Friday, October 12, 2007

October 12

#244 seems to be an as-yet unidentified man shot to death in a barbershop in the 1100 block of West Baltimore Street.

You'd think once we moved away from paper files in favor of computerized shiznits, we'd stop losing people "in the system", but that's exactly what happened, and what allowed Eugene Waller another opportunity to 'slip through the cracks' (a figurative metaphor while also, unfortunately, a far too literal one considering the guy is a twice-convicted rapist).

What's the saying, the Early Bird Gets The Worm? In Baltimore, it should be changed to 'The Early Riser Gets The Bullet.' Ouch. It's unknown whether or not he's going on the body count list (yet).

An anonymous call to "shoot up" a Carroll County school gets schools throughout the area locked-down.

I don't blame the guy for carrying a gun -- after all, he's just as likely to be assaulted by a parent upset his kid didn't get to play as he is to be the victim of a random act of violence -- but the Feds don't share that view: Aaron McCrown, a 31-year old youth football coach, charged with illegally carrying a firearm because he's a convicted felon. Convicted of what? Possession with intent to distribute. How'd he get a job as a youth coach?

Gary Watson's release ... oh, just fucking brilliant.

59 comments:

John Galt said...

Remember this excerpt from the BCPD 2004 Crime Plan?:

Recruiting
While other law enforcement agencies struggle to recruit police officers,
the BPD continues to succeed in identifying and hiring qualified applicants, particularly minorities. This achievement is due, in part, to a four-day testing and screening process that allows the Personnel Section to make a hiring decision on applicants within 30 to 45 days. The result is a fully-staffed department of approximately 3,261 sworn members, where 59% of the 195 most recently hired officers are minority and 25% are female, exceeding the national average of other major cities police departments.


Oh, how things have changed.

John Galt said...

In other old news which is new again, remember this story on open warrants in Baltimore? The same number we had in 2000 ?

excerpt:

“Would you need 250 to 300 officers to close all of those?” asked Councilman James Kraft, District 1.

“Yes,”

graham said...

Did someone need to elbow Jim Kraft at the meeting to wake him up and ask that question? I can only hope that 3,000 Republicans move into the 1st District real soon and vote him out during the general election.

ppatin said...

*sigh, it would be nice if the BCPD concentrated on hiring the most qualified candidates rather than meeting racial and gender quotas.

burgersub said...

high crime cities have a lot of crime because they're poor, and poor cities are controlled by democrats because democrats are (slightly, these days) more likely to help poor people than republicans. high crime cities do not have a lot of crime due to being controlled by democrats. fuck off with your "if only baltimore had republicans running the show, it would clean right up!" nonsense.

John Galt said...

And when you spend most of your money on discretionary outlays to relieve the poor of the burden of actually paying for the things they consume, there ain't much left over for necessary & essential services, like hiring enough cops to deal with your monumentally criminal poor population.

So, yeah, Republicans definitely tend to reduce the crime. Why not start by transferring the $300 million in the City budget from grants to police payroll ?? Pay what the market demands, staff the patrol unit adequately (as in, now), and start locking these animals up.

John Galt said...

It just ain't rocket science.
Look under Competent Public Administration.

Oh, that's right, that book's been checked out since 1968.

ppatin said...

"high crime cities have a lot of crime because they're poor"

I'd say it's a little more complicated than that...

John Galt said...

Oh, and on that subject of 'helping poor people', how many percent of the 300-ish murder victims this year will have been anything but low-income ??????

Oh, so very helpful. I'll remind the mothers how much they've been 'helped' when I see them at the funeral home.

There's a reason the Democratic mascot is a JACKASS !

C Love "The Rap Addict" said...

"*sigh, it would be nice if the BCPD concentrated on hiring the most qualified candidates rather than meeting racial and gender quotas." - ppatin

Please tell .... how you came up with that opinion.

Do you think that they'd (BALTIMORE) hire a minority cop regardless of qualifications?


I didnt hear them say they are changing their standards....like the US military....to fill their personnel quotas.

What makes a cop effective? What color are the most productive cops...according to you, ppatin?

Cultural sensitivity MATTERS.
Baltimore could use a HUGE DOES OF IT.

Now...if you don't want to train people to be more sensitive to people's differences.....wouldn't the next best thing be to hire a few cops that look like and relate to the people they're hired to serve and protect? I may be wrong, but Im glad they pointed out the diversity of the force they are creating. I feel hopeful.


Republicans decrease crime....LOL! sure.

C Love "The Rap Addict" said...

HUGE DOSE*

ppatin said...

"Please tell .... how you came up with that opinion.

Do you think that they'd (BALTIMORE) hire a minority cop regardless of qualifications? "

No I don't think they'll hire a minority police officer regardless of qualifications, but from the way that crime plan was worded it's obvious that they place a pretty big emphasis on the race of their applicants. The selection process should be color-blind.

Of course, when you compare the pay and working conditions of Baltimore cops to those in Baltimore, Howard and Anne Arundel Counties it's clear that the BPD probably has to hire underqualified candidates of all races :(

ppatin said...

Baltimore has been run by the Democratic party for decades. Our last Republican mayor was Theodore McKeldin who left office in 1967, and I think the last Republican on the city council was elected in the 1930s! Now I am no fan of the GOP, but considering the track record of the Baltimore Democratic party I don't think it's unreasonable to want to try an alternative. I dislike a large part of the Republican party's ideology, but at this point any serious competition for clowns like Dixon, Jessamy and Rawlings-Blake would be a good thing. The problem isn't that Baltimoreans vote for Democrats, it's that they mindlessly vote for Democrats without even considering whether the candidate they're supporting deserves to be elected.

Sean said...

A few observations:

1. "BPD continues to succeed in identifying and hiring qualified applicants, particularly minorities." Note the use of the word "qualified." Doesn't really sound like that's favoring minorities over majorities.

2. What is a minority in Baltimore anyway? As of 2005, African Americans make up 64.9% of the population, non-Latino Whites are 30.1%. So... wouldn't hiring whites count as hiring minorities? And if the BPD means they're hiring 59% non-Whites, well, that's actually below the percentage of non-Whites in the city anyway. So, in fact, they're hiring Whites at a rate 11% higher than their proportion of the population.

3. I'm not sure where I stand on the party thing. I've been a lifelong Dem, not blindly, but because they most closely represent my opinions and beliefs (issues like abortion, caring for the needy, death penalty, etc). But I think I'm gonna have to vote for someone else from now on in local elections - I'm just tired of having my vote taken for granted. I know it won't make a difference, and that my demographic (white male) barely registers politically, but on principle, I can't vote this way anymore. I guess I'm going Green from here on out.

John Galt said...

Natinally, the Democratic party is not pro-crime. Its middle-class constituents wouldn't allow that. But, they seem to have brokered a deal in which Baltimore City, Detroit, and St. Louis are allowed to embrace criminality just so long as the suburban Democrats don't have to deal with it.

On the subject of city to city comparison, Newark has 16,000 outstanding warrants and employs 24 warrant officers. Baltimore has over three times that many outstanding and but employs about twice that number of warrant officers.

Net net, we have about 50% fewer warrant officers per caseload than Newark (14th most dangerous city in the nation.) That's not good.

Now, notice that we still have about the same number of warrants as when the Mayor (O'Malley) proposed a Plan to Drastically Reduce Crime in Baltimore when he came into office almost a decade ago.

Apparently, my definition of drastically is different from either his or Mayor Dixon's.

burgersub said...

no shit it's "a little more complicated than that." it's also a little more complicated than "democrats = bad public servants," considering that the six lowest murder rates in 2006 for american cities with populations over 500,000 have democratic mayors. how do you explain this anomaly.

burgersub said...

oh, that was in response to someone saying that it's a little more complicated than "poverty = crime."

ppatin said...

"1. "BPD continues to succeed in identifying and hiring qualified applicants, particularly minorities." Note the use of the word "qualified." Doesn't really sound like that's favoring minorities over majorities."

The city fire department certainly is. Remember that extremely sad case of a recruit who died in training a few months back? It turned out that she did not meet the department's physical standards, but she was a black woman, therefore someone our politicans wanted in the BFD.

Now before someone jumps on me, I am NOT blaming that poor woman for her death. The culprits in that case are the assclowns in the fire department who ignored countless safety rules when planning the training exercise. However the fact that physical fitness standards were bent for a demanding job like firefighting is pretty scary.

ppatin said...

Burger, I never bought into the Democrats = bad public servants line. I do think that Democratic politicans who never have to face serious opposition from another party usually become very bad elected officials. It's like a business that has no competitors, they'll begin producing crappy, overpriced products. Sheila Dixon is the mayoral equivalent of some of the crapmobiles that Detroit's big three used to turn out.

burgersub said...

who cares what party they face competition from? how many candidates ran in the primary, like 7? just because the voters are too stupid to vote for change doesn't mean they couldn't have.

besides, unless you're going to somehow import 100,000 republican voters into the city, the wishful thinking of "oh if only we had a republican mayor" is totally irrelevant, moreso than almost any other solution you can dream up that would work from an actual policy standpoint, even up to something as improbable as legalizing drugs or concentration camps or something.

Carol Ott said...

So... wouldn't hiring whites count as hiring minorities?

When you're discussing racial quotas in hiring, education, etc. - the word "minority" has a slightly different meaning than just the lower-number group of people living in that city. They're not talking about whites, they're talking about any ethnic group that is non-white, and women. Which is somewhat amusing to me, as women make up roughly 54% of the world's population, yet we keep shrieking for protected status from the government. BAH!

John Galt said...

Talk about caged animals ! See the Netcast story CAUGHT ON TAPE: Inmates Fight in Holding Cell. And these aren't even in Baltimore, but outside Boston.

Sean said...

I don't think women count as minorities for any purpose. The city is required, for example, to work towards contracts with "women and minority owned" businesses.

I know the meaning of minority, I just find it an oddly-used word here in Baltimore. FYI, my little group (white males) makes up 15% of Bmore's population!

John Galt said...

"Shocked. I'm simply shocked that this could happen in Philadelphia."


Oh, it's in Baltimore? Well, that's O.K. then.

Anonymous said...

Hi all,

Received a letter in the mail today indicating that I should appear at court on Nov. 9th for Maryland vs. [carjacking guy]. Haven't looked up his record, mostly because I don't really know how and I am lazy enough to ask first before trying to figure it out myself. Can it be done with only a name?

Anonymous said...

lucidsplash,

you can look up case information on said scumbag using the case search on the maryland judiciary, which can be found here. You'll have to agree to the terms and conditions, but its a wonderful resource. Good luck.

John Galt said...

Lucid,

Evidence of prior charges, etc. is often inadmissible, so your perusing same would tend to bias you as a juror. If you intend to be 'fair', it would be a good idea to let the prosecutor dtermine what background is to be offered to you, subject to defense's objection.

Prior knowledge may also exclude you from serving on this case, if you disclose it.

John Galt said...

FYI, the unnamed barbershop vic was Kevin Ware.

Anonymous said...

John,

Thanks for the info but I'm not a potential member of the juror pool. I'm the carjacking victim. I'm already pretty certain he's guilty since I was there when he stole my car at knifepoint. Also, he was caught after he crashed my [stolen] car into a parked vehicle following a police chase 36 hours later. :)

Incidentally, the police already told me that this guy was out on $100,000 bond for a similar incident (carjacking, knife).

Anonymous said...

PS Thanks for the link Baltimore Cynic. Fascinating.

John Galt said...

New York City will likely end this year with about 476 homicides. About 50% more than Baltimore, which will likely have around 300. Of course, New York is nearly 13 times our population.

Policing works.

Anonymous said...

Oops, appears that was incorrect information. He wasn't out on bond. He was recently paroled for a similar violation from March 2004.

ppatin said...

Paroled after three years for carjacking? Unbelievable. In a civilized society that kind of a crime would carry a MINIMUM sentence of ten years, although I think a couple decades would be a lot more appropriate.

Anonymous said...

There was a plea deal which sentenced him to 5 years and he was given credit for 204 days served (the time he'd been in jail by the time the verdict came around. Also he was 6 months shy of 18 at the time 2004 incident took place.

Well, hopefully this time the penalty will be a bit more severe. I'll keep you posted.

graham said...

5 years seems to be the norm for carjacking. Trayvon Rumos (aka Ramos), got the same sentence in Cecil County...15 yr. sentence with 10 years suspended.

ppatin said...

The criminal who carjacked lucidsplash should be killed. If you commit one violent feloney, are given a second chance and go out and immediately re-offend then it's obvious you'll never be a productive, law-abiding member of society. At that point we might as well admit that the criminal is beyond hope and just hang him.

John Galt said...

Why not just legalize this sh!t and stop yanking everyone's chain ???


Baltimore: a city of animals

John Galt said...

Just like that ad for pork:

Baltimorean -
the other hominid

Dave said...

On a totally unrelated note, I *really* wish the BCPD (and other cities' law enforcement agencies) would export their crime data in some sort of machine-consumable format (like XML). That would allow the general public to generate maps without any sort of human intervention. Having crime data available in this manner would also allow us to analyze the data on the fly, with statistical analysis happening as the crime numbers trickle in from each agency. This would save burgersub and other similarly minded folks from collecting the data themselves and updating their likely hideous webpage(s).

A nice web appication that dymically generates maps and reports would be trivial to write given the data. I would personally write such an application if noone else would be interested.

Does anyone (Galt) know of cities, if any, that export their crime data in formats consumable by computers?

Anyway, those are just my $0.02. Thanks for the excellent work Cybes; keep it up!

John Galt said...

The eigheenth century version of a carjacker:

The account of the death of the highwayman is thus told in the Federal Republican and Baltimore Telegraph of September 11, 1818.

"THE EXECUTION.

" Agreeably to public notice, the awful sentence of death was yesterday inflicted on J, Thompson Hare and John Alexander, in the presence of a vast concourse assembled to witness the ignominious ceremony. Their lives have expiated the crime for which they suffered. Justice has no demands on them in the grave.

"The gallows was sufficiently elevated above the walls of the prison to afford a distinct view of the unfortunate men to spectators at the distance of several hundred yards.

"Hare has made a confession which is now hawking about town for sale. In it he observes that, 'for the last fourteen years of my life I have been a robber, and have robbed on a large scale, and been more successful than any robber either in Europe or in this country that I ever heard of.'"

This lying dying boast of Hare fitly closes his evident failure as a highwayman.

graham said...

David,

Take a look at Philadelphia's CrimeBase project.

John Galt said...

David: you're missing the point. This city government doesn't want you to have the data. They falsify it. They conceal it. Sometimes the press actually has to file suit under the Public Information Act to get it.

That's the problem, not format.

John Galt said...

Baltimore was one of the most important ports along the eastern seaboard, shipping out timber, tobacco, and grain from the area. It was a city of Commerce and Industry, rather than Crackheads and Indolence.

Commerce never stays long in a place of lawlessness. This city reaps what it sows: murder capital of the U.S. Back in the nineteenth century, victims were fully entitled to defend themselves free of concern over prosecution. It was known as the doctrine of Self-Help.

If policing power is to be vested exclusively in the hands of so preposterous a government as Baltimore City, perhaps it's time to reintroduce self-help, along with authority to arm for defense.

I don't like it, but this government is protecting no one but criminals.

burgersub said...

i don't think my website is hideous. :(

or do you mean the code is probably hideous? i'll concede that, i don't know shit about programming.

also, asking why black people are labeled a minority in baltimore is almost as douchey and disingenuous as when bigots ask why there's an NAACP but not a national association for the advancement of white people.

BmoreCareful said...

*Random Fact/Question*
all you hear about and see is the bloods in baltimore, crips are outnumbered but you never hear much about them,where the hell are they????

burgersub said...

what are you talking about? there's plenty of crips, don't you ever read graffiti?

BmoreCareful said...

ive seen some of the graffiti but when compared to the bloods i havent seen packs of teenagers in all blue from the shirts to the pants like i have seen with the bloods...then again im primarily on the west/ northwest side and rarely been to the east side or south side..so my question is where are dominantly crip areas? like Park Heights is for the bloods...

BmoreCareful said...

gee i wonder how long itll take until Gary Watson kills someone or gets killed himself

Sean said...

"also, asking why black people are labeled a minority in baltimore is almost as douchey and disingenuous as when bigots ask why there's an NAACP but not a national association for the advancement of white people."

Yeah, that's TOTALLY the same thing as pointing out that AfAm's are a majority in this city. Thanks for missing the point! God bless the internets.

burgersub said...

i didn't miss the point at all. your point is that you want to deny the continued existence of institutionalized racism in america (black people are still a minority in america, the country, of which baltimore is a part) that makes it necessary for government agencies, even in minority-majority areas, to make a greater effort to hire minorities. same goes for women, except replace "institutionalized racism" with "patriarchal society" or something.

as for the gangsters, i've never noticed guys dressed from head to toe in red OR blue, but i live in lovely hampden and only visit the rougher parts of the city when driving through. i think barclay might be crip territory though, as well as some of the neighborhoods on the upper york road corridor. galt probably can tell you more.

burgersub said...

oh, also, thanks for "pointing out" that black people are in the majority here. i'm sure nobody here knew that. it's not like any of us live in baltimore or know anything at all about it.

Sean said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sean said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sean said...

Okay... okay, I took a couple deep breaths, calmed down, and deleted my angry angry posts. I'm always pissed off by the lack of intelligent discourse and civility on the internet, and I would have just contributed to them with my posts. So here's my calm, rational response:

You did miss my point, and I'm sorry if I wasn't more clear. My posting was in response to the comment "it would be nice if the BCPD concentrated on hiring the most qualified candidates rather than meeting racial and gender quotas." My point was that the BPD is still recruiting a smaller percentage of "minorities" than is present in the city. If anything, one would expect the hiring or "minorities" to exceed 59%, since AfAm's make up over 60% of the population, and that excludes other "minority" groups, particularly Latinos, who have targeted by the BCPD for hiring.

FYI, I support these efforts, because I think it's almost inevitable that there will be problems with a majority "minority" city policed by a minority "majority." I also understand the continued need for "affirmative action" in hiring and admissions, and I've supported these efforts. Sorry you got the wrong impression from my post. I'm not an Angry White Male (you know, the 1994 "Republican Revolution" and all).

As for your response "oh, also, thanks for "pointing out" that black people are in the majority here. i'm sure nobody here knew that. it's not like any of us live in baltimore or know anything at all about it." Well, I dunno, seems like some people missed that point, railing against 59% "minority" hiring in the city. Not me, but somebody else on here... I could just as easily say, in response to your post, "oh, also, thanks for "pointing out" that baltimore is in the united states. i'm sure nobody here knew that. it's not like any of us live in baltimore or know anything at all about it" but that would be rude and unnecessary, and a little douchey.

I still maintain that you completely missed my point, and you are mis-characterizing me pretty badly. But it's not the end of the world, and hopefully you get it now.

Sean said...

"also, asking why black people are labeled a minority in baltimore is almost as douchey and disingenuous as when bigots ask why there's an NAACP but not a national association for the advancement of white people."

Sadly, you're misinformed here as well. It is my sad duty to inform that there IS an NAAWP, founded by David Duke and other racists. It's now called the National Association for the Advancement of Working People. No joke.

burgersub said...

oh ok. i wrote all that stuff only in response to this:

I know the meaning of minority, I just find it an oddly-used word here in Baltimore. FYI, my little group (white males) makes up 15% of Bmore's population!

it's difficult for me to keep track of who has said what on here when there are so many comments. i hope you can see why i might have interpreted that quote the way i did if you look at it without the context of the post you made previous to it. i just jumped to conclusions because there is, in my opinion, a fair amount of subtle racism among the people that comment on this site. no hard feelings.

also, that's pretty funny about the NAAWP. obviously that's not really what i meant with my comment though, since it's obviously a wacky fringe group.

Sean said...

Well, I appreciate that, and like I said, sorry I wasn't more clear. Also, as to the designation of "minority," I learned a long time ago (in college) that a lot of folks who are "minorities" don't like being called that, so I usually try to avoid it. And I still think it's a bit of a misnomer in this city for referring to AfAm people, but I get it. If I wasn't clear, I'm cool with being in my 15% group, and I don't have any resentment for the other 85%.

Sorry to turn this into a forum on race, wasn't my intention.

John Galt said...

I'm moving the response on crips to the comments section for today's date. This comments page is too long.

John Galt said...

As in.... about here.