must have bagpipes

This situation. This negotiator. A tale told in Tweets. Lots and lots of Tweets. Here are some:

10hBaltimore Spectator ‏@BaltoSpectator

the polive have found me 

its about to be over ... I could die tonight. Thanks for tuning in ...My final thoughts for now will come in several parts. It's directed squarely at my fake, white, liberal friends. Particularly the gays... To the same people who've jumped up and down for the longest time crying about "dignity, fairness & equality," I knew you were full of it. ..If those things were truly such a concern. Why is it when it comes to others, ur all silent? Cuz ur selfish and fake. Nothing more to it. ... remember my funeral wishes ...

I stated them clearly in the show other night. must have bagpipes ... I am not afraid, but my family deserves better... my daughter deserves better. baltimore deserves betteer ...remember to tell my daughter I love her ... my story has been laid out there. now you will see how it ends. thanks for ignoringme baltimore sun. good job fenton ... proof, u need proof, why so many cops staged outside my position???? that proof enough???

Gus G. Sentementes ‏@GusSent

BPD swat probably responds to several barricade situations every day. Very common, most end calmly. Only difference tonight: it was a show.

Gym Carrey ‏@_HustleMarsalis

This dude is having a tweet-up with Baltimore City Police.

Damon Dorsey ‏@damedorse

I don't know enough about @baltospectator situation to really speak on it BUT I will say he is effectively using social media right now!

W. E. B. Deepthroat ‏@FeministaJones

This entire thing was about him getting attention and having people hear his complaints. It worked.

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

"This is a ratings bonanza," he says. "It's 10:57. Let's wrap this up for the networks." Sigh.

rolandsmartin ‏@rolandsmartin

Hey @jillpcarter. your client James MacArthur @BaltoSpectator is about to get arrested by Baltimore PD. So go to the police station

Justin George ‏@justingeorge

Do not have vantage point of spectator's door. Officer confirms he's in custody peacefully. #BaltoSpectator

5hMichael A. Wood Jr. ‏@MichaelAWoodJr

@BaltoSpectator The Sergeant out there has reached out to me. You have no excuse. He's a good man of God.

Sterling ‏@sterliwirl926

@MichaelAWoodJr thanks! Great team effort.

And a Twitpic.

... still not clear on what was it is he was wanted for. Failure to appear from 2009 "and another for subsequent failure to appear in court, according to court records, and the situation was ratcheted up after police said MacArthur made threatening statements to officers over social media." says Fenton, but which statements (and which gays? ... and no, he wasn't on the 11 o'clock news.

Update: a concise summation from Ed Ericsson ("police were taking MacArthur #serious"), also helpfuly cites a 2010 Fenton story that splains MacArthur's orginial charges and why you can't find em on the JIS (it's under 'Frank McArther').

Another shooting at Morgan

... a suspect is in custody

Think of the children!

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Nelson Ave shooting of woman: was waiting for her sister outside club. Motive unclear; has record. Targeted or carjacking are poss motives

Justin Fenton ‏@justin_fenton

Northwest now up. [at COMSAT meeting] Say homicide on Boarman Ave has been closed with arrest (news to me). Homicide says its believed to be drug related

Last night's public COMSAT meeting is also available online, but it's two hours long, so maybe just read the Fenton story.*

A murder conviction for a guy who wrote a jailhouse apology letter to the family of victim

Two guys from Parkville got into a knife fight at Market & Lombard @ 2 a.m. this morning* causing a melee

A guilty plea from real-estate fraudster Alexander Sivels II, involved in Patterson-Park area "liar loans" with a company called Royal Real Estate

poor kid.

This just in: the westbound Cold Spring Lane speed camera is also a bunch of crap. If the city's going to be picking people's pockets can't they at least build a footbridge or even just a decent crosswalk for those poor Poly kids who have to cross that road? The citystate has made exploiting people's concern for kids into a fine art-- a state-sanctioned version of that gypsy scam where a woman throws a baby at you while her accomplice picks your pocket. But speed cameras/gambling/credit cards for education administrators are for the children! Won't somebody please think of the children?!

SA Gregg Bernstein dropped by Westport, told residents to keep calling police and that he's developing some kind of nuevo holistic drug thingy involving gardening or something.

And BatchGeo has your happy-pinwheel Pigtown crime map

In Towson, groping burglar Ricky Bostic has been charged with additional skeeves/thefts*

Brave patriot Bradley Manning testified yesterday, described forced nudity and a "shark-tank environment" at Quanitico. In violation of military law, guy has been held without trial for 921 days.

HBD Northwest Citizens Patrol,* which I guess is like Shomrim but goys can join?

Ding dong! Same-sex weddings can happen starting at midnight on Jan. 1

.. is that legal? Person claiming s/he got an STD from a MICA student plasters posters around town

The Truce on Drugs

Still pondering "The Truce on Drugs" -- could it be that murders are creeping up again because Batts isn't vigorously applying Bealefeld's strategy? And/but to what extent was that strategy applied to begin with? A cursory perusal of "inputs" at Central Booking still shows that CDS (Controlled Dangerous Substance, aka drug) arrests still shows made up a good 1/3-1/2 of the top charges-- if that's deprioritizing, holy shit. The OpenBaltimore data also shows 48,870 arrests for 2011, vs. the 65,000 the article asserts ... but even if there were an extra 16,000 undocumented arrests and none were CDS, that's still 25,813 arrests between Jan of 2011 and August of 2012 where drugs were the "top arrest charge." Still, shootings do appear to be way down, and that's something: 381 last year, vs 725 in 2000.

Good gracious, mere days after Andre Littlejohn was arrested for viciously abusing his two-month-old daughter, 20-year-old Dion Kearrie Ware is being charged with murdering his one-month-old son, Kearrie Dion Ware on Monday. (The Sun says he was 7 weeks, but still*) WTF, people? Babies just lie there, if they're annoying you can just go to another room! BTW if you're feeling overwhelmed as a parent, even if you don't feel like you're about to lay a smack down, I can't recommend enough calling 1-800-4-A-CHILD. It's 24/7, completely anonymous, staffed by really sweet trained social workers. And if a baby is crying there is absolutely nothing wrong with putting the baby in a crib and going outside for a minute.

Sad: the murder trial of James Cureton/Careton, accused of killing Tanise Ervin in 2011, was postponed -- both sides were prepared, family members and Mary Pat Clarke were in the house, but a judge could not be found. Also, there's a Judge Carrion in the city.

Also, Thomas Lee Meighan Jr., who got 13 years* for the hit-and-run vehicular homicide of 20-year-old Hopkins student Miriam Frankl, is trying to get some "post-conviction relief." In addition to the Frankl case he had nine previous DUI convictions and also pleaded guilty to another hit-and-run (!!) and got a suspended sentence for that (!!!). You may recall that in the Frankl case* a half-dozen people called 911* to report his wild, drunken ride from Highlandtown to Charles Village the city to Bel Air (with a break to pee on Patterson Park), but police ignored all of the calls.

A former city police officer/former RN was arrested for the shooting in Parkton that was called, at first, a "hunting accident"-- the shooter, Richard Heymann, says he intended to fire a warning shot but accidentally plugged the guy in the thigh.

A woman was stabbed in Owings Mills

Ew, in Edgewood a 27-year-old former employee of the city schools is charged with raping and impregnating a 15-year-old who he was supposed to be giving "therapy" to.

Former Orioles third-baseman Doug DeCinces has been charged with insider trading: 42 counts of securities fraud and one count of money laundering

Thirty years for a guy who robbed and murdered his quinquagenarian drug dealer

Missing teen Tyler Grimes was found

A man in Barclay was robbed while unloading groceries (reported as if that doesn't happen, like, every other day)

The Towson murder of Alsawab Sawab, 27, was reportedly "not random"

School crimes kept in-house

A former city school cop says crimes are kept off the books inside city schools.  Principals are doing all the dirty work.

'this scar was invisible because it was on his soul'

Must read: NYMag on "The Truce on Drugs: what happens now that the war has failed?" ... Which uses Baltimore as the prime example of said failure/truce, and details FHBIII's relatively radical shift away from drugs towards guns. Holy crap, in 2005 in our city 108,000 people were arrested-- one sixth of the entire population arrested in a single year. Now only 1/10th of the population is arrested every year!

The Ink recounts last week's six murders

Really? a UC Berkeley study claims Baltimore is the country's 17th most "under-policed" cities,* and Fenton sez puts the cost of crime at $3,400 per citizen (don't see where that figure is in the study and dunno how they came up with it, but here's a link to the study if you want to try to figure it out).

A woman was shot in the leg in a drive-by shooting near Langston Hughes Elementary*

An Owings Mills woman claims she got a beatdown from four men during a "road rage incident" on Thanksgiving

In Cumberland, Jerod Pridget, a 20-year-old prisoner from Baltimore was beaten nearly to death in his cell*

A drug courier from Czechoslovakia, Dmytro Holovko, is one of the latest defendants v horké vodě from the Brown organization,* which you may recall is a violent pot-smuggling group with ties to Jamaica and Mexico, implicated in the grisly murder and dismemberment of alleged cash courier Michael Knight of Woodlawn.

Van Smith profiles William Bond, nee William Crockett Rovtar, a guy who killed his dad with a hammer in Ohio as a teen and now is crusading against perceived corruption in the local judiciary.

Today in Kevin Clash news: Gawker re-enacts the scandal with Spiderman and the Derpy Doo "My Little Pony" ("the bad things he did with Elmo scarred him, like when you skin your knee on the sidewalk, only this scar was invisible because it was on his soul"), the ravenous bottom-feeders at TMZ tell us Clash's nom de boudoir was "Mr. Tickler" (plus a whole lot more, which I shall now repress, lalalala) and New York magazine reports on Sesame Street's ace crisis-PR team, which includes the former CEO of Newsweek and a flak from the H. W. Bush White House. ... but srsly, what should the penalty be for a 40- or 50-something who engages in frottage with a 16-year-old? It's not right and it's not okay, but it's also not like molesting a 10-year-old either, exactly. ... FWIW, the age of consent in NY is 17.

y dis staberris a making my tung numb?

Awful: sperm donor Andre Littlejohn has been charged with abusing his two-week-old daughter, who had bleeding, burned genitals and rib fractures, but is fortunately still alive. At the tender age of 23, Littlejohn already has three teardrop tattoos.

Fenton digs into a massive drug conspiracy* that involves/d millions of dollars, heaps of watches, garages full of cars, ties to Milton Tillman Jr., cocaine-stuft strawberries and about $8 million for the Feds.

Stranded on death row: O'Malley is reportedly planning to try again next year to abolish the death penalty in MD. While the majority of the U.S. still supports it, says Gallup, that support is at its lowest point since the 60's.

Another robbery/shooting in Justin George reports that the vicinity of Greenmount Avenue has had eight shootings in the past month,* including two murdered 16-year-olds. (Though note he's including as far south as the vicinity of the 1000 block of Greenmount, which is way down by Eager St., and also including as far north as 27th and Boone, a mile and a half away-- so that's not particularly surprising/unusual.)

Who's terrorizing the Quakers? Friends School today had its fourth bomb scare of the year.

Another carjacking on York Road near Homeland, this is the third one in that area since July. Lock ya doors!

Victim's advocates hope that the Merzbacher case will lead to stricter mandatory suspected-abuse reporting requirements.* Apparently there are reporting requirements, but there's no penalty for anyone who doesn't follow them. ... of all the lame excuses: "[Archdiocesan] spokesman Sean Caine said the church didn't realize it was obligated to report the allegations when it first learned of them."

The BPD is opening a COMSAT meeting to the public, the first one is this Thursday at 7 p.m. at 3500 W. Northern Parkway.

The Patch's "Rouge's Gallery" includes three male teens arrested for jumping a boy for his Chicago Bulls hat and two guys arrested for robbing people they'd just sold pot to.

Another Thanksgiving stabbing, just hard about this one: in HarfCo a brawl between two guys with the last name of Carter; one Carter stabbed the other Carter in the face, then dropped his pants and said "You want to know how it feels to be raped?"(Jezuz, not on top of the turkey!) then threatened witnesses with a handgun when they tried to call for help.

Tyler Grimes

Police and family are ISO 15-year-old Tyler Grimes of Milford Mill, if you see him call county police.

A shooting today in Parkton, though police say it might be a hunting accident.

Furry TV Creatures

So a third Kevin Clash accuser has surfaced, and this one's writing a book (and holding a press conference and also filing a lawsuit for to get some amount of cash). Why didn't any of these guys go to the police? ... Apparently while NY has no statute of limitations on prosecuting first-degree child sex assault involving victims under 16, there is a five-year SOL for second-degree a/o non-forcible abuse that starts when the victim turns 18. Clash's latest accuser is 29, accuser #2, Cecil Singleton, is now 24 (and claims he and Clash "dry humped" but didn't swap fluids 'til Singleton turned 18). The first accuser, Sheldon Stephens, is now 24 (and apparently available for totally pointless interviews).

Did you ever wonder why, when you called Katz Insurance, they didn't check your credit? Because Hal Katz was (allegedly) pocketing your cash! Katz Insurance has lost his license to insure in MD after the Insurance Administration uncovered some sketchy dealings, including $795k in missing money. And now his creditors are suing. RIP, Katz Insurance ads ... don't let the door hitcha where the good lord splitcha. 

And over in the Chillage, Steven Gewirtz is keeping tabs on trials forthcoming.

'a problem with the elastic in her underwear'

Aw geeze, in my absence we got up to 202* murders, which Cham has helpfully documented on her page. We've now surpassed 2011's total of 197, 2010 was 223 homicides; 2008 was 234; 2007 was 291; 2006 was 274; 2005 was 269.

Justin Fenton

Homicide clearance rate as of today: 32% for cases this year, 46% FBI UCR rate (this yr cases plus prior cases that were closed this yr)

Cherrie Gammon

A federal conviction for murder and racketeering for Tyrone "Roland" Johniken, aka Hassan Muhammad, involved in a heroin ring based out of "The Block" and involved in the murder of (alleged informant, mom dancer and addict) Cherrie Gammon. The DOJ's PR also reveals that the third conspirator in Gammon's murder, "Miami," was one Gary Cromartie, the Sun's story reveals that Gammon was also involved in a relationship with an unnamed city officer.* ("According to documents in the case, the officer Gammon had a relationship with was later involved in a raid on a building that was used by the crew and Johniken's residence. But whether Gammon was cooperating with police remains unclear.")

Down at police HQ, an officer accidentally shot himself during roll call

Friends School on Charles St. enjoyed its third bomb threat of the school year.

Robberies/assaults in Fell's Point include a woman choked unconscious, a guy stabbed in the stomach and robbed after leaving a nightclub (El Oasis?), and a victim assaulted by a group of people after calling out a shoplifter at the Family Dollar. Anecdotally it seems like there are not just more robberies lately and they're becoming more brazen and violent, probably best to not leave the house until sometime after Christmas.

A dad is in caliente agua, charged with kidnapping after stuffing a kid who was bullying his son into his car.* So many Baltimoreans, so few conflict-resolution skills...

Merzbacher

Still waiting on a decision in the Merzbacher case from Richmond; the former Catholic-school teacher/gun-toting child rapist is appealing his conviction claiming he was not informed of a plea deal by his counsel. Judge Prevas, rest his soul, threw out a prior appeal after finding that Merzbacher's now-dead convicted-felon lawyer was not a credible witness. In the meantime Tricia Bishop's got more horrid Merzbacher/Catholic School tales to tell,* including a recounting of court documents that prove that the church knew of the claims at least as early as 1974, plainly contradicting Archbishop Lori's ridiculous assertion last month that church officials didn't know a thing about the allegations until 1988. Liar, liar, vestments on fire. (Baltimoreorless has a collection of non-paywall "Merz" stories if you want to read more.)(... and people wonder why I refuse to give to Catholic Charities, gahh!)

Retired police chief FHBIII will be teaching at Stevenson University's* newish Criminal Justice program

A man was shot to death in Towson

In Annapolis at Thanksgiving a woman stabbed her half-brother in the neck with a serving fork, and in AAC a woman stabbed her boyfriend while he was trying to leave her crazy ass.

Media blabber: whilst driving down south I was fascinated to learn that central Virginia has not one but two weekly newspapers, $1 each, that publish almost nothing but mug shots-- Gotcha! and Crime Times. A convenience-store clerk told me Gotcha! sells more, possibly because the back of the paper also includes a list of all of the restaurants that have health code violations. It's a bit unsettling that it's comprised of pictures of people who have been arrested but not indicted or convicted of anything, mistakes do happen and some of the arrests are as petty as "allowing dog to run at will." But wonder if Baltimore could support such a newspaper? @40,000 arrests a year, that's a lotta trees. (Baltimore does have a page of health-code-violation closures, but it appears to be out of date.)