Thursday, April 3, 2008

April 3

The kindergarteners at Forcey Christian School miss Anthony.

Jeffrey Butler was wanted by police when he was murdered. The story demonstrates both flaws in the system and the fact that, as BPD spokesman Sterling Clifford said, "It's very difficult to find these kids, and sometimes the kids don't realize that the best thing for their safety is to be in the system."

The teenage brothers who were abducted in Catonsville are still missing, and police say the two boys have a "long criminal history."

"The FBI and city robbery detectives have released photographs of a man they suspect of stealing more than $10,000 in a string of recent bank robberies." Hmmm... not that the web version of the Sun bothered to run the photos or anything.

If more people used Netflix, the dude who robbed the Blockbuster in Cockeysville would be S.O.L.

These damned teenagers today have it easy. When I was their age, kids had to walk five miles uphill through the snow to set fire to the elementary school.

28 comments:

  1. who thinks these 2 teens will get found alive?

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  2. "who thinks these 2 teens will get found alive?"

    When I heard about their criminal records I kind of stopped caring.

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  3. ppatin:

    yea they have a nice sized sheet..but i still think it would be a shame if these kids were killed, afterall, their just kids who CAN change..it sounds like wishful thinking...this whole scenario sounds like a something out of a movie, i want to find out WHY they took the kids..its probably for collateral or extortion, if its revenge then they could already be dead..i hate to even think of whats happening in that rowhouse basement their in..anyone recall the case where "Don Papa" and fellow bloods tortured and murdered the teen in a rowhouse basement? scary stuff..

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  4. Those kids were in their mid-to-late teens and at that age, it is likely that they themselves owed someone money, stole drugs from someone, etc. I find it less likely, thought obviously there is not evidence released to the public either way at this point, that they are just collateral, etc. Most likely they themselves are deeply involved in something underhanded and made the wrong person angry. That IS sad, but for, I think, different reasons that bmore might be considering.

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  5. Reading that over I think I should get an award for most unnecessarily complex sentence structure with the most number of commas in a comment. Yeesh.

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  6. lucid:

    true, plus the people that broke in the house can very well only be in the 17-20 yr old age bracket, making their relationship with the 2 brothers more personal..where the HELL are these kids!??! i am almost 100% sure that some neighber or someone saw the kids being taken into a house or something of that nature..but of course no one says a word

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  7. It's rumored that the Blackwells' mother owes some dealer a bunch of money.

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  8. bmore:

    Good point, as cold-hearted as I am I would hate for them to end up like Brandon from The Wire. Only someone like Trayvon Ramos deserves that kind of a fate. Still, I feel a lot less sorry for them than when I thought they were innocent kids.

    BTW, they were talking about this quite a bit on the Ed Norris show. They said that money is the most likely motive, if it were revenge they would've just shot them outright. And yeah, their friends/family members are typical hoodlum trash who won't cooperate with the police. :rolleyes:

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  9. John Galt: Yep, it looks like our Baltimore criminals have now begun their spring offensive.

    Betcha: the Home Invasion crew thought they were going to get a heck of a lot of weed or coke or cash out of that Catonsville house (and may have gotten some), but apparently the big stash wasn't there.

    Wonder if the landlord of that house will get April's rent, and if the security deposit will cover the damage.

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  10. buzone:

    yea weed or coke..or the most profitable HEROIN aka Baltimores 1st love

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  11. So there have been two fires in vacants on my block this week and now there is a 3rd fire on the next block over as we speak. I seriously do not need a serial arsonist near my house right now. :(

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  12. lucid:

    At least the fires will keep drunks & junkies out of the vacants. Make sure you've got fire extinguishers in your house though just in case...

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  13. We keep a little one under the sink but I'm thinking any more won't do much good if the fire spreads here from somewhere else. We're on the corner at least so it can really only come from one direction. Still though.

    Then again, it it goes it goes. Not that much here that can't be replaced. Maybe I should pack up the wedding pictures and put the cat carriers by the door. Sigh.

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  14. Did anyone notice how long the ones that broke into that drug housed stayed. 8 hours!

    What the hell was going on for 8 hours?

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  15. About those abandoned houses... were they boarded up and falling apart abandoned, or were they rehabbed and sitting on the market abandoned? Also, do you happen to know if they were privately owned or city owned?

    I'm intrigued by the nationwide increase in arsons by people who either can't pay their mortgage or who bought high and have watched their property plummet. It doesn't seem like Baltimore has been hit as bad as some other cities (hello, Cleveland), but I'm very interested in the stories behind burnt buildings around town.

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  16. "The younger brother, Sterling, was arrested last year on charges of automobile theft in February and marijuana distribution in March; in 2005 on disorderly conduct charges; and in 1999 for a charge of second-degree assault, the records show."
    Am I reading that right-- that The Examiner claims Sterling Blackwell was arrested at the age of 6 for second-degree assault? How is that possible?

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  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  18. Lucid,

    Go to Baltimore City Housing's website to see if any of the vacant houses on your block have been cited for violations. If they haven't been cited, file a "Vacant Residential Property" service request on 311 Online.

    Here is the link:

    http://www.baltimorehousing.org/CELS/Search_On_
    Map.aspx

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  19. Does anyone else besides me think that Maryland is the most dangerous state in america? Youve got Bmore (which would be enough crime for anystate), then you have PG County!! add a lil' gang trouble in Hartford County and ide say MD is the craziest state!! and you can top it off with DC being our neighbors!!

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  20. Our new state slogan should be "Welcome to Maryland, Home of Crab Cakes and Guns!!"

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  21. Here's another sickening quote about those two abducted teenagers:

    "Rogers, the boys' aunt, said, "My nephews, they might have done some things wrong, but that's what teenagers do.""

    No you stupid woman, most teenagers DON'T sell drugs!

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  22. what ever happend to Murderland.com?

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  23. After trying (unsuccessfully) to write about every murder victim, first on taotechuck.com and then on murderland.org, I got very frustrated by the fact that I was merely regurgitating what little information I could gather from other news and police sources.

    I'd love to resurrect the site, either with its original intent or by doing something with the Family Bereavement Center to make it a memorial site. Unfortunately, doing it properly takes more time than I'm able to give.

    Despite my snarky and often indifferent tone on Baltimore Crime, there's an "us-vs.-them" attitude in this city (and on this blog) that I fucking hate. I think one of the biggest problems in this city is that no one has the ability to empathize. My whole point with murderland was to try to get people to see things through more empathetic eyes.

    So, Bmore... you wanna help resurrect it?

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  24. I think that most likely those young men are already dead (Betcha 5-1). The suspects were probably envisioning themselves to be Snoop, etc. I have compassion towards the boys, because no one deserves to be abducted and killed (perhaps tortured first), but it sure looks that these kids were well on their way to a life of crime in the Bmore area, learning behavior from the adults in their lives.

    In addition, to admitting the teenagers might have been "a little bad", because that's what teenagers do, the relative also mentioned that all they did was ride their little dirtbikes and their cars. I wonder if they terrorized the neighborhood with their dirtbike riding like the guy on Cold Spring, cutting in and out of traffic and giving the one-fingered salute when he was tooted at. Or the packs of dirtbikes who ride thru parts of Druid Hill Park some days.
    Cars? The 15 year-old had a car too? Wonder if either of them had driver's licenses.

    I hate to sound mean-spirited, but in many drug-infested areas laws are only advisory, and for us chumps.

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  25. Well put, Taotechuck. I can understand the point of view of the people on this blog, though, who are upset by the criminal actions of a large number of persons in Baltimore---and the seeming inability of our government(s) to be willing or able to try to deal with these issues. Or to ask the question: what is the responsibility of the parents and family here?
    Or the responsibility of the individuals involved? Clearly, the police department and the criminal justice systems in Baltimore are still broken despite recent "progress".

    However, despite their strong point of view, the writers on this blog are mild compared to what I've seen on susnpot.net talk forums sponsored by the Sun. People there are brutally, and openly racist.

    On the other hand the talk forum for Baltimore on City Data.com is in the other directions: Baltimore is wonderful, and lovely, and nothing is a problem. (I'm overstating a bit.)

    Nevertheless, one hopes for some of the outrage to come through concerning crime.

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  26. @tao:

    ide love to help bring it back!!. i believe all these young kids are dying and atleast a story about their life and death is the least our society can do..people often say "oh he sold drug so its ok that hes dead"..NO! a kid is still a kid..no matter what drug you sell, you shouldnt be able to be murdered!!Bmore is a war zone, kids are always dying..wheres the "homeland security'? It in my house by my bed thats where it is!! i was thinking..is there anyway to get the mug shots of all these young killers? for example, when i read the articles in The Sun conerning guilty verdicts, indictments, etc etc, i want to see the guys face! Im so tired of reading the paper and only getting a name and age!

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