Thursday, August 3, 2006

August 3

The Baltimore Hebrew University was attacked with a Molotov cocktail.

An unidentified body was found in the chimney of a Lansdowne elementary school. The family of Zachary Miller, the 19-year-old who has been missing since reporting a roberry on July 20, were at the site in case it was Miller's body.

Two teenagers were arrested for the murder of Said Sawab, a man was arrested for the murder of Elroy Long, and a man was arrested for the murder of Shawn Ruffin.

The jury begins deliberations today in the Espinosa/Canela case.

A crazy lady tried to steal an unborn baby.

Don't mess with mom when she's drunk.

The Baltimore cop who was arrested for identity theft was actually using five counterfeit credit cards.

A Columbia accountant was convicted of embezzling $7,000.

Channel 11 raises some interesting questions about the accuracy of the city's crime statistics.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

so how is it that they're charging those kids with first-degree murder in that arson case if it was removed from the official murder tally?

taotechuck said...

Scott,

I cover the site when the main person is away, so unfortunately I'm limited in offering advice on things like the poll.

I grew up around journalists and studied journalism but I've never worked as a journalist. I became interested in crime and public safety after five people were shot in front of my house (three fatally) in the first year that I owned it.

I haven't run into any problems, but I assume it's inevitable. I'm still working to find an effective way to write about murder on one of my other sites (www.murderland.org), and what I've found in Baltimore is that most people are genuinely appreciative when someone bothers to take the time to write about their dead father / brother / son / nephew / uncle. The newspapers and TV here aren't always diligent (that's me being nice) in covering murders in our fair city.

Anonymous said...

Geez, I just heard that in Bethesda a disabled vet missing an arm and a leg was mugged for his wallet. That's low.

InsiderOut said...

so WBAL TV finds that violent crime has been reduced 12% since 1999, not the 40% claimed by the guy running for governor. I think that coincides with the impressions on this board - namely, that things are better, not nearly good enough.

It's too bad that the audit demanded by many in February has not even been started yet.

Anonymous said...

Baltimore City's police force has failed to increase its manpower during the O'Malley administration. While Baltimore has about 60% of the criminals in the state, it only has about 33% of the state's local police manpower. It has has substantially less of the total sworn manpower in Maryland.

If Baltimore needs to roughly double its full-time sworn police manpower, then what does it say if over the last 7 years the O'Malley Administration has failed to increase it by any more than, say, 1% ? Along similar lines, excuse me,what budget surplus?

Oh, yeah, the line item should be called Accrued Police Payroll Obligations for Services Not Yet Rendered. And, no, there is no surplus left over.

What happened to the statistical audit, but also, what happened to hiring cops?