Friday, February 24, 2006

February 24

There will be another WBAL "unreported crimes" story aired tonight at 11.

In the Western, a man was stabbed in the neck, arm and shoulder with a kitchen knife. A third teenager, 17-year-old Corey Jones, was arrested for the murder of Kwane Walker.

The O'Malley Administration is stepping up its efforts to boost public confidence in the numbers. Hamm released numbers showing that the police's record of gunshot injuries jibes with what local hospitals and EMTs reported in '05.

In the County, Baltimore County Police have arrested and charged Richard Nelson Foltz IV, 16, for the shooting of Angela Holyfield, 15.

Meanwhile, a sexual assault went blatantly unreported by city police in this story by Jayne Miller. Anne Arundel County police notified City police that they had physical evidence of a sexual assault that took place in the city. The city detective replies that police won't be needing that swab, thanks, because no crime took place.

Felon Alonzo Briscoe got 17 years for a gun charge.

Richard Schildtknecht, 30, got one and a half years in jail for downloading child pornography on his office computer.

In Charles County on Wednesday, Marvin Charles Marshall, 24, shot Safiyah Yasmeen Rashid, 25, and then killed himself.

Three men were arrested for Cecil County's first murder of the year, the stabbing of Jose Rodriquez, 25.

Daniel Lanahan, 27, of Woodlawn, is charged with beating his father Frank in the head and face with a metal pole.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

so davon jones killed william lowe on the east side in december AND kwane walker on the west side a week ago? dude gets around.

Emptyman said...

Part of the crime stats issue raises an interesting question -- the distinction between crimes and reported crimes. Everyone knows (or at least assumes) that there are unreported crimes; mostly minor ones, but occasionally some serious ones. But what about reports that the police think are just nutjobs? "The CIA broke into my house and searched it and put everything back exactly as it was because they know I'm on to their tooth-filling radio broadcasts" reports. They get a bunch of those. Should they be reported if the police plan on just sticking the paperwork in the nutjob file? I can see an argument in both directions, but whichever side you come down on doesn't mean that the other side is a liar or a fraud.

Anonymous said...

Seems to me if the police want to disregard an incident, they should probably do a writeup describing the nutjob story and concisely why they disregarded it.

These should be few and far between.

One of the big problems with crimes not reported by victim/witnesses is that the failure of police to respond in a productive fashion to a reported incident strongly predisposes the complainant to not bother the next time. This is actually the largest source of nonreporting, after nonreporting by people involved in illicit activities themselves.

So that we're clear, when I accuse the police of lying, it's regarding incidents of which I have firsthand knowledge and which are credible and factual. The refusal to record an incident report under those circumstances is a falsification.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the records on gunshot injuries, these will be very credible indicators of the decline in gun violence, but may be distinct incidents from agg. assault, since much of the increase in gun violence in the 90's was due to a spike in crack use and the attendant battles among its distributors. Baltimore is now much more a heroin town, since about 1998, and the violence now is far more rational (if that's not an oxymoron).

So, yes, gun violence is lower than during the height of the crack epidemic. That's not to say it's lower because of any particular strategy employed by the department or under the leadership of any particular individual.

The crack epidemic timed out, it's carriers mostly died from their excesses. It's part of why drug overdose deaths are down in Balto.; the hot-shots don't hurt either.

But claiming credit for the drop in gun violence is a bit disingenuous. It's kinda like taking credit for reducing people's utility bills come Springtime. The cause is substantially exogenous. Gun violence is down nationally by over 50%. So is violent crime. Mr. O'Malley just happened to walk into office at the right moment.

The question to ask is what strategy in particular for which he feels he is due kudosand which he believes effected a dramatic change, ceteris paribus.