Monday, June 4, 2007

June 5

Many of the 41 Sun employees who took the most recent buyout enjoyed their last day Friday and have now left the building; more layoffs are possible.

SparpaglioneA Wicomico County Grand Jury on Monday indicted Tracy Ross Sparpaglione, a recently fired Salisbury police officer accused of raping a woman he arrested late last month.

10 comments:

John Galt said...

Ooh, the Sharks & Jets are gonna rumble tonight...at City Hall.

It's all about the violence.

And the City's ministers seem to be bleating "Can't we all just get along ?"

John Galt said...

Crunching the FBI ucr data a bit, the violent crime rate and aggravated assault rate per capita of most of the major U.S. cities are as follows:

Violent crime rate

st louis 2481
detroit 2422
memphis 1992
oakland 1896
balto 1696
philly 1563
dc 1447
boston 1339
chicago 1181
houston 1169
la 787
ny 637

Agg. Assault rate

detroit 1490
st louis 1439
memphis 1124
balto 968
oakland 898
boston 797
dc 765
philly 720
houston 562
la 422
ny 329
chicago 260*

Note that Baltimore City routinely reports about three times the crime rate of first-tier metro cities. Pretty bad place.

John Galt said...

Baltimore, with 43 murders per 100,000, is second only to Detroit, with 47, in murder rate among large American cities. Yet, while in 2007 Baltimore's homicides and shootings are up 10% and 35%, respectively, Detroit's are down 11% and 17%, respectively, even as its property crime has risen. Will Charm City become the top killa ?

Maurice Bradbury said...

It all reminds me of Pink Flamingos-- everyone's fighting for the title of the filithiest people alive!

Dopple said...

I'm curious why the community activists in the article about recruitment think more officers won’t help stem the violence in Baltimore.

I think the quote that “if the community is not receptive of it” then the violence continues is incredibly myopic. I’m not sure what community the minister was referring to, but I hope the community of criminals is NOT receptive to an increase in police in my community…the City of Baltimore.

This city is like the Wild West. And the “community” is helpless to end the violence. What the city needs, pardon the cliché, is a new sheriff in town…just as it was done in the Wild West.

John Galt said...

Actually, the way the West was civilized was most frequently not a local Sheriff, but rather a federally-appointed Marshal, who was not very susceptible of influence by the local 'community', which was often ethically challenged.

Understand, please, that the word 'community' is code in the inner city. It doesn't include institutional people like doctors, lawyers, engineers, bankers, etc. It didn't originally include lawmakers, who were causasian.

The term refers to an underclass, the downtrodden. And specifically, it connotes race. That community has a particular... sympathy for nonlethal crime, even when felonious.

Examples include the frequent theft of watermelons in the works of Mark Twain, the tale of Brer Rabbit stealing goober peas, and such. The Enyclopaedia Britannica's Guide to Black History recounts "Slave culture also developed beliefs and customs that were at odds with those of the master culture. One such belief was that what the masters called theft was something else; thus stealing from the master was not theft at all but merely a process of channeling his property from one use to another, as in taking his corn and feeding it to his pigs."

This is the mindset in play when Baltimoreans refer to the Community. Contrast same with what we intend when we refer to the established norms of Society.

Mayor Dixon spoke yesterday of the need to educate criminals about the value of human life. You'll notice she said nothing about teaching them respect for the rule of law more generally. Makes one wonder how much respect she has for it herself.

Gor said...

I don't pay into that Galt. The grandfathers and great-grandfathers of the thugs today weren't killing each other at a record pace or stealing everything that wasn't nailed down.

If we blame it on the history of slavery, why 140+ years later is the problem just now raising it's ugly head?

John Galt said...

Well, the demographics of this city have changed over that period, haven't they?

There used to be a mainstream overclass which determined which politicians remained in office, and that society ensured the enforcement of its mores, rather than those of the migrant underclass. But they kinda left out in the 70's, leaving the Community a political majority here.

Gor said...

As much as I want to disagree with you, I can't find any major US city (so far) that has the same demographics as Baltimore and doesn't have extremely high murder rates.

You might have a point galt, when the majority of a city's population is made mostly of dead-beats, criminals and those related to them, I guess they would elect their own to power.

Anonymous said...

LOL!

u guys have it all figured out~!