The Wall Street Journal columnist on Baltimore: the problem isn't poverty, it's crime.

salary < reality
At approximately 8:50 p.m. on May 24, 2007 officers observed three individuals on dirt bikes traveling south in the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. As the officers drove up to the individuals, one of the bikes stalled. The officers exited their vehicle and approached the individual on the stalled bike. As they did this, Lester returned on his bike, allowed the other individual on to the back of bike, and fired two shots at the officers before speeding off. The officers gave chase with assistance from Foxtrot. The chase exceeded speeds of 40mph, often going the wrong way down city streets, before the Lester was apprehended when he had to stop his bike due to a gathering of people in the street around a deadly house fire at 1903 Cecil Ave. Officers recovered a .32 caliber pistol that Lester threw off the Maryland Avenue Bridge.
On August 9, 2007 McGee shot to death Troy Richardson, 30. Richardson, using a realistic toy gun, robbed a drug dealer of narcotics in an alley off of the 3400 block of Dupont Avenue at about 1:35 p.m. McGee, informed by another drug dealer of the robbery in progress, retrieved a weapon and approached Richardson, who was still brandishing the toy gun. McGee fired three shots at Richardson, hitting him twice in the leg and once in the face. The toy gun was next to the victim when paramedics and police arrived.Assistant State’s Attorney Robin Wherley of the Homicide Division prosecuted this case.
At 2:59 p.m. on March 1, 2006 in the 3300 block of Oakfield Avenue, Taylor, a self-described Blood, shot and killed Joseph Miller, 26. Miller, Taylor and others were arguing over Bloods graffiti located on the wall of a corner store in the neighborhood. Taylor, who was wearing red, left the scene. He returned with a gun, having changed his clothing to black. Miller remained at the scene in an attempt to break up the argument over the graffiti. Taylor hid behind some bushes, stood up, and fatally shot Miller and seriously wounded another.Assistant State’s Attorney Theresa Shaffer of the Homicide Division prosecuted this case.
(Officer) Moran had enough time to leap onto his cruiser's roof, police said. He pushed off the oncoming car with his feet as it went by and was not injured. The other driver kept going, though the police cruiser was damaged, said police spokeswoman Sherry Llewellyn.
The third officer chased and stopped the second driver on I-95 near Route 100. Jessica Rey registered a blood alcohol level more than 2.5 times the legal limit of 0.08, police said.
On March 15, 2007 at 3:45 p.m. Baltimore City Detention Center (BCDC) inmates Medlin and the victim, Michael Reed, 23, were en route from the Mitchell Courthouse to BCDC in a prison van. Medlin, a self-proclaimed Blood member, was able to free himself from restraints. He produced a “shank” (homemade knife) and proceeded to stab Reed, who was in restraints, in head, face, upper torso, hand, chest, and legs. As the van arrived at BCDC, a Division of Correction Swift Response Team observed confrontation in van and immediately stopped the assault and recovered the shank. Reed suffered a collapsed lung. Medlin was being held on a narcotics charge; Reed had pleaded guilty that day to an assault charge and is currently serving a 15-year-suspend-all-but-eight-year prison term.
Assistant State’s Attorney Brandis Marsh prosecuted this case.
On April 20, 2006 Agent Kimberly Collins and Lt. Robert Thumma were working in their jobs as members of the parole retake warrant task force when they were attempting to serve the parole retake warrant against Smith at his home, 3117 Belmont Ave. Smith was on parole for attempted murder and was in violation. Upon arrival they were met with Smith’s mother who stated her son was home. He came down the steps along with his pit bull and the dog ran out the open door and started running down the street. Smith told the agents the dog was extremely vicious and would only answer to him. Because there were children playing outside, the agents allowed Smith to attempt to retrieve his dog. Smith ran after the dog with Agt. Collins behind him on foot and Lt. Thumma following in a patrol car.UPDATE: A source tells us the dog is fine and living with the defendant's mother.
Smith caught the dog, but as Agt. Collins was about to place him under arrest he threw the pit bull through the open window of Lt. Thumma’s patrol car and directly onto Lt. Thumma’s lap. Lt. Thumma was able to get out of the car uninjured, leaving the dog locked inside. Smith, in an attempt to elude capture, ran at and pushed Agt. Collins with such force that her feet went over her head and her head hit the concrete sidewalk. Smith eluded arrest that day and was eventually arrested in November 2006. Agt. Collins sustained a fractured skull and a large hematoma behind her ear and to this day continues to suffer from headaches.
Assistant State’s Attorney Staci Pipkin prosecuted this case.
The Baltimore Police Department is considering changing a long-standing practice of quickly releasing names of officers who kill or injure citizens ... Under one plan, the officer's name would be released only after investigations by the department's internal investigation division, homicide and the state's attorney's office ...
When DNA analysts examined blood evidence from the Baltimore County townhouse where Anna Marie Bergman was shot to death, they isolated a genetic profile of not only the 20-year-old murder victim. Mixed with her blood, they also found DNA of her 3-year-old son.In HoCo, Kevin Klink got 13 years for killing Robert Brazell Jr., 18, with a baseball bat.
"It was probably tears," prosecutor Michelle Samoryk told a judge yesterday at a plea hearing in the case.
Shenera Norris told a Baltimore judge that she did not want prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against her boyfriend - a man accused of battering her and threatening to kill her with a butcher knife. ... So last May, the cases against Dale Rodney Jones were suspended. On Feb. 15, police said, Jones stabbed Norris, 31, to death. Still holding the knife after the attack in Norris' apartment building, Jones, 48, was shot to death by a police officer.When demons talk, S.T. Nelson listens.
"Dixon said she is putting in place new security procedures for the March 15 retest, including assigned seating, new test monitors, increased standards for subject matter experts and restricted access to old tests."Here's an idea-- how about changing the test questions?!
"He was young at the time," (his mother) said. "He talked about the dead bodies he had to walk though. He had to go hunting in the forest for food."City police yesterday arrested Darnell Jeter, 42, and charged him with the murder of Theresa Parker last March 25.
She said that Payne and his grandmother were always on the run. "They were going from one village to another," she said. "When the rebels got there, they'd have to leave again."
(His mother) tried to find Jeff and another son, but she couldn't. "They were running from to place to place. His father was trying so hard to find him. I thought he was not alive. I thought he had been taken by rebels."
At some point, during a raid, Jeff was apparently shot. His half brothers, Michael Gillies, 19, and Wilmot Daye, 25, both remembered him saying that he had been shot and showing them the scar.
"Norris ran through a neighbor's open door. The man crashed through a window to follow her, according to the witness. "I heard him say, 'I'll pay for the window, ' ... She died in her underwear, running for her life.Drugs
... a 16-year-old boy who belonged to a Baltimore church where McCarthy preached, Unity Fellowship, told a Department of Social Services worker that McCarthy had engaged in improper sexual contact with him when he was 15.All together now... eeeeeewwwwwww!