Saturday, April 12, 2008

April 12

As reported by Bmore in the comments, three men were shot last night in Franklin Square.

An employee at a McDonald's in Catonsville was stabbed by a co-worker yesterday morning. Another co-worker was arrested for offering to hide the stabber.

Bealefeld's statement that the murder rate is dropping holds a bit more water than then-acting Police Commissioner Hamm's statement to the Baltimore Criminal Justice Coordinating Council on (or about) March 9, 2005 that Baltimore had "finally turned the corner on violent crime." Turning Hamm's corner was kinda like turning from N. Carey St. onto W. Mosher St.

Eugene Waller may have a history of violent sex crimes, and he may have gotten away with some things due to technicalities and bureaucracies, and he may not be doing life for his latest attack, but it certainly wasn't a random rape.

Marcus Crandell could get up to life in prison after pleading guilty to a bit of fiery street revenge.

"My parents are gone, and he's still here."

Hmmm... if female Navy officers can pay off debt by working as hookers, how about middle-aged civilians with receding hairlines, man-boobs, and pedophile beards? Uh, because, you know, I've got a friend who might be interested.

I can totally see how this'll go down. First, someone on the City Council will read Jill Rosen's article about kids who videotape school fights. Then they'll propose a law that banishes the Interwebs and the World Wide Net and MyTube from within Baltimore's city limits. Then a Web Offenders' Registry will go into place. Six months later, MJB will get arrested for illegally making a blog post to Baltimore Crime (because we're, like, totally revolutionaries that way), and the City Council will pat themselves on the back for making the city a safer place.

Goddamn, I'm getting cynical. I saw the headline "Baltimore Community Celebrates Milestone" and my first thought was, 'What? Nobody picked up a hooker for three entire hours in Pigtown?'

15 comments:

Maurice Bradbury said...

Wow, I have never heard of any non-prisoner or guard getting to see the inside of Supermax. (link= "My parents are gone, and he's still here.") I was told in 1990 by a guard that no reporters had been allowed inside for decades. I wonder if Gus got inside or just talked to the victims' families after they came outside. He certainly wrote it as if he were actually in there, but if that were true I'd think it would merit much more of a story.

Maurice Bradbury said...

... from the video it looks like he got a glimpse but wasn't in the 1860s "castle" part of the prison

ppatin said...

mjb:

The "castle" is the old Maryland Penitentiary, now known as the Metropolitan Transition Center. The Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center (Supermax's official name) is across the street and is a separate structure. I think the guard you spoke to in 1990 was referring to the old Penitentiary, because Supermax was only completed in the late 1980s.

Maurice Bradbury said...

aha. so what's in "the Castle"?

ppatin said...

The castle is now the Metropolitan Transition Center, which is a minimum security facility for inmates who're approaching the end of their sentences. It's also where executions are carried out. They built the gas chamber there back when it was still the Maryland Penitentiary, and when they switched to lethal injection I guess they figured they'd keep the death chamber in the same building. Death row inmates are housed across the street at Supermax though.

ppatin said...

By the way, does anyone know what was up with all the commotion on President Street around 11 PM? It looked like the cops had the whole street blocked off.

buzoncrime said...

The MTC also houses prisoners who have very short sentences. Apparently, the transition part isn't working out to well: MTC has been the scene of two large scale disturbances in the last year. In one of those, the "Bloods" were fighting the "Muslims". Both riots were contained without any correctional officers being hurt. Something like 16-18 inmates were hurt in one incident. I guess they were preparing for transition back to the streets, so they needed to practice their street fighting.

The nonprofit I work part-time at stopped sending counselors to MTC after that. DOC couldn't seem to figure out if the program was worth it, and stopped the funding.
\
Poor Bmore! You gotta get out of that neighborhood, if you can, man. I don't think carrying a concealed handgun is gonna help much.
While there's a lot of talk on this board and others about "concealed carry", the risks in carrying are enormous--even if in the unlikely event you get to your gun in time. Remember: these street thugs have nothing to lose! A law-abiding citizen, even in outright self-defense, has everything to lose.
\
Generally, under Terry v. Ohio, you can only pat down a person's outer clothing for the sole purpose of ascertaining if the person is armed. In practice, the last, say, decade or so under "aggressive policing", officers have pushed that to the limit and over, going into people's pockets, and searching them under the flimsiest probable cause--way beyond Terry. Of course, any officer is going to pat you down if they think you might be a risk.

John Galt said...

A man was shot in the chest on the 1200 block, Augusta in SW around 9:00 p.m. tonight.

John Galt said...

Teachers being hospitalized by assault in school classrooms and City councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke is worried about this ??

No wonder Baltimore is the biggest joke in the Western Hemisphere.

ppatin said...

Since we're on the topic of prisons the National Geographic channel will be re-showing their episode of Megastructures about the North Branch Correctional Institute this Friday.

John Galt said...

One of the Franklin Square shooting vics has died.

Bmore said...

Wow..the 1st homocide in front of my house....and summer hasnt even started yet..yippee..i think im gonna rent all the Rambo movies and get into commando mode, wearing camoflage and army face paint...but i gotta keep the red bandana off! LOL

ppatin said...

I'm just being nitpicky about spelling here bmore, but it's "homicide," not "homocide." "Homocide" makes it sound like a gay person got shot :)

Bmore said...

your right...and the guy on friday got killed not "killt" because that would be one of those funny scotish garments

Cham said...

You are becomes 'you're' not 'your'.