Rumor has it that Mrs. Patricia Coates Jessamy fired two genuises on her protection team who high-fived each other in the courtroom after Jemini Jones' acquittal.
Says the SA's office, "We have NO COMMENT."
Why this isn't front page news is beyond me: an off-duty cop's daughter was held at gunpoint during a robbery outside the girl's day care center on Monday morning.
A fight at the McCulloh Homes in West Baltimore left one unidentified man [22] dead.
A Bowling Brook Prep student died after becoming "enraged for no apparent reason" and threatening school staff.
Typical Baltimore stuff (shootings, robbery, etc.) in the Blotter, including an armed robbery on The Avenue.
Two Annapolis men were wounded in a shooting late last night.
Harford County Detention Center inmate Terrance Kassis Washington escaped while being taken to the emergency room.
A robbery victim in South Baltimore was locked in the trunk of a Jaguar.
Breaking News!!! On October 13, robbers forced their way into a Pikesville house, restrained the family who lived there, and stole $20,000 worth of sports memorabilia. Police are searching for the suspects. Hopefully they fled the scene really, really slowly.
John Gray was sentenced to 90 days for attacking his son's peewee league football coach.
17 comments:
warning: long comment follows
Picking up on comments from the last post, I undersand that accused copkiller Grimes was really charged with breaking & entering, theft, filed-off handgun and possession of 12 stolen autos, and that thats not quite as bad as bank robbery. But then again, it's pretty clearly not jaywalking, either.
The guy who tackled the football coach in the 'burbs got 90 days for 2nd-degree assault, which is a felony in MD, so why would lil' Dillinger Grimes not get a felony conviction for twelve stolen autos?
Because Baltimore City is sweet on its criminals and basically is giving them the nod, up until they either kill someone or come right close to doing so.
That's.... criminal. These officials are complicit in the hazards I'm subjected to by being in this damn city. It's usually called dereliction of duty.
They're being so warm and cozy with offenders who are never going to be their neighbors, just mine. If they're so sure at charging and sentencing that "he's a good boy...", then the person making that fateful choice should be made to bear the consequences in the unlikely event he reoffends. What percentage of young male offenders in Baltimore courts don't come back ?? It's low.
Most of these 'second chances' are just more opportunities to continue offending until lives are threatened, which means that nonlethal conduct is substantially allowed in this jurisdiction, regardless of the fact that we have the same criminal code as Kent or Somerset counties.
On the notion that 33rd & G is not dangerous by day, how about the woman robbed & assaulted at the Giant, the guys picked up with handguns at 34th, or the women shot on a Saturday in the legs by 31st St.?? All by daylight. All recently. Not safe.
Thge area Joe recalls as Greenmount is far worse than when that bookstore was there. The bluelight cameras are earned in bodies. I couldn't be more out of agreement with Burger on this.
Greenmount looks decent, it's true, but that's false advertising. It's behaviorally one of the roughest places in Balto., and I don't believe in making evil look more appealing so that those who don't have to live with it daily can feel more comfortable about it. I only look forward to plces looking more vital and civilized when they truly are more vital and civilized. And that's a long way off on Greenmount.
I don't approve of LiveBaltimore and BELIEVE campaigns to con people into thinking it's better than what residents know it to be, in fact. The residents here are very aware that they are in insurgent-held territory and that 'Little Melvins', not Sheila Dixon, are in power. 'Stores' with no inventory front for smack operations upstairs, which when raided reveal arsenals of automatic weapons
And most neighbors, the pragmatists, are scared to death of the sort of civic engagement which would be ordinary outside the 'hood, because here... you die. We all know good neighbors who have been victimized for being such, mostly with absolute impunity on the part of the perps.
It's a bad, bad place.
You know, despite all it's social ills, I still love this city and will never move.
Aaaand...That pikesville robbery? The perps had to have known the victims.....
Sorry if I'm argumentative, but it's simply awful for Baltimore A to reelect and allow its officials to ask Baltimore B to please clean the bloodstains off the steps because its uncomfortable for Baltimore A to have to see it.
If anyone wants a neighborhood to 'look' nice, they first need to ensure that city government, the sole authorized holder of police power in this jurisdiction, provides some semblance of law & order, without which it's just Fallujah, and ought to look like it.
I couldn't be more out of agreement with Burger on this.
what? what did i say?! :(
The problem has to be attacked from several angles and not just by adding more police. The residents of Baltimore A will start to demand something be done NOW, because like it or not, Money talks--Loudly. If Baltimore A threatens W"hite Flight", then more people will start to listen. Why? becuase there are wayyyy to many new building/condo investments that could be put in jeopardy if no one buys them.
We're already strating to see this, gentrification will start in many neighborhoods and eminent domain will start to play in a lot of real estate transactions. Since the supreme ct. ruling last year that upheald a blighted area can be taken for public use (that use being a mall or multi use office building).
With most investors being priced out of DC, greedy real estate investors will look to baltimore to grab land up. Businesses will start to move in, jobs will start to come in and soon...people.
Then...Baltimore A will get bigger and bigger and soon---Not overnight---the Police Dept will start to get more funds from the massive amount of Property taxes coming in and upgrade to a more strategic policing unit.
Why do I believe this? because it's already happened. in NYC and Phila.
None of this will happen over night. It took NYC nearly ten years for crime to come down. and remember--it was a friggen war zone there.
baltimore A demanding more cops won't help baltimore B until you can convince enough baltimore A folks that they should give a shit about baltimore B. until then baltimore A folks will only clamor for more cops in baltimore A.
p.s. philly has been getting steadily more dangerous over the past few years. they're not as bad as baltimore yet, but they had something like 70 more murders in 2006 than in 2004 (a 20% increase).
I thought you'd advocated making the city 'prettier', so that we can enjoy its greater beauty, in spite of whatever behavioral defects may be ongoing.
I take the view that first you correct the misbehavior as best you possibly can, and then make it look only as 'pretty' and safe as it is, in fact. In the case of Baltimore B, that's pretty nasty.
I, personally, think certain neighborhoods which receive vastly inferior public safety services should be marked 'Not Safe - Stay Out - No Policing Here' In fact, they should be closed by the State until the City obtains some kind of Certificate of Continuing Habitability, which would require, inter alia demonstrating a criminal justice infrastructure capable of regularly delivering expected results commensurate with other jurisdictions statewide.
Counties which cannot provide that Law & Order should have police authority dropped from their charter and restored to the State, by virtue of persistent incompetence. Differential provision of public safety by neighborhood constitutes, in my thinking, a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Since eminent domain has been raised, any one ever notice that when some nobody resident named Fred owns Property, no police can be provided, but once the city transfers it to Bill (like, Struever
), all of a sudden the area is flooded with cops and all the potholes get fixed?
The BDC is soooooooo crooked.
And yeah, Philly crime as well as that of other east coast cities is beginning to climb again. It's demographic, which is why I deny O'Malley credit for the concommitant decrease which he walked into at the end of the 90's. It happened. He did nothing.
Galt-
2nd deg Assault is not a felony. It is however a crime of violence which would disallow possession of a gun. The guy in the burgs got 90 days because there probably aren't dockets with an average of 15 cases on the court's docket. BTW there are only 4 judges who hear felony narcotics cases and 4 judges who hear all the other felony cases. You do the math. We need more judges to hear the cases. And if by the will of (what ever you belief in) a conviction is obtained the judge needs to send the person away for a long time. Judges hate the drug cases because they aren't exciting to try. Which is why some ASAs have caseloads of up to 200 drug cases a piece.
I don't know that anyone is sweet on criminals so much as the system is overwhelmed and it ain't getting any better.
You're correct. It's actually a misdemeanor punishable by a max of 10 years in prison. Does Auto Five require violence or a felony?
Yes, the system is overwhelmed, but only because Baltimore City contains 60% of Maryland's criminals. Howzabout we reallocate resources until it also has 60% of judges and can call upon 60% of eligible jurors. Or, outsource our criminals to be tried in court systems with excess capacity through court merger. The Eastern District of NY includes both crime-intensive urban and juror-intensive suburban counties.
But you can't just let them off because a docket is jammed. That subverts justice, which is, after all, the point of a court system. Dumping these guys back onto the street is no less unjust to me as an impacted party than overlong detention in a penal colony awaiting jury trial would be to the offender. The Constitution forbids a court to damage them, but what about damaging me? Have I no rights other than as a potential offender? The Constitution doesn't seem to demand that courts provide speedy jury trial; it just forbids imprisoning offenders without one. As in, dump them on the street to reoffend.
Galt-
Problem is you wanna fight but no one here is really disagreeing with you. My point is that you call it dumping but it is a reality that when you have a guy who has non violence on his record the judges aren't looking to lock him away for the rest of his life because he's selling drugs where you live. It's just not going to happen. But what leads to the shootings, killings, the handguns? Drugs. It is the fuel for the Baltimore Criminal Justice System yet very few judges really want to try these cases or give hard sentences for drug offenses. Like I said before you may have to put them on the street with probation but you expect a judge to bang them when they come back.
If we could predict who the next cop killer would be that would be great but it's not reality. The system (as is) functions by letting some people back on the street with probation. Does it suck - yes but as you said we need more resources to handle the load. There needs to be more judges to try these cases and get these guys off the street. And yes, citizens need to actually convict the guilty. More of the people living in this city need to give a damn for the criminals to get off the street. You can only do so much with you know who a shooter is but no one will ID him. Or how about having a guy come into court and actually not recant and say "that guy shot me" and have the fine jurors say "not guilty" even when the evidence is there.
And in answer to your question - you can be prohibited from gun possession (5 w/o parole) by (1) felony conviction or (2) a crime of violence. You are also prohibited from owning a gun if you have a prior misd conviction but that penalty is 5 years WITH parole.
Sorry for rambling.
galt, i never said that. i was just saying i like our local architecture.
Worser Waverly, heh heh, think I'll start using that one!
Hey, Cybes, no discriminating against Stinky just because he's badass-challenged.
Guys, sorry if I'm all outrage and frustration signifying nothing,... I just can't stand this place any longer. It's just all around me here, 24-7, no escaping it. I just don't feel safe, even inside, because I'm not.
Did I tell you one of these assholes broke into my place in the wee hours and, surprised by my presence, reached for a handgun ?? But for the element of surprise, I should be a statistic, like my friend from Cedonia.
I cannot live like this anymore.
News flash from Law Enforcement: Violent Crime is Unhealthy for Children and Other Living Things.
Gee, if only I'd thought of jailing repeat offenders. Guess that's why they get paid the BIG bucks.
Yet another teenager shot around 7:00 p.m., this time on the 1200 block, Luzerne in East Baltimore.
I'd like to see a battalion of Navy Seals trained in urban combat clear this jurisdiction of insurgents, gangs, dealers, junkies, idle males, welfare queens, sex predators, cops, politicians, municipal employees, and corrupt developers and contractors.
Send them all to Gitmo. As for those remaining, there just won't be that many. Very manageable.
I heard on the news last night that the sports- memorabilia theft was actually back in October! Why is it all over the news now?!
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