Saturday, October 13, 2012

174= 18 y/o Tashawna Jones; 57 y/o Female Cab Driver Shot


"A 57-year-old female cabdriver was shot in the chest early Saturday,* in one of three separate shootings since Friday night, Baltimore police said....Police believe the driver, who is in serious condition, was robbed by two women and a man in the 3100 block of Swann Drive at 3:25 a.m. after she picked the suspects up at an unknown location."
You'll recall sedan driver Queren Thomas, 35, was murdered 9/26, Kentrell Brown, 18, was arrested for her murder. (I requested a copy of that indictment from Mark Cheshire next week, FYrI).

A pizza delivery driver was shot in Cherry Hillthe 26-year-old man was shot in the stomach at a house in the 2500 block of Terra Firma Road shortly after 2:15 p.m.

State Troopers with automatic tag readers descended on the Greenmount Avenue "Death Corridor." The Spectator reports boys in "Smokey the Bear" hats from La Plata, Cecil and Frederick counties displaced winos and drug dealers in short order and arrested at least one "habitual public drunk" - finally the state and federal help we've all been wondering when might arrive?


Last night's homicide victim frm 300 blk e 26th st [in Harwood] identified as Tashawna Jones. She turned 18 in July and was from W Balt
Like the police cant solve a case without witnesses, we cant write a good story about a victim without ppl willing to be interviewed
If you want to see more coverage of this case or others, pls, pls reach out and help us connect with relatives or other loved ones

Down in Pasadena, Martial-Artis fighter Matthew Morrow, 21, was shot to death at a house party.


SHOOTING ARREST - Dominic Johnson arrested for the non fatal shooting that occurred 3400 blk of Dudley Ave in NE Baltimore on Oct 7th.

Friday, October 12, 2012

FB comment



Kara Mae on Baltimore Brew's 

Inside City Hall: Behind closed doors, BDC hammers out deals; 

The art of the exemption. Or how to keep news about a city development project out of the media.


‎"Asked why the BDC does not open up more of its meetings, Kimberly Clark replies, “There is a balancing act we have to perform.” She said that proprietary information from developers is reviewed during the closed sessions. If released, such information would spell doom to the developers at the hands of their competitors"

To me this statement openly admits why the BDC completely unnecessary... if there's already enough competition that they need to shield their corporate cronies from, then shouldn't that be good for the city? Guess we don't need to dish out tax breaks in this fiercely competitive market.

'Foxy Methoxy'

.. WTF is that? A new hallucinogen?? DiPT? Whut?? Are there any with-it people out there who have heard of this? In any case corrections officer Michael McCain has been indicted for possessing and intending to distribute said "Foxy," plus some good old-fashioned weed at Central Booking and Intake.

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Merv Douglas murder aftermath
Photo @BaltoSpectator
O shiz, a Merv Douglas was shot to death on the west side of the 2300 block of N Charles while entering his own home last night (near where the Golden Temple used to be, now Wazobia).

 from a friend near 23rd: small automatic weapons, semi-auto fire, 5 shots, followed by screaming, lots of police activity.

Ahjee Harrord/ @_xoxtee
The family of Ahjee Harrod deny that they were estranged from her, they admit she hadn't been living with family for the past month but say they talked to her on the phone often.* A "vigil will be held about 7 p.m. at the intersection of E. Eager and N. Bond streets ...  funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Southern Baptist Church, 1701 North Chester Street."  
Trending: #RIPAhjeeHarrod
Quality Cham comment: "The police claim Ahjee Harrod was "missing" and "known to police".  But they we find out Ms. Harrod was attending school regularly, the principal of her school knew who she was, Ms. Harrod was posting regularly on Facebook and she was living with a family member.  That doesn't sound like missing to me. The police want a reason to dismiss this homicide as a non-issue.  The family sees this event quite differently.  Since we have so many conflicting opinions about the timeline and what was going on, I'd like to see some facts and data.  Perhaps the family might consent to releasing any and all documents relating to Ms. Harrods supposed criminal history.  If she didn't have one I'd like to know about it.  I shudder to think that because juvenile records are sealed that the police are able to allude to a fantasy criminal history for any young person as a reason to justify and ignore a homicide case, as well as sully a dead child's reputation."

Are these the changes you'd been hoping to see? Shelly Glenn has been appointed as Chief of the Police Integrity Unit. Is this a new unit? Will she be prosecuting officers in a public court, or in some secret police court? .. Fenton tweeted that she handled prosecuting John Leopold in AA County. Maybe she'll get around to prosecuting old dirty-riding Carl Snowden.

 Effective today, PC Batts has reinstated appointed rank of Captain within BPD. Dep Majors will now be known as Captains 

Thursday, October 11, 2012

'stripped searched in the streets'


Still no clues five weeks after the homicide of Larelle Amos, left.

The man killed on Dumbarton Ave in Pen Lucy was ID'd as Curtis Jones, 28.

Former state delegate Clarence Mitchell III has died at 72. He was/is the father of the CB4 radio host Clarence Mitchell IV, eldest son of Clarence Mitchell Jr. and Juanita Jackson Mitchell (the first black female lawyer in MD), nephew of congressman Parren Mitchell and cousin of Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr.

"Sister Convicted for Stealing Furniture from Man Who Housed Her; Brother Convicted for Trying to Kill Him"

Keith Parker, 40, got 67 months for his involvement in a scheme to steal people's mail, get their checks/credit card/bank account info and digitally rob them.

CVQ4's Steve Gerwitz on forthcoming trials of some village miscreants: Tikia Whitfield (trial starts tomorrow), June Stansbury (Oct 27) and Markell Jones (Dec 7)

The CV 7-11 was robbed of cash & cigarettes

A man was stabbed on Frisby Street and walked nine blocks to the Greenmount fire house for help.

The former CEO of Wings to GoMark Chandler Goodnow, will get to brood in a small cage for two years following a conviction for embezzling $885k of chicken scratch from his company to pay for phone sex and hookers.

It was a summertime thing, dealing cocaine and heroin in Westgate. But unlike the school children of Cherry Hill who'd spent their summer idylls lolling and dabbling in the gang's white wares, the Major Investigations Unit had been set hard at work on a mother of an A/V project, one that would, as the soft chill of fall set in, lead to the indictments of Teddic Anderson, Randy Ennis, Rashad Foots and Donnell Vannison, forever trading the balmy corner summers of their tender years with the pernicious clang of bars, and the stench of bologna sandwiches, flung feces and trash-bag wine.

An article from Mental Floss on the "Nutshell Studies" and Frances Glessner Lee, the "mother of crime scene investigations." (thnx CD)

Occupy Baltimore is gearing up to protest the confirmation of presumptive police commissioner Anthony Batts. And good on 'em-- his confirmation should not be a done-deal afterthought, especially given our Mayor's proven track record of hiring people without quality due diligence (eg Rico Singletoncounty-dwelling deputy mayor Kaliope Parthemos) and the issues w/ Batts' tenures in Long Beach and Oakland. Not so sure about Occupy's claims of "the abysmal rate of police ... terror ... the reports of women being illegally stripped searched in the streets" though. Surely if police were committing terrorist attacks and women were being nakedized in the road we would have heard about it before now. In any case Occupy is meeting up at 4 on the 17th in front of city hall, confirmation hearings are at 5.

MD juice has a MD debate schedule; there will be a live debate on Question 7-- but it's all the way down in Chevy Chase. There'll also be a question 6 debate in Hagerstown next Wednesday, which will no doubt prove an interesting time.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Profits and Losses

No charges for officer John A. Ward, who helped Monae Turnages's teenage killers try to cover up her accidental shooting by putting the weapon in his personal vehicle. One of the teen's mom's DNA was found on Turnage's body*, probably from the trash bags the teens appropriated to use to try to conceal her body. The Sun has a photo gallery of Turnage's neighbors and memorial service.*

Dimitri Staten
Randy Owens
Anna Ditkoff, back in full effect after a mere two weeks of maternity leave, recounts last week's four murders of Sean Melton Sr., Dimitri Staten Sr., Randy Owens, and an "adult female," Ahjee Harrod, 16, and notes Kentrell Brown, 18, was arrested for the murder of Queren Thomas. The City Paper also has Audit Failures by The Numbers.

Speaking of $ fails, SRB and co is reportedly considering bids from two other speed camera companies* to operate and profit from speed camera ticketing duties on behalf of the state when Xerox's contract is up: camera manufacturer Redflex Traffic Systems of Melbourne, Australia, (perhaps best known in the U.S. for Chicago's cameras and getting kicked out of Los Angles and a slew of other CA cities following citizen outrage with $175 tickets and "kangaroo courts"), Brekford Corporation of Hanover, MD (which currently "upfits" not-to-be-named government law enforcement vehicles with laptops and cameras and such). All three companies are publicly traded (XRX on NASDAQ, RDF on the Aussie Securities Exchange,  BFDI on the U.S.). The mayor claims the city won't add any more cameras and expects revenues to go down: "$11.4 million from speed cameras next year, $7.5 million in 2014 and $6.9 million in 2015." which doesn't sound like it would incentivize these companies to give the city the best possible deal, but whatever.

A guilty plea for misconduct from PGC's  Tiffany Alson, the delegate perhaps best previously known for stalling same-sex marriage in the House. Alston copped to using campaign funds to help pay for her opposite-gender traditional wedding

Twitters:
 Foxtrot over Federal Hill, loudspeaker saying something like, “if you know whereabouts of Anthony Brooks, please dial 911”

 chase stolen car through Canton:*

After two years of no online reports, new director pledges a more transparent CitiStat. *


UPDATE w clarity on "missing" situation: Principal [of Baltimore Community High School] says Ahjee was "dealing with things that were overpowering her" *
One of those stories that develops throughout the day: Ahjee Harrod's principal said she was NOT missing and had been attending school

Klaus Philipsen takes on West side redevelopment in the Brew

How the debate was

   Anyone bemoaning the state of rhetoric or young people's civic involvement in this country would not have been encouraged by the debates on Questions 4 and 6 last night at Morgan. The light brigade was out front with a sign (right), but attendance in the hall was sparse-- Mark Steiner and his A/V squad of two, Rob Lang of WBAL, about 7 League of Women Voters ladies and about 15 audience members for the first debate and 60 or so for the second.

    The first, anti-aliens v dreamers, was with Regina O'Neil of CASA, who teaches Spanish at Poly and is married with five kids, and a guy Charles Lollar, an executive at the uniform company Cintas, who ran against Steny Hoyer in 2010 and is married with four kids. After everyone's fecundity was established, Charles the executive hit his "we can't afford it" points on down the line: MD's broke, can't afford to give a $17,000 tuition break, "I may like the way your hair looks, Regina, but if I was your husband I might have to tell you you can't afford to go to the salon any more, and MD needs to do the same thing."
     Lollar opined that illegal immigrant/aliens can work hard and pay full tuition just like someone from New Jersey might could to go to school here, he himself had worked his way through Emory as a janitor (wonder if he cleaned up after Keiffer Mitchell?), and furthermore they're illegal immigrant aliens and so it's illegal to hire their illegal alien selves after college anyway, and if you don't like it, "I saw Keiffer Mitchell's walking around the hall out there, go talk to him about fixing our broken immigration system."
     Regina O'Neill's retorts seemed woefully underprepared-- no numbers, no evidence. She did manage to work her points in here and there, but not in a methodical way: these kids have been here their whole lives, we shouldn't punish kids for parents' sins, they're not eligible for federal loan programs, their parents have been working and paying taxes, etc.
     They dickered around in circles a bit, then Lollar's line items of points turned finger-pointy and mad dad with a side of sexism-- there was a low booing groan when Lollar talked about the injustice of aliens taking away jobs when there's 20% of black men in Baltimore unemployed. (Too bad his audience was about 80% female).
      Eventually audience questions were taken, one regarding the cost of the act. O'Neill offered that there's an estimated 435 "dreamers" who are expected to take advantage in 2013 if the law passes. Lollar did some kind of quick math, and I forget what his math was, but $17,000 x 435 x 4 = $29.6 million for four years -- assuming that there really are 435 kids who would meet the criteria and they're taking the places of out-of-state tuition payers, and none of them go to community college first. O'Neill had no retort and that was that.
Winner: Meh.
 

Finally, after an asscramping full hour of question 4, Maggie Gallagher entered the room  in a purple shirt, black skirtsuit, flats, fuschia lipstick and that bob and took to the stage. On the pro-6 side was the Keiffer Mitchell of hall-walking fame, resplendent in a perfectly fit grey suit, white shirt and blue silk tie, a full two feet taller than Gallagher unfurled to his full extension (fortunately the debate was conducted sitting down). Mark Steiner laid out Mitchell's impeccable bloodline, plus his wife and two children, with no mention of the absence of Sultan Shakir, the promised rep from Equality Maryland. Maggie Gallagher was introduced as the founder of NOM, and refreshingly no mention of a husband or kid(s).
     And with opening statements came some kind of pounding thrash-rap starting up from elsewhere in the student center; over its punishing thuds Mitchell laid out the history of the bill: it had come up twice, the second time the house and senate built a broad coalition and built in lots of protections for religious people, the NAACP supports it, Obama supports it, it's a civil rights issue, making all MDers equal "under duh law." (well it's odd, an otherwise well-spoken person turning out their th like Moose Mason.)
    Maggie Gallagher in turn opined that marriage is about us as a society holding male-female marriage as a special enshrined paragon, or something, and we have marriage because "we need to bring male and female together to create the next generation." If that sounds kind of creepy and also like using the word to define the word, it was. Not to mention creating generations is not a problem in Baltimore city, marriage or no. She also noted she's a Maryland resident (lives in MoCo, apparently) and is voting against 6 because her Roman Catholic church tells her to, and she's supporting the Dream Act for the same reason. "The campaign ads in Maryland I have nothing to do with, but I think they get it right."


 Audience questions were submitted on cards, as is the League of Women Voters protocol, and most were for Maggie. Doesn't the high divorce rate indicate hetero marriage is not so stable? Does she think infertile people should be allowed to get married? What about civil unions? Keiffer zinged back,  "I don't want my child to grow up and enter into a civil union, I want them to grow up and get married," but to the other questions Gallagher laid out various easily challenged statements that he left unchallenged. Like, that other than some tribe in Africa where two women can get married, we don't have any examples of societies with same-sex marriages with which to study what the end result might be (Uh, Europe? Canada?)
    Mercifully the debate wound down. Then some twentysomething woman with a septum ring in a newsboy cap started yelling at Gallagher "I just have to say this to you!" and went on in a not-very-coherent rant about how wrong NOM's strategy was to try to pit the blacks against the gays (but with many many more words). Gallagher smiled beatifically, said nothing and waited for the woman to turn and stalk off down the hall with her female friend before descending from the stage in her small black flats.



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Murdered girl was runaway

Police say Ahjee Harrod, shot to death Sunday night, had been missing* since March. ... why was no missing-persons bulletin issued? According to her FB page (though not confirmed by the school) Harrod attended School for the Arts, and "Harrod posted from a cell phone on Sept. 25 that an “Uncle Tony” had been killed. A man named Tony Reese, 36, was shot to death in the 2700 block of Mura St. two days earlier, and Green confirmed that Reese was a friend of Harrod’s mother." The RIP Ahjee Harrod page has 6500+ likes.

Justin Fenton

On RIP Ahjee Fb page, in an RIP note the admin wrote "some of us saw you when you got shot". She was found alone, no one's contacted police
Burglar Larry Washington, 52,  got 20 years for burglaring and 10 for violating his probation

In other malfeasant news, an audit of the schools found massive mismanagement of millions* of dollars, including vendors who kept getting paid after their contracts expired, 1,400 missing computers and bus companies paid for driving kids on days that school was closed.

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mobile.baltimoresun.com
An unidentified man shot in Northeast Baltimore Monday night died of gunshot wounds.

"City police found the victim lying in the 600 block Dumbarton Avenue, near Mullan Park and a few blocks east of Greenmount Avenue. He was lying in the street and suffering from gunshot wounds to the head and upper body. He died at 10:13 p.m. at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Police are also investigating the shooting of a 33-year-old man, who walked into an area hospital with gunshot wounds to the lower back, arm and leg. He told police he had been shot shortly before 9 p.m. while standing in the 4100 block of West Belvedere Avenue, near Reisterstown Road, in the Park Heights area.Another non-fatal shooting occurred earlier Monday in Govans. An 18-year-old man told police he was walking in the 500 block of Winston Avenue, when shots were fired at him from a pick-up truck. Officers found the victim, who was struck in the arm, in the 500 block of Chateau Avenue, near York Road. He was taken to an area hospital."

16-year-old girl shot to death

24 hours from the Crime TwitterFeeds ~



RIP Ahjee ! ðŸ‘¼ðŸ‘¼she didn't deserve that ! A life barely lived, is gone!  [right]


The person found fatally shot in the head Sunday night in NW was a 16-year-old city girl named Ahjee Harrod, said 

East of Notre Dame RT  North Baltimore Shooting - 500 block of Chateau Avenue. District detectives are investigating.

 Sounds like the Oakland Mayor is searching for a scapegoat for the Mayor's failures.


Man with shotgun shot by state trooper in Harford: 

Monday, October 8, 2012

171

An unidentified woman killed on Fairlawn Ave is homicide #171*, and a man was shot in the leg near where Peter Marvit and Kwame Stern were killed a mere 2-3 weeks ago. There have been 19 women murdered so far this year.

Wasted tax dollars! Lives destroyed! With his Oct 17 City Council conformation hearing "looming," Fenton takes on the Oakland PD's unConstitutional policing problems under former chief Batts.* One probable reason why Oakland got oversight (and Baltimore never has): the sheer # of plaintiffs involved in the 2000 "Riders" lawsuit (aka Allen v. City of Oakland) -- 119 plaintiffs who wound up sharing an $11 million settlement. 

Happy Indigenous People's Day, Piscataway

Conoy, HaudenosauneePascatowies, Paschatoway, Pazaticans, Pascoticons, Paskattaway, Pascatacon, Piscattaway, and Puscattawy and Susquehannock.

Nick Gilbert Gartelman Sr., 50, was killed from blows suffered during an assault in the 600 block of Richie Highway (Anne Arundel county)


NOM-backed anti-gay civil rights ads are set to debut today. I will bet anyone $1 that the NOM name won't appear on them anywhere and they will involve some churchy older black lady clucking about how those awful gays want to "redefine marriage for the rest of us." Update: here it is, the ad to appear on our "state television." Just a lot of stock footage and a voiceover. Not as offensive as you'd expect and not very clear or effective, either. PS. NOM founder Maggie Gallagher is set to debate at Morgan State U's student center tomorrow night at 7. Wonder if Julius Henson will be there...



Sunday, October 7, 2012

A shot woman


NW RT : Shooting: 6300 block Fairlawn Ave. Adult female reported to be shot. Detectives investigating.

Did Prez Jack really write* this Sun op-ed on the youth jail? Because it really doesn't sound like the way he talks. But anyway it makes some good points. Well, really, just one: 
•Alternatives to detention cost far less and produce better results. For example, "evening reporting centers" cost $44 per day compared to the exorbitant $462 a day for detention.

Please, expand on those evening reporting centers, I would so much like to learn more!  But it's not to be, at that point things go kind of downhill:
"My P.L.A.Y. (Productive Lives, Active Youth) campaign has provided many of Baltimore's youth with a wide range of opportunities to strengthen their self-confidence, develop leadership skills, learn from positive role models, and be rewarded for their academic achievements. ... during the past two years I have created a number of public-private partnerships ...Last summer, over the course of seven weeks, hundreds of youths participated in my Charm City Talent contest. Students under age 18 competed at local recreation centers as singers, rappers and instrumentalists and were judged by a panel of talent experts. A group of seven youngsters performed in front of family, friends and complete strangers for the chance to be crowned Baltimore's best talent. ... "Just being in the contest is a great achievement that I can look back on later in life," [then-12-year-old Immanuel "Mannie" Payne] told The Sun.
Imagine the amount of positive programming and its impact on Baltimore's youth that a $70 million investment could achieve."
So, wait, what? How much did this talent contest cost us? He want $70 million for talent shows and sports team meet-n-greets? Does Jack Young even live here? did we ever get to see that "damn underwear*"?