Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Douglass Student Killed

Eighteen-year-old Darnell Moore, a student at Frederick Douglass High (not to be confused with columnist Darnell L. Moore) was murdered yesterday via shots in the back on West Preston Street near McCulloh homes. Another unidentified person was shot also.

The school administrator who allegedly sold students pot cookies was ID'd as Clyde Tatum, 40,* of Reach! Partnership School. A search of his house turned up a handgun and he was charged with being a felon in possession of a handgun-- Tatum had been convicted of gun and cocaine possession charges in the past. Super!

And Brittany Powers was charged with killing Gwendolyn Johnson, 24.
Brittany Powers

Zach Sowers' Attacker Arrested Again


Arthur Jeter
Police arrested Arthur Jeter for a handgun violation. Jeter, then 17, was one of the guys who assaulted/killed* 28-year-old Zach Sowers six years ago while he was walking his pug near Patterson Park. For agreeing to testify against fellow attacker Trayvon Ramos, Jeter had all charged dropped but armed robbery and got eight years. He also pleaded guilty to another armed robbery two days after the Sowers attack. At sentencing two of the attackers apologized to the Sowers family, Jeter was not one of them.*

Another guilty plea in the jail/BGF scandal: Kimberly Dennis, who was the first target of federal wiretaps, got down with two Guerilla guys (including inmate Derius Duncan, in a closet), allegedly smuggled in cell phones and tobacco and said of an inmate who was stabbed after not paying his smuggling tax to the BGF, "yeah, them niggas banged him. .. whoever catch, you gotta pay a bill." When Dennis was busted, the feds seized gel caps, condoms and her white Chevy Camaro. She faxes a maximum of 20 years.

Andrew Palmer
Andrew Palmer
The Ink details murders 186-189: Steven Wayne Pearson, Durrell Gaskins,  Keith Holly Jr., Lance-Trenton Maurice Allen and Darrell Berry.

Remember Andy Palmer, 46, who got out of thousands of $$ of restaurant checks by faking seizures? Well he was arrested again... for dodging restaurant checks by faking seizures.*





Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Progress!

Progress! A federal judge acknowledges that loosened marijuana regulations federally and around the country violates the equal protection clause, and handed down mere 18 month-11 year sentences to convicted pot distributors.*

The new state gun tax means a windfall for the Department of Natural Resources. ... everybody likes natural resources, but shouldn't that money rightly go to victims of gun violence?

Jacob Theodore "digilink" George IV was charged* with selling heroin and methylone on the Silk Road dark web site.

Study finds only 20 percent of MD college students have drug/alcohol problems.*And more shady dealings at the Liquor Board, including awarding a license to an LLC that doesn't exist.

County speeders are getting $56,000 worth of dropped tickets* thanks to Xerox not filing its calibration paperwork on time. .. and what of the city's Brekford cameras? They're still not up and running, in spite of the company's assertion that they would be functional by September 30.*

Remember how the city is poised to award a $martMeter contract to the Dynis corp, the shaky firm whose bid was $101 million more than the next-highest (and perfectly qualified) bidder? Well look who's powering up that bid: good old KO Public Relations, known for pushing citizen-pocketbook rapes such as corporate speed cameras, gambling and Harbor Point.

Today's mugshots:

Monday, October 28, 2013

By Virtue, Not by Force


The Sun has more details of yesterday's murders of firefighter Andy Hoffman and Marie Hartman,* and they are horrible and sad. Hartman leaves behind a six-year-old, and her 18-year-old sister, who hid in a closet then jumped out of a window to escape. Hoffman's Station 14 was draped in black today.

Students from Reach Partnership School were taken to the hospital Tuesday after a school administrator allegedly sold them pot-laced cookies

Christopher Hilliard
Down in AAC police arrested Eddie Jenkins, 20, accused him of being a serial peeping tom/flasher.* And in Dundalk police arrested AWOL sex offender Christopher Hilliard.

Bail bondsmen were shot at, beauty supply stores were burgled and a whole lot of people got mugged at gunpoint in the Patch Franklin/Woodlawn/Pikesville blotter.

Seriously, Harford County? A drug takeback day there netted "hundreds of pounds"* of Rx's.

Jesus X. Christ, can't somebody shut Doug Gansler up? Or at least staunch the flow of Doug Gansler boner stories? Today's: the would-be gov remarking that when it comes to reporting teenage drinking to authorities "it has to do with if you have a boy or a girl.*" Not sure exactly what was meant by that, but here's a coincidence: Landon, the $33,565-a-year school attended by Gansler's hard-partying son, also happens to be the alma mater of convicted killer George Hughley V and is former home of the fantasy sex leagues the "Southside Slampigs" and the "Crackwhores."

Eight Federal Years for Kendell Richburg

Kendell Richburg, via MySpace
KR via MySpace
Kendell Richburg deserves his own novella and HBO mini-series, but it's Sunday night so this will have to suffice: At 36 he's just been awarded eight years in prison for conspiracy to distribute heroin and possession of a firearm.
    Is that too little considering how he framed grandmas with planted drugs* to boost his own arrest numbers? or is it too much, given that he started out as a good cop by partnering with an informant, yet evidently succumbed to BPD pressure to juke the stats *? Explains Slate,
Richburg did these things not for personal gain, but to benefit a confidential informant who fed him information that helped him make arrests. In order to keep his confidential informant on the street, Richburg gave him drugs that he could sell. Richburg tipped off the informant to police activity, helping him avoid arrest. But eventually, their arrangement took a more sinister turn."
Notably, Richburg was assigned to the VCIS,* the notoriously 'maverick' BPD department that groomed such mavericky mavericks as Jemini Jones. Richburg's defense: he was one of many* who "misrepresented facts." No doubt.
   So then what has became then of all of Richburg's many cases? And how has the police department changed procedures to prevent perverse incentives leading to malfeasance so police quit planting pot on grandmas? While O'Malley cabal's PR machine can find a high-schooler's personal photos from four months ago it can't muster comment on this case, apparently.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

City Firefighter, Girlfriend Killed by City Officer

Andy Hoffman
Firefighter Andrew Scott Hoffman, 27, of Engine 14 on Hollins Street and his girlfriend Marie Hartman, were murdered by city police officer Christopher Lee Robinson, 37, of Abingdon last night in a murder-suicide, reports Arundel News Network. Hartman was Robinson's ex-girlfriend. More from the Sun.

Also last night three officers were struck by a Jeep* in the 200 block of N. Franklintown Road while directing traffic outside of a club.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Persons deserving of your sympathies

- Lance-Trenton Maurice Allen, 21, shot to death in the back on Friday on N. Bentalou Street. Also Keith X. Holly Jr., 24, who was killed Thursday* and acquitted of murder charges last December, and also the family of murder victim James Ingram.*
Nelson B. Clifford

- The victims of Nelson Bernard Clifford, who has beat sex assault charges four times now,* even though DNA linked him to the crimes and the last victim alleges he'd broken into her house and raped her while she was sleeping. Oh, and he has yet another trial coming up.

Preston Scott
- The kids molested and photographed by Preston Lamont Scott II, a Slimeresque creep who volunteered with the Millersville Fire Department, coordinating teen dances.

- Overworked, underpaid Spanish teacher Maria Quintana, attacked by a student at the Liberation Diploma Plus Academy. (WTF kind of school name is that?)

- The girl who had her skull fractured and the boy who had his arm broken by Don Dwyer's boozed boating, and the Anne Arundel County inmate who has to spend the next 30 weekends with him.

- The Severn High's employee, likely making minimum wage, who got a gun stuck in his/her face.

- Reporter Audrey Hudson of the Washington Times, who had her home raided and personal files-- including notes about confidential sources-- seized by armed Homeland Security agents asking if she was the same Audrey Hudson who wrote "Air marshal stories." Hudson had previously revealed that the air marshals had lied to Congress after 9/11 regarding the number of flights it was protecting.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Grownups Gone AWOL

Smoke
Durrell "Smoke" Gaskins, 25, was stabbed to death reportedly as he tried to break up a fight* amongst Forest Park HS students.

Gwendolyn Johnson, 24, was shot to death in the housing projects of old Latrobe.*

Nelson B. Clifford
Nelson B Clifford, sex offender extrordinaire, once again is claiming that the sex he had* with a stranger after he broke into her apartment was consensual.

Andre "Redrum" Roach, of the Bloods Roaches, has pleaded guilty to racketeering, of the federal kind of racketeering,* and so shall now make his home in Cumberland or thereabouts for thirty years henceforth.

Letting a bunch of private-school teenage twats trash a beach house* is surely mind-bogglingly boneheaded for anyone over the age of 22. Buuuut it must be said, if the O'Malley administration put half as much effort into transparency for citizens and reporters as they are putting in to ferret out the deets on Doug Gansler, perhaps our fair state would not be such a D-minus, and perhaps state officials such as Doug Gansler would think twice before making extremely poor life decisions. I so hope news sources will start covering Heather Mizeur's campaign in any kind of way, because with a year to go I am already sick as a tray of Jell-o shots of hearing about these dudebros riding their douche canoes down Mt. Shitsandwich. 

And here, have a bonus numbnuts: Matthew Mitchell, 30, a drunk dad who drove with his 4-month-old on his lap and wrecked his car, putting the baby in the hospital. I hate you all and Im going to take a nap now.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Implied, Expressed, Informed

Gabrielle Smith
One of the weekend's homicide victims was ID'd as Latreshia Gowdy, 32, who reportedly lost a fight she allegedly started with her ex-husband's new lady friend,* Gabrielle Smith. WBAL reports the two women are former BFFs, Smith is now charged in Gowdy's murder.

Steven Wayne Pearson, 57, a former firefighter and Marine who was robbed and beaten in December of last year on McCullough St., has died of his injuries.*
Natafre Green

The woman found shot to death in the PT Cruiser was ID'd as Natafre Green, 30, Cham found her photo on Classmates.com (Harbor High class of 2002); the man shot on Monroe Street was ID'd as Daryl Darrell Fletcher, 27.

Remember Nelson Clifford? The accused rapist was linked by DNA to three different sexual assaults, yet convinced three different juries that the sex was consensual, including the case when Clifford allegedly broke into the victim's apartment through the window, and one where he stole $60 from the victim. He's now facing a fourth trial next month.*

Lawyers: the vj pix taken by Towson gynecologist John Yacoub were taken consensually*  before, during and after vaginoplasty. Yes, vaginoplasty. It's a thing.

Towson's getting seedier: a store on W. Pennsylvania Ave was robbed of $2,500.

Monday, October 21, 2013

The dead, the drunk and the bald

Dammit, Baltimore! Things were going so well. But four homicides this weekend,* bringing the toll to 185. Thomas Carter, 22, and also two women, one stabbed in the stomach and one shot to death in a moving PT Cruiser in Shipley Hill, and a man shot to death in the 1800 block of West Lafayette.
Marvin Hutton

Marvin Hutton was arrested for the murder of Ronn Williams on September 24.

Time for rehab, Joshua Osterholt. Driving drunk with pot and kids in the car,* tsk! Though why this is a feature story is a bit puzzling, surely drunk drivers transporting at least one of those kinds of cargo are pulled over at least once a day. But have some token shame. Shame!

Bon mots du jour: "church members clean up human feces from the back alley almost daily."

While we await the naming of public enemy #5, the City Paper has helpfully organized enemies 1-4 into a chart.

David B. Simon
Media blabber: word on the street is last week there was a major shakeup at the Daily Record, with editor David B. Simon (no, not that David Simon) delivering stinging rebukes at a editorial meeting and quitting after a mere 10 months of working there, followed by the walkout of the two-person art department, leaving long-suffering managing editor Barbara Grizincic to manage the mess. To maintain the paper's quota of bald dudes, former Sun and Patch reporter Bryan P. Sears has now joined the turbulent tabloid as a government reporter.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Friday, October 18, 2013

19 is the new 35

Extra-special Robert G. Moore, an accused drug kingpin and murderer who allegedly threatened the lives of two prosecutors,* went on trial today but didn't show up in the courtroom after a Judge deemed him too dangerous to be there,* an unusual move that is apparently not against the law.

Tumaina Bakani
Frank Harper, via Facebook
Frank Harper, 55, died after getting into a fight with an armed security guard* at a Subway/Citgo station at 5516 Reisterstown Road. Said security guard, Tumaina Bakani, age 33, is now being charged with murder. WBAL reports the whole exchange was filmed by the store's security cameras.

Two men were shot in the parking lot of a Citgo* -- a different parking lot of a different Citgo, this one at 2801 Edmonson Avenue (intriguingly titled on Apple maps as the "Princess Olaza Citgo")

A man was shot in the groin* near Morgan State University in the 1600 block of Northgate Road

A man was shot in the 200 block of Monastery Avenue

Down at Central Booking, officials were found to have accepted bail for an inmate who had been dead for two days* ... and still haven't issued his family a refund.

Doop de doo--- an inmate walked away from a work detail on Wednesday and was tracked down near the Westfield Annapolis mall.*

Yacoub
Eeww... coked-up Towson gynecologist Dr. John Yacoub was suspended on drug charges and was found to have pictures of patients' privates on his phone. And an air marshal from Maryland was arrested in Tennessee and accused of taking upskirt photos on a Southwest Airlines flight.

A 19-year-old was served a beer at Birrotecca and The Admiral's Cup, their defense? She was "dressed up very attractively that evening! ... 35 doesn't look the way it used to." 

"Prude Pleads Guilty to 2001 Rape" .. and he stole her purse, too.

The State's Attorney's office released a baffling array of pie charts and graphs, one showing a 15% uptick in felony convictions over the past month.

The dead body of 29-year-old Kevin Wheelan was found on a light rail train in Cunt Valley,* cause of death TBD.

In Bethesda, a three-year-old boy was kidnapped, then rescued after his abductor crashed into a tree.

And that kid who chewed a toaster pastry into the shape of a gun, attracting a laudatory lifetime membership from the NRA, has had his school record cleared.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Intent matters

Jessica Anderson: Jury has found officer William S. Kern not guilty of 2nd degree assault, but guilty of reckless endangerment. ... Related or not, the BPD may be fantastic when it comes to screening recruits for mental health issues, but when a working officer goes batshit crazy, how does the department deal with it?

Shawn Dewayne Dean, 40, was shot to death by police last night after allegedly dragging an officer with his car for two blocks. Annoyance: WBAL using the phrase, "the officer was forced to fire his service weapon." Unless Dean was wrestling with him while driving and made the officer put the gun to his head, he was not forced. Shooting Dean in the head might have been the best of a handful of shiteous options, but that is not the same thing as literal force. Unless it was.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Violent Avenue

Kevin Talley, 25, died after being shot in the 3700 block of Reisterstown Road last night near... Violent Avenue?

Trial started today for William Kern,* the police academy instructor who allegedly shot a recruit in the head.

After violating the First Amendment rights of Women in Black, the city is coughing up $100k for the ACLU.* And a jury awarded $250k to the family of Andrew Cornish, killed in a SWAT team raid in 2005. And the mother of a 16-year-old hit in the face by cops was awarded $75k.

Another attempted carjacking of Vi Ripken? What?

Oh, Doug Gansler. When you're in a hole, quit digging. Dude responded to allegations that he ordered his driver to break traffic laws-- allegations that probably would have blown over if he'd just shut up-- by saying "Nobody really believes I ordered some troopers to do these kinds of things because it’s silly." The seven state troopers who filed complaints and said trooper's supervisors, however, likely disagree.
    On a related note, I'm taking down the poll because other, more appealing candidates have emerged and I don't want to pretend like they don't exist. Results reveal crushing apathy among voters, with 63 percent undecided/don't care.
You know who's looking really great right now? Heather Mizeur. She's against fracking, looks like a thinner Edith Massey (at least in this picture), and isn't associated with the O'Malley cabal.

Police are on a serious roll when it comes to posting the "losers of the stop-and-frisk sweepstakes" ( as commenter so aptly deemed it):

























Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Wild dogs, eugenics and an isolation tank

Big news: the Supreme Court will not review Maryland's "may issue" handgun law. The 4th Circuit has already upheld Maryland's law that requires citizens to have a valid reason to carry a concealed weapon in public.

So much for that sweet 10-day murderless streak: Kennard Bess, age 20, was killed overnight in the 2600 block of Chase Street. (There's a Kennard Bess on Facebook, but he looks way older than 20).

Remember how the Brew revealed that the city was giving the Mayor's buddies at Dynis LLC a contract for Smart Meters that was $101 million more than the next-highest bidder? A contract that would give Dynis a $70 million profit for work to be completed by subcontractors? This just in, a lily-livered statement has been issued.

Neighbors in Fullerton (up by White Marsh) report being menaced by a pack of wild dogs.

DNA evidence closed a 2004 rape case, said evidence pointed to Deandre Eugene Wilson, age 28.

Speaking of evidence left behind and stuff that you just can't make up, who is behind the mysterious Baltimore News Journal? This is a site that popped up in January and began to sporadically "report" on a seemingly random assortment of crime stories around in the area. A whois search leads to an anonymous registration, but lists a phone number in the Scottsdale, Arizona area, and a reverse phone number lookup leads to the offices of K-TFRN, aka the Truth Freedom Radio Network, which appears to be a looney tunes media venture, with headlines like "Book of Revelations Unfolding in Pakistan" and "Extra Virgin Olive Oil Hoax Exposed" (from the "Health and Eugenics" section). The site is run by a couple, Chris and Sheree Geo, who "founded Truth Frequency Radio with the purpose of compiling an archive of information that can be used for many years to come. Not your typical radio show, Truth Frequency focuses more on the history of the occult and the deeper underlying conspiracy behind current events in an effort to predict the future by understanding the past." So there you go.

And speaking of things wackadoodle, apparently there's a place in town called T Hill where you can chew on salvia leaves and climb into one of those sensory-deprivation tanks.

Monday, October 14, 2013

So brave.


A fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man in the 3600 block of Bowers Avenue,* a few blocks away from where Reginald Hart, aged 58, became the city's 178th homicide victim last Thursday. Related incidents? Coincidence?

Do other areas have as many barricade situations as we do? This time a suicidal man in Dundalk locked himself in his house yesterday, and all ended peacefully.

An alleged armed robber was shot by police in Middle River and taken into custody.


An indictment against alleged illegal gun seller Lovell Offer in Anne Arundel County was dropped because investigators violated wiretap laws. Noteworthy in lieu of the NSA revelations (the 4th amendment still matters?), the fact that it took seven months for the fact that the wiretap was illegal to come up, and for the City Paper's excellent choice to illustrate the story with a screen capture of John Goodman as Linda Tripp. Motion allowed!

Related: a judge decides the feds can't confiscate an alleged drug dealer's Mercedes. What is going on with all of this integrity this week?

Harbor East is where all the swells congregate-- a second corpse has bobbed up* next to the chichi Paterakis/Beatty consumertorium. Last Tuesday's floater was ID'd as Douglas Paige, 58, reportedly neither body showed signs of foul play. And the Brew features a picture of the sneaker of yesterday's unfortunate victim.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Secret Meetings

For the third time in six months the Open Meetings Compliance Board found that the city government has violated open meetings laws*-- the most recent ruling refers to a meeting in July regarding tax breaks for developers. Said BDC President Brenda McKenzie, "The ruling was helpful. We will use it as a guide for future meetings." .. unlike what happened after the last two rulings.

Whoa. Chris Van Hollen, our representative in the House from the 8th district, points out that October 1st the House Republicans changed the law so that instead of any House member being able to call up a bill for a vote, only the Republican leader of the House can do it.  Said Pete Sessions, R-Texas,
00:00:13WHAT WE'RE ATTEMPTING TO DO IS TO ACTUALLY GET OUR PEOPLE TOGETHER RATHER THAN TRYING TO MAKE A DECISION.
Default is going to happen, people, grab your ankles and survival kits.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

The streak

After an incredible 10 days with no murders, Reginald Hart, 58, was killed in the 5500 block of Gwynn Oak yesterday.* He's the 178th murder victim of the year.

A 17-year-old was shot in the neck on Arunah Avenue yesterday.






Thursday, October 10, 2013

There's some shirts

Jose Morales was found guilty of soliciting Robert Long's murder by a federal jury, a murder Demetrius Smith* was doing time for. ... But what happened to Stanley Needleman?

MTA Police are looking for three fashion-foward guys who committed armed robbery of a passenger on the number 40 bus.

Police Tweeted a shooting in the 2400 block of East Monument Street.

Anthony Towels/Towles has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of his 16-month-old granddaughter Sabryia, even though her death was ruled accidental-- he left her in his car last summer and she died.

Anthony Batts was on the Marc Steiner show yesterday evening, you can listen to the podcast if you're into that kind of thing.

Christopher Troy Goode aka Public Enemy #1 has been captured.

Dude's mellow was harshed in Glen Burnie when a bowl, weed and pot brownies were seized.
(What is the Baltimore News Journal? Who's behind it? Anyone know?)

Media blabber: local neurosurgeon Ben "Bestiality" Carson has debuted as a Fox News commentator.
Laugh so you don't cry dept: A company called Dynis LLC is poised to get a city contract for new "Smart Meters," even though their bid is $101 million more than a competitor's. Why, you ask? Is it the vast techincal superiority of their meters? Or is it perhaps because the CEO of Dynis was Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's top contributor in 2011? Strokes beard.

Housing inspectors have reportedly made a game of who can issue the most citations, with the "sharks" at the top and the "crabs" at the bottom.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Confidence level = zero

Down in Greenbelt the Jose Morales case has gone to the jury.* Last week prosecutors tied him to three murders and an attempted murder-for-hire -- Robert Long's, plus three men who were in the federal penitentiary, Clyde "Junior" Lucas, who was with Long when he died, Mark Bartlett, a thief, addict and drug dealer who was the "star witness" who originally helped put Demetrius Smith in jail for Long's murder, and Terry Sadler, who is alive and also the mother of one of Morales' children. (I guess Stanley Needleman never testified?)

Four people arrested and three indicted on charges related to bribing postal workers at the Waverly and Pikesville post offices. Richard Wright, 37, and Kimberly Parnell, 43, are the respective post office managers, making Shane Anderson, 37, and Ladena Sketers-Anderson, 46, are the presumptive alleged bribers. Fenton says the managers are accused of taking kickbacks for no-show jobs from landscaping and janitorial companies.* Wright allegedly texted, "'Yo bra u need to text or call me because I need to get my loot!' ... referring to a $2,000 cut from $3,750 paid for contract work."

Kenneth Bernard Corporal was arrested for stabbing bouncers at the Comedy Factory.*

The Baltimore Police Department posted to Facebook,
"The Baltimore Police Department will make no changes to its policy regarding the information it currently disseminates on Twitter. We will continue to use Twitter to inform the community on all non fatal shootings, all homicides, crime prevention tips, public safety issues, noteworthy arrests and community events. Our goal has always been to provide the most accurate information possible. The community deserves nothing less. In order to meet that goal as crimes happen we will endeavor to add more context to events when they occur."
I gotta say, too little too late-- at this point I've completely lost confidence in Batts to lead. Homicides are up, transparency is down, dude seems completely clueless as to the law when it comes to Terry stops,* you had Gugliemi saying "we're pretty satisfied where the city is headed, violence-wise" after one of the most violent weekends in history, then the new guy saying they're not going to tweet "criminal on criminal crime." The spokesmen's words are their own, but apparently the Batts administration culture promotes that dismissive attitude: with Gugliemi's remarks, Batts never denounced them, he just "temporarily reassigned" Gugliemi to another post and remarked that the "messaging" and been "terrible."*
     And as a cynical Baltimorean, know how easy and tempting it is to slide into the "let the criminals kill each other off and have God sort 'em out" attitude. But there are problems with this line of thinking. First being collateral damage: kids and "actual citizens" literally getting caught in the crossfire. Second, people lose confidence that the police can protect them, and start taking care of threatening individuals themselves, already a huge problem in this city, the average homicide victim has 8.5 arrests.* When there's been a shooting on the block yet nothing is said, it reinforces this perception and conveys the message that shootings are so routine they aren't even noteworthy any more and the police don't care, reinforcing the cycle of violence. 
     Then there's the ethics of the "criminals aren't citizens" attitude. Just because you've bought some pot in the park doesn't mean you deserve the death penalty, or even a bullet in the knee. And finally, because America. Do we believe in the rule of law, or do we believe in the rule of the jungle?
     So yeah, no confidence. Time for this guy to go.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Drug dealers are citizens too

What. If being callous and utterly tone-deaf gets you fired from a BPD communications job, sounds like Jack Papp is about to join Anthony Guglieimi in the bread line-- dude emailed a reporter that the department "is not going to tweet out every time a drug dealer shoots another criminal in the leg* for nonpayment, i.e. criminal-on-criminal crime that we know... we will still tweet out instances where nonfatal shootings involve citizens, public safety issues, etc." So I guess this guy* and the other people shot over the weekend were confirmed criminals, duly noted, and that if you have an arrest on your record you lose your Baltimore citizenship ... you're walking around in your own personal airport transit zone or something.
   Papp now claims that due to outcry the policy has been reversed, but the BPD has still not Tweeted a shooting in eight days.

In Glen Burnie a school bus driver was charged with robbing banks.

A male body this morning in the water by Fells Point, cause of death unknown

Monday, October 7, 2013

Really out to get you

Spooky comment on the blog this morning--
Today's date of this posting is (October 7, 2013)... As I was driving down Interstate 95-S just past the 295 Baltimore/Washington Pkwy. at 12:45 a.m. this past mid April when I suddenly saw a large drone (about the size of a helicopter)hovering just off of the northbound side of 95-N with red lights flashing on and off underneath it, when all of a sudden, bright white lights touched down in front of my car, then on top of my car and then circled onto the northbound side on top of another car. That was probably the spookiest thing I've ever seen. I feel like we are now living in a twilight zone dictatorship called Obamba-land and no longer the good ole U.S.A. land of the free! We are living in scary times!!!
Yes they are, but spying is a bipartisan effort! And speaking of the federales, the New York Times has uncovered that the government shutdown has been planned for months, and guess which evil duo is behind it? That would be the Koch Brothers, founders of the Tea Party, who are no doubt pleased as punch that the government shutdown means less nosy gubmint poking into their activities, activities such as illegal sales to Iran, fracking and drilling for oil in national parks (which continue in spite of the "shutdown"). The shutdown is win-win for them, and we can expect it to go on for a long time.

The FBI couldn't figure out how to seize the Bitcoins of the founder of the Silk Road, so they seized users' funds instead. Fun fact: Silk Road operated on a TOR network, TOR being an acronym for "The Onion Router," so-called because of its encryption layers. The network was a creation of the U.S. government, which wanted to offer anonymity to users in repressive regimes. The FBI likely took down Ross "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht by using a backdoor in Firefox to insert malware that identified specific networking devices.

And court records were unsealed that reveal why Ladar Levison shut down Lavabit, the e-mail service provider to Edward Snowden and about 400,000 other people: the Feds demanded that Levison turn over SSL keys that would give them access to every single user's metadata and fined him $5,000 a day when he refused.

Don't think extralegal government activities are something you should worry about? Read this plz, and mull over the fact that Maryland State Police spied on Peace protestors-- not just here or there, but monitored their activities for more than a year.

Rather worse for the wear

Somebody's got mommy issues: "Public Enemy No. 1" Christopher Troy Goode is now wanted for questioning for the shooting of a woman that took place Saturday night.* Goode has a shiny forehead, a red goatee with the number 13 on it and should be considered armed and dangerous.

Power Plant Live = hot mess. Two bouncers were stabbed there at a Aries Spears show last night, and Spears has some n-words for the incident.


Business model: charge people $9.99 to see if their mug shot is on a site, if it is, charge them $40-$90 to take it down.*

History corner: 164 years ago today, Edgar Allan Poe died at Church Home and Hospital between East Fayette and East Baltimore Streets where he was taken after being found at 44 E. Lombard Street "rather worse for the wear" on October 3rd. Still to this day no one knows exactly what killed him; theories range from rabies to liver failure.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Depends on what is is

Busted! Batts justified the use of ye olde stop-and-frisk by citing the example of some BGF guy he patted down in the CHUM. Turns out that according to legal experts the pat-down was not legal, and as it turned out no guns were found;* rather stretches the credibility of his claim that the department only conducts lawful Terry stops when the commissioner is unaware of what a lawful stop is.

Two shootings yesterday, in the southern district and on E. 24th Street, respectively.

A shooting in Parkville in the 7100 block of Darlington Drive, a shooting in the 1400 block of Ingleside

Whodathunk it? States with stricter gun laws found to have fewer shooting deaths.