What Politicians Want, Politicians Get

Baltimore (and the state), a city with no professional hockey or basketball team, is planning on building a brand-new, 18,500 seat arena with a tax-payer subsidised price tag of about 300 million. Mind you, this comes at a time when MD Gov Martin O'Malley has raised just about every tax he could because of the 'tough budget concerns' the state faces. But apparently building a 300+million arena with no commitment as to a tenant is a necessity. The Baltimore Sun:

State and city leaders unveiled plans yesterday to tear down the aging 1st Mariner Arena and replace it with a new venue big enough to attract a professional basketball or hockey team to Baltimore - an idea that drew a skeptical response from the sports world.

Calling the 46-year-old 1st Mariner Arena "functionally obsolete," officials said a new 18,500-seat facility would draw the biggest concerts and acts to Baltimore and could play host to major events such as the NCAA basketball tournament. A new arena would probably cost $300million or more, paid for largely with public money, and could open as soon as 2012.[...]

We need a state-of-the-art arena because whether we have a major-league team in Baltimore playing basketball or shooting hockey pucks, this is a major-league city and it deserves a major-league arena," said M.J. "Jay" Brodie, president of the Baltimore Development Corp. and head of a panel formed to evaluate arena options. The panel issued its recommendations yesterday with the support of the mayor and the governor.

That's right, Baltimore is a "major-leagues city" that deserves a major-league arena. It doesn't matter if it needs one - (and really, does a city ever need a tax-payer funded arena? No, probably not, but it certainly doesn't need one when it doesn't have a team to fill it. Getting one extra Hannah Montana concert doesn't equal a NBA team) - some d-bags in City Hall and Annapolis just think the city deserves one. That and they all want some really sweet contracts to dish out to relatives and friends for the construction of this monstrosity. Excellent.

Full stroy here.

There are Lots of Factors Contributing to the Stench, But High Property Taxes is Certainly One

Stephen Walters and Steve Hanke in the WSJ on Baltimore:

If you've seen HBO's "The Wire," you know why those of us who live in Baltimore are often asked whether our city really is the hellhole it is portrayed to be on TV.

Our answer is, well, yes. Baltimore deserves the Third-World profile it has developed because it has expanses of crumbling, crime-riddled neighborhoods populated by low-income renters, an absent middle class, and just a few enclaves of high-income gentry near the Inner Harbor or in suburbs. [...]

How did this happen?

Most people think of cities as dense concentrations of people. They are that, of course. But they are also dense concentrations of capital – homes, offices, factories, theaters and roads. All of these assets are attractive to people because, when they are in close proximity to each other, they offer the chance of a more prosperous life.

The problem is that once capital is built, it can become a target for tax-and-spend politicians who bank on the fact that physical capital will continue to draw people, even as it is taxed more heavily. This is what has happened in Baltimore. The city has waged a war on capital for more than 50 years, raising property taxes an astonishing 21 times from 1950 to 1985.

I don't own in this city, I rent (mostly to allow for a quick escape when the restless natives completely take over), but if I did own this would be my number one complaint with Baltimore. Even before high crime, lackluster public services, non-existent public transportation and high income tax. I'm always surprised at the number of people who live outside of the city that think property taxes within Baltimore are low. Only because in their mind they would have to be; otherwise why would anyone live in Baltimore? It's a good questionm that the political leadership in the city might want to ask themselves.

Civil Rights Crusading -- NAACP Style

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - At Baltimore’s Lexington Market, cold beer is poured fresh from the tap — but there’s a catch.

To buy a cup of suds, patrons must also purchase food — a policy some customers call a “rip-off” and the NAACP alleges is “possible discrimination.”

“I think it’s extortion,” said Rodney Orange, the fifth past president of the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “Why should someone have to buy food if all they want is a cup of beer?”

See, Rodney wanted a beer only -- no food -- and was told it was against market policy and he would have to buy food. Then, instead of worrying about things like the murder rate in Baltimore among young black males, or the unemployment rate, or any number of real problems in the black community; or just going to any other market in the city, he decided to protest the possible discrimination of Lexington Market for only selling beer to patrons who buy food. Makes sense. Or I guess I should say in Baltimore this makes sense.

See here, here for more proud and pointless moments (respectively) in recent Baltimore NAACP history.

Full story here. Via Baltimore Crime.

Nothing To See Here; Move Along People

I dunno but if I were representing a fairly prominent politico whose home had just been raided by state investigators, I think I'd try to proclaim my client's innocence of any wrong-doing instead issuing of a weaselly evasion -- if I could. But hey, that's just me. What do I know?

State prosecutors searched Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon's house for several hours in the morning, apparently continuing a two-year probe of her financial dealings as City Council president.

The investigators removed documents from Mrs. Dixon's Southwest Baltimore home, but would not confirm the focus of the investigation.
***
"The public should be aware of the State Prosecutor's reports for the last couple of years, which disclose that the State Prosecutor has spent hundreds of thousands on investigations which went nowhere," said Dale P. Kelberman, a white-collar criminal defense attorney representing Mrs. Dixon.

Read the whole thing here.

I Could Think of Worse Ways to Wage the War on Drugs

No parking here has helped drive down business in one of the largest open-air drug markets in city...but drug dealers aren't the only business being hurt:

Every day, Derek Kang used to chase 20 to 30 people he suspected of dealing drugs out of the vestibule of Sweet Sixteen, a women's clothing store he manages on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Now it's down to just one or two, he said, after Baltimore police began a new strategy to eradicate one of the city's largest open-air drug markets: Take away the parking.

Business has been down since late fall, when orange "No Stopping" bags first appeared on the meters lining four blocks of the West Baltimore commercial district, and Kang and other merchants along the strip have felt the impact on their bottom line. But Baltimore police officials said that calls for service are also down there and that they are monitoring the effects of the initiative to determine whether it might be applied elsewhere.[...]

The city's strategy is an example of what is called "situational crime prevention" - changing the environment to deter criminal activity, said Jean M. McGloin, a criminologist at the University of Maryland.

Interesting. Of course what usually ends up happening in situations like this is that the drug dealers merely get pushed to another area, it's not as though people want to stop getting high in Baltimore. But as far as tactics go in the War on Drugs, we could do a lot worse.

Baltimore to Remove 'Blue Light' Cameras

Arguing that the technology requires too much manpower to be effective, Baltimore police are phasing out the first generation of blue-light cameras -- among the city's most visible crime-fighting tools.

Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said the portable cameras, which represent about 18 percent of all crime cameras in the city, will slowly be replaced with more sophisticated closed-circuit units.

The blue light cameras were always more symbolic instead of a crime-fighting tool, and about the only good they served was was to warn you to not get too close to the block with the blinking blue light. That being said, I would much rather have the ineffective blue light cameras over effective CCTV government cameras.

If they are going to watch me, I'd rather it be a heavy burden on the state, rather than just punching up a television screen in some central viewing area.

Full article here.

Deadly Night in the City

8 men shot, 2 fatally during a busy night in Baltimore.

Preakness vs Derby

Looking at my calender I see that the annual Baltimore tradition -- and second leg of the Triple Crown -- is coming up this Saturday. I plan on finding just about anything else to do. Golf, yard work, rounding up feral cats at the dump, you name it -- I'd rather be doing it. Preakness is something to be done once, maybe twice, but only if you're lucky enough to survive the fist one. The infield is a virtual death trap between beer grenades and flying ice chests, and enough pools of urine, feces and vomit to breed both mosquitoes and hepatitis.

On that note, the Sun's Kevin Van Valkenburg compares the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness and ends on this:

RACING FIELD AND OVERALL AESTHETIC

Derby: The best 3-year-olds in the world, most of whom are anonymous, unless you are the kind of guy who hangs out at the track all day, every day, smoking cigars, drinking bourbon and studying a racing sheet, in which case you are awesome.

Preakness: Say what you want about the Preakness, but it always has the Kentucky Derby winner, and the possibility for a Triple Crown is still alive. C'mon, Big Brown, momma needs a new pair of shoes!

Comment: OK, so one time at the Preakness, a guy ran on the track and tried to punch a horse. And we still don't have slots to play while you wait. And, yeah, Barbaro ran his last race here. And the grandstand looks like a shuttered steel mill. Did we mention you can bring your own beer?

Advantage: Preakness.

OVERALL WINNER: Preakness.

The Kentucky Derby is like a cross between the circus and the opera for rich people, only with more drinking and less-tasteful nudity.

The Preakness is more like a working-class celebration, something out of a Damon Runyon short story. It's the people's horse racing event, and it's as exciting as it is unpredictable.

You never know whether the power is going to fail or whether you're going to find true love at the bottom of an inflatable pool that's filled with warm beer. Plus, who knows how many more years the Preakness will be in Maryland?

It almost makes me want to go...Just almost.

Full article here.

Headline Tells the Tale

In the Baltimore Sun:

Shooting victims had poor attendance, system's data show

There's a little more to the story, but even the revelation that kids who are shot have poor school attendance before the shooting is pretty worthless.

1st Quarter Homicide Rate Lowest Since 1985

Give credit where credit is due:

Something has changed. Compared to the same time last year, homicides were down 30 percent in the first three months of 2008 and shootings declined 31 percent. Last year began as the most violent in more than a decade, but the first quarter of 2008 was Baltimore's least deadly since 1985.

City and state officials caution that it's too early to extrapolate much, but they say the trends are encouraging and point to a host of factors that they believe have made a difference.

IMO the new police chief, Fredrick Bealefeld deserves most of the praise. He's prioritized community involvement with his department, put foot patrols back on the street where they belong and moved away from the zero-tolerence policing that had zero impact on the murder rate.

Time will tell though, (and I'd like to see the numbers on non-fatal shootings) but improvement is improvement.

Full story here.

Breaking News: Two People May Move to Baltimore

Is there a chance that Jenna Bush and her soon-to-be husband are moving to Baltimore? Via Wonkette, Washington Post's Reliable Source reports:

In barely more than six weeks, Henry Hager will have a new wife -- Jenna Bush, as you may have heard -- and a brand-new graduate degree in business. So presumably a new job is on the horizon?

According to a student at the University of Virginia's Darden School, where Hager is in the final weeks of MBA study, Hager's friends are buzzing that President Bush's future son-in-law will be going to work for Baltimore-based Constellation Energy.[..]

Also: The betrothed couple has reportedly house-hunted in the Baltimore area, according to People. They'll get hitched at the Bush family ranch in Crawford, Tex., on May 10.

Fantastic! Just the other night -- when walking back home from a lovely meal out with my lady friend I was thinking, "Why don't more wealthy, upper-class white couples move into this city?"

Of course, during that same walk a black man with a large penis yelled at us:

"I'll fuck your whore. I have a big dick. I'll face-fuck your whore and snuff you mother-fucker."

Ah...Well, that answers that.

Savino Escapes His Second Death; This Time From A Knife

Christopher Clanton, the Baltimore based actor who played Savino Bratton on The Wire, was stabbed in the buttocks and chest at a social hall in Baltimore County. He's reportely doing well.

About 2 a.m., Baltimore County police rushed to Overlea Caterers Inc., in the 6800 block of Belair Road, and used pepper spray to disperse a crowd of about 30 people, several of whom were fighting, a police spokesman said.[...]

The actor, who lives in Northeast Baltimore, has had his own encounters with the law.

In August 2006, Clanton pleaded guilty in Baltimore Circuit Court to manufacturing, distributing and dispensing a controlled dangerous substance and other drug-related charges.

Brief reminder: Savino was killed by Omar outside the club during episode 7 of this final season. Full article here.

In other Baltimore-violence-related-news, it was a bloody weekend in the city with two murders and 3 other non-fatal shootings over the holiday weekend.

In a Bar in Baltimore and Need a Smoke? Walk to Pennsylvania

150 feet is a long ways away. Contrast 150 feet to the standard 15 feet distance that some smoke-free municipalities demand in their bans.

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Banished smokers taking nicotine breaks outside bars in one of Baltimore City’s trendy neighborhoods are being told to move or face fines and arrest for loitering, bar owners said.

Hampden bar owners said they were shocked last week when police began warning patrons to move 150 feet away from the entrance of bars they were patronizing or face loitering charges.

“Loitering has always been a legitimate problem in the neighborhood that we couldn’t get police to deal with,” said Benn Ray, owner of Atomic Books and head of the Hampden Village Merchants Association.

“So why all of sudden is the Police Department being aggressive with smokers when they haven’t been enforcing loitering laws for 10 years?”

Maybe not in Hampden, but in the grimier neighborhoods of Baltimore, police in the past have had little problem in strictly enforcing the loitering laws. More:

At Frazier’s, a popular Hampden hangout, day manager Tabrina Sherman said the message police gave to patrons smoking outside her bar was clear.

“They were told they need to move 150 feet away or they will be fined first and arrested the second time.”

City officials said enforcing loitering laws has grown trickier since the statewide smoking ban went into effect Feb. 1.

“Particularly in front of bars where there have been a history of problems, we have asked patrols to be aggressive to enforce the loitering laws; however, the smoking ban changes the dynamic,” said Sterling Clifford, spokesman for the Police Department.

“This is an unintended consequence of two well-intentioned laws.”

Predictable. Every single bit of it. And it will only get worse has smokers adjust their habits and began to smoke as much as they were pre-ban once they get used to going outside for a smoke. Residents will start complaining about the increased noise in the early morning hours, and before you know it I'll be forced to smoke on a barge in the Patapsco River. Which minus the fish-kills and dead bodies, I'm sure would be a lovely experience.

Full article here.

The Coming War on Dirt Bikes

It's already illegal to ride a dirt bike in Charm City. Next up: Proposed legislation that would force owners to install ignition locks or wheel clamps on dirt bikes at all times. If the vehicles were not immobilized the city would be allowed to steal seize the property, and the owner would not be allowed to purchase the vehicle back from the city. The bike's former owner would also be castrated, then shot, after which his/her dead body would be thrown to the pigs for supper as punishment for the unforgivable offense of leaving their dirt bike drivable in the World's Safest City.

Full article here, complete with shake-your-head stupidity like:

“What typically happens when the police seize these bikes [particularly from drug runners] is that the people who forfeited the bikes show up at auction and just buy it right back. This law outlaws that practice,” said Shaun Adamec, spokesman for City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who also supports the bill.

Get it? People who have "forfeited" -- which is nice talk for the government stealing your property -- their bikes have the audacity to try and buy back their once-owned property. The nerve of some people!

Dirt bikes are annoying and loud. Possibly even dangerous. Some are even used by drug dealers. Still, does this mean that we should go to such drastic, and seemingly unconstitutional lengths to prevent their use within city limits? A rational, and liberty-loving individual who believes in property rights would say no. Power hungry, and all-knowing politicians and bureaucrats say yes.

2 Dead, 3 Others Wounded Overnight

If this headline was about a shooting at a mall in an Ohio suburb it would be front-page news across the country. However, this occurred on the streets (and homes) of east and west Baltimore in 4 separate incidents, and the story hardly gets any play on the Sun's web site, let alone any where else in the media world. If nothing else, can't we get a story on how this is a bad night, in an otherwise sorta' good year for crime? [OK -- so far, a sorta' good year. But you take the good when you get it.]

Hey, but if nothing else people like to watch The Wire. Or should I say they used to...

Armed with Video Cameras

Good article in the Baltimore Sun today on citizens video taping police officers.

Drive though some Baltimore neighborhoods at night and it quickly becomes obvious: The blinking blue-light cameras show the police are watching.

But the police also are being watched.

Citizens armed with cameras - even in their cell phones - are filming officers in action, sometimes with unflattering results.

That's a fair point when talking about the supposed controversy surrounding the act of taping police officers. If I leave my house and walk west on Washington Blvd, I am guaranteed to be on film for more than 8 blocks. No doubts about it, every time I do it, I'll be captured on film by the city. I'm not a criminal*, but the camera captures you whether you are committing a crime or not, or whether you have the intent to commit a crime or not.

The logic is that the blue-light cameras will prevent crime from happening, or allow police to solve more crimes that do occur. The cameras don't actually accomplish those goals, but nonetheless that's why they are there. Plus, if you aren't doing anything illegal, what do you have to fear? It's fucked up. That logic shouldn't apply to innocent citizens who, for perfectly reasonable reasons, feel uncomfortable about being filmed by their frequently abusive government. But that logic should be applied to government agents, who are given immense amounts of power and responsibilities, and -- last time I checked -- supposedly worked for the taxpayers.

Some police officers don't like the new reality that they can be under surveillance by the citizenry.

"I think that cops are terrified of video cameras," said Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore police officer who is now a sociologist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "I think the end result is cops will police a little more carefully.

Uh, this is a good thing, right? 'Cause, if cops are more careful with their power that's a net positive for everyone, right? Better community relations, less complaints and lawsuits, and most importantly -- fewer people getting the shit kicked out of them.

But officers do have some reasons to fear the lens. Recently retired Lt. Frederick V. Roussey said that in his 29 years on the force he used to encounter suspected gang members who would walk up to his officers and take pictures of them with their cell phones.

"If I had someone doing it, I would go over and grab the phone," he said. "It would be like, 'No way.'" Roussey said he feared that gangs were compiling electronic hit lists of officers.

Bullshit. To the best of my knowledge one police officer was killed in all of 2007. He wasn't even on-duty, he was robbed, and shot to death while returning home from work. Just like other innocent Baltimore residents who aren't adequately protected by our failing city services. According the Baltimore Police Department's website, the last officer killed on-duty, in a non-traffic related accident, was in 2004. Almost 4 years ago. If thugs in west Baltimore are compiling electronic hit lists of cops, they aren't making much headway on them. Which is surprising, because if there is one thing Baltimore criminals are good at, it's killing people. Most likely, criminals understand that killing a cop is bad for business, so they tend to avoid it. But forget about logic; let's look at the facts. In the same period that one police officer was shot to death, on-duty, we've had 49 fatalities at the hands of police officers. 49. 49-1. With that ratio, who needs to be filmed?


*I use the term "criminal" and "not" loosely. I do not consider the occasional Pigtown tranny pick-up to be a crime. I hardly ever pay; most time I just trade them drugs for oral sex**

**ATTN Baltimore PD: This is not a confession of illegal acts (although I'm not sure I want to live in a country where trading crack for a blow job is illegal), this web site is merely for entertainment purpose only and should not be taken seriously.

Baltimore Cop Objects to the 'Dude' Label

Making the rounds today on the web. Baltimore police officer (one that I recgonize as a regular patrol in that area) roughs up skateborder at the Inner Harbor.

Best part is the very end as the video is being cut off the cop asks the kid if he is filiming the confrontation and begins to say, "If I end up on you tube..". Too late. The cop in question has been suspended pending an internal affairs investigation.

When Bad Cops Stay Bad

I thought I had blogged on this (involving the same cop as below) story a few weeks back, but checking our archives I was proven wrong. In fact, I thought I had written a bunch of quality posts that turn out not to exist. What a bummer.

This will make up for my oversight:

A police officer and the City of Baltimore face a $100 million lawsuit filed by a man who says he was sexually assaulted.

Adam May reports Steven Vernarelli claims he was walking to Johns Hopkins Hospital in October, when he was stopped for no reason and sodomized with his own paper money by a Baltimore City police officer.

Vernarelli filed a $100 million lawsuit against Officer Jerome Hill.

"He took the money, ripped it and then reached behind me and shoved the twisted pieces," said Vernarelli.

Good to know my tax dollars are going to something useful. Like paying $100 million for a city employee to sodomize a citizen with a dollar bills. At least give me a buzz next time so I can catch this on video and get a front-page hit on you tube or break.

There's more to this officer's problems. The story I mentioned at the top of this post, the one that I'd thought I'd blogged on, involved Officer Hill and an integrity-testing sting about a month back. Here's how dirty this cop is, or I guess I should say was:

BPD receive multiple complaints, including a "serious allegation" made in district court about Officer Hill. The integrity testing unit sets up a sting involving a couple of undercover officers planted as suspected drug dealers. Officer Hill is dispatched to the corner where the undercover officer/suspect is and he properly drills the guy in the face with his fist. No provocation, no reason to do it, he just smashes the undercover officer in the face. Back up comes out to pull Hill off the undercover officer and arrest him. It took ONE sting to get this guy. The very first time he just shows up and punches the guy in the face. I mean Christ, give us some hope that you weren't beating the shit out of everyone EVERYTIME you had an opportunity.

So that story made front pages, he was charged with assault and placed on unpaid leave. Now the stories start flooding out, as well as the lawsuits. I blame the individual officers, but I also blame the city for poor management and oversight of a police department that everyone knows is both corrupt and dangerous.

The Wire Blows Its Last Season

The first four seasons of The Wire were the best that television could offer. This season creator David Simon got too close to home and had too many bones to pick. He featured the Baltimore Sun, his former paper, and his anger toward the state of newspapers caused him to screw up the whole damn thing.

The Washington City Paper has the best critique of the show.

Season 5’s mistakes—clunky plotting, false parallels, confused motivations—are violations of the realism the show promised. And without a solid rooting in truth, The Wire doesn’t just have a bad season—it betrays its own intentions. David Simon broke a contract, changed the rules without warning. In his world, that’s something only the Wire-bad are supposed to do.

The Last Gasp of Freedom

I know we have a few Baltimore readers out there.... Wherever you are in city, be sure to take advantage of your last night (until midnight) to light up in bars. As of Feb 1st, Baltimore begins to lose the Charm in Charm City, and joins the crowd of non-smoking cities. I may be overly emotional in this time of mourning, but to my mind I can't think of a smokier city in our country than Baltimore. Any nominations for a smokier city? Maybe Savannah? I'll even take pre-ban nominations...

Anyways, I'll probably be at Mick O'Shea's in 3 hours time enjoying my last few hours of freedom. I'll be the guy with a cigar in one hand and a cigarette in the other, wondering how I'm going to explain to my kids that you were once able to smoke in bars...

NPR's "Fresh Air" Taps The Wire

Have you ever sat in your car when you were already home because you couldn't tear yourself away from a great NPR story that was playing on the radio? I did that yesterday, when Terry Gross interviewed Clark Johnson, who directed the first two episodes of The Wire as well as its last one and plays a newspaper editor in this final season. That interview was great and full of surprises, such as the fact that Johnson's mother was a wealthy white New York socialite who went to Spence and was disowned because she married a black man.

I sidled up to my radio today at 3pm to hear Gross interview Michael K. Williams, who plays the most interesting character on the show, Omar. If you did not hear it live, you can hear it via the earlier link. One nuggest is how Michael Williams was at a Baltimore bar and saw the person who now plays Snoop. He couldn't tell if she was a young boy or a woman and kept staring at her, "in a rude way," he admits. He was so intrigued with her that he introduced her to the producers, who created the Snoop role just for her.

The Wa Post had a great profile of Snoop here.

Four years out of prison, age 24, Snoop wasn't living a life lined up along the straight and narrow. She was back in the game, peddling drugs, running with the rough boys, an undersize woman with an oversize swagger. Not much good was coming her way.

Until the night that Snoop spotted "Omar," the gay thug on the acclaimed HBO show "The Wire," at a club. Or maybe he spotted her. Accounts differ.

Well "Omar" just set the record straight. Go Terry Gross and NPR for keeping me within ten feet of my radio.

The World Had Been Waiting

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon endorses Barack Obama today, ending the rampant speculation on who the black mayor of an inconsequential and majority black city would endorse. I expect a 5-7% bump in the national polls for Obama. At least.

FYI--Via Andrew Sullivan---Here's the full text of Obama's Sunday sermon in Atlanta. If you're a fan of empty rhetoric and feel-good religious platitudes...Rejoice!

Be Careful Not To Fall Down the Slippery Slope of Nanny Statism

Of all the things for the Baltimore City Council to worry about:

Baltimore City should improve access to fresh produce and recreational activities in low-income neighborhoods to stem childhood obesity, according to a City Council task force report released today.

"This is more serious than smoking," said City Councilwoman Agnes Welch, who has overseen the issue in the council. "Let this be a movement: We're going to stop childhood obesity in the city of Baltimore."

You heard it here first; pork rinds are more dangerous than smoking. Prepare for the War on Lake Trout.

Full article here.

21230 Stands Tall

My zip code is home to the 277th "official" murder of the year in Charm City. What makes the 277th victim so special? They are the winning run of '07 murders; surpassing '06 tally of 276 victims. With a few weeks to spare...

My guess at how many murders we've actually had? Over 280. Baltimore Crime's count stands at 284, and I trust them more than the Sun and BPD combined.

Catch It at a Corner Near You

The highly anticipated sequel to Stop Snitching, (creatively titled Stop Snitching 2) is now available for pre-order. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a Carmelo appearance, but nevertheless the director promises new stars will be made.

The Smoking Preperations Begin

A depressing article in the Sun, on what bar owners are doing to keep their smokers post-ban.

Like Rob, Homeless Woman Refuses To Give Out Last Name Out of Fear of 'Stigmatized'

This winter Baltimore is attempting to clean up the shanty-towns that have grown up under major overpasses throughout the city. No real news here. I just got a kick out the reaction of this homeless woman: [emphasis mine]

A homeless woman named Donna was the first to depart in one of several vans. She said she had been living under the JFX since July and that she was ready to get out of the cold. She also expressed concern that if she did not leave quickly she would be evicted.

"It looks like they are going to kick us out," said Donna, who declined to give her last name for fear of being stigmatized. "If we choose to live here, we should be allowed to make that choice."

Donna has been living under an overpass since July and she's worried about being stigmatized, by giving out her last name to a reporter? I'm not saying living under the Jones Falls Expressway is entirely her own doing (though let's not kid ourselves, it most likely is), I'm just saying that once you have chosen to live under a highway, maybe you've already decided how you want people to view you as a person...Full article here.

You Can Take the Thug Out of Baltimore; But You Can't Take the Baltimore Out of the Thug

Most believable news story of the day:

Baltimore's Westport Patriots - a football team made up of youths 12 to 15 years old from some of the city's toughest neighborhoods - took first place in their division in the Pop Warner Super Bowl Championship in Florida last weekend.

But hours after the game, the Baltimore boys say they were verbally harassed by players from Hawaii. A fight ensued, and before the night was over the Westport team - as well as two teams from Hawaii - were ejected from Disney's All-Star Resort

It was a chaotic scene, according to local sheriff's deputies who took "conflicting statements" from members of the three teams and, as a result, have declined to file charges.

Parents of Hawaii youths blame the Baltimore team for being "aggressive" and allege that an adult associated with the team "egged on" boys who were brawling.

I'd put my money on the boys -- and parents (I use that term loosely) -- from Baltimore. Full article here.

Today's "Government Fails At Everything It Tries" Headline

From the Baltimore Sun's front page today:

Efforts to fix failing schools usually fail

Report on efforts of 3 Md. districts finds little improvement in decade of trying
--------

I had a good laugh with my morning coffee when I caught this headline....I'm guessing I was one of the few...

Story, aptly titled "Fixing schools usually fails", here.

Update: An editor friend at work points out to me that the Sun headline writer must have attended those very same failing Baltimore schools. "Fixing schools usually fails"? If they usually fail, then you haven't done much in the way of fixing them.

He Was Askin' for It.....While Walking His Dog

So this is the response from a Baltimore City Councilwoman at a neighborhood (Charles Village) meeting to discuss an increase in random street crime:

But Clarke, who represents the 14th District, said several victims were intoxicated at the time and suggested that they were setting themselves up to be victimized. Clarke said residents should lobby for a midnight bar curfew.

Brazen -- some might even say stupid -- stuff from the Councilwoman; but when you've run out of ideas to reduce crime, or had no ideas to begin with, it's easiest to just blame the people who are in front of you. And aren't armed.

Full article here. Via Baltimore Crime.

Don't Do the Dance If You Can't Do the Time

Add it to the list of reasons to be arrested.

But a 16-year-old Baltimore City boy learned Wednesday that the “Crip Walk” isn’t the most fun way to entertain his friends, when a police officer arrested him for doing the dance, charging him with disorderly conduct.

I thought it was always the "culture of violence" that our politicians and policemen had to defeat. Now I realize instead, it's the "culture of dancing" that we are fighting.

I Was Saying....

Jay Hancock in the Baltimore Sun:

There is a way to stop Baltimore's murder epidemic. Improve Baltimore's schools. Revive Baltimore's neighborhoods. And it doesn't involve more police, higher taxes or longer prison sentences.

Instead, it requires restructuring what is possibly the city's biggest industry.

Legalize heroin and cocaine sales, and you erase the economic force behind Baltimore's heartache [...]

No single change in policy would lead to so many good outcomes. Neighbors could take back neighborhoods. Housing values and the tax base would rise. Arrests and incarceration would plummet.

Billions blown on the drug wars and prisons could be spent instead on tax cuts and schools - and drug treatment and drug education. With no narcotics lords as role models, more city kids might pay attention to schoolwork. With less city violence, more companies might move in to employ them [...]

Of course no politician with a chance of getting elected is talking about this. Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke was ridiculed for broaching the idea in the 1990s. A. Robert Kaufman, the Socialist candidate in yesterday's mayoral election, has long supported legalization. He probably got less than 1 percent of the vote. Presidential candidates Ron Paul (a libertarian Republican), Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich (Democrats), all skeptical of the war on drugs, are likely to do about as well.

Good, it's nice to see this in print at the Sun. More of it please.

Full article here. Reader reaction, mostly positive, here.