Toddlers Toting Guns Now

Last night a man was shot twice in the 200 block of Collins Ave* (but he's still alive);  a man shot in the arm in the 2200 block of Parkton Street in Yale Heights; a man shot in the leg in the 4200 block of Fairhaven Avenue; a man shot in the thigh* in the 5100 block of Park Heights Ave. Friday night: a fatal shooting in the 4400 block of Frankford Avenue,* the victim was ID'd as David Porter, 42; a double shooting on Athol Avenue, a man shot on W. Preston Street. Yet no shootings on Saturday or Sunday night? Odd, if true.

Eleven raids, er, executed search warrants, on the East Side near 1600 E. Lanvale. Justin George reports that about 150 officers were ISO 20 people*: three shooting suspects and two homicide suspects, the rest being drug dealers, I guess. So how did it go? "Police arrested at least one suspect."

Robert Long

Last weekend the Sun ran Ian Duncan's interview with Demetrius Smith*. Smith was the guy who was wrongfully convicted of killing Robert Long in 2008. Smith was released in May, and Jose Morales was convicted of soliciting the murder. Duncan's account hangs the wrongful conviction on two lying witnesses, but as Ed Ericson Jr.'s article in the CP detailed last month, there was a whole lot more to it than that.

117 days without a cause or manner of death for Tyrone West. Medical examiner says they won't provide any clarity at all until it's all done
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) November 12, 2013

Huh? Whut? Erica Green reports that last year city schools suspended 33 3- and -4-year-olds from pre-K. "Most of the students were suspended for physical attacks on teachers or students, though a handful were suspended for offenses such as sexual activity, possession of a firearm or other guns, inciting a public disturbance, and vandalism.*" What??? Possession of a firearm?  Sexual activity? At 3? How is this even possible?  ... in other education news, an audit found that the state neglected to distribute $17.2 million in financial aid to college students.* Could have given it out, didn't.

Dan Rodericks revisits Smith v. MD,* a 1976-1978 purse-snatching case that was eventually to provide justification in the secret FISC court for the NSA's mass spying programs.

Oh geeze, so for years this guy Colin Flaherty has been writing me, Salon, and apparently any and every functioning e-mail address he could get his mitts on to promote his book "White Girl Bleed a Lot," a screed that has as its hypothesis that there are roving mobs of black people are going around attacking white people on the regular, with claims are based on a cherry-picked collection of  YouTube clips and anecdotes (because the press is "ignoring, condoning and denying" this secret rapacious pandemic, of course). Pretty nutty. But guess who's taking it seriously? The Washington Times, for one, and now the American Family Association's One News Now, which is apparently doubling down on its race-baiting strategy.

Oh, and 800,000 gallons of raw sewage flowed into the Gunpowder Falls. Eww!

Hot heels Saturday

An 18-year-old was shot* in the 1600 block of Mosher St at 3:30 p.m., sounds like he's alive. Up the street from the fatal shooting yesterday a man suffered a "minor" "lower extremity" gunshot wound near York and Woodbourne. And regarding the Homeland home invasions, police know a man is responsible for them, they just don't know which man.

Well, that doesn't look very good: Grayling Williams, the guy hired to head internal affairs after the Majestic Body Shop scandal has resigned* to take an unnamed new opportunity. This a mere day after Fenton reported that the police are looking for yet another Training Director*-- Russell out! Smith out! Buzzuro out! Maybe Williams will step in? Meanwhile, the trainer who shot the recruit is now facing assault charges; the recruit is eating through a tube.

Hot on the heels of the Planning Commission's plan to shut down law-abiding liquor stores, a "scathing" audit of the Liquor Board found that it is doing fuck-all: the board has no written policies or procedures, no record of fines or license payments, inspectors doing whatever they want with no oversight, plus reams of uninvestigated complaints, into which Ian Duncan further delves.* Still think the zoning-law changes are a horrible idea and probably illegal, but makes more sense knowing how fed up the Commission must be. Fix your Liquor Board, O'Malley!

And Jayne Miller stays on top of the Kendell Richburg case, a doozy even by Baltimore standards. Wonder how many people will get out of jail between him and Lewellen?

The 80-year-old man who died after a punch to the head was apparently the inspiration* for the 90's Fox dramedy show "Roc."

Despite vows to fight the gun law with a referendum, the MD's GOP is now apparently waiting to get advice from the NRA before proceeding, and mused Del. Neil Parrott, "You know, one of the options is not to petition at all this year." Whatever, you know you'll opt how the NRA tells you to, optimus.

Charles Knott/ sound effect

Oh, Hampden. One of those Buena Vista Avenue urchins, this one the name of Charles Knott, was arrested for threatening the B of A security guard on 36th with a pocketknife. Parent your childrens!

Well Goddamn, Harford County: police seized cocaine, pot and 400 bags of heroin at a traffic stop-- wait, no, 424, and a domestic call led to the seizure of 8 pounds of marijuana.

Oh, lawd. Towson U's Richard Vatz tried to splain away Dr. Ben Carson comparing homosexuality to bestiality by opining that the Yale-educated neurosurgeon is "is not sophisticated." Is that racist? Because I can't imagine someone saying that about a Yale-educated neurosurgeon of any other genetic heritage. That's like, what you'd say about Britney Spears not knowing how to use a car seat. Anyway, in any case, nert heeerllping.

Bumped in to Gregg Bernstein at the tattoo convention. I can report that he has not been inked... Yet.
— Ian Duncan (@iduncan) April 6, 2013

Well, maybe he should consider it to finally put those "Jewish" rumors to rest.

HoCo popo are ISO a cursing arsonist on the loose. Wait, no, they found him, he's one Alejandro Adolfo Rodriguez. He shoulda just smoked her cigarette and hushed.

And finally, the woman who bought that Renior that was stolen from the BMA at a flea market was identified as one Marcia Martha Fuqua, which also happens to be my new bar name.

Anthony Anderson = homicided

The Med Examiner has ruled Anthony Anderson's death a homicide from blunt-force injury and primarily a pulmonary contusion (bruised lung), fractured ribs, hemorrhaged tissues, a torn spleen and blood from those injuries filling his guts (hemoperitoneum) -- not an overdose or by choking on .
swallowed drugs as the BPD initially reported, though police do say "morphine" was in his system 

(yes, not "opiates," "morphine" in particular. Is the toxicology report finished? If so, where is it?)   Here's the autopsy report released by the family & uploaded by Fenton, and the Fenton story... you may recall that our new presumptive police chief resigned in Oakland after a court found that his department had failed to implement court-ordered policies to control police abuses, that citizens who complained about it faced "cavalier rejection" of their complaints, and that "the agency misused an early-warning system that flags officers who frequently use force or generate citizen complaints." Baltimore, of course, doesn't even have a public system by which to track or address such complaints to begin with, unless you count our citizen review board that's sworn to secrecy and has zero power, or the invisible-to-us internal police "administrative reviews" that the department openly admits take "months or years*" to complete.  

Sooo, why did Oakland get to have federal court oversight and Baltimore never has? We had the "Flex Squad" in the SW planting drugs and framing people,* just like Oakland's "Riders." We've had officers shot in chaotic no-clear-lines-of command incidents,* just like Oakland. So why did the Oakland PD get total federal oversight and Baltimore has never gotten more than a federal visit or two?
In other news, plans for the new youth jail soldier on.* (remind me, is it federal or local money building this jail?)

And thank you Kevin Rector, finally*-- after a slew of confusing rape/ abuction stories a little clarity: three sex assault/ kidnapping/ robbery victims, two perps -- Kenyon Waller and William Campbell -- who're both now in jail. The first incident of a teen kidnapped at gunpoint off the street then robbed and sexually assaulted was Sept. 25, but as far as I can tell only the Catonsville Patch reported it. Wonder why. I'd throw in a dab of snark here about how if it had happened to a blonde girl in Towson you wouldn't have been able to eat your Cheerios without hearing Don Scott recount every filthy little detail, but my outrage fatigue is acting up.

Fifteen years for Timothy Dennison, 22, who bought "sham cocaine" from an ICE Homeland Security Investigations agent (whatever happened to the DEA?)

A scathing report from the Senate found that the Department of Homeland Security has spent about a billion dollars to spy on citizens, while thwarting not a single terrorist attack. Next (or probably already) from Homeland Security: automatically tracking everyone's car's movements using license-plate scanning technology. Grouses a proprietor of a for-profit license tracking service, "I take absolute exception to any government telling me that I can't go into public and take video ... that's taking my freedoms away." 

Assorted Crime News of the Day...

Jailhouse snitches (including one featured in "Stop Snitching") are the feds' golden hope in the capital-murder trial of Dinkins, Gilbert and Goods, accused of killing witness John P. Downey Jr.

Baltimore PoliceDept HOMICIDE ARREST: Christopher Briggs (M/B/DOB12/23/93) was arrested yesterday for the May 25th murder of Keon Cameron; Tavon Julian Grey (12/12/82) was arrested TODAY for the Aug 08 murder of Eric Jebron Brown

A pitbull set on fire in the SW

More mayhem at the Victor Cullen Academy

No reports of random attacks lately ... except for this poor guy

Catholics designate a week in June to pray for peace;
"Community Conferencing Center uses restorative justice techniques to deal with crime in Baltimore"
HBR on the art of the apology

Extras:
We've all been there, right? Mom leads cops on chase around 495 with three kids in the car
Perceived racism makes you fat, study says

April 25

Hamm gave an interview to the Examiner, and it's worth reading whether you like him or hate him. He points out that 61 of the first 72 homicide victims in 2007 had a criminal record. Allow me to point out that 11 of the first 72 homicide victims had no criminal record, which suggests that 11 innocent people have been murdered in the first 3 1/2 months of the year.

Human remains were found in a shallow grave in Dorchester County.

One teenager was arrested and others were being sought for a home invasion assault and robbery in the Central against a woman who had ordered them off of her property.

Charles Eugene Burns was found guilty for the murder of Lillian Phelps.

Suspected Boston murderer Earnest Ferguson was arrested in Baltimore after being profiled on America's Most Wanted.

The six Bowling Brook staff members who were charged with reckless endangerment in the death of Isaiah Simmons III have surrendered or agreed to surrender; five of the six have been released on personal recognizance.

Phillip Carter got 30 years for attacking 73-year-old Sun reporter Carl Schoettler and 65-year-old Johnny Johnson.

Jody Hudson got three years time and five years probation for causing life-threatening injuries while on drugs. She was coming off a crack and methadone high and was driving with her 9-year-old son when she hit a father and son who were changing a flat tire. Both of the victims lost a leg due to the accident.

Perv du jour: 51-year-old addictions counselor Emerson Davis was found guilty for assaulting two of his female patients last August.

School bus rage in Edgewood.

Now that felons who have completed their sentences can vote in Maryland, we'll definitely get some good political leadership.

A MoCo cop in a car hit a MoCo cop on foot, then crashed into a tree. Both officers were chasing an alleged drunk driver who was fleeing on foot.

Racist vandals are running amok at the UB law school. (Well, at least if you call one case of flier defacing "running amok.")

Two Indonesian men got 366 days each for "attempting to illegally export night vision devices and money laundering." Now, if WJZ will explain to us how one would export money laundering, we'll all feel a little bit better.