So much for that lull... two more murders, unid'd:
7:45 a.m. in the 3700 block of Lyndale Ave.
and an 18-year-old man 1:30 a.m. in the 2400 block of Marbourne Ave in Lakeland.
The Sun's 187 and 188 = our 192 & 193.

Court of Appeals: the state needs to try harder to comply with convicted rapists’ and murderers’ requests for post-conviction DNA testing, checking the police evidence-control unit isn't enough.

A third suspect was arrested today in the Carl Lackl case, Marcus Antwan Pearson, 26. Also in custody are Johnathan Ryan Cordish, 15 of the 300 block N. Monroe St., and Ronald Wendell Williams, 21. Though it's clear Pearson and the 15-year-old gunboy targeted Lackl, police say there's no evidence that the killing was motivated by Lackl's planned testimony in the Patrick Byers murder trial.

Blotter: A man was shot in the shoulder by robbers in the Northwest; a man was shot in the upper right leg trying to flee an altercation with two other men in the 3300 block of E. Fayette St. about 3 a.m. Sunday, a woman was punched in the face at a gas station in the 2200 block of Linden Ave.; police are seeking several teenage females who attacked two other females, one 19 and the other 16, in the 2100 block of N. Pulaski St. late Saturday night.

Beware the sound of a saw in your driveway: stealing catalytic converters is a profitable and low-risk activity for thieves.

Notable quotable: "Baltimore is a safe city." - Mayor Dixon
Was our mayor lying to our people in uniform?
(Or did she mean relative to Iraq?!)

Notable quotable II: "I'm goin to the hairdresser, I can't do it this way!" - Sheila Dixon, last two seconds of Fox's "Raw News" Mayor Dixon Crime Plan Press Conference
The "officer sentenced" video with the reporter chasing down Joseph Mosmiller and his slouchy lawyer is also a hoot:
"Why would you take pictures of women's breasts? Get ahead of him! She says she's been damaged forever emotionally! You have nothing to say to her? What about to fellow police officers! Fellow police officers!"

The media frenzy surrounding the OC fetus house has prompted police patrols. And no word from police or the prosecutors since Monday, when he told reporters that Freeman caused her baby to be stillborn. (How is that possible? Said a police spokesman, "use your imagination.")

August 2

In the case of murdered witness Carl Lackl, there's been a third arrest: Marcus Antwan Pearson has been charged with first degree murder:

Pearson made telephone calls to Lackl about a car that the Rosedale man was selling to lure him outside of his home, county police said. Pearson was in a vehicle in front of the shooter's car, and pointed out Lackl as they drove by, police said.

Suspects in the Lackl case so far are:
Marcus Antwan Pearson, 26,
Johnathan Ryan Cordish, 15
of the 300 block N. Monroe St., and
Ronald Wendell Williams, 21,

Guard your car's catalytic converter, although I don't think your dealership's repair shop is going to mind too much if they've gotta replace 'em for you.

Awful: the rape and robbery of an 88-year old cancer patient in Southeast Baltimore.

Mayor Sheila Dixon demands accountability from the police:

On Wednesday, the mayor said this isn't the first time she's heard complaints of crimes that hadn't been written up. She called the practice unacceptable in her administration.

Jesus God! Hasn't the misreporting or underreporting or whatever-reporting-of-crime been a big complaint against the police department and the mayor's office for, um, quite some time now? Hopefully, if there's one silver lining from this tragic shooting, it'll be an overhaul of how the police report crimes (and, hopefully, a police department with the balls to stand up to any political pressure it might get to do so).

August 1

A man was fatally shot in the 1200 block of Nanticoke St in Pigtown, South Baltimore.

The man who ran to the mayor's West Baltimore house after being shot has died.

At a hearing today Judge Allen L. Schwait sentenced Antonio Dana Rogers, 28, of the 100 block of Cherryhill Road to life in prison for attempted first degree murder and an additional 25 years in prison, consecutive, for use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence and prohibited possession of a handgun counts. A Baltimore City jury convicted Rogers June 5, 2007. The story:

On August 23, 2005 at approximately 11:00PM the victim was walking in the 2000 block of McCullough toward the 400 block of W. Presstman St. when she became engaged in an argument with Rogers. As the victim continued toward her home, Rogers followed and pulled out a small caliber handgun, shooting the victim two times – once in the abdomen and once in the arm. When officers arrived the victim told police that “Dana” shot her and that he stays in the Cherry Hill area of the city. Rogers was eventually apprehended and was identified by both the victim and other witnesses. The victim suffered permanent injuries due to the shooting and now has to walk with a cane. She has undergone 14 surgeries since the shooting due to the injuries she suffered.

Today the Baltimore City Grand Jury indicted Rodney Fray, 39, of the 1800 block of E. Pratt St. for first-degree murder and deadly weapon. Court documents allege that Rodney Fray was responsible for an incident on July 7, 2007 when Ashley Bellosi, 23, was found suffering from head and neck injuries in her apartment in the 800 block of St Paul St. Fray allegedly fought with Bellosi, knocked her unconscious and then left the scene. Bellosi died later at University of Maryland Shock Trauma Hospital. Fray was reportedly Bellosi’s boyfriend.

Domestic Horrors!
An 88-year-old woman was raped in her home by a 20-something black male in South Baltimore.

The family of murder victim Anna Bergman are outraged that she wasn't granted a restraining order. The court commissioner in Catonsville says that Bergman claimed that Ryan Bulter threatened her new boyfriend, not herself. and she was told that he should apply for his own order.

WTF?!: In Frederick County, Donna Jean Compton, 46, pled guilty to transmitting images of her 14-year-old daughter “in various stages of undress” to a "juvenile acquaintance."

The Murder Ink details homicides from July 23 to 27, and fills in Conrad Strange, 25, killed July 15 on North Gay Street.

In this week's CP, in a "classic" from 1984, John Waters interviews "kinky Gary Gilmore" Arthur Frederick Goode III, "one Maryland native we'd all rather forget."

Fredneck gun-weilding teenager Tia Janae Moore was found guilty of masterminding a 90-minute robbery spree that struck a Wendy's, a Dunkin Donuts and a Domino's deliveryperson. Said Assistant State's Attorney Teresa R. Bean, "Apparently they needed money for shoes."

A good question: "If you have a miscarriage at home, what are you supposed to do with the fetus?"
Not being legally human yet it can't make human remains, so that would fall under "medical waste" and the MDE, right?
Well, the MDE says:

Household waste is exempted from being regulated as hazardous waste. Nevertheless, it should not be disposed of indiscriminately. If you no longer have use for a hazardous product, try to find someone who can use it [an embryologist at Hopkins, perhaps?]. Failing that, contact your county governemt (sic) to determine if they have a household hazardous waste collection day scheduled."

Fun Quiz!

By the Sun's John Fritze: "Here are the mayoral candidates' verbatim answers (trimmed only when their words were not clear; offered in the order that they spoke) to the following question: 'Baltimore has one of the highest murder rates in the country. ... What are your plans to ensure that citizens enjoy a safer Baltimore?'"

Match the candiate to the quotes:

a. "We don't compromise when it comes to our religion, we don't compromise when it comes to our Lord and our God -- we cannot compromise when it comes to leadership."

b. "I've called for a federal program to treat drugs as a public health issue. Addict goes to a clinic, gets what they're addicted to. All the money we've saved on the cops and the courts and the prisons and the low morale in the police because all of this can be used for treatment on demand and a federal jobs program. It would probably cost us far less than what we're spending now."

c. "A wise old owl sat on an oak. The more he heard the less he spoke. The less he spoke the more he heard. I'll try to be like that wise old bird."

d. "This afternoon I had the opportunity to visit one of the officers at shock trauma who was shot last night. I looked in the faces of her parents and I went to visit her. We need more police officers on our streets. We are short."

answers
Further reading: the Sun's Baltimore election blog.

We all knew Brandon Grimes, right, should have been in jail long before he killed officer Troy Chesley Jr., but it gets worse. Grimes apparently carjacked someone days before the shooting, but police "declared the carjacking report unfounded. As a result, there was no follow-up investigation and no lookout was posted for the green van." Not the first time Jayne's reported police dismissing carjacking victims.
Dixon's tepid response: "We really need to find out what happened and why, and make some folks accountable. It's unacceptable."
Yeah, you like, totally do. Good idea. Let me know how that goes!

Former Prince George's County homeland security official Keith A. Washington was indicted yesterday on charges of murder and attempted murder for shooting two unarmed furniture delivery men, Brandon D. Clark and Robert White, in his Accokeek home in January. Washington cried self-defense, but looks like the grand jury decided he meant it.

Ranard D. Brown, 26, was arrested yesterday for shooting the two female officers on Monday.

An unnamed man died Saturday, four months after being shot in the 2900 block of Mosher St.

Who wrote secreted?!
WBAL version of an AP story: "Investigators working on the case of a Maryland mother who allegedly secreted dead fetuses around her home have a task that could stretch the bounds of even fictional forensic specialists on a television show."
("Hid" is used in the in the Capitol's version)

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July 31

A man was shot around 11 p.m. Monday night just a few blocks from mayor Dixon's home on Swann Avenue in West Baltimore; the bleeding man drove himself to her security car for help.

Also: "A man, 25, was shot in the chest about 11:15 p.m. Sunday in the 4500 block of Farring Court," "Three men were fighting in the 3300 block of E. Fayette St. about 3 a.m. Sunday when one man pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and shot another man, 31, in the upper right leg, shattering the hip bone." and a man in the 1400 block of N. Broadway Sunday was struck "several times over the head and body with a piece of wood."

Shot suspect: that was a popsicle in my mouth, not drugs.

The female officers shot yesterday were ID'd as Loretta L. Francis, 34, a member of the force for 14 years, and Karen Brzowsky, 29, an officer for 5 years. Sun: "A source close to the investigation -- who is not named because the source is not permitted to talk to the media -- said the two officers were responding to a call for men gambling in or near the 200 block of N. Port when they were shot." The story also reports that as of Monday there were 445 non-fatal shootings, up from 338 last year.

Serial bank robber Craig Joseph Mills got 6 1/2 years in federal prison.

It's only the second use of MD's fetal homicide law, and Worcester County State's Attorney Joel J. Todd's application is highly irregular, to say the least. First of all, the OC fetuses were all preterm and not born alive. And, if even if Christy Freeman somehow caused her own late-term abortion, that wouldn't be against the new law. One of the bill's sponsors says that the exemption doesn't apply to "wanton or reckless behavior," but, well, the law doesn't actually say anything about that, and it isn't especially illegal to smoke crack while you're pregnant in MD.

July 30

Demetris Downing Sr. (Sr?!) , 25, was shot to death Saturday night in the 2100 block of McHenry St. shortly before 7 p.m., a block from his house.

Two police officers were shot at Orleans Street and Port Streets. both are alive ... and female!

What is going on?! Four horrible domestic murders in two days. Jeremy and Justin Herring, 18 and 20 years old, were murdered by their father in MoCo.

And the third MD dad-on-mom murder in the past three weeks: "Police said Anna Bergman, 20, was shot in the head by her 3-year-old son's father, whose name has not been released, in the 300 block of Westshire Road on Monday morning. Bergman was pronounced dead at the scene." Update: a court commissioner had refused to grant Anna Bergman a restraining order Friday night. The three-year-old, also Ryan Butler, is in custody of the murderer's parents.

The story of Christy Freeman, the taxi-company-owner and Ocean-City-baby-body-collector, is grey-area and getting creepier. WBAL says "four infant cadavers have been found since last week" (a very peculiar word choice, almost always used to describe a body being used for educational purposes), and goes on to say that all of the babies were pre-term and stillborn. Nevertheless, the prosecutor down there says he plans to charge her under the fetal homicide law.

The Baltimore City Grand Jury today indicted Lontona Maria Webb, 38, of the 3600 block of Clarinth Rd., Michael Moore, 26, of the 3600 block of Clarinth Rd. and Latoya Renee James, 24, of the 1300 block of Dalton Rd. on July 26, 2007 in an alleged theft scheme involving the property of detainees at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Facility (CBIF). The indictments allege that the incidents occurred at CBIF between November 2006 and March 2007. Details from the SA's office:

After hearing testimony, the Grand Jury returned a total of 32 indictments, alleging credit card theft, identity fraud, conspiracy to commit theft and misconduct in office involving 8 victims who were arrested and transported to the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Facility (CBIF) for processing. Webb is charged in 22 separate indictments, Moore in 7 indictments and James in 3 indictments.

Webb is a former Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Correctional Officer. James is still a Correctional Officer.

Court documents allege that between November 2006 and March 2007 various defendants were processed at Central Booking and Intake Facility (CBIF) and reported their credit cards stolen and used during their period of incarceration. Investigation showed that defendant Lontona Webb, who was employed as a correctional officer during this time, and Michael Moore, of the same address, conspired to use the cards to purchase items in both Baltimore City & County. Lontona James worked the same shift at CBIF as Webb, and also allegedly took a credit card and used it in Baltimore County.

Baltimore County police said they've arrested four men and charged them in the shooting of 24-year-old student Herve Massaba, who is now paralyzed from the chest down.

More on the suicide of murderer Donald Webb Jr. and his victims. The Sun reports that the 13-year-old boy is recovering at Johns Hopkins Children's Center after surgery for multiple bullet wounds.

There was another male-on-female domestic murder/suicide 15 days ago in Arbutus; Donta Antwon Gross, 30, shot Tashema Tameka Fitzgerald, 21, then himself in the 4800 block of Westland Blvd.

In Ocean City, 37-year-old Cindy Freeman was charged with the murder of an infant and "Maryland investigators have found three tiny bodies" in her home.

Three MD and DC metro stations were shut down and the FBI was called in after a pest-control contractor neglected to clean up some dead birds. The Takoma station shut down for almost four hours awaiting NIH clearance.

Remember AAC's Officer Joseph Francis Mosmiller, who photographed himself honking a teenage motorist's boob?
He pled guilty to misconduct and will spend six days in jail.

July 29, Evening

Taming a Violent City - The Baltimore Sun asks an "array of experts" on how, exactly, to do that. Interesting, but why no prosecutors or ex-police *cough*Ed*cough* chiefs on the list?

24-year old Brandon Reed mugged a woman fifty years his senior and was apparently so overcome by shame that he allegedly hung himself in a HoCo jail cell, the fourth person to do so since 1999.

July 29

Donald Webb Jr., 48, who killed his wife and shot his stepson Friday night, is still at large! was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in upstate New York.
Webb is was a chubby corrections officer, shown at right & last seen in a blue 2006 Chevrolet pickup with Maryland license plate 24R856.

A crime wave has hit the Roland Park subdivision of Evergreen, with cars broken into and houses robbed in broad daylight on Wilmslow and Cable Streets. Lock your doors & windows, especially in the daytime when you're at home!

"The fault line between work and family” is “precisely where sex-based overgeneralization has been and remains strongest." -- says the Chief Justice in the NYT Mag article "Family Leave Values"

Julie Bykowicz answers our voir dire questions.
(Schwait turned over a conviction because of his own error? Wacky!)
From law.com: "Jury practices vary widely across the Nation"

"An apparent Sinful Secret was Exposed in Harford County Last Night ... Mike Hellgren has the disturbing allegations ... A warning, though, for some of you, this is very graphic stuff ... Deacon Kevin Glenn ... groin area ... buttocks... feeling up ... played a game called hide the money ... cash ... undergarmets ... and when one of the girls confronted him, he read her Scriptures."

July 28

Horrid. Donald Webb Jr. shot his 13-year-old son and his wife, wounding to the boy and killing his mother in the 900 block of West Lombard Street.

Nathaniel Treat, a 27-year-old Annapolis man was recovering at Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday after he was stabbed three times in the stomach while trying to save someone he saw being beaten in Charles Village.

One instance and one quote is no argument for any kind of trend, but it does give Greg Kane the opportunity to bitch about that perinneal Baltimore juror, The Lady Who Won't Convict The Black Man.

This should be good! Mayoral candidate Del. Jill Carter will co-host the Ed Norris Show this Monday from 11-1.

City council candidate Adam Meister will be guest-bartending upstairs at the Ottobar tonight from 5:30-8:30, with tips going to the campaign. Downstairs, a collection of "the wildest, weirdest, most obscene bands".

Evening

Today a Baltimore City jury convicted Elliott McLain, 31, of the 5200 block of St. Charles Ave. of first degree murder, conspiracy and other related handgun counts. The jury deliberated for approximately one day following four days of testimony. Judge Robert Kershaw will sentence McLain October 3, 2007. He faces a maximum possible term of life plus life plus 25 years in prison. Details from the SA's office, edited for clarity:

On June 1, 2004 at approximately 1 a.m. in the 600 block of Hazel Street, McLain and co-defendant Kevin Fletcher approach the victim, Tidell Harris, on the street. They each pulled a gun. Fifteen shots were fired and the victim was hit five times, twice in the chest and three in the face and head. Harris was pronounced dead at the scene. Fletcher confessed and had a plea deal in which he was to testify against McLain (Life, suspend all but 25 years). But Fletcher refused to testify in January when called to the stand during a pretrial motions hearing, so the court sentenced Fletcher to life in prison plus 20 years. Fletcher did testify in this case but his court testimony was inconsistent with his taped police confession, which was played in court. Assistant State’s Attorney Tonya LaPolla of the FIVE Division prosecuted this case.

Thirty-four-year-old Ida Susan Robinson pled guilty and got 20 years for stabbing her shack-up boyfriend to death in front of his eight-year-old son in Woodlawn.

An eagle-eyed PA trooper apprehended Lorenzo Presha II, wanted for rape in the county.

Whatever did they talk about? Dixon and Ed Norris met privately at a Hunt Valley hotel bar.
('on the QT'? What does that stand for?)

July 27 - the 1,000th post

Samuel Epps, 30, was chased and then shot to death at about 2:15 a.m. in the 1700 block of W. Baltimore Street.
And the victim found in the trunk of the car was indeed a homicide, killed by blunt-force trauma.

J'heart Judge Brooke Murdock! Not only did she shoot down the state's same-sex marraige ban, but she Reservoir Hill drug dealer Omar Parker the full 20 years for witness intimidation.

This week's Ink provides names and more details for last week's victims.

Maryland's Court of Appeals ruled that says that police officers can be sued for libel if they make false statements to obtain a search warrant.

Eleven boys have come forward to accuse Dundalk perv Robert Paul Layton of various sex offenses. He also faces federal indictment on child pornography charges. Gross. You may remember Layton as the guy with a pool table in his basement who plied young boys with booze and weed (<- WBAL audio link from last February).

In HoCo, Pastor Gerald Griffith, 41, got 15 years yesterday on two counts of sexual abuse of a minor.

Following the Michael Vick business, Baltimore is stepping up its investigaton of dogfights.

Some half-baked and twisted Chubby Hubbies broke three glass windows at the Inner Harbor Ben & Jerry's.

July 26

Baltimore City has identified five of its schools as "perpetually dangerous": 'to get on the list, 2 1/2 percent of its student body must have been suspended for arson, possessing a weapon or drugs, assaulting a teacher or other student, or sexual assault.' The list includes 'Calverton Middle School, Thurgood Marshall Middle School, Dr. Roland Patterson Academy, Dr. W.E.B DuBois Senior High School and the Liberal Arts Academy at Walbrook Campus'. The really amazing thing? Fewer than 200 students have transfered out of those schools, despite the fact that the designation allows any student who wishes to transfer.

A Lot of Jays: Jarrett Johnson, 22; Jerard Kane, 20; and Jonathan Kane, 21, identified as the three men who shot and wounded a man early yesterday morning.

So much for that murder-free streak: Body Found in Trunk. I guess the question is when, and how, he died. (I mean, if he was playing hide-and-seek and couldn't get back out of the trunk...)

Those thugs who acid-burned a toddler are to be tried as juveniles. Big surprise, the victim's mother wasn't happy and

broke into tears and walked out of the courtroom.

"I hope you guys are happy," the mother, Carol Duschl, later yelled at the defendants as they walked down a hallway. "A slap on the wrist. It's OK."

Drowning victim? Maybe the water in the Patapsco River is so polluted the river itself wants to get in on the homicide action!

AACo: South River High teacher gets charged for enjoying too much touching his underage students.

The Baltimore County Police Department's version of the Vietnam Memorial is "inaccessible". Wait, does Baltimore City PD have their own memorial to fallen officers? Because if Baltimore County = Vietnam, then Baltimore City = ______?

Rear Windowesque: the video of a street drug deal/robbery/shooting is on YouTube (and you can read the article, too).

An armed robbery of a Korean grocery is reported in the blogosphere after being ignored by the mass media: "Yesterday. July 25, at about 1:30 PM, three men came in to the store with handguns, and pointed them at customer's heads demanding money, cell phones, credit cards, etc.. but a BPD unit happened to be out front a few moments later (they were not alerted - just on rounds), and they captured the assailants. Today, [the owner] looked quiet, scared, sad, and uncertain. Mostly traumatized. This needs to stop - now." Amen.

July 25

The Baltimore branch of the NAACP wants citizens to get windowastic to display their outrage over the city's homicide rate.

Yesterday, I posted about a potential plan to create a gun registry, similar to the sex registry which already exists. Orlando Yarborough can be on both registries! What a lucky guy, huh?

CNN: Processed cheese stands in for a bomb during a possible terrorist dry-run in Baltimore, and other fun news from an unclassified TSA advisory.

Either I'm confused or WJZ is confused (or maybe we're both confused): isn't a "home invasion" generally a rather violent event which happens when the family is home? Because that's sort of always how I've taken to understand the phrase. I guess it's just another way of saying "burglary", and hopefully a.) no one gets hurt and b.) they get the dog back.

Baltimore City might take lessons from Baltimore County's squadPolice CAT Squad:

"A soft-spoken guy, Martin explains how the CAT Squad operates. "You throw a rock in some water, the rock is concentrated action there,” he says. “It disperses the water. We try to do the same thing with crime, by dispersing the crime, reducing the crime and get it out of different areas."

Hey, the headline writes the blurb: Pressures dictate plea deals, But sentences in city homicide cases aren't necessarily a bargain for the convicted.

A friend of mine once said Baltimore City was a lot like Mexico City: if you stick to the touristy areas, you'll be fine. Not quite so much -- three arrested in a shooting that left a man wounded in downtown last night.

There's a tidbit in that above article: "the city's last homicide occurred Thursday afternoon." Is this deserving of a celebration or just the result of dumb luck?

July 24

The City Police Union likes Mitchell for mayor, a decision that

the city's rank and file is dissatisfied with her policing decisions.

"We believe we will see change and progress under him," Blair [president of the city's police union] said. "And he'll be a mayor that realizes that law enforcement is very critical in the city and would make it his top priority that we're properly staffed and given the proper equipment and leadership."

Ouch.

Speaking of "new leadership", ex-commish Kevin Clark wants his old job back.

“As I see it, the city is in crisis, but I could turn this around in no time ... It’s my job.”

Continuing the theme of "new leadership" ... some of the "old leadership" is getting canned (er, sorry, "retiring.")

A busy weekend for police in AACo, and a bad weekend for dangerous fugitives!

There's only one thing you should be doing behind the wheel of a car: not text messaging, not reading the paper, not playing with yourself or receiving favors from your loved one leaning over from the passenger seat (remember that scene in Parenthood?). Not even daydreaming! Nope, the only thing you should be doing behind the wheel of a car is paying attention. This is a lesson Christopher Austin Carey, 17, will hopefully be more aware of in the future.

In a case of car v bike, the car wins --

An 8-year-old boy riding a bicycle was struck by a car in Southwest Baltimore shortly before 2:30 p.m. Monday and was taken to the Johns Hopkins Hospital's pediatric intensive care unit for treatment of a minor head injury, police said.

I don't think it's going too far out on a limb to say the driver "wasn't paying attention." Also: don't play in the streets, kids.

Mayor Dixon Proposes Public Registry of Gun Offenders: Too far? Or not far enough? I guess we'll know if the NRA gets itself involved.

A Baltimore resident, and member of MS-13, is off to jail. I wonder how the accommodations are?

Timothy Hartlove's sentence revisited: four years for "conspiring to distribute methamphetamine worth about $50,000." His original sentence was six years.

Former state Senator Bromwell pleads guilty for racketeering and tax evasion. A guilty politician? Perish the thought.

July 23

Maybe they've been throwing out seafood in the department's dumpster? Have you ever smelled a dumpster full of rotting fish? Gag on a stick! Seriously:

Something at the Baltimore City Police Department smells fishy to mayoral candidate Keiffer Mitchell, who on Sunday called for a federal audit of the city’s crime statistics.

The Baltimore City councilman will deliver a letter today asking for a Federal Bureau of Investigation audit, he said.

Mayoral candidate Del. Jill Carter has called for an independent audit of the city’s crime statistics, which show a 16 percent increase in homicides and a 32 percent increase in shootings, but a 17 percent decrease in violent crime.

In response, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon’s spokesman Anthony McCarthy said, “If we can find a third party to audit crime statistics, we’re all for it.”

A long time ago I worked at a place where we made "soda missiles." We'd take bottles of soda, shake them up, stand at the top of the parking lot, and hurtle them towards the dumpster down the hill. When they hit, they'd explode. We did this when no one was around, of course (because they would've told on us). However, "soda bombs" are a bit more serious, even if hearing the term makes me chuckle:

“It’s nothing like a pipe bomb or dynamite, ... but it’s still in that category,” said Jason Mowbray, deputy chief state fire marshal.

What do the members of MADD do at a police checkpoint? Smack the drunks with rolled up pamphlets? They should!

In the blotter, lots of break-ins. Be on the lookout for the landscaper thief:

A lawnmower, three ladders, a gas-operated leaf blower and two hedge trimmers were stolen over the weekend...

Brief Update: Dan Roderick has reprinted an anonymous e-mail from a Baltimore City Police Detective regarding the state -- or lack thereof -- of police leadership in the department:

First of all, "Zero Tolerance" is not currently the "Mission Statement" of the Baltimore City Police Department. I can't tell you what the Mission Statement is, because I don't know. Many of us in the rank and file do not. I don't really even think there is one. Oh, sure, we have had "pep talks" given by then Deputy Commissioner Bealefeld (now Acting Commissioner) and by Mayor Dixon, but those speeches focused on a general idea of what needs to happen in the City. There was no clear plan laid out... just ideas such as "omnipresence" and "getting back into the community."