COINTELPRO GIP - BLACK HATE

After 44 years, Marshall "Eddie" Conway, now 67, has been released from prison* under the Unger ruling. Conway was on "Democracy Now" this morning (at the 10-minute mark). The Baltimore branch of the Black Panther Party was apparently actually founded by officers in the Baltimore Police Department at the order of the NSA/FBI as part of a counterintelligence program called the COINTELPRO Ghetto Informant Program (GIP) operation BLACK HATE, which sought to "neutralize" local political activists after the Baltimore Riots. GIP employed about 7,000 agents between 1968 and July 1973. Conway claims an unknown member of the BPD framed him for officer Donald Sager's murder and for wounding another officer; prosecutors claim that the detail of a stolen watch tied Conway to the case. In 2001 the Baltimore City Council passed a resolution urging then-gov Glendening to pardon Conway,* a notion police and prosecutors fought vigorously.

Monday night in Overlea a two-year-old in a van was struck by shrapnel after someone shot at the van.

City officer Alec Taylor was arrested on animal cruelty charges in MoCo after beating a 7-month-old puppy to death.

The man who died of a heart attack after an altercation with MTA officers was identified as Antonio Moreno, 67.*

Short-fingered vulgarian Sam Zell of Tribune Company fame is is #8 on Salon's list of the 1%'s most stunning narcissists for his money quote "The 1 percent work harder, the 1 percent are much bigger factors in all forms of our society."

County police are ISO alleged Towson Target robber Razino Brooks.

Roasting, cleaving, voluntarying

Where are all the city's illegal guns coming from? With only five officers on the gun task force and all them federal pro-gun laws it's all anybody's guess. Check out this 4-time gun convict's hand cannon, recovered at a house also operating a daycare.

A city detective, Shane Volk, was killed when he crashed his Jeep in Glen Arm.

Michael "Blizz" Singer

 The tattoo-faced murder accessory who looks 65, left, is a 35-year-old local rapper who goes by "Blizz.* His wife Shelbie is accused of stabbing to death one John Bowman, 22, in Arbutus.

Police think one 16-year-old is responsible for 25 burglaries in Canton.

Tragic: Sharon Mulcahy, the woman whose dogs roasted in a motel parking lot for 20 hours, died soon after she was released from Central Booking. The family alleges the jail failed to give her proper medical attention.

City Paper: Baltimore is "famous for crime, and yet, when it comes to arson, this is the best we can do?" Uhm, I think the city actually does pretty okay on that front.

Hey, that abortion-sign bill is still breathing,* and the Sun actually has me convinced it's a good idea. If Wisconsin can make doctors rape women with a probe and Texas and North Carolina can get thisclose to shutting down every family planning clinic in the state, the phony baloney clinics can suck up posting a piece of paper with facts on it.

Speaking of intrusions, a federal judge has allowed EFF's case against the NSA to go ahead (thanks Scan Baltimore). And good piece in the Economist about our newly revealed secret Supreme Court.

Media Blabber: the Tribune is cleaving off its newspaper biz from its TV-station biz, and is apparently not yet scrapping the idea of selling the publishing piece to a rogues' gallery of shoppers that include Charles and David Koch, a group of libertarian 'voluntaryists' and an alleged Chinese spy's ex-husband.

What price decency

No good deed dept: Antomar Jones convicted of killing his youth program mentor Corey Taylor whilst robbing him*

Henry Estrella-Cordova of Ecuador was arrested by ICE in Silver Spring for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl in the city two weeks ago.

Police canvassed the Forest Park area looking for leads in the murder of the mayor's cousin Joseph Haskins.

Police have released 911 tapes in the James Smith/Kendra Diggs barricade/murder situation/clusterfuck.

sup gurl.

I would rather hope not: officially no 4th trial for Policarpio Espinoza Perez.

OMG you guyz jail looks so fun! Just hanging out in front of the cells, fake-chatting on the phone. #livefromthecell, y'all.

Family of Sean Cannady approved to get $100,000 in their wrongful-death suit from the city. Officer Jemell Rayan shot three people in 18 months, and he's still working the streets. As a city officer.

Should Catholic Charities be running a city homeless shelter?

Civic-minded individuals protested the selling of the Sun to the Koch Bros.

Out in Parkville, some letter carrier was all like "fuckit."

Here's a head-scratcher: when it comes to the price per student of education, Baltimore city, at $15,400 per, is only second to New York, and MoCo is third. FWIW, Maryland spends $38, 383 a year for each prison inmate.

the officer who shot Cannady, Detective Jemell Rayam, was involved in three shootings in 18 months.

Read More at: http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/featured/stories/family-man-killed-undercover-cop-gets-100k-1229.shtml#.UZwhhxgqnLY

the officer who shot Cannady, Detective Jemell Rayam, was involved in three shootings in 18 months.

Read More at: http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/featured/stories/family-man-killed-undercover-cop-gets-100k-1229.shtml#.UZwhhxgqnLY

joder la policía

One guy is dead and two injured after a police-involved shooting last night in the 2700 block of Edmonson Ave.*

A man was shot to death at 8:22 this morning in the 2600 block of Loyola Southway.

A man was found dead of laceration wounds behind the North Avenue McDonald's on Trenton St. Saturday night. Yes, the McDonald's with the vittlevayor®.

An update on the shooting at Central Booking yesterday, a guy being held on loitering charges was shot trying to scale the fence (though police say he was not just loitering, but also opening unpurchased bags of chips)*.

A shooting on Marbourne Ave in South Baltimore.

Twenty-five Black Guerrilla Family members and 13 corrections officers were reportedly indicted in a racketeering conspiracy inside Central Booking. You'll recall that 24 members of the BGF were indicted in 2009 for smuggling cell phones, drugs and tobacco into prison with the help of corrupt guards.

Ronaldo Martin was apparently arrested for saying"fuck the police" and those bon mots alone. Page Croyder calls bullshit, and now that song is going to be stuck in my muthafuckin head all muthafuckin day. (Can't find the official video anywhere, but at least that one has Spanish subtitles. Can you believe that album is 25 years old? And still holds up.).

What the hell, Hampden? A guy pulled a gun on a woman after she accidentally bumped into him (she even said "excuse me"!) in the 3900 block of Falls Road.

Media blabber: how horrible are the Koch Bros.? Tribune employees now say Rupert Murdoch is looking pretty good. Related: job site careercast.com deemed newspaper reporter the worst job of 2013.

Happy surprise drug test day

Two shootings Saturday night.

Trial is scheduled to start today for Quinton Bass, the man accused of murdering Alex Ulrich in Mt. Vernon.

Whoa, man. Apparently 6,005 people were arrested on marijuana charges last year,* which is, incredibly, the lowest number since 2008. Of those, the majority had less than two teaspoons of pot, and 93 percent of arrestees were black.

by Fenton

Here's the full story on Friday's dirt bike and puppy seizures*

Harry Davis, 22, was convicted on 2nd-degree murder charges. "Davis approached four young men sitting on the porch of a home in the 500 block of East Lynn Avenue and asked if they wanted to join his gang. When they declined, Davis laughed at them and said, "I'm gonna rob ya'll." Several hours later, he returned, pulled out a shotgun, and started shooting at them. He struck two of the young men. Stray bullets also hit a woman who happened to be exiting a neighboring home with her husband at time. She suffered eight gunshot wounds and died from her injuries."

Deeply Creepy Music Teacher
Lawrence Joynes, 54

Remember that deeply creepy MoCo music teacher with child porn on his computer? Apparently some of the videos were actually made in his classroom, and parents are understandably freaking out wondering where the images of their children have wound up. Also, he had the name of one of his students tattooed on his shoulder.

Raven Rolando McClain was arrested for disorderly conduct in Alabama.

Ever since it burned down and was re-opened, the Towson CVP has been a hotbed of nefarious activity. There was that shooting last December, and then a guy was stabbed and two guys were arrested Saturday night/Sunday morning. UPDATE: stabbed guy was ID'd as Ryan Scholthauer, a former U of MD football player, and the fight was over some girl's honor.*

Colin Wolf, 19, was arrested for killing his two-year-old neice in HarfCo, and a 50-year-old man was murdered in Edgewood

Media blabber: sounds like the Koch Bros are pretty serious about buying the Tribune Co. (NYT link)

Never mind that the Feds already monitor everyone's email and millions of people's cell phone activity, yet no one noticed one of the Boston bombers posting YouTube videos re. jihad, or that ubiquitous cameras did catch the bombers-- the "national security" lobby is using the Boston tragedy to push for even more surveillance. 

Khakis were sullied

One Clifton Rodney Duncan Jr. caused a "disturbance" at the Rosedale K-Mart, then broke into a house, then barricaded himself at Winner Distributing and was taken into custody at about 7 p.m.

Rodney Pridget,
photo Tweeted by Fenton

More than two years after Rodney Pridget was murdered outside of Towson Town Center in what evidence indicates was a Black Guerrilla Family-ordered hit, the accused triggerman and final, youngest defendant, Tyrone Brown, was found guilty.

A water bottle was hurled, khakis were sullied, major defense lawyer Ivan Bates was retained and now Bernstein's Major Investigations Unit is now poring through the nuances of the case of two financial analysts and a venture capitalist who got into a Harbor East slugfest.*

@justin_fenton have you heard anything about the ridiculous amount of car break ins that have been happening by Riverside Park in S. Bmore?
— Steve Beck (@stevembeck) March 12, 2013

Sweet, sweet romance: John Leopold's girlfriend Jane Miller-- not to be confused with the girlfriend who subjected him to oral sodomy in the bowling alley parking lot, or the gimlet-eyed reporter-- testified at his sentencing down in AAC yesterday that Leopold is "remorseful and contrite" and that he referred to his taxpayer-funded pee-bag-dumping employee as "Dr. Patti."

Erin Thorne

More dirty from AAC: a 28-year-old teacher Erin Nicole Thorne is facing serious trouble following allegations from an 18-year-old student that she sent him sexts, texts and "obscene matter" and "engaged in sexual activity" with him after he turned 18 but while he was still a student at Broadneck High.

Nicholas Vargas, 24, of the Windsor Mill area drove up to Pottsville, PA, punched a man in the face at the Coney Island restaurant.

Ten years is a long time to go away for "criminal threats," no?

Damn, Dundalk, $1.5 million worth of counterfeit goods at the flea market*? (But is that the goods' actual value, or what it would have been if the goods were really the brand they were supposed to be?)

So the nefarious Koch brothers reportedly aspire to buy the Tribune-- the newspaper group or the whole sorry mess. But only if baby-eating dingo Rupert Murdoch or cracker-faced capitalist Lee Mitchell lose their bids.

Finally, have a sobering .gif in which you can watch Baltimore's middle-class neighborhoods disappear. 

Don't date, don't drive, and never, ever buy tickets

Monte Carter

Another online-dating murder?! Jennifer Conyers, 32, was murdered and her house set on fire allegedly by a guy she met online.* She was murdered Friday and Monte Delano Carter, 38, was arrested Saturday, driving her car and with blood *still* on his pants and shoes. FWIW he (allegedly) used her ATM card to get cash and buy stuff he traded for heroin. How about instead of doing a background check on someone before dating them, just never dating anyone ever.

Inside: Delightful Chinese New Year party. Outside: Stabbing on Charles Street. Metro Gallery hemmed by crime scene tape. #Baltimore
— Julie Bykowicz (@bykowicz) February 10, 2013

Also on Friday, a shooting on Homestead St.


Really, Daily Record?! "Capital Punishment Already Dead in Maryland" ... just because a crass headline comes over the wire it doesn't mean you have to publish it, geeze

"Just give us the cash, yo." Nice-guy Medfield robbers let a victim keep his wallet, reports the Patch.

Haha, winning. The Sun obtains the Mayor's office's bitchy emails about speed camera coverage.* Also, Larry Young of WOLB apparently helped provide the Mayor's office with "talking points." Shady.

Carl Stokes wants to vacate the never-enforced law that bars high event-ticket surcharges.

Not Baltimore, but worth a mention: MSN claims that Christopher Dorner, a guy allegedly stalking and targeting members of the LAPD, is the "first drone target on U.S. soil." Not true, that honor goes to one Rodney Brossart of North Dakota. Also unless the drone is equipped with Hellfire missiles, not sure how it is any different than using a helicopter.

Meet the two old white guys who will be head of the Tribune Co. .. apparently the CEO sees the news audience as old and male, so which came first? Does the news reflect old male perspectives because old males are the primary consumer, or are old males the primary consumer because the news is from an old male perspective?

217

Fenton reports 2012 ended with 217 murders,* Fenton Tweets that a 24-year-old victim shot on Sunday on Bryant Ave died at 11:46 yesterday night.

Adorbz: after officiating the crabtown countdown, SRB made haste to the courthouse to perform the state's first same-sex wedding, that of a couple of sexagenarian dudes, followed by five more weddings (some quinquagenarian lesbians, some cute guys in pink shirts who, reported some station, drove up from South Carolina). Mazel tov!

A man named Sir Keith English Queen Jones was shot to death in Glen Burnie, and his killer is still on the loose.

It's all over but the kvetching for the Hal Katz insurance agency.

Woefully mismanaged Baltimore Behavioral Health has filed for bankruptcy.*

Whawhawha? Short-fingered vulgarian Sam Zell = out of the news biz and the Tribune Co.= out of bankruptcy! Luke and the Justins have now become the chattel of a passel of hedge fund managers, the most prominent of which is Oaktree Capital Management (here's their CEO's apt. at 740 Park... one of his secondary residences). Rumor has it the bankers are more about focusing on the TV business and intend to sell of the Tribune's assets, bit by bit. The Sun is also dropping the AP's stories in favor of Reuters', so no more Ben Nuckols, except via the WaPo I guess. Bew! 

Scary times

WTF?! Fox files a FOIA request to try to uncover the shady development deals behind the $1.5 billion-dollar State Center project involving hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, but developers refuse the request saying they can't afford to make copies of documents. And now, says Fox, the state itself is suing plaintiffs who are suing for violations of procurement law-- a SLAPP suit, in other words. Nutrageous! A judge is going to stop the insanity and demand transparency any minute now, right? More on the State Center project here.

A man was stabbed at 100 E. Redwood Street early this morning

A city police officer is in Shock Trauma after being dragged two blocks by a pickup truck

Here's a shocking factoid: at present the government-- FBI, DEA, and presumably state and local police as well-- can attach a GPS device on your car and track your movements without a warrant. Particularly disturbing considering the very recent history of state police spying on anti-Iraq-war demonstrators.

In media news, Sam Zell, the Sun's gnomish overlord, was potentially awarded large shovels-full of money by a bankruptcy judge. And the Daily Record has laid off three people, citing costs.

Ps. don't forget to vote today, if you haven't already...!

The unbearable whiteness of being

The CP's Van Smith interviews the new white guy, details his fondness for Elvis Costello & 'Mad Men' & asks, "What kind of challenges does you being a white guy present?"

A dispute between tenants led to a barricade situation in West Baltimore, which ended peacefully with the arrest of a suspect.

Source tells WBAL that fire on The Block was arson

"A tearful Benjamin L. “Bennie” King Jr. apologized to his family and former employer Legal Aid before being sentenced to 30 months in prison Tuesday for embezzling more than $1 million from the organization over a decade."

Last week's four murders in the Ink: Dante Sweeney, David Carter, Travis Baltimore (reported as Travis Alexander by WBAL) and "an unidentified Caucasian woman." ... (srsly, the CP just way too obsessed with race ... ok, it's an important detail, but is it so important that must be reported in the first sentence in every single case?)

Creditors to Tribune Co. executives: bitch better have my money