The last was 24-year-old Jason Fortune.
The Sun has Bealefeld video:
"I haven't signed a contract. I haven't even seen such a document yet. You might find that hard to believe." Not really!
He also discloses his salary ($120,000 + $8 a day), says "I'm not ashamed to say I've taken something from [Commissioner Norris]."
So far so good!
If you can't get enough of that Bealefeld stuff, WBAL has a heckofalotta audio.
QtD: "Incidents are going to happen, but that happens at any bar or tavern." -- bar manager Omar Smith, whose establishment racked up incidents of mice, roaches, underage drinking, violating a health department order, a drug-dealing manager, three murders in two years and a broken-bottle assault before the liquor board revoked the Top Shelf's Liquor license
Wow, today is almost all good news!
I declare Friday October 5 the City's best news day of the whole year!
Even the Blotter is sedate! A carjacking, but it was in Cockeysville!
Aren't you glad you don't live in the county?
In HoCo, a crazy cat lady must pay $10k in restitution.
In Charles County, a 71-year-old man, Joseph Gilford Hickman, was shot dead on the porch of his townhouse.
MoCo's got a widening scandal, officers charged with double-dipping: 10 officers who allegedly took freelance jobs while still on the clock with the county. Four face felony charges, and six have pleaded guilty to misconduct so far.
57 comments:
The crazy cat lady story made me wonder, what's the difference between an Alford plea and a no contest plea?
ppatin,
the wiki shall set you free...
"The Alford plea differs slightly from the nolo contendere ("no contest") plea. An Alford plea is simply a form of a guilty plea, and, as with other guilty pleas, the judge must see there is some factual basis for the plea. Therefore, a defendant's prior conviction via an Alford plea can be considered in future trials; and it will count as a "strike" if a three strikes law applies. On the other hand, a nolo contendere plea is in no way an admission of guilt, and it cannot be introduced in future trials as evidence of incorrigibility. Nevertheless, courts do not have to accept a plea of nolo contendere, and usually do not, except in certain nonviolent cases."
Okay, so now all those violent young males no longer have a Top Shelf Lounge to misbehave in/around.
Do we believe they're now going to go join a seminary ?
Whatever the level of negligence on the part of the bar staff, it's ultimately the presence of violent young males which resulted in several incidents.
So, who's now going to order the young males 'closed' ? Perhaps it should be required that young males obtain personal licenses to move about in Baltimore after sunset and that those licenses also be subject to revocation.
Please, please stop trying to blame violent behavior on things. It's not the booze, nor the bar, nor the dope, nor the gun. It's the boy.
The grieving mother repeatedly asked her son to not go to the Top Shelf because one day he wouldn't come back. Over and over, he went. He chose.
At the end of the day, it's about dumb decisions. Baltimore needs to get rid of many of its stupid residents.
"Omar Smith said he can't control who comes into his lounge" Sure he can, it is called hireing bouncers. Get good ones and you minimize the fights and under age drinking. It should be considered part of the expense of running the establishment, just like cleaning up, and hireing someone to kill the roaches.
hocojoe,
Thanks for the info. Wikipedia rocks my world.
Galt,
While shutting down one bar won't solve any problems, it seems pretty obvious that the bar's owner was both an idiot and a scumbag, and I'm glad to hear that he's being punished.
This owner sounds to me like an irresponsible Baltimorean, which means the liquor board should not have issued a license to her in the first place.
More generally on the subject of who is responsible for over-the-top conduct, I disagree. Bouncers are there to deal with the fairly rare event of a more or less law-abiding customer who has overshot his mark on the alcohol front. He might be too mouthy or even a bit too physically touchy-feely pushy for the service staff to deal with without disrupting the service of other patrons.
But a bouncer is NOT there to handle habitually violent, criminally-inclined hoodies. Those need to be removed from society (or deterred into inaction) by the ready availability of police personnel. (If the warrant squad ever spent a few weeks in these bars, the backlog would vanish.)
In a decent town, those hoodlums are few and far-between and are notorious. Here, they are plentiful. When you tell a cop "There's a guy with a gun in the bar.", the cops here have to ask "Yeah, but which one ?"
Way too many hoodlums here to lay it all on private establishments.
Hire more cops. Incarcerate more hoodlums. Reduce their population (at large) by 66% and then we'll talk about reasonable internal security within places of business.
Where I grew up, you don't have these problems in bars. People don't get criminally out of line, because New York's Finest will be there in the blink of an eye and you WILL be incarcerated.
As for fairly innocent drunken bumbling, yeah, the staff handle it. If the staff are found to be contributory (even passively) to anything criminal, the license is yanked in very, very short order by the ABC Board. In all my years in NY, I never once observed a really criminal incident in a bar.
BTW, in NY, bars are very reputable for the most part. You will commonly find guys in three-piece suits frequenting the joints. These Baltimore establishments more resemble what we call dive bars. And selling package goods out of a bar is just a stupid Maryland thing.
In NY there are a) bars and there are b) liquor stores. Bar patrons cannot get a bottle with more than one serving and are under the supervision of the management until they leave. (Then they are guests of the City on its police-patrolled sidewalks until they get to their destination.) Package stores don't have anyone drinking or drunk near them and anyone opening a container in public had better have the number of a good bailbondsman.
Hey, don't knock the the bars that sell package goods! How can you not love a place like Kelly's on Eastern Avenue where you can sing karaoke and get $1.50 PBRs on a Friday night? Bars in NYC will nail you for $10 a drink!
This is out of the Baltimore Crime Blog jurisdiction, but I find this extremely disturbing and we must always share what we find extremely disturbing says Dr. Freud.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/03/AR2007100302125.html
Sorry, I don't know how to do the little link trick.
I will continue to pray for your cold souls!
You all KNOW NOTHING about the boy that died......
You disrespect his life and his mother.....a mom who cared enough to show up at the Liquor board license meeting for the establishment where her teenage son was killed.
All youth like to party. All youth do things contrary to what their parents say....all youth make mistakes that hopefully will not cost them their lives - IM SURE ALL OF YOU HAVE TOO!
The comments YOU people (on this blog and comment page) often digust me! You make callous comments about any and everyone. No one - even dead souls- are immune.
Do you all consider yourself part of the problem?
I have a great suggestion for you all....if you'd truly like the opportunity to tell the people you think are causing all the problems in Baltimore what you and your friends think.......They'll be a room full of young African American and genuine people of other races you can engage with your unique brand of "X" (you can fill in the blank).
BALTIMORE TOWN HALL MEETING
October 9, 2007
6:00PM-8:00PM
Location:
5 Seasons Restaurant & Lounge
830 Guilford Avenue Baltimore, MD 21202
For whom:
Members of the Hip Hop generation
For what:
To bring the community together around a common goal.
SOLIDARITY = SUCCESS
Are we all on the same page?
How do we best address issues related to:
EMPLOYMENT
ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION
CRIME PREVENTION
POLICE/YOUNG ADULT COMMUNITY RELATIONS
ATTACK ON THE HIP HOP CULTURE
FREE TO THE PUBLIC
REFRESHEMENTS WILL BE SERVED
Moderated by "Bmore's Hip Hop Ambassador" C-Love
(Style Warz// www.itsbaltimorebaby.com //ItsBaltimoreBaby LIVE!)
Instead of waiting for the revolution.....BE IT!
I AM THE REVOLUTION!
I'm wary of any meeting there "Attack on the hop hop culture" is on the agenda. The so-called "hip hop culture" is a huge part of the problem!
Galt, bizarre comparison of baltimorean blue collar dive bars and manhattan white collar bars. We have white collar bars too, it is just that they are fewer and further between as baltimore is a blue collar town. Are there oodles of martini swilling stuffed shirts trading stock tips in the Bronx?
Also, to be accurate, package goods isn’t a stupid maryland thing - it’s perhaps a stupid baltimore thing. Liquor license laws are county by county here. There are no package goods in howard, montgomery or p.g. counties (i have no idea what the liquor laws are in the rest of the counties).
Generally, I don't get the point of comparing municipalities that have all the money in the world and municipalities that are struggling to get by.
ppattin,
I truly wish you (in particular) would reconsider, but if not...I understand.
I ask again......
are you part of the problem?
"I ask again......
are you part of the problem?"
Let's see, I have...
-No criminal record
-No out of wedlock children
-No drug habit
-Gainful employment
Nope, I'm not a part of the problem.
Why all the hate for package good stores? They're great if you want to keep drinking after last call but don't have any beer at home.
ppatin, don't forget sundays in general.
something i've never understood, how does a local government making it illegal to sell alcohol (or anything else for that matter) specifically on sunday not somehow a violation of the establishment clause?
Wow, I thought addressing a gorup as "you people" is considered highly derogatory and isn't supposed to be used in polite discourse.
whoops, my spelling probably doesn't belong in polite discourse either.
ppatin, to clarify, I don’t have any problem at all with package goods. I used “stupid” rhetorically. I’m also no fan of blue laws. Not being able to buy a decent bottle of wine, good beer or regular sized bottle of liquor if you are on your way to a sunday dinner party/football party/any kind of party is a ridiculous and antiquated pain in the ass. Generally, blue laws stay on the books for reasons that have nothing to do with their original intent - and generally in a manner that is contrary to the free market (bars, restaurants and package goods stores are opposed to the sunday competition blah blah blah).
Burger, there are some liquor stores which are open on Sunday. I know that the deli on the ground floor of Hopkins House sells booze seven days a week. That's one of the biggest things I miss about living there :(
I've never gotten that either.
Has no orthodox Jewish alcoholic lawyer ever taken it up?
You can get a 40 from a "package store" but if you want Madeira for your pot roast you're SOL.
I adore a good liquor store.
The problem with package goods here is that they are so freely unpackaged in public places.
The City won't provide enough personnel to arrest the thousands of people walking around each day with open containers.
Patin, you're approaching it properly. Package goods for home consumption. But most package goods sold here are consumed in the street.
On the subject of blue-collar bars in better cities, they're perfectly enjoyable. And don't involve shootings, stabbings, etc. Dealers and hookers are more covert in such places than here. Baltimore bars are just nastier.
The relative price is part of the problem. When you routinely pay $10 for a drink, you pretty much demand civilized behavior on the part of other patrons.
In Baltimore, the solution seems to be that we'll sell cheapo booze to anyone, but there are no resources of either a private or public nature to contain aberrant behavior. So just get used to the ambient criminality ??
Non,
The feelings on this blog are such that polite discourse is rarely seen here.
Because we care about Baltimore so much, just about everyone here is highly agitated by the state of the crime problem in Baltimore. This brings out a level of anger at the situation that is very hard to control. Add differences in how to fix it and you have some tense exchanges.
hocojoe--
Got it. I'm livin' it, but I ain't lovin' it.
p.s. I'll work on my spelling
Orthodox alcoholic lawyers? Pishaw. I’m sure there are many more alcoholic Catholic lawyers who would be willing to take up the cause. After all, blue laws were intended to control the dirty drunken Catholics and their dirty drunken papist ways. Like, the Eucharist is totally a violation of blue laws. No drinking God on Sundays!
galt, yes, wealthy people who can afford getting drunk $10 a drink are less likely to engage in street level criminal behavior. Now we just have to figure out a way to make everyone in this city rich and it'll clean itself right up.
I've been to dive bars in other rough cities before. They're exactly like Baltimore bars, only wider.
Back in my lushy days, I always preferred a good scuzzy dive to a bar full of suits. But, admittedly, I am a scuz.
"Dive Bars of Our Youth" Sounds like a good book title.
There was the place in St Mary's County, with only a ply-wood sub floor. Then there was the joint on Rolling Road with all of 3 stools at the bar, but 7 parking spaces in the parking lot.
Cybes, Hopkins Deli on 39th street sells respectable alcohol 7 days a week.
Query: please name several establishments you consider Baltimore Dive Bars. I doubt they exhibit the degree of felonious conduct typical of the local establishments I'm thinking of. A scuzz you may be, but I question your criminality.
C Love, did I characterize the victim ? I don't think I did. I characterized the company he kept at the bar. As did his mother.
Galt, admittedly, my idea of a dive is probably about 2 grades nicer than Top Shelf. At the same time, Top Shelf is obviously an exceptional case. It has been my experience that the truely blighted neighborhoods have very few bars, compared to the working class neighborhoods with the more representative bars on every corner that I could walk into and out of without turning too many heads. The blighted neighborhood that I am most familiar with, the Eastern, on Biddle or Preston, between Guilford and Broadway, I see many more “Social Clubs” that require all patrons to be at least 30 years old - to keep the Bangin’ to a minimum. My point is, Top Shelf is not representative of your average baltimore dive bar as a whole. Nor do I think it is objective or enlightening to hold Top Shelf up as an example of your average baltimore bar and compare it to your average bar on the Upper West Side. Not that I’m that familiar with the New York bar scene, but I’m sure there are a few bars here and there your average joe would be terrified to walk into.
wait why does hopkins deli get to do that? i haven't been there since they got rid of the pool tables.
the diviest bar i've ever gone to was the rendezvous, and i know that's pretty far off from a place like the top shelf.
Thanks PP!
I don't drink the alcohol but I do cook with it.
The best dive bar of my youth was the Marble Bar. How I convinced my mom to let me go there is beyond me.
Yeah I was going to say something about the "you people," -- do those two words together ever go over well? And I'm pretty sure no one's said that the people who attend community meetings, or people who listen to a certain kind of music, are "part of the problem."
Who is definitely part of the problem are people who can't distinguish between race and culture. I've said that a lot.
Taste in music and culture don't necessarily go together either, the "Hip-Hop Generation," is about about 70-75% "white people", mostly teenaged males living in the suburbs.
The 'Vous is a dive ???
It's like the nicest thing south of Coldspring and north of Mt. Vernon !
One day when you have time, strap on a kevlar vest and check out the Greenmount Lounge.
Ooh we should have a BCrime Happy Hour there!
The blotter may have been light for today and you only saw one carjacking in Cockeysville but MY carjacking on Wednesday did not show up in the blotter yesterday or today.
Apparently not everything is "interesting" enough for the blotter.
The blotter is a sampling. A really small one.
"wait why does hopkins deli get to do that? i haven't been there since they got rid of the pool tables."
I have no clue. I have heard of a couple of other liquor stores which are open on Sundays, but I have no idea why they're the exception. Maybe you need a special, very rare sort of liquor license? Maybe they got a license back in the day that you can no longer obtain? This is pure speculation of course, I gave up on figuring out liquor license rules a long time ago.
When did HoDel get rid of the pool tables? As of late June they were still there.
"Query: please name several establishments you consider Baltimore Dive Bars."
I'd nominate Kelly's on Eastern Avenue and 1919 which is on Fleet Street (and 30 seconds walk away from where I live, how convenient!) Both are kind of trashy, but they certainly don't feel dangerous. There are a couple of other bars near me where I'd feel a little more nervous, but unfortunately I do not know their names. 1919 rocks my world though, I love it when friends from DC come visit and gawk and the fact that you can get $1.50 beers at a bar.
You got carjacked and no one cares?!
Tell us all about it!
You guys need to come down to Pigtown and go to Carl's Little House. Great little neighborhood tavern at the corner of Ostend & Hamburg. It's very "old Baltimore dive bar" and they make a damn good cheesesteak to go along with your $2 beer! In fact, I'll be there in about an hour and a half. ;-)
I wouldn't say "no one cares" but its definitely been... an experience. Carjacked while leaving UMB around University Hospital on Wednesday. Parked a couple blocks off campus at Parkin & Pratt (at the edge of the new Camden Crossing area and B&O). Two thugs, one with a knife, followed me and demanded keys as I went to open the front door. I had already placed my school bag inside with all notes, laptop, wallet, cell phone, etc. Had a momentary lapse of good judgement and flipped about the school notes in the bag (I have an exam Monday) and begged for my notes from outside car. Thug with knife had already gotten into the car and reached into the backseat, grabbed my schoolbag and tossed it out of the car before Thug #2 got in and drove away.
Just heard from insurance/police that car was "recovered" this morning. Some sort of police chase near/in/around Dundalk that ended up with driver of my car t-boning another car. Only 1 guy in the car and he was apprehended.
Hooray Baltimore. I actually think they may have mistaken me for an *actual* doctor (I was dressed for clinical visits and carrying student white coat). May have thought they were going to get a BMW, Lexus or something. Joke's on them; all they got was my '98 Escort with 110k miles and no gas in the tank. They must have had to fill it before their highspeed chase.
FYI: police-involved shooting at Montford & Orleans
Yep I hear the Ghetto Bird flying above, I live a couple blocks away from this, but yes Montford and Orleans. They are rerouting traffic all over right now. And I am only 1 block from Patterson Park
silly BC posters....
YOU PEOPLE meaning YOU ALL THAT POST on this site.
How else should I have said it.
It had nothing to do with race. I was careful not to make that part of my issue with your comments.
And Galt.....I knooooooow.
Ppatin....I commend you, but IMO if you are not part of the solution YOU are part of the problem.
I think there's a lot to the argument that simply by being a decent, taxpaying, non-criminal citizen IS being part of the solution -- whatever happened to leading by example?
Sorry, that wasn't the best sentence, but you get the drift. My mind is befuddled by a large cheesesteak.
C-Love, I don’t think anybody was implying that when you said “you people” that they thought you were talking about white people. The point that was being made was that you were pointing your finger at a group of people and making broad generalizations about them, their opinions and holding them all accountable for the actions or statements of a few - and that, regardless of race or whatever, is derogatory and is not supposed to be used in polite discourse. Of course, this is ironic, as you often fly off the handle at the commenters on this thread for supposedly doing the same thing.
Mind you, I am often somewhat sympathetic to your point. I think there is a huge amount of implicit racism in these threads. Many of the commenters seem to think as long as their racism is expressed implicitly, and not explicitly stated, that they deserve some I-didn’t-blatently-make-direct-statement-in-regard-to-race congratulatory cookie... or something.
That isn’t to say that I think you are being a very effective messenger. To be perfectly honest, you are failing miserably at exposing the very real hypocrisy here, specifically by making broad and unfair generalizations yourself.
Trust me, I take great exception to being accused of sharing opinions with these people. Some I never agree with, some fifty-fifty, and occasionally with everybody... but according to you, in your first comment in this thread, we’re all the same thing.
Sound familiar?
I am not here to teach anyone anything. This truly not my battle. Sometimes...I just can't resist the temptation to respond.
eebmore,
I will be sure to name the person I am talking to/about in the future. I have never seen your "name".
PPATTIN, JG ((I felt like they knew I was talking to/about them))- my apologies for lumping you in with everyone else. I assumed
"broad generalizations about them, their opinions and holding them all accountable for the actions or statements of a few - and that, regardless of race or whatever, is derogatory and is not supposed to be used in polite discourse. Of course, this is ironic, as you often fly off the handle at the commenters on this thread for supposedly doing the same thing."
sounds good , but really does not apply to me IMO. Please tell me what I said (EVER) that was comparable to what has been said about many of Baltimore's dead?
I have not made any statement about the people that comment's lives. One time - I mentioned boche ball...LOL! I have not stereotyped anyone. I act like I've never met any of these posters on here.....I dont know them. I comment on what is said. I've made no generalizations about them. My opinions are based on reading what they write everyday. I am a fairly intelligent person and I have been following this blog for sometime now.....I feel pretty sure about my conclusion that many of the regular posters are oblivious to their disrespect .....many of their comments are unGodly.
Perhaps I am not as eloquent when expressing exactly "what" about their comments that bother me as you think I should be (do you know me....heard my story?)....I will give you that.....
I never said I was anybody's spokesperson. I just speak from my heart. I am real. Besides...why should I spend time trying to explain any of you into veiwing the situation differently - DO YOU. And for those of you that feel that living is your obligation to mankind.....fine....I wish you well. I do all the things that you claim make you so admirable....just like a whole lot of hip hoppers....the folk ppatin finds undesireable or unworthy of his time. Sometimes....just living and paying is not enough.
I will from time to time tell you what I feel. If I am not allowed tell me. Otherwise...respond or not.
Whatever with these side issues. The real problems in Baltimore started when Baltimoreans started wearing white after Labor Day.
oh they have pool tables again? this was like four years ago.
"Huge amount of implicit racism"?
WTF is "implicit racism"?
I am getting really damn sick of this "racist" talk, with no one able to cite any example.
Does it ever occur to you, EEB, that putting a race label on things that have nothing to do with race is racist in itself?
That maybe what you're seeing implied is being created by your own mind?
The only racist things I have ever heard on here was when C. Love informed us that black people are loud and white people think like Don Imus.
If you can't figure out exactly what about someone's statement is racist or hypocritical then you need to figure that out before you start slinging around serious and hurtful assessments of people's character.
I am really at the end of my rope with this crap.
Lucid I'm glad you got your notes back and they caught someone! In grad school someone broke into my car and stole my bag with all of my projects in it, a week before the end of the semester.
So you got your car back, and now you'll get to enjoy endless court dates. We should take bets on how many postponements. Have you looked up your perp's record yet? I'll bet it's fascifuckinating.
I don't have a name yet. At some point I'm supposed to go down and look at pictures or a lineup. Not sure I'm going to be much help but we'll see. Tasks on hand at the moment: do not fail exam Monday, celebrate wildly Monday night, retrieve stethoscope and other important items that might still be in car, haggle insurance company to get me true value of vehicle, get new car, identify perp, do not fall behind in course material before next exam Oct. 29th, learn how to a head to toe physical exam. Onward!
And for those of you that feel that living is your obligation to mankind.....fine....I wish you well.
That's just rude and dismissive. I never said that simply living was the only obligation, but living by example -- living a decent life apparently worth much to some, but to the kids I see every day all day long -- it's meaningful to them. They watch and hopefully learn that there is another way -- and I don't have to say or do anything. I don't have to speak another language, make myself seem "cool", listen to any one kind of music...and I've still managed to earn their respect. As a result, I'm trying to show them a way to respect themselves.
Cyb, if you’re going state that “implicit racism” is by its nature a nonsensical term, then it is impossible to answer that question directly.
The only individual whose character I have ever attacked here was Benn Ray, and I still hold that he is utterly deserving, and I would be more than happy to site as many examples as anyone asked me to provide. Otherwise, and more directly to the subject at hand, I’ve attacked no one else’s character here. I’ve accused no one of being a racist - not you, not me, not C-Love or anybody else. But yes, I think all of us, myself included, can be lazy-brained and cloud our objectivity with the prejudices that exist in all of our heads, be the matter racial or otherwise. When we fail to identify the motives behind our own thoughts or statements -say, for example, on matters that are touchy in regard to race - then we, myself included, run the risk of expressing thoughts that are arguably racist or prejudiced in origin. And that, specifically, is what I see multible examples of on these threads. That is not a character attack on anybody, unless what I am accusing people of is being human. And yes, these statements are generally implicit. And yes, implication is a difficult thing to pin down. That is the nature of implict expression. It protects us from being accountable, either to our selves or to others. Implication is slippery. That is why, consiously or not, we use implict expression.
Does this raise the possibility that I may imagine instances where it does not exist? Absolutely. But, if its employment seems to be persistant, the possibility of it being in my imagination becomes less and less likely. Unless, of course, if I’m crazy or utterly paranoid. I do not consider that to be out of the rhelm of possibility, but I do consider it to be unlikely.
Lucid, they do have the one guy, right?
So when you least expect it you'll get a letter demanding that you appear in court on a certain day or be arrested, and you'll show up, and somebody's lawyer won't be ready, lather, rinse, repeat ... well keep us posted!
Yes they have the guy driving the car at the time of the crash. However, apparently unless I can identify him via photo or live lineup, then there is some question of whether or not he will be charged with the actual carjacking itself.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Lucid, glad you weren't hurt at all! I know that's probly little consolation for you, but still, you never know in this city...
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