Wednesday, November 14, 2007

November 14

Another witness killed: "Carlos Smithson, 22, who was killed on Grogan Avenue at 6:28 p.m. [last Sunday], was expected to take the stand today against Vincent Berry, 19."

"Former Baltimore City Police Commissioner Kevin P. Clark and two of his former division chiefs have filed an multi-million dollar lawsuit against Gov. Martin O’Malley, former City Solicitor Ralph S. Tyler III and four police officers, claiming violations of their constitutional and civil rights in connection with the group’s firing in November 2004."

Two "delayed" deaths are being counted towards this year's homicide tally: Trent Earll, shot a decade ago, and Frederick Davis, beaten in 1999.
(Thanks PP)

The Ink reports the murders of Terrence Regan and Leonard Hunt.

In the County, a member of the Bloods pled guilty to a murder he committed at the tender age of 14.

A federal judge in Baltimore has unsealed the financial records of the Westboro Baptist Church. Meanwhile, the church is, of course, appealing the $10.9 million judgment.

WTF? "[Mary Pat] Clarke, who represents the 14th District, said several [robbery] victims were intoxicated at the time and suggested that they were setting themselves up to be victimized. Clarke said residents should lobby for a midnight bar curfew."
... she went on to add that several rape victims in her district had been wearing short skirts, some gay-bashing victims had been queening around, and some robbed banks had advertised themselves as being in the business of handling money!

County police are asking the public's help to identify a burglary suspect who stole lottery tickets and cigarettes from the Safeway on Baltimore National Pike.

Controversy about the murder of Calen Dirrubo continues in the February 27 comments section.

16 comments:

Sean said...

Huh. James Smoot was one of my wife's students in middle school a few years back. Everyone was pretty shocked when he killed the guy, understandably.

John Galt said...

Kevin Clark still wants his old job back.

Sean said...

"The suit seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages for alleged violations of constitutional and civil rights."

Sounds to me like he just wants money...

John Galt said...

In Charles Village, Mary Pat Clarke blames the victims, then coddles the criminals. Great!

graham said...

It's hard to believe that MPC continues to be re-elected by her constituents in one of the most affluent and well-educated districts in the City. You would think that if ANYONE cares about the direction of the city, it would be the voters in the 14th District. But no, they're just as apathetic and lazy as the rest of the City.

And speaking of MPC, I really wish JHU had made good on it's threat years ago to move the campus to Towson...maybe MPC would then be less of a bitch if she didn't have her Depends in a knot over JHU students walking around in "her" sacred district and getting themselves robbed at gunpoint....

John Galt said...

She's easily reelected by those

a) over-educated, white, liberal and

b) poorly-educated, black, inner-city constituents because she sells what they want to buy:

1) people don't kill people; guns do.

2) people don't pee on your doorstep - it's the beer's fault.

3) no one needs to enjoy a nightlife; close bars and have everyone go to sleep at 8:00 p.m. like an octagenarian.

4) business is evil; let's not have any private sector in Baltimore - other than the drugdealers, who of course cannot help themselves. Let's just expand city government!

5) let's close all the small corner markets - the crime will vanish if you close the sandwich shops. Damned lettuce.

6) we need more recreation centers - althougth they're currently underutilizing existing capacity, as soon as we build ten more of them, all the liquorstore-robbers will join the Volleyball team instead.

7) Oh, and they'll all grow up, run out and get jobs, and support their illegitimate children after we supply a sensitive, nurturing social worker to give them counseling.

8) Union teachers need more time to plan how to waste time on a bunch of adolescents who will mostly never graduate.

But don't dare level blame at our dysfunctional young males. Certainly you cannot hold them responsible for assaulting bystanders. They were asking for it, standing around out in the open on a public street.

*********************************
Solution:

Strip this incompetent municipality of its police powers and vest them in a government which is in touch with reality and is not electable by a bunch of damn hoodlums/-ettes.

John Galt said...

And speaking of Kevin Clark vs. O'Malley, what ever came of Clark's testimony that O'Malley right-hand-man Michael Enright knowingly falsified the rape statistics to the FBI?

Isn't that kinda... bad ???

Maurice Bradbury said...

"they'll all grow up, run out and get jobs, and support their illegitimate children after we supply a sensitive, nurturing social worker to give them counseling."

You know, galt, you can be really funny, in a grim kind of way!

Yeah whatever did happen to Clark's allegations? When I saw the start of that story I was sure he was suing under some kind of whistle-blower protection thing.
But racial discrimination? That just doesn't make any sense.

ppatin said...

I thought he was suing because he claimed that the mayor didn't have the authority to fire him. Didn't the Court of Appeals make a decision in Clark's favor last year?

ppatin said...

I quickly ran Kevin Clark through Google, and the latest article I could find before this recent discrimination claim was from February of this year. Here
is the article. Did the MD Court of Appeals ever issue a ruling on that case?

Anonymous said...

Traveler:

I'm very curious about that Hopkins moving to Towson fact. Do you have reference (or time frame so I can search newspapers)? I've only recently (half) moved to Baltimore and I'd love some more ammunition on how even Hopkins (the only bright employer) wants out.

Their multitude of campuses closer to DC of course already helps, but I'd really like to be able to point and say that they almost gave up their campus within the city itself. I wonder what their estimate of losses to schools in better cities are? They are pretty elite, I can't imagine the students studying there wouldn't largely have the opportunity and desire to be in Berkeley, Cambridge, etc...

Anonymous said...

Anon: the jhu tiff was years ago(70's), when the city was in dire need of taxable property and threatened to tax non-profits the same as for-profit entities. JH did purchase a very large tract of land just north of Towson in Baltimore Co. to consolidate the University and Hospital (in theory) but the city council backed down and tempers cooled. but ever since then it's been a love-hate relationship with the City, especially when MPC is involved. She is evil incarnate.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Let's try that again.

Just to play devil's advocate, and before we start calling Hopkins the "only bright employer" in Baltimore, what do we think of articles such as this: commentary

There was an even more well-written piece on the internet some time ago, but I can't locate it. However, the subject matter is the same.

Seriously, I'm just asking to see what the differing opinions are on the subject.

Anonymous said...

Lucidsplash:

Thanks for that article. To me it seems like not everyone appreciates the benefits of JHU, even if it doesn't pay taxes. Back in the 70s it sounds like they were ready to move. Does anyone think they that they wouldn't do it again? I'm sure being located in Baltimore is a detriment to recruiting, even with their elite academic status.

I call it "the only bright employer" because I can't think of anything else that would attract an educated, middle to upper-middle class individual to live and work in this city. Maybe a few of the financial companies downtown (Legg-Mason, T Rowe Price?), but again, if you have ambition in finance, why wouldn't you go first to Boston, NYC, Charlotte, etc.?

My personal feeling is that B'more's 'future' comes in siphoning off some of the residents from the always booming (no business cycle, yay!) DC tech area. But so far they haven't made a good case for someone who <3's city life, have they? I guess up here you can vote at least...

Anonymous said...

Hey anon,

Maybe I'm biased but the U of M system here has a lot of shining talent as well. There's a new biopark and the CVD is topnotch. Did you know that one of the country's best dental schools is U of M right here in Baltimore? Not to mention the med school - we don't have the name, but we rank 7th among public medical schools in research funding.

There's appreciation for what Hopkins does at the top of the food chain, sure. My point was that sometimes because of that no one pays attention to how they are doing on the other end. You can move as many scientists, docs, etc into B-more as you want, but you still need to make sure the people who are working in the cafeteria are getting a fair shake or the city will NEVER improve. I think it's possible that how the people at the bottom of the food chain are treated and the conditions there affect the lives of the people at the top far more than the converse.