Down in Greenbelt the Jose Morales case
has gone to the jury.* Last week prosecutors
tied him to three murders and an attempted murder-for-hire --
Robert Long's, plus three men who were in the federal penitentiary,
Clyde "Junior" Lucas, who was with Long when he died,
Mark Bartlett, a thief, addict and drug dealer who was the "star witness" who originally helped put Demetrius Smith in jail for Long's murder, and
Terry Sadler, who is alive and also the mother of one of Morales' children. (I guess Stanley Needleman never testified?)
Four people arrested and three indicted on charges related to
bribing postal workers at the Waverly and Pikesville post offices. Richard Wright, 37, and Kimberly Parnell, 43, are the respective post office managers, making Shane Anderson, 37, and Ladena Sketers-Anderson, 46, are the presumptive alleged bribers. Fenton says the managers are accused of
taking kickbacks for no-show jobs from landscaping and janitorial companies.* Wright allegedly texted, "'Yo bra u need to text or call me because I need to get my loot!' ... referring to a $2,000 cut from $3,750
paid for contract work."
Kenneth Bernard Corporal was arrested for
stabbing bouncers at the Comedy Factory.*
The Baltimore Police Department posted to Facebook,
"The Baltimore Police Department will make no changes to its policy
regarding the information it currently disseminates on Twitter. We
will continue to use Twitter to inform the community on all non fatal
shootings, all homicides, crime prevention tips, public safety issues,
noteworthy arrests and community events. Our goal has always been to
provide the most accurate information possible. The community deserves
nothing less. In order to meet that goal as crimes happen we will
endeavor to add more context to events when they occur."
I gotta say, too little too late-- at this point I've completely lost confidence in Batts to lead. Homicides are up, transparency is down, dude seems completely
clueless as to the law when it comes to Terry stops,* you had Gugliemi saying "we're
pretty satisfied where the city is headed, violence-wise" after one of the most violent weekends in history, then the new guy saying
they're not going to tweet "criminal on criminal crime." The spokesmen's words are their own, but apparently the Batts administration culture promotes that dismissive attitude: with Gugliemi's remarks, Batts never denounced them, he just "temporarily reassigned" Gugliemi to another post and
remarked that the "messaging" and been "terrible."*
And as a cynical Baltimorean, know how easy and tempting it is to slide into the "let the criminals kill each other off and have God sort 'em out" attitude. But there are problems with this line of thinking. First being collateral damage: kids and "actual citizens" literally getting caught in the crossfire. Second, people lose confidence that the police can protect them, and start taking care of threatening individuals themselves, already a huge problem in this city, the
average homicide victim has 8.5 arrests.* When there's been a shooting on the block yet nothing is said, it reinforces this perception and conveys the message that shootings are so routine they aren't even noteworthy any more and the police don't care, reinforcing the cycle of violence.
Then there's the ethics of the "criminals aren't citizens" attitude. Just because you've bought some pot in the park doesn't mean you deserve the death penalty, or even a bullet in the knee. And finally, because America. Do we believe in the rule of law, or do we believe in the rule of the jungle?
So yeah, no confidence. Time for this guy to go.
