Monday, July 7, 2008

July 7

Huh. Seems like the Sun has all the gory details today. If anyone has any non-Sun links, stick 'em in the comments, por favor.

After all the shootings over the weekend, you'd think we'd be out of ammo, but we've got bullets to spare!
  • 28-year-old Kenneth Baker was fatally shot while he was sitting in a car in the 2600 block of E. Preston St. early Sunday morning.
  • Two men were shot last night, one in the 3500 block of Reisterstown Rd. in the Northwestern, and one at Charles and North near the fancy schmancy Station North Arts District (and the not-so-fancy schmancy Club Choices).
  • And it's not just the city, folks. In AAC, two guys robbed an off-duty cop in Pasadena then fired a shot into his car.

The police shooting at a "rowdy" 4th of July party in the Southwestern happened when three guys in a car rolled by the cops and started shooting at them. The cops, apparently, had better aim than the guys in the car.
Also, police have released the names of the shooters. I'm sure the White family's got a few items between them on the JIS!

Looks like "Bob" was a suicide.

An inmate at the minimum-security Brockbridge Correctional Center in AAC was stabbed yesterday. He was taken to UMMC, was in stable condition, was uncooperative, and had not escaped from police custody. Yet.

This one just speaks for itself: "A woman, 18, was watching two men fight in the 1000 block of W. Baltimore St. about 1 a.m. Friday when someone stole her purse."

Also in the Blotter (above link), someone stole a pit bull puppy from a house on McElderry St. Since the dog was a rescue from the SPCA, there's a fair chance that it wasn't going to be fought, but now I'd bet that chances of a happy life for that puppy are pretty much shot to shit.

Holy shit! There's something else in the Blotter that I just saw. SOMEONE STOLE A GPS FROM A PARKED CAR!!! That's fucking crazy!

12 comments:

Maurice Bradbury said...

Hey Chuck et al, what do you think about a BCrime happy hour Thursday at the Club Charles? Then we can go across the street to Club Choices after a few.. bwahahahaha...
or is the Voo better?

Maurice Bradbury said...

I guess that should always be in quotes: "Happy" hour

taotechuck said...

Sounds good to me, and Club Charles sounds good too. What time?

Maurice Bradbury said...

can you do 6? We need to celebrate your many months of service! And perhaps the 'board of directors' can meet a bit earlier to discuss some potential site changes?

Maurice Bradbury said...

Re the 4th of July gun battle, I thought police weren't supposed to fire at the driver of a moving car? Maybe if said driver is driving and shooting they make an exception?

ppatin said...

"Maybe if said driver is driving and shooting they make an exception?"

Either that or they ignored the department's rules in the heat of the moment. If someone were shooting at me I wouldn't stop to ponder if shooting back in self-defense violated some use of force policy.

Maurice Bradbury said...

well, that's why there are policies. It might be someone's instinct to shoot back, but you don't want to kill the driver of a speeding car and have it plow into a crowd of people.

Stewie del Gato said...

Depends who the crowd of people are.

Sean said...

Yeah, the Whites have a bunch of charges against them indeed, I'm too lazy to confirm and post all of them, though. Raemond had a nolle prosse'd weed charge, and I think Haywood's dad had some charges, blah blah blah. Typical upstanding Baltimore family.

Oh, and they are/were really really stupid people.

ppatin said...

Hmm, I bet Buzoncrime could give us an accurate answer.

I don't think there's a blanket prohibition against shooting drivers though, because there have been a couple of incidents in the past few where car drivers who were trying to run down cops got themselves shot by the police. As far as I know no officers got in trouble for that.

gmd said...

Why doesn't the list of charges for the surviving Mr. White include murder under the age old felony-murder doctrine? Or does Pat have a more enlightened view on such issues than the rest of the country?

buzoncrime said...

The department teaches, in firearms training, not to shoot at moving cars. If you actually hit and disable the driver, you've eliminated the only person really in charge of operating the motor vehicle. So, as a general rule, it is not a safe or recommended practice to shoot at a moving car. Though, as PP points out, it is fairly often done.

Of course, with all rules and laws, there is almost never an absolutely never. In this case, the officers alleged that they were being fired upon by people in this car, all of whom could possibly be armed based one the totality of the situation. Now, if this were at Pratt and Light Streets, the prohibition would almost certainly be true, but in the area of Bush Street in this context and in the early morning hours, their use of deadly force will probably be upheld (already has?) by the Command Staff and Bealefeld.

That havaing been said, the news reports I read indicated that only one gun was found in the passenger area of the car.

Officers face 3 levels of discipline in their dutie:
```administrative: did they follow proper police rules.
```criminal: did they break the law.
and
```civil: did their actions amount to "torts", or violation of civil rights, or assault, or negligence.

Though some lawyer may want to try the third, civil, type of accountability here, the totality of the circumstances appear to favor the shooting officers--much as it would if they engaged in a car chase thru the city after this incident, while pursuing the vehicle.