Thursday, May 6, 2010

Homicide in South Baltimore, triple shooting

A man was beaten to death in South Baltimore, triple shooting in Southwest.

More on the salon shooting from Peter hermann.
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9 comments:

Dopple said...

I attended a safety community meeting at Northeast Police Dept. this week. The community liaison said NE is the largest district and there are only 5 units on patrol at a time. I asked if they needed more police, she said they were “fully manned.” I said, "do you need more positions then?" she said "no, we're fully manned" as if she didn't grasp the concept of the need for more police.

The Reality is that NE has grown in population by almost 10% and Hopkins is forcing more and more people to migrate North as they gobble up land in the East. The number of police assigned to the district should increase commensurate with population, geography, and crime rates. I doubt 5 units on patrol can be expected to prevent crime and keep NE from turning into a very dangerous place.

Thu May 06, 12:43:00 PM EDT
buzoncrime said...

Dopple---yes, Northeastern District is the largest, geographically in the city, and one of the largest, if not the largest in population.

There are certainly more units than 5 assigned to patrol that huge district at one time. She probably meant to say there are 5 in each sector (of which there are three), or there were 5 in a specific area. They are, indeed, "fully staffed" based on their assigned number of 160 officers (the same as every other police district). And she's not going to say the district needs more police, even if she thought so, hence the obfuscating "we're fully manned". Of course they are--with an arbitrary number of officers--and ain't no more coming.

The police district, sector and post boundaries have not been changed for many years, mostly because of the idea of uniformed patrol has fallen out of favor in police "idea" circles. For many years it was widely understood that uniformed patrol officers made the vast, overwhelming majority of arrests for crimes of all types. But the very concept has fallen intellectually out of fashion, instead the department favors assigning hundreds of officers to go get 'em squads, like the Violent Crime impact Division and other plain clothes units.
Um, don't we all want a war on drugs? Or a war on murders, and shootings?
The idea is that those "flying squads" are what have caused the tremendous crime drop in Baltimore.

Unfortunately, uniformed patrol officers, who we all depend on for our safety (unless we're into organized crime), are seen by some as a "tolerated" necessity for those pesky citizens who think they want/need them. The "honored" police are the tough, young guys conducting the war on our behalf. (Of course, Buz appreciates their efforts to rid his neighborhood of druggies, since they are a nuisance and lower property values). But I still love our uniformed cops!

Thu May 06, 01:08:00 PM EDT
Dopple said...

Thanks for that clarification, Buzz. That makes much more sense. She did put a lot of emphasis on flex squad, organized crime squad and detectives. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of parochialism and passing the buck. Such as "Oh, that problem is coming from Northern District, you need to contact their department." She made it seem like the district borders are like international borders that cannot be crossed, except by criminals.

Thu May 06, 01:43:00 PM EDT
buzoncrime said...

Heh, heh. Well, in her defense, units from one district very rarely leave the boundaries of their district to work on problems in another.

But it's the same issue with city criminals crossing into adjacent counties--and vice versa. With limited resources, it's a bit easier to say it's their problem.

A little cooperation goes a long way.

Thu May 06, 02:25:00 PM EDT
buzoncrime said...

Heh, heh. Well, in her defense, units from one district very rarely leave the boundaries of their district to work on problems in another.

But it's the same issue with city criminals crossing into adjacent counties--and vice versa. With limited resources, it's a bit easier to say it's their problem.

A little cooperation goes a long way.

Thu May 06, 02:25:00 PM EDT
Cham said...

There were 6 police officers over at the harbor amphitheater yesterday leaning on their bicycles and doing their usual racial profiling and harassing of the young black boys who were enjoying the sunshine there yesterday. Perhaps these bored officers might wish to spend some time in a district that actually has some crime.

Thu May 06, 03:13:00 PM EDT
Unknown said...

The area around harbor amphitheater has become a very dangerous place. The officers would not have been there unless crime trends justified it. GuardianSelfDefense

Sat May 08, 10:25:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...

We can always count on Cham protecting her BBC.

Sat May 08, 10:31:00 PM EDT
Anonymous said...

You know, if you look at the numbers, everything seems "better" but Baltimore remains always what it was: not really that bad. It seems that whenever the heroin and cocaine purities are high, everything is going well, everyone is making money, and things are moving along -- dare I say "business as usual." But when the wholesale prices skyrocket and the purities levels are low people start killing each other for drug-related reasons and once again our fair city is stuck with a 290+, 300+, 350+ murder rate.

While I'm not saying that police should avoid drug investigations nor am I saying they shouldn't be sweeping the hoppers off the corners, it seems that's all part of the game and the ebb and flow of our city's numbers isn't just because of increases or decreases in crime fighting tactics or police presence on the streets. Point being, police can raise those numbers just as easily as criminals can.

Bottom line, I think we have a nice balance at the moment and improvements should be made with great caution.

Sun May 09, 03:51:00 PM EDT

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