Wednesday, November 12, 2008

#189

A murder in the 200 block of Linden Avenue
block of Blogtimorean Adam Meister!(Happy 32nd birthday Adam! Hey, it's this guy's birthday too!)

Sixty years for serial rapist Alphonso Hill.

Parole agents investigating threats against Pigtown community activists

"The fatal downtown stabbing of an exotic dancer last week began as a fight among employees inside a strip club on The Block and could place the club's liquor and adult entertainment licenses in jeopardy." Galt?

Safe sex on Craigslist?

The Supreme Court takes on whales, religious monuments, Roman numerals

18 comments:

buzoncrime said...

Buz was amused by the Liquor Board Chairman's comments that the Board holds joints like the strip club mentioned to "high standards". Um, that can mean a lot of different things to different people. Could he mean that the gals are, like, pretty, or they all go to church, or that his bouncer/security guys have hands and feet which are registered weapons, or that the food in the bar is tasty, and prepared by graduates of Baltimore International College-or what!?

ppatin said...

Buz:

I've heard that the commish wants to prohibit off duty officers from working security at establishments that serve alcohol. Do you know if this is true, and if so do you believe it's a bad idea?

buzoncrime said...

PP--It is true, effective November 17th. No authorized secondary employment at bars or clubs--not necessarily every place that serves alcohol, such as the stadiums.

I have a long post on my blog about it at buzoncrime.blogspot.com. I don't think it is a bad idea; it is a good idea in the long run, but in the short run, the midnight shifts in Southeastern, Southern, and Central districts are going to have to be supplemented with additional manpower.

Each bar and nightclub is going to have to assess their needs for security in the absence of the police officers they were paying.

I am so wise said...

Sebastian, how does one join your group? I'd like to enlist. I can provide my tape recorder to document any threats, my own digital camera to harass the hookers with, and, with enough notice, almost complete set of Vietnam era riot gear.

Maurice Bradbury said...

ladies, please! meow, meow meow!

Maurice Bradbury said...

Here's some good news, I ran into the lady who bought my Hampden house in the 3500 block of Elm. Remember that article about Joy Shushinky in the Sun? Anyway she told me all three of the "hoodlum houses" are now vacant, the neighbors were successful at taking the owners to court and getting the drug houses off the block. (She says Katie O'Malley was the judge, btw!) i would love to hear more details of how the neighbors did it. Maybe the neighbors could write a primer for other besieged blocks!

John Galt said...

What, MJB, I'm the appointed advocate for The Block now ???

Here's how I see it:


Baltimore is ridiculously full of hoodlums.

That means bars and strip joints are confronted with lousy behavior outside them. They need policing outside.

Shoe stores and flower shops also are confronted with lousy behavior by Baltimore's overly-criminal population in the common easement (sidewalk), which is a nuisance property created by the City.

They also need policing outside.

What the Commissioner and the Liquor Board Chair are doing is demonizing particular scapegoats and ascribing Baltimore's excessively criminal behavior to their presence.

Consider the following experiment:

Suppose we announced in advance that The Block and all City liquor establishments would be closed for a given week.

Would the Crime Blotter be empty ???

No, you'd see a shooting/stabbing taking place at the barber shop. Or the grocery store. Or maybe in front of some church.

It's not caused by inanimate objects nor by establishments (except where they are particularly hazardously managed).

It's caused by the presence of way, way, too many criminally-acclimated people in high densities.

You have to get rid of your defective population, Baltimore.

----------------------------------

Now, on a related topic, as I read MJB's post on Sushinsky:


OK, so understand that while the 'hoodlum houses' are empty as drug nuisances, the hoodlums are unincarcerated and doing the same thing.... just not on that block.

So,.... crime is not down, the criminal population is not incapacitated.

They've just been shooed to another part of Baltimore [B].

Is that really a success story ????

John Galt said...

Forgot to mention:

Drug nuisance houses are emptied under civil cases. The criminals are not the defendants; their landlords are.

They are popular because they are quick, easy, and cheaper than actually prosecuting the tenant for his criminal conduct, which invokes the right to jury trial, a public defender, etc.

Because landlords are propertied, they will tend to comply with a court order, in contrast to the hoodlums who populate Baltimore, who need endless babysitting.

But, of course, no one ever said that actual criminal justice would be cheap, quick, or easy.

As usual, Baltimore remains a Mecca for the criminal class.

The Thin Man said...

it is if you live there.

yes, the crime will be "shooed" to other parts. And it will gain a foothold in parts that ALLOW it to gain a foothold.

the idea is, don't allow it to gain a foothold. Don't stand for it!

Communities that want to tolerate crime are going to tolerate crime....not much we can do about that.

ppatin said...

"You have to get rid of your defective population, Baltimore."

I've always been an advocate of eliminating defective people. Unfortunately our society lacks the backbone to take the harsh but necessary measures that are required.

ppatin said...

Whoops, the way I worded that previous post might make people think I'm a eugenicist. All I was advocating was the removal of criminals from society, preferably through execution, although incarceration is an adequate substitute.

John Galt said...

It's not clear to me that communities which wish to tolerate crime should be allowed to exist.

Is that not akin to granting them a veto over the state's Criminal Code ?

As for the matter of the Hampden druggies, has it occurred to anyone that Katie O'Malley just dumped (poor white) trash in someone's neighborhood ???

Cham said...

Does executing anyone who has ever committed a crime stop the crime or just make the executioner feel real good about themselves?

ppatin said...

"Does executing anyone who has ever committed a crime stop the crime or just make the executioner feel real good about themselves?"

Well, judging by Singapore's crime rate I'd say that hanging (and caning!) lots of criminals certainly helps.

I am so wise said...

But ppatin, Yugoslavia enjoyed a low crime rate after abolishing the death penalty and most sentences over 20 years.

Cham said...

I am so wise is right, European countries have lesser sentences than the US for most crimes, and they enjoy a lower crime rate.

You can throw all the "criminals" you want in the pokey and throw away the key, there is another giant wave of future "criminals" right behind them eager to get started.

So does the tax payer keep spending money on prisons or do they starting thinking along different lines? Of course, no more executions and long prison stays means a lesser surge of testosterone.

Sebastian-PGP said...

The problem with the comparison to Europe is that ignores cultural differences.

Our culture is inherently more prone to criminality for a myriad of reasons. Simply adopting European judicial practices and laws won't fix what ails our culture.

Cham said...

Clearly our own judicial laws and practices won't fix what ails in our culture either.