Note, dear readers, that it is very common for robbers to stake out parking lots of grocery-store shopping centers (the York Road Giant parking lot is perennially popular) looking for single women to follow home; they know if you're getting groceries you're likely going home directly. So watch your rearview as you leave these places, and if you think you're being followed, let the ice cream melt and drive to a police station, fire station, etc!
I just got off the phone with a Deputy Major with the Northern District Police - the police are calling community leaders to alert people about a home invasion and rape this evening [8/24] around 8 pm on Colorado Ave [in the Tuxedo Park area] in Roland Park. The suspects appear to have targeted this house, hiding and following the woman into her house when she returned home. The police are searching for suspects - the only description they have is that they are two black males, one taller and thin and one shorter and more heavyset, both wearing summer clothes.
I know that's not much to go on, but the police are asking that if you have any information to please call 911. And of course, it goes without saying that everyone should use extra caution when coming and going.
And solid advice for the ladies from Craigslist: grab a rock!:
"If you feel as if you are about to be a victim, try to do something to make your possible attacker think HE might end up being the victim. Turn and face him, cross the street, take your hands out of your pockets and keep them free for fighting, stare right in his face, suddenly walk slower than him, pick up a weapon from the street (rock, brick, whatever and just hold it). The killers pick up on that and will move on to their next target."
And how about some pepper spray?
Updates: The media rolls it out for Roland Park!
LB adds that one perp raped her while the other robbed the house.
And Julie B. notes that the victim was 59 and taken to Mercy Medical Center, interviews Dr. Fessenden (famous 10th-grade economics teacher).
...And Janis & LB say "crime has left residents of this community of well-manicured lawns and pricey historic homes looking for answers."
... please help spread neighborhood crime alerts by joining your neighborhood listservs and bulletin boards and forwarding them here!
41 comments:
It's time for people with clout to get involved and prevent the disastrous Dixon administration from continuing for another four hellish years. The average Baltimoron must be convinced that even though she is black, and a woman, maybe she isn't right for the job of mayor of the second most dangerous city in the USA. I'm sure when they catch the scumbag rapists (if they do catch them, that is) we will see that they have HUGE rap sheets, and multiple convictions for violent felonies, that anywhere else in this country, would have had them behind bars for life. On their rap sheets, look for" 20 years, all but 2 suspended", etc..etc...
I volunteered to host a Jill Carter event!
it's hopeless, but sometimes you have to stand up and buy a box of wine for things that matter!
IMHO the O'M endorsement is worth more to the 'morons than race or gender.
To hell with pepper spray, Maryland should allow law-abiding citizens to get concealed carry permits. It's obvious that the police can't protect people, so we should be allowed to protect ourselves. They also need to change the law so that you can't be prosecuted for killing a criminal who breaks into your home.
It's sad how Jill Carter's campaign as gone nowhere. Maybe we'll get lucky and someone will turn up a last minute scandal about Sheila Dixon, or she'll get hit by a bus.
That's sage advice from the northern district, about reporting people that don't look like they belong in the neighborhood. Hey, maybe rapists DO look like they belong in the neighborhood, what then, geniuses? I remember when I lived on St Paul and 27th, when some scumbag was sticking a screwdriver up to women's throats, the northern put up posters (with no picture) advising us to be on the lookout for a "black male, 25-40 yrs old, 5'10 or so, average build" I don't know if they've checked, but that also describes about 200,000 law abiding Baltimore residents. I've got some advice of my own. How about, when you catch and convict someone of attacking someone, you actually send them to prison for 20 years? And you take DNA evidence from EVERY serious crime scene. And you actually file a report for every crime committed? If that's too damn hard, how about having another study commissioned to see why this place is a s***hole, and while you're at it raise property taxes to $3.00 per $100 assessed value. Let's see how fast it takes to empty out the city!
well, were the weapon to be seized and used against you, which is not-that-unlikely if you're an ordinary citizen in a panic, the pepper spray would be more weildy and would feel a lot better in your eye.
word up jaime
Jill has never achieved citywide support and the William P. Carter name isn't a strong enough brand on its own.
My concern is that she will not make a substantial showing, but will draw enough of the anti-status quo voters away from Mitchell to keep Dixon in office doing nothing about the crime.
Ditto. Word.
Most criminals already have guns though, so if they seize yours it's not like you'll be any worse off than you would have been otherwise. Pepper spray also doesn't work all that well in a lot of cases.
Despite what I sometimes may sound like I'm not some NRA gun-nut, but it's pretty obvious that Maryland's current gun laws do a pretty awful job of keeping decent people safe from hoodlums.
"My concern is that she will not make a substantial showing, but will draw enough of the anti-status quo voters away from Mitchell to keep Dixon in office doing nothing about the crime."
Honestly, I think that Keiffer Mitchell might as well be a clone of Sheila Dixon at this point. I have zero faith in either of those two clowns.
"How about, when you catch and convict someone of attacking someone, you actually send them to prison for 20 years?"
Preach it brotha. The federal court system is an excellent example of what our state system should be like. Tough sentences that judges can't water down, and absolutely no parole. That'll also do wonders against the "stop snitching" culture. The prospect of spending decades in prison will make most criminals start ratting out their fellow scumbags.
Pardon my cynicism Jaimetab, but I really doubt that Baltimore has 200,000 law-abiding male residents!
In a city with around 100,000 total offenders, looking for those who stand out like sore thumbs won't do much, precisely because they resemble 2007 Baltimore. Or it resembles them.
In Kent County, on the other hand, you would profile 'undesireables' and it would probably work well.
In residential areas, cops must be on the same patrol for years, knowing who belongs and, in particular, who is trouble (or is not.) And this requires more personnel.
In commercial districts, you have a greater flux of patrons/visitors, and you cannot reasonably guess as to intent, so you just need to have immediate police presence densely through the district in case something should 'pop', which again requires more personnel.
It's simple. It works.
Hire more (good)cops!
There isn't much of a point in hiring more cops if the judicial system can't punish the people they arrest. The Baltimore PD is already catching criminals, and they are being convicted, but then they get let go with slaps on the wrist until they end up raping or killing someone. If we started handing out decades of prison time for first time armed robbery/carjacking/felon in possesion of a gun/etc convictions then our current police force could accomplish far more since they wouldn't be busting the same shitheads again and again and again.
What I'd really like to see in lieu of election is the imposition of a federal Administrator of the Provisional Government of the Emergency Area of Baltimore, akin to Paul Bremer.
I've found the solution! Build another tin statue in front of Penn Station, holding hands with the existing statue. That'll do it.
Calling 311 or 911 to report people who "don't belong in the neighborhood" won't do you any good. A 311 operator all but accused me of being a racist when I called to report some suspected drug dealers (who don't live on our block) stoop-sitting on a vacant property.
Build a f***ing guillotine in front of Penn Station...
Galt, I'm not sure that Iraq is a good example of how to do anyting properly!
The ease of sentencing is partly due to the inavailability of prison cells to contain much of our population and partly to the judge's perceived need to achieve a nontrial plea outcome because the jury pool is unreliable.
I think it's really a question of defining what is meant by 'a jury of his peers'. I don't think the founding fathers intended that in a crime-infested city full of hoodlums, a jury would be made up of thieves, con-men, and rapists.
It seems to me a jury of peers should be constructed from a larger, more mainstream jurisdiction. I say, delegate the trials out to the surrounding counties. Their populations will convict a guilty man.
So, let's DO IT!! Why the hell hasn't it happened already??
If you had tougher sentencing laws then you could get better plea bargain deals. For example take a crime that currently carries a theoretical sentence of 10 years, and increase that to 30. That way when you do have to plead out the case you can go from 30 to 10 instead of from 10 to 3.
As for prison space, we'd probably save money in the long run by spending more on prisons. Sure it's expensive to lock a criminal up, but I'm sure they cost society more when they're running around committing crimes.
Good luck trying to get tougher minimum sentencing through Curt Anderson's committee. He's a known criminal advocate, kinda like Dixon. I guess that's why I back imperfect Mitchell; he's beholden to a more mainstream, law-abiding constituency at this moment.
And on more prison space, the other counties of the state take the view that Baltimore City is the added prison space.
Maybe that would change if we set a quota on how many prison releasees could return to live in the City each year under penalty of incarceration if found within city limits.
jaimetab said...
So, let's DO IT!! Why the hell hasn't it happened already??
how are you going to convince people from the surrounding counties to agree to this? they don't give a fuck about the city.
Don't give them the option. Forcibly export your criminals into their neighborhoods. Then they'll give a damn.
No more crime havens, lke Baltimore. If 'separate but equal' was no good for education, then why should we allow uneven concentrations of criminality ?
Desegregate criminality. Let everyone in the state shoulder the burden equally.
Galt, I just don't think Keiffer Mitchell will do a damn thing either.
Baltimore hitman Eric Hall got a 30-year federal (that means no parole) sentence after pleading guilty to murder & racketeering. Thank you Rod Rosenstein.
BTW, did anyone else think of Wee-Bey from The Wire while reading that story?
The feds managed to put Darryl Harcum away for 20 years. He'd been convicted EIGHT times in state court, and was finally nabbed in posession of a handgun. Today was a good day for the Maryland US Attorney's office.
I nominate the federal prosecutor for Interim Administrator of the Provisional Government of the Federal Emergency Area of Baltimore.
That's excellent advice on craigslist -- the bit about how to avoid being a crime victim. I'm so sick and tired of hearing about how women should scream and run. Even self-defense classes -- they teach you how to scratch, kick, scream, and run. Screw that. If someone assaults me in the street, I want them bloodied and almost dead by the time police arrive. And if they don't arrive (which would be no surprise) -- all the better, I say.
Law abiding people in this city need to get ANGRY, not just scream and run.
Scratching, kicking, etc are all great if your attacker is unarmed, but if he has a gun you're fucked. That's why Maryland should pass a shall-issue concealed carry law. If law-abiding citizens could carry guns criminals would know that their life was in danger every time they tried to victimize someone.
The advice about not looking like a victim is smart though. It amazes me when I see idiots walking around with iPod headphones in, or yakking on their cell phones while going home after dark. That just screams "victimize me!"
Rather than editorialize, I'll just post this link to the Baltimore City Drug Treatment Court cost study from 2003.
ppatin...
Very very few people actually carry a weapon for protection. Really, it is a big drag to carry around a hunk of metal with you wherever you go. Not to mention the fact that you have to worry about safety and have the stress and responsibility of maintaining and transporting a deadly weapon; not to mention the fact that you can then only wear certain kinds of clothing. Basically, the only people that would end up carrying if a law was enacted would be libertarian model-railroad-building dweebs (who aren't worth robbing anyway).
It is childish to think that carrying a gun will keep you from being mugged or assaulted. Chances are, you will be taken by surprise and will have to comply in spite of being armed.
Your best defense is awareness, street smarts and neighbors who look out for you. The gun and holster game is a waste of time.
Your best defense is awareness, street smarts and neighbors who look out for you. The gun and holster game is a waste of time.
Well, in an inner-city neighborhood like mine, almost no one looks out for you, so you're basically saying 'Move to an upper-middle class enclave.', which is a return to segregation.
Galt, your racism card is getting worn out from overuse.
Amazingly, people do look out for each other even in "Baltimore B". It is possible to befriend neighbors and do each other favors, and sometimes, look out for each other's safety.
It does require that you be a like-able and easy-to-get-along-with person. However, since you happen to be a property owner who is up to his earlobes in legal actions being taken against you, you might not be receptive to the idea of neighbors getting along.
Bullsh!t. You're the only one talking race here. {Try reading next time.} Inner-city is a culture, not a color.
Just last night neighbors living next to the firebombed antidrug activist who were surrounded by more cops than I've ever seen here refused on WBAL to 'snitch' on anyone or anything because they JUST - DON'T - DO - IT.
It's not in the culture.
Now, is that everyone in a neighborhood? No. Is it a LOT of them here? Yes. Are there a few who stand up to be counted? Quite few. Definitely not a majority.
Further, most of the stop-snitchers use your same rhetoric to justify keeping mum on crime. In fact, they argue that the firebombing victim got this outcome because she couldn't to their taste be "a like-able and easy-to-get-along-with person."
So cut the indignant crap.
Anyhow, you're NOT referring to civic-mindedness benefitting everyone. You're referring to a clan of likemindeds who look out for themselves and their associates only, to the exclusion of those neighbors they don't fancy.
Which, by the way, is the same thing the families of the drug-dealers do. So, you keep great company.
ppatin wrote: "It's sad how Jill Carter's campaign as gone nowhere."
Sad, maybe, if you're pro-criminal(funny, but reading your other posts, I didn't get that sense?). The woman is the biggest, far-left criminal-coddler out there! She'd be an utter NIGHTMARE as mayor. As much as I detest Dixon and feel she's out of her league, I'd vote for Dixon before I'd vote for Jill Carter. Seriously, you need to do some homework on the woman before you make posts like this. Just because she was and is anti-O'Malley, she seems to appeal to a lot of law-n-order types -- but she is anything but.
if you're going to post political statements and you want it to be credible, 'non, use a 'handle' and link to somthing that supports your opinion.
Else most people will just assume you're working for someone's campaign.
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