is a daylight phenomenon.)

Galt,this is my neighborhood....21205 /Middle East
You are soooooo.. on point!!!!!!

I could tell you how many people in my neighborhood actually have a job???? ya know?? of the punch clock variety...

On my block where i reside which has a total of 30 houses(row) odd and even side.... i say a total of
5 people including myself leave out daily to do some type of work.....
and these people happen to be HOME
OWNERS!!!

The other 25(homes) are not retired folk or disabled etc... they happen to be single mothers with 2 or 3 cars?? 3 or 4 kids and have lots of material stuff?? most WORKING CLASS
folk will not buy!! and they do not
OWN and or BUYING the house they reside in.......this is the makeup in BALTIMORE B!!!!!

Unknown said...

Supreme said...


"The other 25(homes) are not retired folk or disabled etc... they happen to be single mothers with 2 or 3 cars?? 3 or 4 kids and have lots of material stuff?? most WORKING CLASS
folk will not buy!! and they do not
OWN and or BUYING the house they reside in.......this is the makeup in BALTIMORE B!!!!!"

I'm in 21211 and i live on a similar block, altthough the makeup is a bit different. We have about 1/10th retired homeowners, 3/10 working class who actually work, and the rest fit into your classification of Baltimore B. The rest of us in Baltimore B are here because we can't afford Baltimore A.

Unknown said...

BTW... does anyone else have to sign in 2 times when logging on to blogger with the new google accounts? I have had to sign in twice for the last few months!

John Galt said...

On understanding the dumb crimes in Baltimore, from today's blotter:

Assault/arrest // Two residents of the 1700 block of Guilford Ave. were arguing Sunday night over change from a purchase of egg rolls when one of the men cut the other in the face and neck. The victim, 41, was in good condition at Maryland Shock Trauma. Arrested and charged with aggravated assault was James Conyers, 49.

Gor said...

Same thing has been happening to me also, lil sis. Being new here I thought it was normal.

Maurice Bradbury said...

It's the new blogger. Sigh!

Anonymous said...

DAMN YALL LIVE IN A CRZY SOCIETY WERE EVERYONE SHOOTIN EVERYONE FOR NO REASON....IM FROM OTTAWA CANADA WHERE THE SECOND ...YES THE 2ND! HOMICIDE HAPPENED TODAY AND THE 9TH UNDER 18 JUST HAPPEN IN UR CITY....MAN YALL NEED TO PACK UP AND MOVE FROM THERE MAN

ppatin said...

Apparently the lack of homicides in Ottawa makes it impossible to turn off the caps lock key.