Black 48

edited video capture
of uncredited Tribune photo

Apparently while they were out of jail the OG BGF and Young BGFs held their meetings at Mund Park at E. 24th and Greenmount, where Batts and StephRB press conferenced yesterday.*

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DJ Boys?

Batts' testimony last night hints at possible explanations for our recent wave of violence: "In that small block of Kenwood, we have the Bloods gang that has one block. On the other block, we have Black Guerrilla Family on the next block. Then we have another crew that has been coming in called the DJ Boys, who have started to come in." Really? Somebody named their gang that? Also "police said two to three of the shootings appear to be connected" and "the random stuff that takes place because you step on my toes or because you look at me wrong – that was some of the things that were taking place this weekend also."

UPDATE: Fenton reports DJ Boys = Jefferson and Decker, and notes the parallels (and connections) to the 2008-2009 bloody Blackwell feud.* Steven Blackwell is currently serving 20 years in federal prison for money laundering, but apparently still has minions. And Carl Stokes blames the bloodshed on corrupt police officers.

Speaking of corruption, Gary Maynard is appearing on a panel before legislators to help them figure out how to spend more money on prisons.*

Meanwhile the violence continues, with 32 people shot since Friday, three people shot (two killed) early this morning* on North Avenue and Poplar Grove Rd. and a man shot in the arm on Cherry Blossom Way last night.

Well, there's something new, a 17-year-old from St. Michael's, Matthew Mikowski, was indicted for strangling his peer while tripping on LSD.* (TIL a "bad trip" on LSD comes from the dose being tainted with an adulterant like a research chemical or PCP. Also, while lots of people have stuck babies in ovens, none of those people were hippie babysitters on acid.)

I always feel like somebody's watching me...

Flaming drone near Salisbury, from CNN

Quality op/ed in today's NYT regarding "The End of Privacy," which ended sometime between 2001 and 2007 when the guvmint began collecting everyone's emails and watching us from the air.  $176 million for a drone-- imagine how many schools that could get up to code, or swimming pools and rec centers those dollars could fund, sheesh.

And, yet, the one instance where the violation of someone's privacy could seriously protect citizens' life and limbs from psycho killers, and also potentially exonerate people -- by which I mean the DNA swabbing of suspects-- the MD court won't allow that. Gives one no doubts about whose interests are really being served by MD's courts, no?

In other news of Baltimore denizens getting boned by The Man, go get those big banks, George Nilson.

Prison Rape is No Joke

An ex-con shareholder in the country's biggest prison company has better insights than anyone on the board about the company's business practices, and he's introducing a resolution to hold the corporation accountable for prison rape and sex abuse. This is a great idea if you want to make a difference-- buying a little stock in a rotten company and proceeding to pester them. Nuns have used this technique effectively, though, of course, Alex Friedmann is no nun...

(New link to add to the sidebar: Prison Legal News)

but what about the clown cannons*?

Hot trend in conservative criminal justice circles: rehabilitation (!!)
It's not just for California and Newt Gingrich anymore!
Crazy stat: "If our nation were to return to the rates of incarceration we had in the 1970s, we would have to release 4 out of 5 people behind bars."


*a reference to one of my favorite blog comments of all time: "if you all vote for me as mayor, I'll transform some buidling to a local Gitmo where multiple felons will be locked up without trial until I['m] stripped of power or I find a clown cannon from which to launch them into the Inner Harbor."

Unsubtle

Study: lighter-skinned women get shorter prison sentences (in North Carolina anyway)

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Baltimore PoliceDept HOMICIDE: 125 S Highland Ave Adult Male shot Police investigating

Madison St. prison complex adding on to cram in more cons, bill to taxpayers est @>$280 million

Two teens arrested & charged as hate-crime accomplices, Emmanuel (or Emanuel) Miller, 16, and "Zachary" or "Zackary Dylon" Watson, 17. Meanwhile, the backstory on alleged ringleader Calvin Lockner is nightmare material.

Remember "Rolls Royce" lawyer (to the cocaine stars) Robert M. Simels? (if not, see here and here from the CP archives) Bloomberg/Fraud With Peril reports he's been convicted in NY of conspiring to tamper with witnesses.

Tasered mom sues County

Only 1 in 27?

Study: 1 in 27 Md. adults in correction system ... in 2008, it cost $86 to confine an offender in Maryland per day
(incredibly, the percentage of city residents is not much higher-- about 1 in 22, if this article's estimate of 28,000 is accurate)

A man shot during an attempted robbery/carjacking, a stickup in the ToonTown Center garage.

More on the Bounty Hunters, a citywide subset of the Bloods "ruthless enough to burn one of their own alive"

Senate to "employ a rarely used legislative maneuver" to bring death penalty bill to a vote

Last year's bogus-parking-ticket scandal may have been the result of MVA employees stealing license plates

Paige Croyder: maybe expungement isn't such a great idea

Hermann ranks the state's biggest drug busts
("reefer"? "grass"? Is that what the kids of today are calling it?)