Monday, October 13, 2008

Two More Homicides

Two teenagers, 18-year-old Howard Grant and 19-year-old Justin Berry, were shot and killed this morning in West Baltimore.
More from el sol

Buz blogs on the Northwood Community Association meeting, why police departments aren't racing to disseminate crime information, and which neighborhood the mayor says is "the worst" in the city.

Kidnapping, sexual assault & carjacking
of two teenagers at the Padonia light rail stop.

An arrest in last week's rape of a TU student.
(And isn't it a little disturbing that the attack happened a week ago, but it's only in the news now?)

6 comments:

John Galt said...

Guys,

I got to thinking about the Mayor's 'worst neighborhood in the city' concept.

Take a good 90-day look at Baltimore.

John Galt said...

30 days is a bit easier on the eyes.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Jeezum, Galt, that 90-day hurt my retinas!

The Baltimore Cynic said...

Here's what I fail to get. We know certain neighborhoods are unbelievably dangerous to pass through, much less live in. What's keeping us from doing a surge of our own and handling our own domestic insurgent problem we have here? Is it really just a lack of officers that's keeping this from happening, or are there bigger issues I'm overlooking here?

John Galt said...

I think the 'bigger issue' is that the aunts and cousins of those insurgents are registered voters within this jurisdiction.

We don't arrest Sheila Dixon's constituency, even if they did hold up a liquor store.

Looking at the maps, it becomes clear that these incidents are not in fact committed by some tiny sliver of an otherwise functional population.

It's a Criminal City.

My recommendation: a ten-year transitional jurisdiction under federal supervision in which criminal justice policies are statutory. That is, the penalty for robbery is NOT up to 20 years.

It's just set at a given number of mandatory years provided one is found guilty by a subset of a largely extrajurisdictional jury pool.

No pleas, no bargains, no sympathy.

Just Say No.

Melissa said...

One of those little blue squares represents my house in Charles Village, only blocks from the Barclay School.

We had a break-in while we were home -- 10PM. They fled as our alarm went off but not before helping themselves to some electronic equipment.

I call the police all the time to report ongoing issues with kids in our neighborhood. The come out, sometimes. Generally they drive around the block at low speed and off they go.

I've emailed our community police officer. The Northern District generally. Written a letter to our councilman (Young). Nothing attracts much notice.

I'm from Boston, a city that has seen a share of crime. But we had an invested, interested mayor. And SERIOUS community policing based on counterinsurgency tactics.

I don't know what to do at this point except get out.