Thursday, July 17, 2008

The Story that Refuses to Die

A listener of "The Ron Smith Show" opines that racism twines its way through the Sowers case.
(Thanx Vic)

Speaking of twining racism, it's interesting how when Jessie Jackson drops two "n" bombs, the press won't print or repeat the quote.
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14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Baltimore Crime bloggers. On Sunday at 9 AM at the Farmer's Market under the fallsway, there is going to be a "Fire Burns" rally, with remarks by Anna Sowers. The object of the event is to gather support for the firing of Marty Burns, and to put pressure on Jessamy and let her know that her voter base is very angry.

Come on out for some fresh produce and civil unrest. Thanks!

Thu Jul 17, 10:00:00 AM EDT
ppatin said...

Unfortunately Patricia Jessamy's voter base probably consists of people who live off of convenience store ho-hos, not farmer's market produce.

Thu Jul 17, 10:07:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...

All too true, ppatin. I would have also accepted Funions (sp?) and Yoo-Hoo.

But dietary choices of the willfully ignorant notwithstanding, I'd still like to see a good turnout. Why not stop by and keep this movement going?

I'll buy you some organic Arugula.

Thu Jul 17, 10:22:00 AM EDT
ppatin said...

I'd be there if I could, unfortunately I'll probably be out of town until Sunday afternoon. Sorry :(

Thu Jul 17, 10:33:00 AM EDT
helix said...

two things:

1) The flaming hot letter to ron smith fails to point out that if the preps and the victim had both been black, we would not be seeing the same level of outrage. Consider that a few years ago, a norhrup grumman software engineer was murdered in Canton after a night of drinking by some monster who got into a traffic altercation with him. Both were black and it was little more than a blip in the news (killer not caught). A couple of years before that, a Black Penn State college student was murdered while going to a night club the black perp was found not guilty (again, hardly a blip in the news). Sowers was simply murdered by monsters who lack a conscious, tacking on a "racist" label to them does not help our cause.

2) I think the sense of outrage about Burns is good. But for christ's sake, save it for election time. The real target of your ire should be JESSAMY. Burns is inconsequential.

Thu Jul 17, 10:37:00 AM EDT
buzoncrime said...

Actually, the murder of the black engineer in Canton was an attempted robbery. A typical Canton "jump-out" robbery near to bar-closing time: the thugs drive around to spot a likely victim(s), park getaway car in a good spot, jump out, rob the victim, then get back in the car; you're way out of the neighborhood before the police even get the call.
The engineer was with a couple of white friends, and were done with bar-closing. All encountered the robber. They all ran. The black guy got shot, ran several blocks, and collapsed. Like the body found in Federal Hill, the police were called, searched the area briefly, went onto the next call. His body was found the next morning, apparently having bled to death during the night.

And while there are many instances of whites being beaten and robbed by blacks, there are many more instances of blacks being robbed, shot, killed, and maimed by other blacks. Many robberies where blacks are victim, I believe are not reported.

Thu Jul 17, 11:37:00 AM EDT
ppatin said...

The race issue cuts both ways. Anyone remember Raymont Hopewell, the serial killer who raped & strangled several elderly women in Baltimore? He certainly never made national headlines, but if he'd murdered rich white women I think you can imagine the media circus that would've ensued.

Thu Jul 17, 11:53:00 AM EDT
ppatin said...

"The black guy got shot, ran several blocks, and collapsed. Like the body found in Federal Hill, the police were called, searched the area briefly, went onto the next call. His body was found the next morning, apparently having bled to death during the night."

This guy's friends didn't notice he was missing? WTF was wrong with them?

Thu Jul 17, 11:54:00 AM EDT
ppatin said...

Oh yeah, there was also the horrible murder of Zecariah Hallback early this year. As far as I know he was a law abiding kid who got murdered for no apparent reason, and it took a week for the media to even notice. Most news sources couldn't even get the poor guy's name right. If a Hopkins students had his brains blown onto the pavement you can be sure there would've been a very different reaction.

Thu Jul 17, 11:57:00 AM EDT
buzoncrime said...

I don't remember all the details, but I think that one or more of them might have reported it later. Everyone sorta went their separate ways, assuming all got away.
You know how it is after a night of drinking and excitement. No one, apparently, knew his car whereabout or his cell#--whatever.

I believe police received several calls for gunshots from neighbors, but found nothing nearby (probably didn't look too long because they are inundated with calls that time or morning).

BTW, the suspect was eventually caught. The whole story is somewhere in the archives of the Sun, written when reporters were not considered "overhead".

Thu Jul 17, 12:10:00 PM EDT
helix said...

Thanks for the corrections buz.

I brought that crime up to address the fallacious idea that sowers was murdered expressly because he was white and that there was not enough coverage by the media. The letter to Ron Smith, aside from conflating too much stuff, is wrong on many levels.

Mainly, I don't think it is helpful to obsess over racial "parity" when it comes to crime and its reporting. You can see it coming from a mile away as soon as people starting talking about the hypothetical question of "what if the preps had been white?". These kinds questions are designed to draw people away from the specifics of the crime and drag them into thinking about race when it really is not the core issue.

Thu Jul 17, 12:30:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

Buz,

Any thoughts on a method of estimating how many of various types of crime are actually being committed?

I'm familiar with the method of comparing national incident-based reporting with victim surveys, but I don't think American averages adequately reflect how skewed victims' self-reporting or Baltimore City Police recording can be within the inner city.

Thu Jul 17, 09:29:00 PM EDT
Dingo said...

I agree with two points that have been made, diffusely, here.

First, the problem is not Burns; the problem is the almost comical ineptness of Pat Jessamy. The woman has no business running anything. Why lean on Burns? Stop re-electing her boss. If we had put Anton Keating into office, the city's State's Attorney's office might be something other than a laughingstock.

Second, the Ron Smith letter is flat-out wrong. The media sensationalizes atypical crimes. Stranger-on-stranger crime, white victim, attractive faces to put on camera: media blitz. Even though this is not at all representative of most city crime, which involves people who know one another. Thug A drops Thug B on West Lanvale and it gets buried. Thug A drops white tourist in Fells Point, or law-abiding young white guy with photogenic young wife in Patterson Park, and it gets massive coverage. This is not "racism." It's "man bites dog."

Thu Jul 17, 09:54:00 PM EDT
buzoncrime said...

ngngzHelix---good points. However, as William Faulkner said, the past is never dead; it's not even past. While most of us go about our dealings with people in ways neutral of race, most of the time, this country and this city are saddled with the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, the riots, suburbanization, urban poverty, etc., etc., etc. While I agree discussion along the lines you suggest is not terribly helpful, the truth is that race is the big UNSPOKEN which sits in the room with all of us most of the time. Many, many, many conclusions and decisions are based on race, whether we are aware of it or not.
e.g. fear, where to live, not using public transportation, not coming in the city, nonuse of public schools, etc., etc., etc. All of you can probably think of more............The objective should be to treat each person ethically and as an individual, with compassion, regardless of race. Nevertheless, most people are aware of the country's long history of sad race relations.

John galt---Police reporting is pretty much what people go by, though the National Crime Survey is often considered more scientific and accurate by criminologists. Most academics, as I've said before, believe that police reporting/measurement of crime is notoriously unreliable. (Sorta like financial firms telling their investors that their loans are all AAA.)
There may be some individual published research into the questions you have asked, but poor Buz is too dumb, lazy, and hot to try to find it.

Let's just say that crime in inner cities, particularly Baltimore, IMHO, is greatly underreported, with the exceptions of murders and shootings and stolen autos.

dingo---Burns is a PR disaster here--unless she's running off the mouth at the behest of her boss, who may resent Anna's displeasure. Jessamy's office is not a laughingstock: it is stocked with hard-working professionals doing a tough job with limited resources in a dysfunctional system, with a huge poverty-stricken and drug/gang infested community, sometimes poor police work. They work with the cases with the evidence they have, always keeping an eye on the jury pool they may get. We wish it weren't so, but being a prosecutor in the city is very different than being one in, say, Anne Arundel or Baltimore counties.

Fri Jul 18, 01:33:00 PM EDT

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