Friday, August 22, 2008

Look Who's Blogging Now

The Sun has a new crime blog. Their blogger's previous experience is most apt-- covering the Middle East!
Fill in the blank: the main difference between the Middle East in Baltimore and the one where the ferners live is______

August 22

Two shootings last night, one of them killed a 28-year-old man.
The past week's 11 shootings mapped by Spotcrime.

The woman found strangled in Herring Run Park was id'd: "Kiuna Jackson, 19, of the 1300 block of Windemere Ave. in the Ednor Gardens-Lakeside community had no criminal record or associations with criminals."

"Snoop" was "arrested on minor drug charges yesterday after police picked her up for refusing to cooperate as a witness in a murder trial, records show." Her bail review will be at 11 a.m. today at Central Booking.

Issues with crime lab contamination "sure to arise in court"

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Docs: Fractured Hyoid Bad for Health

City health officials are holding an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the slayings of prostitutes as a public health issue.
Janis reports that 26 women linked to prostitution have been murdered since 1997. Only six of those cases have been closed by arrest. Since April, five prostitutes have been strangled to death.
The latest victim, still unidentified, was found in Herring Run Park six days ago.

Murder #141

Eric Brown, 20, shot last night.
The little darling who was the cameraman for the "Stop Snitching" video is off to the clink. But he had a bright future!

Brandon Grimes was connected to the gun used to kill Detective Troy Lamont Chesley by his ex-girlfriend. One quote I find particularly disgusting:

Authorities say it's unlikely that Grimes approached Chesley knowing he was a police officer. Carter, now Grimes' former girlfriend, echoed that sentiment.

"I'm not saying Brandon is a saint, but I can't see him taking an officer in uniform," Carter said.
So if its a cop, he wouldn't have (allegedly) shot him, but a normal peon is fair game. Outstanding - good to know there's some degree of honor.

In Baltimore, it's no longer safe to even walk outside of your house, as proven last night when a man was shot outside his front door.

Even more little dears hard at work, according to the blotter.
According to a Vanderbilt Professor, the key to insuring safe schools is understanding. Well done article overall with a couple of gems I'd like to include here:
Blacks, particularly boys, are too often assigned to special-education classes and left out of gifted classes, Ford said, because their teachers have low expectations for them and misinterpret their behavior. Low expectations can be manifested in several ways. Most obviously it is not pushing them into advanced placement classes, and more subtly it is dumbing down language that teachers use in the classroom.

"Remind yourself to talk up to children," she said, adding that use of complex vocabulary should be standard no matter how young the children or how poor their backgrounds.

She also said that African-American students do not revere teachers as Asian-American students do and that teachers must earn their respect.

"African-Americans have an attitude that says, 'When you respect me, I will respect you,'" Ford said. When teachers seem detached or uninterested in their students, black students see that as a sign of disrespect, she said. Students who don't feel the teacher likes or respects them are then more likely to talk back and be disruptive, leading to a classroom that can be more out of control.

I'll leave the rest for your imagination. Thoughts on it?

Don't miss...

Posted yesterday but worth a bump: the CP's article collection and search warrant affadavits from Monday's Tillman raid.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

That Jose Morales guy is a piece of work, even by Mobtown standards! On August 18 he was arrested in TX for trying to charter a plane for $180k worth of yayo.

August 20

"Edgar Koch, director of the Baltimore Police Department crime laboratory, was fired yesterday in part because of recently discovered contamination in the lab's DNA section."

Witness intimidation works!
"Witnesses Donta Robinson and Jamal Carter had once identified alleged cop killer Brandon Grimes as the man who carjacked them at gunpoint. But Monday both men drastically changed their stories.
'I ain’t never seen that person in my life,' Carter said."

Here's the Ink, with two murders previously unreported, including Michael Sewell, 29, and an unidentified man on Oakley Avenue.

A 1986 murder was solved by some good-old-fashioned dick work

Trial is underway for Kazeem Akinyoade Akinniyi, 26, accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend

"Agents from the FBI on Monday raided several offices connected to Milton Tillman Jr., the man with several criminal convictions who prosecutors say controls about 80 percent of Baltimore City’s bail bond market." Here's the CP article collection for the backstories as well as affadavits that list the searched premises.

Marc Mitchell, 18, and Tavon Hammond, 23, were arrested and charged in the attempted murder of another man in a shooting last week at the Northwood Shopping Plaza.

Harsh! "‘RAT’ carved in back of inmate who wore wire"

The city's got a lot of nasty sewage leaks, but don't tell the EPA

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Grimes Trial to Start Tomorrow

A jury has been seated in the murder trial of Brandon Grimes. Opening statements are scheduled for 9:15 a.m. tomorrow before Judge Timothy "the stupidity is astounding" Doory, 226 Mitchell Courthouse.

Just Asking

Bykowicz's article got us (and a lot of people) thinking: Is a regional jury pool feasible? Would it be Constitutional? (How about a national jury pool, while we're at it?)

August 19

Steven T. Hollis III, 18, of Randallstown and Juan L. Flythe, 17, of West Baltimore were "held without bail yesterday in the death of a Randallstown High School student who was stabbed and stomped to death after his fellow Bloods gang members found messages on his phone that suggested he was gay."

A 17-year-old was shot on the East side.

And another shot 17-year-old has died of his injuries.

Janis reports: How parking tickets go wrong

Like, duh: colleges say the drinking age is "not working"

Morning

A 17 year old was found shot in an East Baltimore home last night. Another one, who was shot on August 7th is now dead.

To other shootings occurred during robberies in Baltimore, lending credibility to my theory that the 'safest' place to be in Baltimore is in your home with heavy security.
Jean Marbella wonders about Jessamy's Frustration over the Abell report... that would make two of us.

Linden's Liquor is out of business. But where will I get my Alizé now?

A few leaders of local colleges signed a petition to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18, which could make lives for local Residential Advisors even more hellish

Monday, August 18, 2008

Things Looking Up for Alleged Cop-Killer

Accused cop-killer Brandon Grimes' prosecution "suffered a setback Monday when a judge ruled that jurors could not hear evidence linking the defendant to a carjacking days before the homicide." More from the deuce.

County police are ISO robber/attempted murderer Jonathan Duvon Lowe, 19.

Four words that are never good together: Baseball coach, kiddie porn.

Tune in

Julie is on the Ed Norris show right now talking about the jury study and Jessamy's reaction

August 18

"The medical examiner has ruled that a woman found Friday morning in a northeast Baltimore park was the victim of homicide -- the sixth woman to die of strangulation in the city this year." The special prostitution task force was on the scene, Janis reports.
Here's all six strangulations mapped by spotcrime.

Jessamy is "furious" at an Abell foundation study that found "jurors in nearby counties are 30 times more likely than their city counterparts to convict a defendant of the most serious charge."

Two robberies, two shot victims last night.

Three teenage boys shot
in the SW yesterday.

Another shooting, a cutting and a robber on a mo-ped in the Blotter.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Weekend, August 15-17 '08

No way! Yet another inmate mistakenly released last Tuesday-- though this time we didn't hear about it until he was recaptured "last night" (Friday if you go by the date on the story, Saturday if you go by when the story was published). Either way-- five or six days of someone armed and fuckacta enough to assault an officer wild on the streets, and the police don't think the public has a right to know about it? Anyone else find that just a little bit unsettling?!

Police fired shots at a suspect in the NE, but it's unclear if any bullets found human flesh.

Way to grow a pair, Baltimore city! Linden Liquors will be shut down for a year starting Monday under the recently de-loopholed nuisance law.

Judge Doory found a treatment slot for methadone mom Vernice Harris.
Speaking of methadone, the NYT says it's the "fastest growing cause of narcotic deaths" in the U.S., and MD has started giving the stuff to strung-out jailbirds in the hopes of keeping them off the horse.

Boxing coach helps kids funnel rage-- just like that guy on "The Wire"!

Turns out Clark Rockefeller's real name = Christian Gerhartsreiter

Steve Sachs needs someone to properly tailor those pants.