Tuesday, July 15, 2008

An AACounty officer shot in the city (not fatally)

17 comments:

John Galt said...

Is Richard Irwin on vacation?

Mr. Mephistopheles said...

Jim Kraft calls for the immediate dismissal of Margaret Burns.

The Baltimore Cynic said...

I'm torn because I find both Jim Kraft and Margaret Burns to be quite useless. Is it possible we can compromise and have both removed from their respective offices?

helix said...

Jim Kraft has actually done a good job. If I am not mistaken, he was behind a couple of changes that I like a lot:

1) Carry-outs and restaurants are now no longer allowed to jam their flyers into our doors.

2) He introduced legislation that allows blocks to gate their alleys.


These alone make him worthy-- aside from the fact that he has spoken out against jessamy more than once.

ppatin said...

I'm not a huge fan of Kraft's, but he's certainly done more than Mary Pat Clarke, who used to be my coucilwoman. She was and is utterly useless.

John Galt said...

Observations:

1) While the anti-flyering law is operative upon small business (which Baltimore hates with a passion), it carves out a special exemption for parasitic nonprofits and for... (drum roll)... stinking politicians.

They're still allowed to litter your lawn, thank you.

2) The alleys of Baltimore remained open for over a hundred years without incident, until we decided to cease policing the misconduct of ne'er-do-wells and vagrants.

Police those idiot and you reclaim the streets. Or, you can just brick decent citizens up inside their homes and yards.

John Galt said...

Got that bastard.

John Galt said...

And this one, too.

That's what happens when the victims are from Baltimore A.

In Balimore B, on the other hand, recording the incident, let alone apprehending the perp, is "a little unusual but not unheard of."

John Galt said...

For instance, consider the many robberies in the vicinity of 33rd & Greenmount in a month.

John Galt said...

And the winners of the most dangerous schools contest this year are:

Probationary Schools
Garrison Middle
Robert Poole
Dunbar Middle
Canton Middle
Dr. Samuel L. Banks High
Thurgood Marshall High
Homeland Security High (Closing)
Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts
Entrepreneurial Academy (Closing)
Frederick Douglass High

Persistently Dangerous
Calverton Middle
Roland Patterson Academy (Closing)
W.E.B. Dubois High
Hamilton Middle
Reginald F. Lewis High

Anonymous said...

Then why do I still have fliers for carryouts jammed in my doors on a daily basis?

Mr. Mephistopheles said...

Lucid,

You need to file an Illegal Flier Complaint on 311 Online in order to get someone cited for leaving a flier in your door. Also, you will need to leave the flier in the exact location where it was originally left.

helix said...

FWIW, Kraft is also behind the banning plastic grocery bags and requiring vendors to provide reusables or paper. I hope this also applies to those damn cornershops that produce astronomical quantities of flying plastic bags (you know the little black ones that hold "40's").

As for comparing the the apprehension rates for Baltimore A versus Baltimore B, I think regardless of the neighborhood, you are vastly more likely to have apprehension when victims/witnesses are 1) sober and 2) cooperative.

John Galt said...

Agreed, so when the resident population is drunk, stoned, uncooperative, or criminally-inclined, you will need vastly more cops per capita to achieve the same result as in a nicer neighborhood.

John Galt said...

And how about arresting/fining those damn consumers of those damn 40's in the damn black bags for dumping them onto the damn street ??

It's really not the defective things; it's the defective people.

In other parts of the country, people buy things in bags which mostly don't end up in the trees because the people are actually expected to behave in a civilized manner.

Unlike Baltimore.

Mr. Mephistopheles said...

Or how about making liquor stores use brown bags, or maybe ban the sale of individual 40s altogether?

John Galt said...

Paper bags aren't necessarily more eco-friendly.

If you ban 40's, they'll buy a double-deuce.

How about banning poor behavior??

Oh, that's right! Public drinking is already banned!

So what's missing? Sufficient cops to enforce the ban in a population full of offenders.

Just do it.