Sunday, July 15, 2007

July 15

Pollsters: Baltimoreans are "obsessed" with crime.
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12 comments:

John Galt said...

The piecharts are here.

And Police Commissioner Hamm's approval rating is lower than George Bush's.

Sun Jul 15, 01:35:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

Question: If 40% of residents surveyed said they or their friends were victims of violent crime here (I assume recently, not 30 years ago) and homicide is up 15% and shootings are up 35%, then how can violent crime possibly be down 17% ??

If the poll is representative of the city's population of 640,000, then 250,000 would have a first- or second-hand experience of violence. If we adjust for an average family size of 2.3, that leaves around 110,000 persons not of the same household (which would duplicate the experience).

Now, Baltimore reports around 10,000 violent incidents per year, most of which are aggravated assaults (ie. with some sort of weapon).

So, to square the poll results, it would have to be the case that each incident was being noted by ten persons not in the same household. Or, there's a lotta crime going on out there which the Balto. City Police Department either a) never hears about or b) suppresses.

But don't try to tell me it's down 17% !!

Sun Jul 15, 02:01:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

Now, on the choice of words,...

Merriam-Webster defines obsession as:

a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling;


Unreasonable? It's the second-most violent city in the nation!

The level of concern is entirely rational. This is an awful jurisdiction. Not emotionally; analytically.

Rational people do not ignore threats to their person and property simply because some weasel of a politician would like it so.

Bring on the crime audit. Let's see just how obsessed we ought to be.

Sun Jul 15, 02:11:00 PM EDT
John Galt said...

FYI:

an individual was murdered on Gay Street early today

and there was a triple-shooting up on Radecke Ave in NE Balto. this evening.


And Sheila D.'s response to Hamm's lousy approval rating from officers and citizens alike is that she has to evaluate on a day by day basis. This from Jayne Mller at WBALTV.

Keiffer Mitchell said to a crowd that we shouldn't have to wait for an inauguration day to be delivered from this negligence (my wording). I agree.

The charter should be amended such that the Mayor is impeachable by action of any citizens, provided they demonstrate reasonably to the satisfaction of a court of competent jurisdiction that the Mayor's conduct has frustrated the city's satisfaction of its obligation in respect of the most necessary and essential public servics.

Sun Jul 15, 11:42:00 PM EDT
ppatin said...

From today's Sun.

"Despite the surge in shootings and homicides, Police Department data show drops in other categories -- for example, robberies are down 34 percent -- and an overall 17 percent decrease in violent crime this year."

Are they actually stupid enough to believe those meaningless numbers?

Mon Jul 16, 12:41:00 AM EDT
John Galt said...

It would be helpful if our state or local government would criminalize the knowing falsification of crime data.

Until then it's just going to be allowed in the discretion of the person in power. If Hamm inspires no confidence, then why would the stats ?

Mon Jul 16, 05:35:00 AM EDT
John Galt said...

Oh, this is a gem (from the blotter):


Stolen vehicle // Police were seeking a pregnant woman who asked a man for a ride in the 200 block of Warwick Ave. about 9:30 p.m. Thursday, then stole his pickup when the man stopped in the 700 block of N. Fulton Ave. to help her get out of the truck. The pickup, a burgundy 2004 Ford, has tags 338M107.

And so very Baltimore.

Mon Jul 16, 05:42:00 AM EDT
John Galt said...

I'm sure I'll be blasted for this, but here it is anyway.

The same day that the Sun poll indicates that crime is clearly the big issue in Baltimore and people are looking to leave, we get a story on the Kevin Bacon Diner concert.

A bunch of middle-class white people at the artificially safe Inner Harbor watching a B-list Hollywood dude talk about how much he looooves Baltimore City. Are we talking about the same Baltimore ? No.

Does he love Upton? Or Collington Square? His security personnel would never let him near them.

I didn't see one black person in the coverage at that concert except for a roadie dude. I certainly didn't see any of the typically inner-city dwellers you might find in Barclay or Poppleton Village. (Not that I'd really expect to see them climbing over barricades to see Bacon.)

How many of those attendees would you expect if it were instead located at the turnaround of St. Lo Drive in Clifton Park in East Baltimore with the level of policing which is customary there ?

This is a segregated city. And the primary method by which it is segregated is the distribution of safety/policing/behavioral control.

The City, its police, and the Convention Bureau people go to great pains to make certain everyone understands that the high expectation of violent crime here doesn't apply to the right people when in the right places.

That is accomplished by sweeping crime into the wrong places among the wrong people. It is not consistent with mainstream American values to designate places or people as specified for victimization. It virtually makes the City a co-conspirator in the resulting crimes.

If the City doesn't intend to provide the same level of safety in such neighborhoods as it does in the right neighborhoods, then it ought to designate them as either officially uninhabitable or as outside its jurisdiction, but it is not proper to provide differential enforcement of statewide criminal codes by location within a jurisdiction.

Mon Jul 16, 06:47:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...

Oh no, there was at least one other nonwhite person at the Bacon Brothers concert... Sheila Dixon herself made an appearance!

Mon Jul 16, 08:26:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...

It is very troubling that as the Mayoral election draws near, the Baltimore Sun's coverage of the crime problem is being manipulated to prop up the Dixon candidacy. Straight reporting of crime is being peppered with references to Dixon's "successful" crime reducing strategy, OBVIOUSLY cooked crime stats are being reported as fact and attributed to Dixon and Hamm. This is very scary, and I've never seen this kind of BS at this level in any other American City. It is becoming more and more apparent that those with any power here have utter contempt for regular citizens. By the way, isn't this kind of reporting actually CRIMINAL, and subject to some form of penalty?

Mon Jul 16, 08:33:00 AM EDT
Anonymous said...

How is it being "obsessed" when Baltimore residents are 100 TIMES MORE LIKELY to be victims of a serious crime than NYC residents? The Sun is pure propaganda, and is useful only to be placed under the back end of a poodle at walk time.

Mon Jul 16, 08:40:00 AM EDT
John Galt said...

Well, Baltimore political people seem to be very good at engaging in behaviors which are not directly criminal but which would get you thrown out for graft or violating civil rights most anywhere else in the ountry.

Handing Marcus Brown a cool $1 million after he's already resigned (which means we stand to benefit zero from the additional expense) and trying to call it compensation in the discretion of the Commissioner,

The City Council President steering repeated contracts for $4,999 to her sister's unqualified firm when together they would exceed the $5,000 threshhold for competitive bid.

Arresting 25,000 people a year without charges and asserting that they overwhelmingly satisfied the test of probable cause, even if not reasonable doubt.

Mon Jul 16, 11:15:00 AM EDT

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