Friday, March 5, 2010

Feats of Tenacity

Four are charged with attempted murder (and more, one hopes) after abducting a teenage girl at the Executive Inn, trying to extract ransom out of relatives, and torturing, shooting and stabbing her in a vacant house near Patterson Park on Sunday, then leaving her to die in a flooded basement. But she survived, escaped and named her attackers as Torrence Jerome White, 23, Adesha Richardson, 27, Keonay Hill, 20 and Morris James, 22.

A 23-year-old shot to death at Nicholas & Belair Rds.

Also, a 43-year-old man has died after being punched in the face. (Can't find a link to this story... but apparently fatal face punches are not as rare as one might think: in the past month there have been face-punching murder cases in Austrailia, Wisconsin [twice!], Idaho, and NZ)

A double shooting near the Velvet Rope club, site of a small riot last week; the club's manager says they can't be responsible for what happens after patrons leave.

The Kevin Clark case goes on and on... today it's being heard at the Court of Appeals.

The family John Yates, killed in a hit-and-run while riding his bicycle, is suing contractors Potts & Callahan for $5 m

If grain alcohol is the blackouteriffic secret ingredient in your jungle juice recipe, stock up now.

13 comments:

ppatin said...

Is Velvet Rope the same place as the old Redwood Trust nightclub that had two of its employees rather brutally murdered?

Anonymous said...

Yes. Wasn't one of the Ravens players also stabbed in the bathroom there?

Anonymous said...

Torrence Jerome White is a shining example of a Baltimore Citizen, check his record out on case search.

Also, punches resulting in death are rather common. See the "eggshell skull rule." You punch someone and they're face shatters you're liable. Lesson is - don't assault people.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Aaaaahhhhh now it's all coming together. I believe I had syrupy drinks and sushi there once probably 10 years ago. Had a lovely time. It's a beautiful space. Have to agree owners shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of people once they leave, but they should be shut down for a goodly amount of time for overbooking and not controlling their crowd.
One would think that the BPD would be able to command an Emergency hearing w/the liquor board instead of having to wait weeks for action.

ppatin said...

From what I recall, Redwood Trust was non-sleazy about eight years ago. There was some sort of change of ownership/management around the time those two guys were killed, and it was all downhill from there.

Speaking of sleazy nightclubs, any idea what Bourbon Street (new place where Hammerjacks used to be) is like?

ppatin said...

"Torrence Jerome White is a shining example of a Baltimore Citizen, check his record out on case search."

It is impressive. There's basically a constant stream of entries (including attempted first-degree murder!) from the time he turned 18 until 2004. Then he gets popped with a gun and I'm assuming goes away for five years, because there are no entries for that long. He re-appears in 2009 and immediately starts re-offending again. Some people just need to be put down like rabid dogs. Also, it appears that he is 25, not 23 as the Sun's article says.

Rondell said...

Any word yet on the Ludacious Smith case? Seem to me ain't nobody talkin' about that no good pimp no more in the news. But somebody need to ride his ass out of town on a rail if you ask Rondell. Mmmph!

History Punk said...

There should be a death penalty system by where if you are convicted of enough crimes, you become death penalty eligible after each additional offense.

ppatin said...

HistoryPunk:

I've said many times before that we should automatically execute who's convicted of three violent felonies. The best part is we wouldn't need any appeals because let's face it, while the judicial system makes mistakes anyone who's convicted of THREE violent crimes is clearly a dirtbag.

History Punk said...

ppatin, I'd expanded to non-violent crimes. Someone like Madoff ruins more lives than the average stick-up artist or mugger.

buzoncrime said...

These bars and clubs all say the same things when they draw police attention--not just here, but all over the country: we can't help what our patrons do. Well, that's true to some extent, but you can, by the type of patrons you desire to attract, and how you feed them booze, and what you charge, mitigate behavior. What club has a security company with pepper fogger mace machines ready to use on your own customers? Why would they?

It happens all the time: by the time a club realizes it's way in over its head in how it runs its business, it's usually too late to ask for help. The business plan is sort of: let's make as much money as we can as quick as we can, use lawyers and our security measures to stave off criticism--then get out while the gittin's good.
Now, I don't know if that's the case here, but it sure sounds like it.

There are plenty of bars and clubs where trouble is minimal, and some where there never seem to be incidents.
From other postings on other boards, this place seems to be trying to recreate the Club Belvedere ambience.
I thought the liquor board said it had to give the club 10 days notice for a hearing, but then added additional charges for not cooperating with inspectors. Shouldn't that be enough for an immediate suspension with a hearing the next business day? It just seems to reinforce the police charges.
Now it looks like the Downtown Partnership and nearby hotels are after them.
Bourbon Street has a similar ambience on their advertising: aimed at young people who want music. However, they are in a more isolated area, and recently won a big case against the liquor inspectors after one of their promoters put on a sleaze show unexpectedly. They fired the promoter and didn't pay 'em. They used to have sometimes over a dozen off-duty police there; haven't been down there a while at night, so don't know what they're doing.

John Galt said...

Look, there are always things you can do to make a place 'feel' more this way or that, but ultimately even if a club is somewhat overbooked, I expect disappointed patrons to GO HOME.

Maybe they want to boycott the place.

Maybe they tell their friends that it is overbooked and sucks.

But who the heck thinks you get to riot when you're unhappy? (Other than UMCP)

The crime problem in these cases is about the patrons: they're hoodlums.


That means they should probably have been arrested and incarcerated long ago for some other incident. So,... whatever they do (illegal) outside the club is just a good opportunity for the police to corrcet a prior ommission.

Book 'em, Dano.

ppatin said...

History Punk:

Chinese-style punishments for white collar crimes are certainly intriguing, although now it's time to get back to reality. This state can't even execute a monster who gunned down a federal witness & his sister almost 27 years ago. Epic punishment fail.