Thursday, January 10, 2008

January 10

The man found shot to death in a house on North Ave. was 30-year-old Jerrell Brown. Apparently, the house was not abandoned, as Brown was living there.

Also in the Blotter (link above): a catfight near the North Ave. light rail station (remember, the MTA is safe and reliable!), a Buddha thief in the Southern, and a very considerate armed robber in Owings Mills.

Speaking of safe and reliable, a man was found at a bus stop in the 2600 block of Dulaney St. after being shot in the leg, and another man was shot in the head at a bus stop near the City campus at E. 33rd St. and The Alameda. Neither gunshot was fatal. Yet.

An employee of a contractor working at Perry Hall Middle School sexually assaulted an 11-year-old in the girls' bathroom yesterday.

17-year-old Loren Denver White was arrested for the home invasion / robbery of a 62-year-old woman in Owings Mills. Sexual assault has been added to the list of charges against the alleged piece of shit.

If you're going to deny showing your junk to high school girls, you might not want to admit to it while the police are recording your call.

The trial against alleged cop perv William Darrell Welch is scheduled to begin today in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

The stabbing at the Mall in Columbia appears to be drug related. Visitors to the mall were reported as saying crazy things, like 'this is horrible' and 'people need to make better decisions."

The Maryland DHR is being investigated for how they handled the case of Bryanna Harris.

The victims of the Pigtown burglar speak out.

A devastated block in a city of devastated blocks is being torn down.

The old 'fireworks in the gas tank' trick.

$30 reward offered to HoCo snitches.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've lived in pigtown for the past 2 years, and I just don't think the problem is as bad as other residents think it is. Dealing is definitely down, gunshots are way down, (even in just the last two years) and businesses have started to move into Washington blvd. That’s no minor accomplishment. If anything it's a good sign -- the rise in property crime. As a neighborhood gentrifies, or improves and people with you know, actual jobs, move in, burglaries and the sort are bound to follow. They can only operate in a place that has shit worth stealing.

I just wouldn't be so pessimistic. It's a city for christ sake. Even worse...it's Baltimore. If you live there your house and car will occasionally get broken into.

ppatin said...

Escapee Gerard Damon was recaptured this morning. Hopefully that dumbass will get a nice hefty addition to his sentence.

buzoncrime said...

Carol Ott--I wonder what you think about this pigtown stuff. Do you still own a coffee shop down there?

Caederus said...

rob,

"it's Baltimore. If you live there your house and car will occasionally get broken into."

Thats one of the reasons, why I don't live there any more. I don't want my house nor car broken into.

ppatin said...

"If you live there your house and car will occasionally get broken into."

Yeah, that attitude is a little distressing. Instead of simply accepting the fact that they'll be robbed, people should take some steps to protect themselves (such as buying a gun). Then if someone breaks into your home while you're there, you shoot him.

John Galt said...

Rob, let's review a concept:

We pass criminal laws to specify behaviors which will not be allowed.

When those laws are violated, those who violate them are declared criminals.

We don't like criminals.

When you have criminals at large in your population, you hunt them down and (subject to trial procedure) incarcerate them until there are no longer criminals at large.

Garrett County has maybe 100 criminals on active Parole & Probation at large. Baltimore has 150 times as many.

Ergo, Baltimore City needs to expend about 150 times as much effort to remove offenders/reoffenders from the general population.

In what section of that discussion is the part about 'just going along with having your car or home broken into' ?

However many hoodlums you have at large, that's how many individuals you need to yank off the street and incarcerate.

What part of the above is conceptually difficult ?

Where are you finding this latitude for tolerance ?

Anonymous said...

I own a gun patin, but it's near impossiable to legally keep a long gun in your residency in Baltimore. So I don't. Would love it if Baltimore City had more respect for my rights. But they don't.


It's called reality. And if people don't want to accept the reality that crime will always exist in an urban environment they can and ar free to flee the city. And don't misunderstand me -- I'm not suggesting that the flight of the tax base, and non-criminal element out of the city isn't a problem. Of course it is. I'm just sayin' you can't really act surprised about property crime in an urban area. Especially a high-crime urban area. And especially when the general quality of life in a neighborhood appears to be going up. My opinion of course.

But good god. Not everything has turned to absolute shit in Baltimore. You guys can be a depressing crowd sometimes.

And yes, she still owns the coffee shop on washington.

Anonymous said...

Whoa.

I love how you guys completley skip over my first paragraph of my first comment where I talk about improvement in pigtown. Anyone want to challenge that?

I never said we should ignore crime, nor would I ever suggest that. My only point -- you are never going to eliminate crime completley, and it's dangerous to act as though small improvements are no improvements.

I agree there are plenty of problems in this city (read my baltimore stuffhttp://www.tothepeople.com/labels/Baltimore.html from the past year) crime being number one. (or really the failed drug war is problem number one) It's just important to remember that sometimes, things get better, not worse.

ppatin said...

"I own a gun patin, but it's near impossiable to legally keep a long gun in your residency in Baltimore. So I don't. Would love it if Baltimore City had more respect for my rights. But they don't."

Huh? As far as I know there are no legal restrictions on owning a rifle or shotgun anywhere in Maryland, as long as you keep it in your own house. A concealed carry permit is a different story of course...

Another option is simply to put a bunch of NRA & Ron Paul for president stickers on your car, and everyone will assume you're a gun-toting wacko and leave you be :)

Carol Ott said...

I do indeed still own my coffeeshop on Washington Boulevard, and I still live in Pigtown. We had one murder in 2007, drug related, and I feel perfectly safe here.

As for my neighbors going to the media -- I think it's great. When the mayor is seen on TV blabbing away about how safe the city is, how safe MTA is, ad nauseum -- it makes the victims of crime a little ticked off, and they feel violated yet again...by the same government that's supposed to DO something about the crime problem instead of building more goddam useless condo buildings and giving big corporations tons of money to move in.

And I may get tarred and feathered for saying this, but what the hell -- I have a hard time feeling sorry for people who leave their doors unlocked when nobody's home...and then complain when their shit gets stolen. What fantasy city do they live in????

I understand the premise that nobody has the right to enter your home without permission, and certainly that same person has no right to steal your stuff -- but for chrissakes, people -- common sense goes a long freakin way.

Carol Ott said...

And yes, you are indeed allowed to own a gun here -- you're not, however, allowed to carry it with you when you leave the house, as ppatin pointed out.

Concealed/carry permits are very hard to get.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Headline of the Day: "Corpse Wheeled to Check-Cashing Store Leads to 2 Arrests"

John Galt said...

I cannot speak to crime trends in Pigtown. I can tell you that 911 call volume relative to index crimes reported by Baltimore City has doubled over the past decade.

I call that worse.

Don't trust these Baltimore City municipal government mother-f#@kers any further than you can throw them. They lie like rugs. The crime stats are 'juked' just as is suggested in The Wire.

The real crime level here is totally out of control.

John Galt said...

The data are here.

Carol Ott said...

The one thing I wouldn't agree with is the statement made that "dealing is down" in Pigtown. No, it is most definitely not. It may have moved away from in front of your house, but the drug dealing in Pigtown is out of control. Has been for decades. You don't get rid of that in a year or two.

Sit in my cafe day after day and watch out the window, and then tell me that there is less drug dealing in Pigtown. Bet you can't do it with a straight face.

Carol Ott said...

Galt, where did that graph come from?

John Galt said...

That would be Baltimore B: the other Charm City.

The data are from City docs, FBI, etc.

John Galt said...

To quote Desi (Ricky Ricardo) Arnaz:

To the BCPD,

"Lucy, you've got some 'splainin' to do!"

taotechuck said...

Rob, it seems I'm the only one here who agrees with your comments about occasional breakins. Sure, it pisses me off when it happens, but I understood the risks when I moved to a big city (first LA, then NY, now B'more) and I don't whine like it's the end of the world when my CDs get stolen. Stick 650,000 people in a relatively confined space, and more shit is going to happen -- bad shit AND good shit.

And yeah, if you don't lock your doors, don't bitch when someone steals your stuff.

For what it's worth, it may be hard to get a cc permit but it's really easy to get a license for a dog. It's amazing how quickly people move when you've got a 150 pound dog that is taller than 6' when she stands up. Plus, she's way more cuddly than a 9mm.