The Examiner published five stories on cold-case murders this morning. Apparently, 43% of murderers in the city are never caught, and 75% of those who are sent to prison are out again within 10 years. Profiled are the cases of Juan McMahan, who was murdered at a birthday party in July of 2004; Georgio Washington, who was killed on Kenwood Ave. on Dec. 20, 2001; Robert Russell, who was killed on Garrett Ave. in November of 2004; and Cameron Curtis, who was killed in South Baltimore in October of 2004. Curtis' mother, a teacher at Bentalou Elementary, said her son was a married father of three with no criminal record, and she asked, "How can I teach the children I have [at Bentalou] that if you get a job and be productive, you’ll be OK? I can’t teach them that, because that’s not what happened for my son."
The two men who were killed at the Arbutus birthday party shootout have been ID'd as Edward Wayne Johnson of Cherry Hill and Michael Johnson of Windsor Mill. BaCo police spokesman Bill Toohey is still frustrated that out of 100 possible witnesses, none have spoken up.
Shocking news, Sheila: people who live in blighted neighborhoods want a safe city! "I can't even bring my kids outside. I'm scared to bring them outside because of the drugs."
A HoCo General Hospital forensic nurse says most sexual assaults are not reported.
James McCoy Turner got 15 years for guns and drugs.
Sixty families who have been helped by Kim Holmes and the staff at the Family Bereavement Center -- the city organization that assists families of murder victims -- contributed recipes to "Tasty Treasures," a cookbook and an "elegy to a city in pain." If you'd like a copy, call Kim at 410-396-7351.
It looks like the cheerleader didn't do it.
A fight over a boy in Westminster led to second-degree assault charges against a 15-year-old.
* The Baltimore Crime murder toll sits at 93, due to bodies that were found in Leakin Park and near Cherry Hill earlier this year.
** The city's homicide count since Friday is four times greater than Howard County's murder count so far this year, and is twice the total annual number of homicides in HoCo last year.
15 comments:
In AA Co, 'Save the cheerleader, save the world.', right.
Anyhow, closer to home, Sheila D. wants to get at violent crime by solicitiong a Top 10 list in each of her 9 Police Districts.
By my math, that's 90 guys under scrutiny. Now, how many do we let out of prison a month into Baltimore City? Over 367.
I like the idea of working from the top down until we get to a somewhat civilized level of disorder, but who ever said we only have 10 problem perps in each district? Sounds like a politician. Or a speach-writer. Top Ten is a Casey Kasem notion and doesn't belong in a police precinct.
Ask the district commanders how many high-profile offenders they need resources to handle. It'll be a darn sight more than ten.
The President of the Fraternal Order of Police has been quite clear that our current level of 2,932 officers won't cut it.
Deal with that, please, Mayor Dixon, because people are still dying about every day here.
As for the one officer per district (total of 9) to be assigned to Youth Services, these are said to be under Deputy Major Rick Hite. Rick Hite isn't in charge of any deployment, he's a PR rep. His people sit in community meetings and 'feel our pain." We don't need anyone to sing Kumbaya with the young people, Madame Mayor.
We need to hire cops.
I've been anxiously awaiting the Mayor's grande plan.
Y'know, she was a public school teacher once. You'd think she's be aware that the title 'Much Ado About Nothing' was kinda taken by Bill Shakespeare.
As I cann't vote in it, I haven't been following the mayoral campaign that closely. All I hear is half assed BS about the crime in the city from the canidates. Has any of the canidates come put with a new idea from crime, or even endorsed a workable solution?
Let's face it, no potential candidate will change anything because the solution to crime in the city (more cops, more prosecutors & judges and longer prison sentences for criminals) isn't something that most voters want to hear.
Now that we've seen the Plan, I'm prepared to release my Fashion Report for Baltimore:
The look for Summer '07 is... Kevlar.
Kevlar vests, kevlar trousers even, and accessorize with anything steel-reinforced. Medic-alert ID bracelets are a must.
Expect the gauzey look to dominate. Bandages are just soooo figure-flattering. And licensed Shock Trauma gear will be big.
In terms of outerwear, we're calling for Body Armor to steal the show. And for the really daring, personal firearms offer a fashion-forward statement of things to come.
From the police blotter, college students are advised to stay well away from the 'Hood, because it's not safe for them. (Sorry, Sheila, it's not.) They get assaulted with... pretty much anything at hand. 'Course, it's not safe for anyone else, either.
And residents of McElderry Park, where a guy was shot in the chest several times yesterday in broad daylight, are somewhat surprised to learn about Mayor Dixon's new Safe Zones, because they're already in one, it seems. Real safe.
so why are you guys still insisting on keeping the bodies that aren't officially homicides on your count? if you're going to refuse to believe the official version of things, why have you arbitrarily chosen those two bodies to keep on your list when i can name at least six fishy-seeming undetermined deaths reported by the sun so far this year?
Sheeit, I thought people who lived in blighted neighborhoods lived there because they liked it!
I'm glad to see the head of the FOP saying something about the number of officers. Isn't that exactly what the union is ostensibly for, so police can collectively demand acceptable working conditions? Why has the FOP been so quiet? I don't think they've been "quite clear" at all. That's one of the Big Mysteries ... if I was in charge I'd threaten a strike tomorrow! Wonder what would happen then, if the 2,932 walked off the job? (Besides a frantic run on firearms).
Burg, I would have added the fishy ones if I'd seen them... depending on how fishy. Can't speak for Charles, but I keep them on there because that Janis article about the hundreds of undetermined deaths from 2004 made a big impression .... there are more undertermined deaths than murders, so it's just not possible to trust the ME's office, and therefore the police, to have an accurate number.
We can't know more than David Fowler does, of course, but including the fishiest of the fishy seems like an appropriate gesture towards trying to get an accurate count. One unid'd body (#37) was found burnt in a field. Just given that sparse statement of facts, the possibility that it was 'accidental' or 'suicide' seems pretty unlikely. Sure, a junkie could have OD'd and some teenagers set his body on fire or something, but a simpler scenario is more probable. And given the article above, having that death be determined & categorized as anything before 2010 is even unliklier!
The Sun and the CP take their numbers directly from the police. To be classified as a homicide, if you're going to be all accurate about it, first the ME's office has to declare that said corpse is dead due to the actions of another, and the police, then the courts, have to determine that the death was intentional and not justifiable. So one could argue that the police number isn't accurate either, because the cases are still wide open, until they're adjudicated, right?
when i said "fishy" i meant that the articles about them explicitly stated that police homicide investigators are treating them as "suspicious" deaths, so it's not just my opinion that there were x amount of "fishy" undetermined deaths reported in the sun. i'm just saying, if it were up to me i'd either list only official murders, or all the suspicious deaths that are reported in the mainstream media.
no matter how you decide to do it though, i think it would be a good idea to note which ones are not officially considered murders so people can stop leaving weekly comments asking why there is a discrepancy between your count and the sun's/murder ink's/whoever's count. even galt asked about that the other day and he's a crime stats guru.
I believe FOP is going onto the Ron Smith show on this subject today. As in, now.
There are many unreported aspects of the undetermined story which paints a far grimmer picture. I think we should all be heathily skeptical of the numbers reported by the police, and continue to keep a tally that is not subject to influence of agencies with an obvious incentive to keep as many bodies as possible out of the homicide category
Yeah, you're right about making a note of them.
I've listed the suspicious deaths I've seen, if (if, ha!)there are others not on the list I'd appreciate a link and will add them....
it's #s 63 and 37 so far, right?
ok, you added the woman on ellicott drive, so that leaves Phillp Hines, 36, and Dontrelle Nesmith, 29, both found on 3/21 in the 3200 block of Normount Ave, and Duane Allen, 42, found floating in a swamp on 4/18 near the 2000 block of Annapolis Rd. those are the only ones i have left that were explicitly called "suspicious." i also have three more bodies whose discoveries were reported but the articles said "no immediate signs of foul play were found" or whatever and no follow up article ever ran: James W Flanagan, 60, found 2/20 in the 3000 block of Elliott St, James Lee Butler, 41, hauled out of the inner harbor on 3/21, and a guy who was never identified pulled out of the water near fells point on 4/20.
Wow, thanks, Burg! Will add.
Post a Comment