Wednesday, May 2, 2007

May 2

Larry Brockington, 31, was shot to death in the 900 block of N. Rosedale Street in the Franklintown Road neighborhood on the West Side. Notes Gus G. Sentementes, "It was the second fatal shooting on the street in less than a week. On Friday, 25-year-old Dewitt Smith was killed in the 1600 block of N. Rosedale St."

Three suspicious deaths have been added to our tally (but not the Police's), bringing the count to 98: Phillp Hines, 36, and Dontrelle Nesmith, 29, found 3200 block of Normount Avenue in the Southwestern, and Duane Allen, 42, found "partially submerged in a marshy area in Westport" near the 2000 block of Annapolis Road and Clare Street.

Several homicide victims have been ID'd: 21-year-old Deshaun White was killed on Monday in the 3600 block of Reisterstown Rd.; 24-year-old Eric Queen was killed Monday in the 1900 block of E. Lafayette St.; and 36-year-old Lonnie Plateo was killed Sunday afternoon in the 4600 block of Old Frederick Rd. Also in the Blotter: a 25-year-old man was shot on W. Cold Spring Lane and is in critical condition; a 31-year-old woman was shot while sitting on a neighbor's porch on N. Ellwood St. and is in critical condition; a 34-year-old man was cut on the face when he didn't have any money to give robbers on Eastern Ave.; and a man and woman were robbed of $24 at gunpoint on Baltimore St. Oh, and that's just what happened in the Northern and the Southeastern.

This week's "Murder Ink" covers seven homicides -- including the police-related death of Damion Baker -- and provides updates on four other murder cases.

No shit, Sherlock: "City residents want to see more police walking streets."

In response to yesterday's Examiner stories on unsolved murders, Sheila D. says we have to trust our police. She did not mention whether or not she is forming a committee to examine if, in addition to trusting the police, we should stop killing each other.

The good mayor is also pulling for a data analysis system to help track gun crimes. There have been 204 shootings so far this year, compared to 162 at the same time last year.

Ann Barone was forced out of her house by the city's nuisance laws. One neighbor said, "There was drugs going on, drug dealers living in the house, drugs being sold in the house."

Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in Baltimore County for alleged MySpace killer John Gaumer.

There may be a breakthrough in the case against Nancy Jean Siegel, who is accused of killing her 76-year-old boyfriend 11 years ago.

Perv du jour: Cmdr. Kevin Ronan has been accused of making video recordings of midshipmen having sex with their girlfriends.

Convicted murderer George Robert Chaney was indicted for robbing a Provident Bank on E. Monument St. in April.

Denise Rosado got 6 months for stealing $33,000 from her job at the state. Donna and Wilson Lam, however, defrauded the state of $1.7 million, but no criminal charges have been filed yet.

Urban adventurer Michael Arndt broke into the wrong Columbia warehouse.

20 comments:

burgersub said...

anna ditkoff included the weekend's police-involved shooting in her murder count today. i wonder if next week she's going to act all befuddled as to why her tally doesn't match up with the official one. again.

Maurice Bradbury said...

That is great news that the city is kicking people out with nuisance laws. I wonder how long the neighbors had to raise hell until that happened?

John Galt said...

Congratulations, Baltimore. In four months you've exceeded the annual homicide count of the larger, but far more civilized, city of San Francisco.

C Love "The Rap Addict" said...

the nuisance law may help...good application.

Anonymous said...

"Congratulations, Baltimore. In four months you've exceeded the annual homicide count of the larger, but far more civilized, city of San Francisco."

That's because all the homos prefer to commit other crimes, such as ass piracy.

John Galt said...

And now Sheila D. wants a tracking system called GunStat.

Reports are easy to run, Hon. It's just an excel spreadsheet. It's not about the data. It's about how you deploy manpower after seeing the data.

Manpower. Fewer than 3,000 cops in a really, really violent city.

How about StaffingStat or CompetenceStat ???

Or how about just requiring that your Commissioner of Police properly staff his department. Sans excuses.

jaimetab said...

Anonymous, say it ain't so! I wonder if Hamm isn't cooking the "ass piracy" numbers as well....

Maurice Bradbury said...

Ass piracy!

"Some good news and some bad news, Mr. Newsom... murder and violent crime are down, but ass piracy, pole smokery and rug munchery are out of control!"

"Damn it!"

Anonymous said...

Just wait till all the young "progressive" couples that moved into the city over the last 10 years have children that need to go to school. A lot of them simply can't afford the enormous cost of Baltimore area private schools. So you'll either see a sequel to "white flight" or enough people will stick it out and get outraged about the unacceptable crime levels and disaster of a school system when it's their little bundles of joy who can't count the number of bullets they have to dodge.

John Galt said...

They never stay and fight, because they're outnumbered and they know it. They'll head for the 'burbs once the housing bubble bursts.

taotechuck said...

One of the key drivers of neighborhoods like Canton is the excessive disposable income of single people and young married couples. Over the next 10 years, many of these people will have children and move out of the city, but they will be replaced by new young adults who were raised in the 'burbs and are craving the excitement of city life.

Given that Gen X is much smaller than Gen Y (or whatever the hell it's called), there should be more young single people moving into the cities in 10 years than there are families moving out.

Couple this with the fact that there is a movement afoot that says "we don't need to fix our crappy schools, we just need to give the young rich white people more fun stuff to do," and there is a viable economic reason to continue ignoring the schools.

Cities like Manhattan are proof that this model works. Sure, some people raise their kids in the city, but most make a bunch of money while they're childless and then pack up and move to Montclair or Morristown or Staten Island when it's time for the wee ones to head off to school.

My prediction is that, if there's another wave of white flight, it's not going to happen for several decades. The question is, will Baltimore continue to support the income and "fun" requirements of young hipsters?

taotechuck said...

Does anyone know if there are any high-end private schools in or near the Southeastern or Southern? It seems to me that most of our prestigious private schools (McDonough, Waldorf, Gilman, Notre Dame, etc.) are either in the Northern or in Baltimore County.

Of course, I don't think a McDonough-caliber school in Canton would inspire people to stay in the neighborhood. I'm guessing most people who can afford that kind of school will move to Timonium and enroll the kids in the $20K/year school.

ppatin said...

Another reason I'm glad I don't have children. I can live wherever I want.

John Galt said...

I think what they do is to move to the county, enroll their kids in decent public school, and apply the $20M to the debt service on said house in the county, thereby making it as affordable as the cheaper place in the City.


The rationale is particularly persuasive for couples with multiple school-age kids.

Malnurtured Snay said...

I hope Gaumer spends the rest of his life behind bars. He certainly deserves worse.

John Galt said...

Nah, this is Baltimore, Snay. Gaumer'll probably be your councilman in a few years.

taotechuck said...

Nah, Gaumer'll go away for a while. It's in the county, not the city.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Nope, all the A-list private schools are in the "favored fan" of the Northern or even farther afield-- obviously no accident.

Bryn Mawr both used to be on Cathedral Street, and Friends and Boys' Latin were in Bolton Hill. Gilman was on the Hopkins campus until 1910. Bryn Mawr and Friends both moved in the mid- '20s, (BL moved in 1960). The timing was no coincidence either-- Jack Johnson had just beat the tar out of some white guy, and white people worldwide were thrown into some kind of collective insanity. The 10s-20's were also when aparthied began in South Africa, the Klan made a huge comeback, and segregationist housing covenants were all the rage. The developments in the Northern were quite clear about being whites only (and the definition of white didn't include Jews, either, they were banned from all of the new amenities like the country clubs and Meadowbrook).

The geographic-bubble tactic worked, but after Brown in 1954 couldn't hold. Friends admitted the first black students in 1955, but BMS somehow managed to avoid "moving towards desegreation" (how their site puts it) until forced, kicking and screaming, to admit a black girl in 1963.

ppatin said...

I'm surprised that Friends took that long to desegregate. I'd assumed that since they were a bunch of Quaker hippies they would've been letting black kids in way before everyone else.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Well, relatively speaking, they did..