The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Lataye Shyreise King, 16, of the 1900 block of E. 31st Street with first-degree murder and other counts. Court documents allege on November 7, 2006 Lataye King and three other persons approached Nicole Edmonds and her brother as they exited the MTA Light Rail Train at the W. North Avenue station. Nicole's brother was thrown to the ground and a jacket was pulled over his head and that as Nicole ran away, she was chased, caught and fatally stabbed. An arraignment is scheduled for January 16, 2007 before Judge Gale E. Rasin, 509 Courthouse East. Assistant State's Attorney Paul O'Connor will prosecute the case.
The Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Miquel Johnson, 25, of the 1700 block of Laurens Street on first-degree murder in connection with the stabbing death of Michael Griffin, 43. Court documents allege the stabbing occurred on November 26 in the 3900 block of Groveland Avenue following a disagreement with Johnson. An arraignment is scheduled for January 18, 2007 before Judge Rasin, 509 Courthouse East. Assistant State's Attorney Mark Cohen will prosecute this case.
City police are looking for Richard Cardell Jones, right, wanted for the assault of his 10-month-old daughter.
Child-killer Richard Spicknall, 34, left (from the AP) died after being "found unresponsive in the shower around 8 p.m. Saturday night at the Jessup Correction Institution." Spicknall murdered his two young children outside Cambridge, Md. in 1999. The murders initiatied a state-wide outcry to merge the state's <55 domestic-violence offender databases (which still hasn't happened).
Stephen Janis has a real 'thing' for the story of Rey Rivera.
But come on now, though it's all very sad, if you were going to try to kill a 6-foot man, would you toss him off a roof?
File under Maryland News, Stop Snitching, Witness Intimidation, Iraq:
The Army Reservist who blew the whistle on Abu Ghraib, Joe Darby, is from Cumberland. He told CNN's Anderson Cooper on CBS' 60 Minutes that his accidental discovery of the naked-pyramid pics ruined his life, but he'd do it again.
He should move to the City!
Merle W. Unger Jr., convicted of shooting Officer Donald Kline in Hagtown in 1975, wants a new trial.
Int'l:
Pinochet's dead and the Chileans are freaking.
23 comments:
The Sun ran part 2 of the ground rent story today. I wrote about it at La Luchita, and would be interested in peoples' feedback, especially from people like Galt who I generally disagree with.
FYI
Two guys were shot last night, one in the chest, one in the legs, on E. 29th Street in Harwood last night.
shesis, between the ground rents and towing everybody's car, it's like the city itself is sucking the life (and $) out of people!
Ok, these "verification words" are really starting to annoy me. Do you commenters also find them annoying? I just got one that was 14 characters long. I'm going to try turning them off and erasing spam. We shall see...
In all fairness, ground rents have little to do with the City government. This is not, however, to suggest that Baltimore and the condition of 'sucking' are not closely associated.
Si, you're gonna just love this.
On ground rents....
please understand that these things were created to make home-ownership more accessible to people of limited means. That's almost always a bad idea.
They were like a second- second-mortgage.
Now, because of runaway inflation in the 70's, they are a nuisance more than any other thing. If you forget to pay $60 bucks which is legitimately owed to a creditor, he can hire an army of attorneys to collect it. They cost far more. But their fee is not unfair, either, as the creditor has incurred the expense of the service.
The ground rents are redeemable, and perhaps Maryland should just collapse the ground rents into a set of redemption surtaxes over a couple years which are added to your property taxes. Once those surtaxes are paid, the ground rent is dead.
Understand, the ground rent holders generally don't make big bucks, the attorneys do.
As Shakespeare said, "First, kill all the lawyers..."
One summer during college I worked for Jack & Harvey Inc doing title work for tax sale properties that they bought, and I can assure you that it's an extremely sleazy business. I didn't do much related to ground rents, but they use the same tactics for tax sale certificates that they buy. What those scumbags do is nothing more than legalized theft.
HoCo, I think that was in Massena, NY.
Galt, there are a couple of points I think you're missing. First of all, the ground rent holders are often in bed with the attorneys. Second, the fees they charge often have nothing to do with how much money they actually spent. For example, they'll charge a $300 fee for the title fee. That's complete crap. When I did title work we were being paid $12 per hour, and we could normally do several titles per hour. Fees like that are almost pure profit.
I agree, but the standard is the full recompense of outlays by the creditor. If he swears to the court that he paid $300, then the debtor would have to demonstrate fraud. In all likelihood, the creditor would pay the attorney the $300 and then take part back under the table. As long as he can present the cancelled check, the court has to award the $.
Sleazy, yes. Prosecuble, no.
Oh, and HoCo, the lease in Massena wasn't a ground rent. it was a long, long lease pursuant to a government conflict with a native american tribe. The Feds and the State of NY just postponed recognizing the tribe's property rights for a long, long time. (They should probably just have massacred them like they did to most of the other tribes. It's the American way.) Ground rents are infinitely renewable without rent increase. It's part of why they're just a nuisance today.
The grount rent thing is about the law, which decides what is a crime and what isn't... I say it's fair game!
My main point about ground rents, its all about the money, in this case, windfall profits through gentrification. This is surprisingly similar to the way the neighborhoods like Edmonson Village was "blockbusted" in the 1950s and 1960s.
The main problem, speculative capitalists, the lawyers just enable them.
FYI
Male victim shot in the back at North Ave & Mount St.
Si,
You're living in the U.S. We do capitalism here. Jut not as well as we used to.
Another juvenile victem. 17 year old Harbor City Highschool student Guiliano Santos was shot to death near his home on 600 block of N. Ellwood Street yesterday.
what # is that, god this is depressing...
Welcome to one of the few third world areas operating within US borders. Its hell on earth, pay 250k+ for a home and have it taken for the lack of 60.00(ground rent).
You can be shot walking down the street because someone thinks you have something they want. You can be arrested while walking down the street simply for being in what some consider the wrong place.
Corrupt politicians who lie to the poor while raping the middle to enrich themselves and their friends.
Baltimore City is a third world unto its own ... and there is no dayum excuse for such in the United States; year 2006.
The world has always had the poor BUT it has never had such a disgraceful site among lands of plenty.
It saddens me to see what the City has become; a wasteland where people of various means must fend for their everyday survival.
Its sad, because Baltimore could be sooo much more. Baltimore is a place of World History. It is the birthplace to the words of our Country's National Anthem. It destroyed the British Armada saving it from being burned to the ground like DC.
Famous poets, architects, singers, doctors, artists, civil rights pioneers. Not only does Baltimore have it all, it started most of it.
Sad what is seen today in such a place of history.
Simon knows the Third World. Tell me, how do violent coups get started ??
Could we trade arms for hostages? Let's see. We have about 630,000 hostages living here. And at least 50,000 guns. Where's Oliver North when we need him.
While we're on the subject of the Third World and affordability of housing, it's time for Baltimore to confront a harsh reality: many of its residents are not economically viable.
The per capita income in my neighborhood is $8,000. That's rather less than in Uruguay, Costa Rica, Mexico, or Brazil. It's about equal to Turkmenistan and just over the Dominican Republic, Namibia, and China(PPP).
They are not poor because of lack of opportunity. They are deficient in productive characteristics: rude, ignorant, lazy, and addicted.
An employer will take a Chinese or Mexican worker over an inner-city Baltimorean any day, and rationally so.
So, please, please stop trying to subsidize these people staying here: many are not viable. If anything, Baltimore should impose a head tax on the persistently poor, so as to disperse them over a broader tax base.
Well, galt, what do you think we as a society can do to make sure another genertaion doesn't gow up rude, lazy and addicted?
one of the few third world areas operating within US borders.
I'd hate to tell you but its not one of so few. That is what the man-made Katrina disaster taught America for a week or two. There are poor people who don't matter. They are "not economically viable" so they are throw away people.
Its not just "the inner cities," reservations of long ago evicted American Indians suffer poverty on a worse scale. That is just one example. Go across the border less than a mile and cities like Nuevo Laredo, Chihuahua, Juarez and Tijuana have murder rates twice that of Baltimore.
Rudeness: confine young people to their household. Mom won't learn 'em if she has the option of turning them out onto society.
Lazy: No financial assistance (other than temporary adjustment) to young people who cannot demonstrate 40 hrs. per week total employment. They need to be compliant with all court orders (specifically including child-support) and children in school must be in good behavioral standing (as distinct from academic performance). Behaviorally noncompliant students are to be joined in any structural detention by the custodial parent.
Minimum wage floors in inner-city areas should be lifted to allow greater access to entry-level employment. Perhaps a method of indemnifying entry employers from liability for accidents caused by the injured. Guys should not be permitted to crash in their girlfriends' section 8 homes. This is codified but must be enforced. Minors and chronically idle young adults should not be permitted to hang out in public areas. If they otherwise have to go home, they'll consent to doing something productive. Truant officers need to crack down in on minors out of school.
Addicted: provide a one-time guaranteed treatment slot with the understanding that all convictions after taking it will carry a greater sentence, perhaps graduated to priors. Minimum sentences should kick in after a few convictions. Custodial parents of convicted juveniles should participate in their sentences. Household drug usage should terminate all public assistance.
*Those persistently in trouble with the above should be offered a financial incentive to be voluntarily sterilized.
A campaign should be started in schools to explicitly outline how income varies with diligence and formal education: (ie. you stand to work five times as many hours for the same $1,000 if you drop out as if you get a four-year degree. Use charts and graphs, make it very, very clear.) Life expectancy doesn't seem to be as persuasive as cash.
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