Ladywives and man husbands

Speaking of our fair state's fine Federalist heritage, I'm sure it comes as news to no one that there are officially at least 55,736 petitioning citizens opposed to what the WaPo calls  "the gay nuptials law." Uh, what is the law actually called, again? Ah yes, The Civil Marriage Protection Act. Thnx Wikipedias. And hold on now, are we for or against this bill? Because the language is mega confusing:

Altering a provision of law to establish that only a marriage between two individuals who are not otherwise prohibited from marrying is valid in this State; prohibiting an official of a religious order or body authorized to perform a marriage ceremony from being required to solemnize or officiate a particular marriage or religious rite of a marriage in violation of the constitutional right to free exercise of religion; etc.

No four-way will for you!

establish that only a marriage between two individuals who are not otherwise prohibited from marrying is valid ...? parse, plz: ... not otherwise prohibited by existing law-- so not currently married, siblings, underage, non-human or dead, okay, but then there's the word "only"...  take out the middle matter... only a marriage between two individuals is valid in this State. So in other words, no coming here to try to file jointly thrice with your burka wives, sheiks of Araby, and don't come here to divorce Kody and try to get alimony, Sister Wives #s two and three. And should Mitt Romney come out after the election a la Bill Hendrickson with a few extra wives up his sleeve, then try to force us all to get fundamentalist-Mormon-plural-spiritual-sealed-married, this will stop that business right at the border. So, to clarify, against the initiative that is against the bill, and for the bill, which is for civil marriage, which is pro couple marriage and against plural marriage. Good.

And also, rather quietly in Port v. Cowan in May, the Court of Appeals affirmed that MD will perform same-sex divorces, even if the petitioners married in other states. So it's nice that the right of children to have support of both parents is protected no matter what and ... hey, who assigns those case numbers? Ahem...?!

Burning Ring of Fire

"A Baltimore firefighter has been charged with running an online prostitution ring and an unlicensed after-hours club in a city warehouse, less than two years after he received probation in Baltimore County in a similar sex trafficking case. The prior arrest didn’t end the city employment of Jamar Marvin Simmons, 29, who continued to work as a firefighter/paramedic out of a firehouse in the Roland Park neighborhood." ~ Fenton 

Criminally Insane

Accused cannibal killer Alexander Kinyua has been indicted and moved to Clifton T. Perkins hospital for the criminally insane.

Michael Knight, from Inside Charm City

You may have seen Dean "Journey" Myrie on "America's Most Wanted," last June, and soon you'll be able to see him co-starring live at the Garmatz courthouse with his co-defendants from the Brown Organization including, "Doc, " (left) "Dollar Bill" and "The Russian." The defendants are from Jamaica, California and Florida and charged with pot dealing and racketeering, and also kidnapping, murdering and dismembering Michael Knight, 50, of Woodlawn. "Doc" Downer is also charged with firearms violations, and with illegally re-entering the United States after having been deported after a felony conviction.

Cell phone carriers reported a massive uptick of law enforcement requests for subscriber information to Congress.

And the local branch of the Federalist Society would like to invite you, yes you, to lunch and discussion with Heritage Foundation fellow Hans von Spakovsky, "The Unpersuasive Case Against Voter Identification," Thursday July 19 at noon at the offices of Miles & Stockbridge, 10 Light St. Spakovsky was a lawyer in Fulton County, GA, then for Bush during the 2000 Florida recount and was later appointed to the Justice Department, where he worked to pass a voter ID law that was later overturned by a Federal judge. The Heritage Foundation is perhaps best known for promoting the Gulf Wars, denying global warming, raging against Obamacare and for its prominent members, which include Joseph Coors, John Ashcroft and Rush Limbaugh. The lunch 'n' learn is free, but email Brian Fish at asabrianfish@earthlink.net if you plan to attend.

... speaking of people who might have a hard time finding an ID, the CP drops in on Baltimore's  decade-old shantytown.

A happier shelter is this home in the 800 block of Caroline Street*, formerly a vacant where a 13-year-old was raped, now being turned into $150k-180k 'workforce housing.'

105-107

Three people were shot to death in 24 hours last Thursday, reports WBAL.

Another Roland Park Flasher

Writes a reader,

"A man exposed himself to me in broad daylight on the 4th of July at Keswick and Upland Road ... 5:30 p.m., 60 feet from men with chainsaws ... Black, 5'8", short braids, little mustache, circumcised ... low-riding shorts... I flagged down a city work truck and called the cops, but they'll never catch him."

Oh, such cynicism!

Said reader was also relieved to add, as I was assuaged to hear, that though the perp had an erection, he was not stroking it. Ah, the 4th of July. And ps., it's never a bad time to visit the sex offender registry and search your zip code...

Through Power Outages, Fallen Limbs, and Mind-Melting Heat, Crime Will Prevail

The 104th homicide of the year occurred Tuesday afternoon. Yarndragus Stanton, 26, was shot and killed in the 1400 block of East Preston Street. Stanton has a prior attempted murder arrest and several drug dealing convictions.*

A late-night shooting in the 3400 block of Mondawmin Ave. puts a 49-year-old man in the hospital.*

Gunfire in the 2700 block of Harford Rd. Sunday night left a car full of bullet holes and an unidentified man with non-life-threatening injuries.

Owen Bernstein at his dad's swearing-in, from WBAL

Ruh Roh, 22-year-old Owen Bernstein, the son of our very own State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, was arrested again after some late night hijinks with a roommate, including an attempted "blood brother" ritual and an eventual brawl. Bernstein was charged with second-degree assault.  WBAL reports that in 2008, he was arrested for threatening a woman, forcing his way into a house and assaulting someone. He was convicted on drug charges and given a suspended sentence.

An arrest in the beating death murder of 44-year-old Darshewn Freeman. Antwan Conley (Pictured Right), age 38, was charged with first-degree murder for the argument-fueled homicide. Conley had previously received a 10-year sentence in 1994 after being convicted of second-degree murder.

This week's Murder Ink has a bevy of updates, including the identification of this year's 103rd murder victim Neal Gaines, 41. Also included in this week's update were several arrest announcements, including that of Shawn Stevenson, 41, charged with the murder of Sonchanh Sipayboun. Dontay Dorsey, 23, and Dontre Mitchell, 23, were charged in the June home invasion killing of Tavon Fredrick.

Not the hard-hitting trial we were all sort of hoping for... Perry “Saho the Ghost” Rourk,  42-year-old founder of the infamous Dead Man Incorporated prison/street gang has pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges. Rourk's plea agreement ensures that he'll be spending the rest of his life in a federal prison cell. Pictured right is Rourk giving the classic DMI pyramid hand symbol alongside fellow DMI member Felippo Santoni in an (illegal) jail house photo.

The shooting of a police officer has 32-year-old Franklin Gross preparing for a 30-year prison bid.

Two men were sent to prison for their respective roles in a series of street robberies. Davon Butler, 22, was given a 36-year sentence for a strong-armed robbery a few days before Christmas, while 22-year-old Terrance Garner received a 74-year sentence nearly killing a man as well as committing several robberies. 

If this year has had one definitive crime trend it's been police-impersonation related crimes. This time it's 26-year-old Joshua Brake, charged with pulling over and robbing a man of $900. 

Police are searching for several men wanted for a variety of different offenses. An as-of-yet unidentified man is wanted for his suspected role in the murder of 18-year-old Terrence Anderson. Police are hoping this very clear picture will help them apprehend a pharmacy robber. And authorities are on the lookout for home-detention escapee Eric Smith, 41. Smith was finishing up a five-year sentence for a robbery conviction. 

A Norland Road police raid nets several guns, over $11,000, and the arrest of 25-year-old Charles Wilson.

The murder of 30-year-old Tiffany Lynn Ragle, the woman found shot to death in an Essex apartment, has been solved. 19-year-old Darian Rashaad Walker had plotted for months to kill Ms. Ragle, and is now facing first-degree murder charges.

Finally, 20-year-old Woodlawn resident Jamal Lowell Carroll has been reported missing, so if you see him, please let the authorities know.

Shomrim Sentencing

Eli Werdesheim, the former Shomrim neighborhood watch crew member has been sentenced to a six-year suspended sentence and three years of probation for the beating of a black teenager.

After much commotion from the victims' family and members of the community, the County Police Department has indicted Officer James Laboard (Pictured Left) has been charged with manslaughter in the death of 17-year-old Chris Brown.

A 24-year-old who alongside his brother terrorized the city for a brief period last year has been sent to prison for killing two men in two separate robberies. Isaac Truss (Pictured Right) was given a 55-year sentence for killing 47-year-old Keith Cooper at an apartment building near the inner harbor, as well as killing Edward Jones, 50, during an attempted robbery. Truss, along with his brother Basil Truss, 30, faces a separate trial for a string of robberies committed during that same time period.*

Almost a year and a half ago a police officer apparently shot himself while insisting he was the victim of a robbery gone awry. Said officer, Detective Anthony N. Fata, is finally facing the music, and is now charged with four counts of perjury.

The murder of an as-of-yet unidentified man in the 4600 block of Norfolk Ave. is just one of several recent killings as part of a spate of violence in a normally quiet area.*

A man is ejected out of, and then crushed by, a stolen car during a fiery crash on I-295 and Annapolis Road. 

An Essex woman was found shot to death early this morning in the Marlyn Garden Apartments off Brunswick Road.

The latest North Baltimore crime report has thefts in large quantities, including that of deoderant and JHU t-shirts, as well as the usual car thefts and residential burglaries.

A 19-year-old Towson man is in critical condition after losing a fight with County police. The suspect was continually violating a protective order and visiting his baby momma, evidently an attempt to extract the suspect from hiding spot did not go according to plan, putting the man's skull on the receiving end of a blunt flashlight.

The county has had a boatload of noteworthy criminal activity lately, including a church van used in a Mickey D's robbery, police being shot at in Lansdowne, a racist mother daughter team pleading to federal charges related to the hanging of a Raccoon outside a black family's home, and father and son duo Jemal Stancil, 42, and Kevin Archer, 18, charged with the accidental shooting of a neighbors babysitter.

A Monkton man took the law into his hands, and then put a gun in said hands after reaching his breaking points over rude kayakers. Monkton resident Michael Hamilton, 61, faces first degree assault charges for shooting his gun at some kayakers on the Gunpowder Falls*

A dime and a nickel in the Federal clink for convicted felonious gun possessor Eric Young, 35. Young was caught with several illegal firearms while on a bicycle in the 2800 block of E. Monument Street.

Finally, a well earned 20 years of Federal prison time for convicted murderer and serial robber Brian Johnson, 35. When Johnson wasn't robbing stores all over the City and County, he was dealing heroin, crack, coke, and some weed for good measure.

101

These last few weeks, homicides have been fewer and farther between, but not entirely non-existent. Homicide vic #101 is an as-of-yet unidentified male, shot to death in the 1000 block of Central Ave., perhaps by someone in a black Lexus.

Finding information on city shootings is not an easy task, but Sun reporter Justin Fenton came across info on two shootings from earlier in the year. According to wiretaps in an unrelated drug case, on March 29th in the 900 block of Valley St. Brandon "Horse" Branch took a slug to the face; this attempted murder led to the retaliatory killing of 59-year-old Chauncey Hard, shot dead in the 900 block of E. Valley St., a case of classic Baltimore shootings, retaliation upon retaliation.*

I'm at a loss... A 14-year-old, yes, 14-year-old, has been charged as an adult with first-degree rape. Carnell Spencer III, born in 1998, is facing adult charges for Rape and Assault related to a June 18th sexual assault. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, apparently, as his father, Carnell H. Spencer Jr. is a convicted sex offender, currently serving a 12-year-bid related to an attempted murder and arson. Remember to sign in to the Case Search first before clicking the link.

A woman stopped at a light in the 2400 block of West Northern Parkway was carjacked last Wednesday.

The most recent Baltimore Guide's crime blotter, this one focusing on the South, includes an assault with a cigarette, an over-the-phone robbery, and stolen groceries.

Bealefeld's taking an Appalachian hike to help ease his mind after years of urban crime fighting.

A shotgun-wielding crook robbed the RoFo located in the 1000 block of West 41st St. 

It's been a bad week to work at Royal Farms. Two young men from North Baltimore robbed a Towson branch of Royal Farms located on Falls Rd. Charged with robbery and related offenses are 19-year-olds Thomas James Busard and Michael Robert Blevins.

And what happens when you commit robberies? You get sent to the Federal Pen, at least, occasionally. At least, that was the case for Matthew "Bro Gene" Talley, 46, sentenced to 12 years in the federal pen for imprisoning some employees during the robbery of an electronics store. Also given a 12-year-sentence was George Jordan, 50. Jordan got his dozen for robbing a Wachovia bank back in 2009.

$659,000 Worth of Quality Phones

Despite City comptroller Joan Pratt's pleas, Baltimore City Solicitor George Nilson has given the stamp of approval for the $659,000 worth of telephone equipment that Mayor Rawlings-Blake's office purchased. 

A Friday night shooting in the 1700 block of West Lexington St puts a 26-year-old man in the hospital.

The BPD have made an arrest in the 2007 homicide of Melvin Jordan, 32. Now 32-year-old Phillip Herrell was doing a bid in a Delaware correctional facility when he was charged with the five-year-old homicide.

A scooter accident in the 700 block of East Heath St. put a 43-year-old man in the hospital. 

Two arrests have been made in the June 12th Overlea murder of Miguiel Anthony Bailey. Linwood Tymais Smith , 21, and DeAngelo Devonne Johnson, 24, have been charged with first-degree murder in the drug robbery gone awry. The drug-rip-turned-murder left Baily dead and Smith and Johnson with gunshot wounds to the cheek and nose respectively. 

An intelligent young man threw rock into the window of a gas station, and instead of fleeing and returning home, decided the best course of action was to call police himself, and claim he was jumped by a group of men, in order to explain his injuries... or something. 

A former Dundalk resident already serving life in prison for one murder is facing another set of murder charges in Alleghany County after strangling his cell-mate to death at the North Branch Correctional Institution. Brian Cotter, 25, faces first degree murder charges for killing convicted rapist Lewis Thompson Jr., 57. 

In a County crime roundup, an Essex doctors' office burgled, "Nibbles" is dog-napped in Parkville, and remember Zachary Campbell, the glasses wearing perv who made college bathrooms worse than they already are? Well surprise, surprise, he's been charged yet again, this time for more Peeping Tom-ing committed back in April. It seems peepery, or perhaps anti-peeping vigilance is, for some weird reason, on the increase, as five different men have been charged with "Peeping Tom"- related crimes since May. They are (would be great to have pix -- Ed):

• Zachary Campbell, 20, of Baltimore, Charged May 3, and June 19
• Sean Shalev, 33, of Baltimore, Charged May 13
• Hector Pensalfini, 32, Homeless, Charged June 12
• Michael Nace, 58, of Parkville, Charged June 12
• Kevin Lange, 45, of Towson, Charged June 19

Free data should be free!

Fancy yourself a crime mapper/ information architect/ data analyst type? You might enjoy to read this article wherein SpotCrime.com discusses the design issues of relaying crime data to citizens, and the stickier wicket of getting timely public information from a public agency that's headed by people determined to contract with some friend-of-a-friend's-friend's for-profit company instead of releasing the information via free, public, no-barrier channels. 'Splains SpotCrime:

"We only see crime data delivered openly when a public agency - not commercial company - elects to use this method.  Private crime mapping companies have an incentive to balkanize the data they are contracted to publicize (typically funded by taxpayers) and limit entities from sharing this data (the same entities who are paying taxes). They may come across as open, however, they typically add a lengthy terms of service agreement to their maps and websites - ostensibly asking each citizen to agree to a contract before viewing public crime data.  These terms of service agreements have no public value.  They not only inhibit the press from republishing the data, but also serve to restrict public sharing of crime data."

Fox 45's Jeff Barnd linked to Vast Rat Wang Conspiracy

Remember those National Organization for Marriage-y robocalls a lot of Bmoreans got two Novembers ago? We knew the rat(s) would get smoked out eventually, and now they have (in the Sun's TV blog, no less. Which I think you can view without having it 'count' against yr firewall).

So if you thought you recognized that voice, you were right, 'twas no less voice than Fox 45's Jeff Barnd's, working for ccAdvertising of Centreville, VA, darkening your ringer with those do-you-believe-marriage-between-a-man-and-a-woman robocall push polls.

ccAdvertising has been linked to a company owned by a creationist in Centreville, VA, where coincidentally or not Mitt Romney's campaign has also been shooting political advertisements in the past week. Ooh, can't wait to see them. A source reports they involve B-roll of a very white Little League team.

And isn't it interesting that we have heard for years about Obama's supposed Muslim roots, but now we have a candidate who is part of a genuinely fringe religion, Mormonism, but liberals are too liberal mention how bizarre it is? ... well not me-- if you don't feel like reading Under the Banner of Heaven, enjoy this entertaining-yet-factual song from the Book of Mormon musical...




Anyway, re., Jeff Barnd, so much for the journalistic tradition of appearing objective and neutral. I wonder if the RNC paid Jeff Barnd in cash money (he's anti-gay for pay!), or if he was pressured into doing it by Fox honchos, or if he volunteered enthusiastically to record the push poll calls because he feels his hetero marriage (wait, does he even have one?) would be threatened by somebody's gay partner being eligible for health insurance. Wonder if he'd take an interview from Ed Ericson... considering how kind the CP has been to him previously...? Enquiring minds want to know...

Slave for a Day

An item on the park service's agenda is raising eyebrows: "Slave for a Day" aims to educate young whelps about Hampton Mansion's slavery history*, wherein servants were fed in troughs, among other activities. As a visitor you'll be able to whip your little sister in the hog pen, wipe the bottoms of other people's children and attempt to “carry buckets of water with a yoke on your shoulders!” ... actually I made some of those up. Next Sunday's event has been renamed the "African American Experience Tour," and if you want to go experience how the 3/5ths of a person people lived for 90 minutes in June, note that the map on the nps' site is wrong, the correct map is below. The tour is 2 - 3:30.
View Larger Map

The Big 100

Baltimore's homicide count for the year has reached the big 100, and the various news organizations sound almost excited about this unfortunate milestone. Baltimore's two most recent homicide victims are Tavon Whelchel, 18, and Lewis Womack IV, 36.*

Mayor Rawlings-Blake and City Comptroller Joan Pratt are in the midst of a very public tiff over a new phone system. Pratt is not-so-subtly saying that Rawlings-Blake is lining her own coattails, while Rawlings-Blake is demanding an apology for such an insinuation. 

Unsurprisingly, a not-guilty plea by alleged Phylicia Barnes killer Michael Johnson.

Police are asking for the public's help in figuring out who murdered 19-year-old Vernon Williams on the eighth of June.


Not the sort of list a college wants to get on... Morgan State has been named the 6th most "Crime-Rattled School" in America.

A woman robbed in yet another Craigslist scam is in trouble after repeatedly firing her gun into the air to ward off the aggressors.

It has not been a good few years for baseball icons. MLB Hall of Famer and former Oriole Eddie Murray is smack dab in the middle of a Federal insider trading probe.

North Baltimore Patch offers up a compilation of North Baltimore crimes from the last few days.

County citizens beware, there has been an influx of phone scams plaguing the area. Some have even slithered into extortion territory.

Genius. 42-year-old Dundalk resident Michael Blottenberger was not-so-subtly biking home with a television and various other ill-gotten gains from a recent burglary when two cops attempted to apprehend him. After a pursuit, Blottenberger managed to steal a cop car, and, to cut a long story short, is now facing a $1 million bail.

An Owings Mills accidental shooting puts a babysitter the hospital.

Three men are facing charges related to the robbery of a Lansdowne Wendy's. Hatratico Smith, 46, Rico Bias, 34, and Moncell Lee, 19, have been charged with the June 11 heist.

In other parts of Maryland, a 15-year-old in Ellicott City was shot in the head in an execution-style attempted murder, while Carroll County experienced its first homicide of the year on the same day mb and I visited an area gun range. Coincidence? Probably.  -- obvs we brought the devil up from the big city ... I love the Fox farm-team reporter with the busy hands in the clip, the last 5 seconds in particular. Paul Guessler? Gansler? Shelton Dutes he is not - mb

The latest Baltimore Guide crime blotter focuses on the city's Southeast, and includes fake police, assaults with wrenches and keys, and a mean ex-girlfriend.

Famed former Baltimore crime reported David Simon has put up a blog post chastising everything from the BPD, to the State's Attorney, to Justin Fenton, to (indirectly) yours truly. While I don't much appreciate what he had to say about Fenton, I do appreciate his general new bravado of being a cranky old fuss-pot, annoyed at all this newfangled technology and how no one does anything^the right way anymore.

Fun w/Guns

Illos from the cover of this

Shot an AR-15 in .223, a 9 mm, a .22 and some other kind of old-school rifle at the Hap Baker Range in Carroll County this morning with co-blogger TAB and some other guys. This just in: rifles are loud and shotguns are louder. If you've got some firearms and you're itchin to shoot em, it's byo guns,  ammo and ear protection, you can buy targets and soda there, and while their web site shows the address in an office building, it is actually on the 140 W in the landfill, which, remarkably, does not smell any stranger than anything else in Carroll County.

Croyder on Bernstein

Is the new State's Attorney tough, transparent or neither?

"here's what I found most interesting: that a State's Attorney who campaigned on the promise of transparency and the willingness to take on tough cases has apparently retreated on both fronts.  

According to Simon, Bernstein is using his unilateral power to charge cases to cherry pick the best cases, a tactic that should keep his conviction rate high for political purposes.  Bernstein directly criticized his predecessor for dropping tough cases, but at least she took the hit in her statistics.  She just blamed the police for lousy work.  But, says Simon, Bernstein can make his conviction statistics look great by not charging cases to begin with."

Cannibalism a Sign of Mental Instability? No...

The world famous Maryland cannibal Alexander Kinyua has been indicted for his crimes, and then  promptly moved to a mental facility for a complete mental evaluation.*
 
Police are hoping the public can identify three men who took part in a brazen armed robbery of the McDonalds at 5100 York Road.

The latest in a series of federal infiltrations of robbery crews ended in gunfire, but the feds had all the reason to be jumpy since said robbery crew had planned on killing the federal agent who was posing a member of the group.

The cases just keep piling on. Another person got jacked after responding to a bogus Craigslist ad. Although unlike past cases, this one was for a non-existent car.

North Baltimore was ripe with violence these last few days. A fella got shot in the arm for seemingly no reason in the 600 block of East 36^th Street, while another guy got cut up over in the 1000 block of West 36th St.

The one-time chief of the Baltimore State's Attorney's office's gun unit got busted carrying his own illegal gun. Apparently he was going to meet a client and do what I can only assume is some intense lobbying.*

A fire on Eastbourne Ave. claimed the life of a man, his pet dog, and ten cats.

Sweet neck-tat having Joseph Viars (Pictured Right), escaped from a work detail yesterday. Police are currently ISO Viars, but if you ask me, the first place I would check is Crystals house...

Perry Hall resident Rodney Hailey is facing a long stretch in the federal clink after selling over $9 million worth of sham energy credits.

I'm nearly tearing up... soon to be former commish Bealefeld went on his final citizens on patrol walk.

Officials are cracking down on speakeasy-esq taverns throughout the city. All told 128 different businesses face the wrath of city health officials.

Friends of 17-year-old Christopher Brown, who was asphyxiated by an off duty county police officer in the aftermath of a bout of teenage tomfoolery, are adamant that Brown didn't actually throw the rock that caused officer James D. Laboard to go ballistic.*

What's family for... Not so wee-nephew Seamus Coyle got life in prison for orchestrating the meet between Karla Porter and hit-man Walter Bishop Jr., a meet that culminated in the planning and eventual murder of Porter's husband William Porter.

A traveling crime duo, a modern Clyde and Clyde if you will, were busted for committing a string of burglaries and robberies. 18-year-old Davon Alexander Jones and 34-year-old Sylvester Joseph Johnson face a multitude of charges in both Baltimore and Howard County.

Gotta pay those taxes. Chung K. Choi, 47, the owner of Frankford Garden Liquors got 18 months in the federal pen after sneaking away some $745,000 without letting the IRS know.

Let's pray he's not the father... Racist slimebag Christopher Michael Gelston, 30, threatened and pointed a gun at a woman in a dispute over a paterity test. Gelston faces a bevy of charges related to the baby mama drama.

Yahh... that's not suspicious. Gary Giordano, the man whose gal pal mysteriously disappeared in Aruba, is now trying to cash in on the $3.5 million insurance policy he took out on her before the trip.

Thanks to DNA, Texas jail inmate David Martinez, 30, has been charged with a 2003 Silver Spring rape.

Finally, two men were charge with robbing and assaulting a Towson busker. A beef over stolen street corners led to Tony Lyde, 43 (Pictured Right), and Reginald Johnny Bonaparte Jr., 32, robbing a guitar playing busker.
This story hits a little close to home because I'm very familiar with Tony Lyde, (Not so affectionately nicknamed Turtle) He's a fairly prominent local vagrant, due in part to his large size and booming voice. I had the "pleasure" of interviewing Mr. Lyde once. I learned a multitude of things, including that (and these are his words) his "father murdered a man once, but got away with it and moved to New York, where he happily lives with his new family." Of course the last time I saw him, he and his entourage had been getting a bit more aggressive with their panhandling techniques, so it was only a matter of time before something like this occurred.

16 Busted By the Feds, Local Five-O

State and Federal police took down a drug ring recently. Eight people were charged federally, and eight were charged in City court. Only those charged locally have been identified. The defendants are:

Thomas Darrell Washington, 43, has two prior arrests for attempted murder, once in '93, and again in '01. Washington has convictions for gun possession, resisting arrest, and drug dealing.

Fabian Moore Jr., 24, has prior arrests for armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, and weapons possession by a felon, and prior drug dealing convictions.

Wendell Griffin, 50, was arrested twice for robbery in the early 90's, and is a twice convicted drug dealer, having been released from prison within the last year or two.

Anthony Perry, 49,

Devance Brown, 39, has prior arrests for assault, handgun possession, robbery, and sex offenses. Brown is also a convicted felon, having been convicted three times of drug dealing.

Roland Fleming Jr., 35, is a convicted drug dealer, and has two prior gun possession convictions as well.

Melvin Spencer, 26, (Pictured Right), is a convicted sex offender with prior convictions for drug dealing, sex offenses, and failure to register as a sex offender.

Donteze Thomas, 24, has prior arrests for gun possession and drug dealing. Thomas was arrested for drug dealing earlier this month in the county.

Shake it, don't break it...

Sharmell "Flash" Thomas, 22, left, has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend's 14-month-old daughter, Desmare Braxton. (Note to WJZ, technically, at 14 months, Desmare isn't a "shaken baby," rather, an "abused-to-death toddler.") According to his Facebook and MySpace pages, Thomas is a strapping football player ("YES I Am A HEADHURTER..lol") who was studying business administration at Baltimore City Community College and working at a local catering company, having previously been employed at The Shake Shack in New York. MySpace page quote: ""OUR DEEPEST FEAR IS THAT WE ARE POWERFUL BEYOND MEASURE""

The actor who played Bodie on "The Wire," J.D. Williams, says he's often stopped and frisked by the NYPD who mistake him for an actual drug dealer as he's on his way to auditions. There was a mega-protest in NY yesterday against the NYPD's copious stopping-and- frisking, a highly inefficient and lawsuit-inducing crime-fighting technique that Baltimore employed under the O'Malley administration but has since abandoned. NY hasn't, apparently, taken a lesson from our city's experience, in NY the "increase in street stops has been steady and vast: 600 percent from 2002 to 2011."

Other side of the bars

Five years for Larry Morris, and jail time for other corrections officers convicted of beating a woman in their custody at Central Booking and Intake. All very Stanford Prison Experiment.

Here Come the Swarming Drones

Perhaps you weren't freaked out about reports awhile back of drones crisscrossing Baltimore and trailing citizens' cars. And maybe you were unruffled when you found out drones have been cleared for use for commercial purposes (muses one flying-camera operator, "Maybe the F.A.A. should give a driver’s license for this ... Do a background check to make sure I’m not a terrorist.”) But how do you feel about Harvard engineering hummingbird-sized drones that can swarm you with cameras, poison darts or God-knows-what? Anyone else see the military-industrial complex's planes showing off over the city yesterday and heave a sigh of relief that they weren't bombing *us*...