Wednesday, July 25, 2007

July 25

The Baltimore branch of the NAACP wants citizens to get windowastic to display their outrage over the city's homicide rate.

Yesterday, I posted about a potential plan to create a gun registry, similar to the sex registry which already exists. Orlando Yarborough can be on both registries! What a lucky guy, huh?

CNN: Processed cheese stands in for a bomb during a possible terrorist dry-run in Baltimore, and other fun news from an unclassified TSA advisory.

Either I'm confused or WJZ is confused (or maybe we're both confused): isn't a "home invasion" generally a rather violent event which happens when the family is home? Because that's sort of always how I've taken to understand the phrase. I guess it's just another way of saying "burglary", and hopefully a.) no one gets hurt and b.) they get the dog back.

Baltimore City might take lessons from Baltimore County's squadPolice CAT Squad:
"A soft-spoken guy, Martin explains how the CAT Squad operates. "You throw a rock in some water, the rock is concentrated action there,” he says. “It disperses the water. We try to do the same thing with crime, by dispersing the crime, reducing the crime and get it out of different areas."


Hey, the headline writes the blurb: Pressures dictate plea deals, But sentences in city homicide cases aren't necessarily a bargain for the convicted.

A friend of mine once said Baltimore City was a lot like Mexico City: if you stick to the touristy areas, you'll be fine. Not quite so much -- three arrested in a shooting that left a man wounded in downtown last night.

There's a tidbit in that above article: "the city's last homicide occurred Thursday afternoon." Is this deserving of a celebration or just the result of dumb luck?

17 comments:

taotechuck said...

My favorite line from the WJZ dog story: "A short time later, police rushed to Annette Cool's house..." Really? A short time later? They rushed? That's some crazy shit.

taotechuck said...

Oh, and Snay, thanks for the sweet crime blogging while Cyb's been out of town. I'm totally disgusted and burnt out on local crime, so I've had my head in the sand for the past week or two. Hell, I don't know what's been happening in crime since, like, #174 or something.

Anonymous said...

I would hardly call West Mulberry & Park Ave. a "touristy" area, especially at 3am on a weeknight! But yes, it's still an unusual place for that type of crime...

Anonymous said...

Why the discrepancy between the homicide number on this page (184), and the numbers reported by other sources like the Sun (178)?

ppatin said...

I heard Doc Cheetham on the Ed Norris Show today, and he actually sounded surprisingly reasonable. Unfortunately I never heard him say anything about tougher sentences for criminals. Community involvement and better parenting would be great, but those things are complements, not substitutes, for a justice system that sends violent felons to prison for a loooooong time.

taotechuck said...

Anon, the discrepency is because our homicide number includes bodies that were suspicious but were never reported as being added to the official homicide list. Those are mostly marked with an asterisk.

The other reason for the discrepency is that I think we've missed a couple of names here and there. I'm hoping to cross-check the list and bring it up-to-date soon.

Gor said...

I can't find a "Home Invasion" statute for Maryland, but going by the common diffinition in the state's that do have one, they are burglaries "... that are committed when the occupants are present are considered home invasions ..."

Anonymous said...

"Home Invasion" was a "buzz word" made up by news reporters, its not a real crime category that's why you can't find it.

A "Home Invasion" in real life terms is: a Robbery (Res).

-People cannot be burglarized, only their property can.

-Property cannot be Robbed, only people can.


There. UCR 101.

Gor said...

It's not just a "buzz word", quite a few states have specific Home Invasion statutes, Florida's criminal code 812.135 "Home-invasion robbery" being one of them.

I think we need one also.

John Galt said...

wjz reports that the affluent Northshore Community in Canton has hired off-duty Baltimore City Police officers because they don't feel safe. Councilman Jim Kraft says they want better policing than the City can handle at this time.

Excuse me? They're paying perfectly good money in supplemental condo fees, but also in City property taxes.

Question: where in the city budget is there inadequate money for policing? I do see $300 million in miscellaneous dubious handouts to nonprofits which could be transferred to the police budget.

BCPD keeps saying they have enough money but not enough personnel. But the Northshore Community is hiring your people !! Baltimore City cops.

This is just bullsh!t. There's plenty of money being taxed into the City treasury. The Mayor is just deciding how much crime to allow criminals to commit against us. And then she gives away our taxes to her friends.

We have a crime emergency. All discretionary spending (including th $300 million in freebies) should be suspended until Baltimore is no longer in the top five Most Unsafe Cities in the nation.

Call you councilpersons, people. Tell them crime takes first dollar.

Maybe we need a charter amendment forbidding grants by the City until its crime and schools are ok.

John Galt said...

The Northshore story is here.

Anonymous said...

The homicide count on this blog mostly likely includes some bodies that probably are still considered "undetermined" by the medical examiner's office. until an official determination is made, city police don't add the body to the official homicide list, no matter how weird the circumstances that the body is found in. The ME's gotta rule.

ppatin said...

Galt, do you have a link that provides details on some of the city's $300 million in handouts? I'd be curious to see where all the money is going.

John Galt said...

Patin,

Look at the graph on page 34 of the Fiscal 2007 Summary of Adopted Budget.

John Galt said...

More armed robberies in North Charles Village.

ppatin said...

6.9 million in art & culture grants! That's up almost a million bucks from last year! I'm all for art, but that kind of spending is a luxury that one of the most violent cities in the country cannot afford.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Don't get me started on the shiteous public "art" PP. I get so pissed I start grinding my teeth.$6.9 million--disgusting!!! If the city wants to waste city money just flush it quietly! Don't waste it and ruin the landscape at the same time!

We need a "Baltimore's most shiteous publically funded eyesore" contest. The train-station hermaphrodite is pretty bad, but there's some scrap-metal piles near the harbor that really give s/he a run for his/her money.