It's like Siberia!

The Balto Spectator aka Απολλώς Frank James MacArthur sent me a paper letter. Aren't those always so nice to get? I'd sent him a "sorry you're spending the holidays in jail" note before Xmas and a private Tweet during that last-day-of-November standoff, offering to secure his Waverly place at a moment when it sincerely sounded like the whole thing was going to go in the suicide-by-cop direction. His response was postmarked 12/27/12 and he admits ownership of the shotgun:

"I'm sure my 50-year-old shot gun in a closet put me right up there on Baltimore's dirty dozen most wanted criminals list. God forbid I might actually use it to defend myself in my own home. How very primitive and savage of me."

He goes on to say,

Speaking of primitive and so PoMo, he also hand-wrote a post he wants me to edit and post-- no thanks to that, but I'll put up a Tweeted phone picture because I am nice. Also, I believe that if you think "somebody ought to do something to help" that somebody is you -- maybe you, dear writer, should write him and offer him help.

     Now, walking around with a shotgun hunting down teen vandals, that might be rational. I'm sure the little reprobates in Waverly can piss a person the ef off. But him keeping a shotgun after his conviction? not rational or smart. Not double-checking to make sure your probation requirements have been met and your probation is over? Not rational or smart. If he really thinks cops are out to get him, then don't give them an excuse, duh. Not going directly to the police station with a lawyer to sort things out the nanosecond one hears one is the subject of a warrant is not rational. Yelling "and you call yourself a judge," to Judge Lynn Stewart -- it confirmed everyone's worst suspicions of an impulsive and uncontrolled demeanor. 

What happened to the Spectator is exactly what should happen to people with illegal weapons, they ought to be monitored by the state/Feds, and if they go off the radar and don't report for probation or surrender on a warrant they should be tracked town. Especially if they are also making violent public statements, wether they're making them at Harborplace or on Twitter.

so anyway,
if you would also like a paper correspondence with the Spectator his contact info is left. If you are really a friend of MacArthur (cough, Duane Davis, Tom Kiefaber, cough) then you'll try to help him use this experience positively instead of encouraging him to not take responsibility for himself and using him to further your own self-centered agenda. The next hearing for AFJMcA is Feb 8 FWIW.

ps. So looks like his purported attorney Jill P. Carter was at the bail hearing, but then why did she not make the plea for bail on his behalf in the courtroom and some nervous younger woman was doing it instead? Shrug.