Depressing...

Really good piece by NPR on the bail bond industry.

World Cup Draw, Drugs, Bodies

--Find a comfortable seat near a TV at 12 pm EST for the 2010 World Cup draw. Similar to the NCAA basketball bracket, the draw either gives hope to teams like the US or makes 3 years of hard work during qualifying seem utterly pointless in a matter of seconds. What's not to like?

If you're a US fan you're hoping for a draw that puts us in a group with South Africa as the top seed and avoids dangerous unseeded teams like France, Portugal and the Ivory Coast. Saying that, we'll probably end up in the famous Group of Death consisting of something like Brazil, France, Paraguay...Or something dauntingly similar that has you immediately looking forward to Brazil 2014. Speaking of which...How amazing will the World Cup be in Brazil? Could there be a better venue for a month long party? Cheap hookers, drugs, beautiful weather --- It has it all.

--Failure in the drug war takes many different forms.

I need to move to a place where failure in the drug war takes the form of pointless marijuana eradication, and not dead bodies. Seems like a better morning read. Here's Sun crime reporter Peter Hermann reporting from a memorial for an officer who was killed in a drug bust gone bad 25 years ago:

At the ceremony outside the house in which Marty had been shot, 1829 Frederick Avenue, cops gathered and talked about continuing the drug war and "standing the line" but it was clear that 25 years of seemingly futile work has made little headway. Above, in a picture by The Sun's Lloyd Fox, Officer Efren Edwards salutes).

The best that could be said came from Gary Childs, who was the lead cop on the raid team when Marty was shot. Standing back at the house a quarter-century later, Childs told me: "Imagine what it would be like if we didn't do what we did. We try to put a lid on it and make it OK for the people who have to live here."

In other words, we're barely keeping pace. We're struggling to maintain the status-quo. As as several police officers told me on Thursday, the amount of heroin Marty was negotiating for in such an elaborate and dangerous sting is roughly the same amount cops today get in standard street rips.

"Baltimore will never change," one city police lieutenant told me.

No shit. In Baltimore we've had an especially violent November giving us an annual homicide total that is now on pace to top last year's 20 year low of 234. Both figures more than the total US fatalities in Afghanistan in 2008. It would be nice if people pointed out this collateral damage from the drug war a bit more often.

--New York Times takes the occasion of the putrid New Jersey Nets starting the season 0-18 to remind readers of the 0-23 1988 Orioles. Thanks for that.

His Mom Must Be So Proud

Me personally? I support things like ponies, unicorns and popcorn. This guy on the otherhand...

Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, which supports the death penalty, said problems with veins were inevitable in lethal injection by IV.

Mr. Scheidegger said he favored execution methods involving intramuscular injection or a return to gas chambers, but with a poison other than cyanide, which was long under attack because of the suffering it can inflict.

What a ghoulish fuck this guy is.

Read the whole article on the botched execution in Ohio, which happens to be their third in 3 years. Jeez, I can only imagine what the DMV is like in Ohio...

Via Radley.

"Hey, have you heard the latest one about me drowning that chick?"

Here's one for the you-cannot-make-this-shit-up file. Ted Kennedy apparently loved to collect and tell Chappaquiddick jokes. No, seriously. National Review's Mark Hemingway made the catch:

Jules Crittenden mentioned on his blog he heard Ed Klein, former foreign editor of Newsweek and editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine, recalling on air that Ted Kennedy liked to joke about Chappaquiddick. It seemed to defy belief, so I listened to the episode of The Diane Rehm Show in question and sure enough — I've transcribed what Klein told guest host Katy Kay (Here's a link to the audio in WMA format, relevant portion starts at about 30:15):

I don't know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, "have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?" That is just the most amazing thing. It's not that he didn't feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too.

That's odd 'cause I saw saw the funny and ridiculous side of things that night I vomited in the backseat of the sheriff's deputy's cruiser and yet somehow I still ended getting charged and having to go to court for it.

Here's a handy youtube clip of the same radio interview.

Hate's On the Rise...Because We Say It Is

Baltimore is a violent city. Pretty simple. I'd have thought that the local daily would be aware of this. Turns out not so much...Or perhaps they are using one isolated instance of white, neo-nazi thugs assaulting an elderly black man as evidence for a easy-to-write scare piece about hate crime on the rise. That wouldn't be possible...would it? Baltimore Sun piece titled Hate Rise?:

When people pack assault rifles at presidential forums and town-hall meetings dissolve into shouting matches, it's easy to imagine such anger spilling over into the nation's simmering stew of racial prejudice.

A day after a self-proclaimed white supremacist was arrested in Baltimore for attempted murder in an assault on a 76-year-old black man, law enforcement officials and politicians expressed concern Wednesday that the tenor of current politics could prompt an increase in hate crimes.

"I think that for people who may be on the fringes already, the mood right now in the country might just be the little push they need to act on their feelings," said Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger. "Fortunately, we're not seeing that just yet."

Actually, it is pretty hard to imagine honest -- but passionate disagreement on a huge national policy issue "spilling over into the nation's simmering stew of racial prejudice." What I can imagine is a couple of thugs who happen to be white, senselessly beating the shit out of an elderly black man for no other reason than they didn't like the way he looked. You know why I can imagine it? Because pointless violent crime happens all the fucking time in this city -- And it has nothing to do with a national debate on health care! The Sun disagrees though...I think:

There is no telling whether Calvin E. Lockner, 28, the man charged in the beating early Tuesday, was inspired by the national brawl over health care reform, but he told police officers that he "did not like people who were different from him."

Lockner goes by the nickname "Hitler," a name ascribed also to President Barack Obama by some of his more virulent critics.

Wait -- So there's no telling if the neo-nazis beat up the black guy because they don't like the public option being back on the table? Great reporting. What other assumptions are you going to throw out there with the caveat that there is "no telling" if it's true or not? Why not just report what you actually know about the case instead of further stoking racial tensions? Not sexy enough? Doesn't draw the same amount of page hits?

Related: Nick Gillespie takes on the subject (though not the Sun article in particular.)

Baltimore Beat

Local hacker and extra for The Wire, Homicide, The Corner, as well as movies including Ladder 49, Head of State, and Oceans 11, was fatally shot in the head. Peter Hermann in the Sun:

He died April 15 like too many others in Baltimore - by homicide. He was shot in the head while sitting in a car in East Baltimore, and police said they believe he was working as an unlicensed cabdriver, a "hack," scraping up a few dollars here and there delivering people who can't afford taxis in the city.

Probably more to this murder than a simple robbery. But it brings about a question I've had since I moved to Baltimore --- Do most cities have the number of "hackers" that Baltimore does? On most corners on the west side of downtown you can always find someone signaling for a hacker. I don't think I've noticed it as much in other cities...

Family barbecue, Baltimore style:

A 20-year-old with the intelligence of a middle-schooler was sentenced Wednesday to 6 1/2 years in prison for the voluntary manslaughter of another man during a brawl at a family barbecue that began over a PlayStation video game.

Like I did when I first read this opening paragraph of the article, you're probably thinking two things. 1) The convicted murderer is mentally retarded; being as how the Sun reporter described him as "A 20-year-old with the intelligence of a middle-schooler". And 2) The fight must have been over a stolen or lost video game. Both good guesses, both wrong.

We'll first start with the fight:

Wherley said that shortly before midnight on July 3, 2006, Reginald Dorsey and Keon Dorsey got in a fight with their cousin, Roger Burks, over allegations of cheating on the video game. Guests made several efforts to break up the fight, including throwing ice water on Burks, who was drunk.


At some point, one relative, a woman, was thrown through a window. Another relative, Brandon Gray, intervened, choking Burks until he nearly lost consciousness. Burks then stabbed Gray several times in the stomach. When Conley moved to intervene, Burks fatally stabbed him four times, hitting the carotid artery.

That's quite the backyard brawl. I'm guessing they weren't playing Tiger Woods '09...

More on the killer and all around dumb guy:

Burks' multiple lies and behavior also helped build the case. In one interview with police, Burks denied knowing his own mother. And on the night of the killing, he took off his blood-soaked jeans in the back of a patrol car and threw them out the window.

Judge Rasin, who accepted Wednesday's plea, said she did so relying on several medical evaluations, the contents of which are sealed. But Rasin said a doctor concluded that Burks suffered from a long list of behavioral disorders, including "borderline intellectual functioning," though he was not mentally ill.

So not clinically retarded, just plain old retarded. I don't really have anything to add to this, other than to take the opportunity to say that if Obama has his way he wants to create even more black inner-city youths that have the intelligence of middle schoolers. Way to be brave and not kick the tough decisions down the road for future generations Obama.

Department of Speaking Too Soon

Mark Steyn at National Review Online Saturday afternoon:

Once upon a time we killed and captured pirates. Today, it’s all more complicated. The attorney general, Eric Holder, has declined to say whether the kidnappers of the American captain will be “brought to justice” by the U.S. “I’m not sure exactly what would happen next,” declares the chief law-enforcement official of the world’s superpower. But some things we can say for certain. Obviously, if the United States Navy hanged some eyepatched peglegged blackguard from the yardarm or made him walk the plank, pious senators would rise to denounce an America that no longer lived up to its highest ideals, and the network talking-heads would argue that Plankgate was recruiting more and more young men to the pirates’ cause, and judges would rule that pirates were entitled to the protections of the U.S. constitution and that their peglegs had to be replaced by high-tech prosthetic limbs at taxpayer expense.

The Washington Post today:

MOMBASA, Kenya, April 12 -- An American captain held hostage for five days by Somali pirates in a lifeboat adrift in the Indian Ocean was rescued unharmed Sunday in a surprise U.S. military operation in which snipers killed three pirates with the captain tied up just feet away, American military officials said. A fourth pirate was in U.S. custody.

The snipers, positioned near the fantail of the destroyer USS Bainbridge less than 30 yards from the lifeboat, fired within seconds after a commander determined that Capt. Richard Phillips, 53, was in "imminent danger" as one of the pirates aimed an AK-47 at his back, military officials said. President Obama had issued a standing order that the military was to act if the captain's life was in immediate jeopardy, said Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of the Fifth Fleet.
***
The rescue occurred at 7:19 p.m. local time Sunday, the Navy said, and involved dozens of SEALs. With one of the pirates pointing an AK-47 straight at Phillips's back, an on-scene commander gave the SEAL snipers authority to fire.

Criminal Geniuses Are Few And Far Between

Here's a bunch who make the guys on Jackass look like MENSA members. A group of kids set fire to a Boys and Girls Club and they almost got away with it too until they posted a video of it on Youtube:

Police said the suspects broke into the building through a window, made Molotov cocktails and then set them off. Police seized a video showing the group making and throwing the devices, which exploded and caused fires with flames going as high as 20 feet.

Police said the video, which has since been taken off YouTube, showed the faces of the suspects as well as text naming those who were pictured. Each of the seven, who range in ages from 14 to 20, is charged with arson and burglary.

Texas Chainsaw Career Path

The LA Times helpfully informs us that, if you're a serial killer, becoming a trucker is a great career opportunity for you:

The FBI suspects that serial killers working as long-haul truckers are responsible for the slayings of hundreds of prostitutes, hitchhikers and stranded motorists whose bodies have been dumped near highways over the past three decades.

Federal authorities first made the connection about five years ago while helping police link a trucker to a string of unsolved killings along I-40 in Oklahoma and several other states. After that, the FBI launched the Highway Serial Killings Initiative, or HSK, to track slayings and suspect truckers.
***
the pattern in roadside body dumps and other evidence have prompted many investigators to speculate that the mobility, lack of supervision and access to potential victims that come with the job make it a good cover for someone inclined to kill.

“You’ve got a mobile crime scene,” one investigator said. “You can pick a girl up on the East Coast, kill her two states away and then dump her three states after that."

Awesome, LA Times, thanks for the tips. I'm so fucking tired of finding new spots in my backyard to bury things. On the other hand my roses are looking magnificent this year. Must be that new mulch I'm using.

Doing Her Part To Represent Maryland

So you've worn the swimsuits and the evening gowns and won the Miss Maryland crown. What do you do next to represent your home state? Hmmmm....

From the wonderful folks at Fox News:

GERMANTOWN,Md. - Life has certainly changed for a Maryland beauty queen, now busted on drug charges. Police arrested Tia Shorts, Miss Maryland USA 2004, on Wednesday at her home in Germantown.

Police say she and her boyfriend were dealing drugs from their apartment. She's now charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine, possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana.

"I guess something must have gone wrong, or I mean obviously we didn't know what was going on with them. There was more than meets the eye I guess." said neighbor Rebecca Straus.

The Wait Could Be Long

A legal first. A "resurrection clause" in the horrific murder of a baby boy:

A Maryland woman involved with a group described as a religious cult pleaded guilty in the starvation death of her son, but insisted that the charges be dropped when he is resurrected.

The condition was made a part of Ria Ramkissoon's plea agreement, officials said. She entered the plea Monday in Baltimore, Maryland, to a first-degree felony count of child abuse resulting in death, her attorney, Steven Silverman, said Tuesday.

Details on the murder:

Ramkissoon and the others are accused of denying Javon food after the group's leader, a 40-year-old woman who goes by the name Queen Antoinette, decreed the boy was a demon since he refused to say "amen" after meals, Silverman said.

"Ria would cling to him every day and try to get him to say 'amen,' " Silverman said. Eventually, Queen Antoinette ordered that Ramkissoon be separated from the child, he said.

Javon is believed to have died in December 2006, court documents allege. Following his death, the group members put the boy's body in a back room, and "everyone was directed to come in and pray," according to the documents. "The Queen told everyone that 'God was going to raise Javon from the dead.' Javon remained in the room for an extended period of time (in excess of one week). The resurrection never took place."

Authorities believe the boy's body was then placed into a wheeled suitcase along with mothballs and fabric-softener sheets, documents said. Prosecutors allege Antoinette opened the suitcase periodically and sprayed its interior with Lysol to mask the decomposition odor.

Sick.

Not included in this CNN article (I can't -- or really I don't feel like looking for) the Sun article that stated that the boy must return as himself. Reincarnation as a tree, frog, or any other species would not be cause for her release.

Full article here.

Emptying The Nuthouses Only To Fill Up The Prisons?

Slate has a very interesting article up addressing "Five myths about prison growth". The whole thing is worth reading, but I was particularly struck by this passage:

[I]f we look back historically at the lockup rate for mental hospitals as well as prisons, we have only just now returned to the combined rates for both kinds of incarceration in the 1950s. In other words, we're not locking up a greater percentage of the population so much as locking people up in prisons rather than mental hospitals. Viewed through this lens, what seems remarkable is not the current era of mass incarceration but the 1960s and '70s, during which we emptied the hospitals without filling the prisons. Any reform agenda that does not acknowledge the ingrained nature of our punitive impulses will surely fail.

That's extraordinary if correct. I knew that in the 1950s mental institutions were more numerous but I no idea that there must have been that many.

"They don't know how to steal your car, but they can still put a gun to your head"

You might have seen news stories in recent days about car thefts decreasing as overall car purchases decrease, with Baltimore as an example of the phenomenon. It makes sense. And is true...to a point. Baltimore Sun:

In Baltimore, the number of cars stolen has gone from 6,662 in 2006 to 5,686 in 2007 to just over 5,100 last year. And through Jan. 10, car theft dropped 35 percent this year, compared with the same period in 2008, from 131 to 85. The trend is similar in Baltimore County, where just over 3,000 cars are stolen each year.

There are two reasons for this, Baltimore County Police Sgt. Robert Jagoe told me during a morning spent with the Regional Auto Theft Task Force.

First, electronic transponders in keys, common in most cars since 2002, have virtually eliminated stealing cars for the sheer fun of it. To start, the car's ignition system must match a code on the key; hot-wiring doesn't work anymore on any but the older model cars, and while it's possible to bypass the new safety systems, it can't be done quickly or on the street.

The bad news is that armed carjackings are up. "They don't know how to steal your car, but they can still put a gun to your head," Jagoe said.

The number of juveniles arrested on car theft charges in the city and county has dropped from a high of 311 in 1995 to 138 last year, while the number of adults arrested on the same charges has risen from 376 in 1995 to 772 in 2008. In 1995, juveniles made up nearly half all auto theft arrests; they now make up only about 15 percent of lockups.

We can't even get a fucking silver lining in this deal? Why can't car thefts just decrease without armed carjackings increasing? Is that too much to ask?

Full story here, it's worth a read.

Bonus Baltimore related story: I've never known anyone who has been involved in a car jacking; however I worked in a bar with a burly lesbian who fought off a potential scooter jacking. Scooter jacking is actually pretty common in the city because it's pretty easy to knock someone off a scooter at a red light or stop sign, plus scooters have the added benefit of probably not being registered. All this makes them an attractive target for young thugs who can either use them for running drugs between corners, or just sell them for cash.

Anyways, the burly lesbian was in her car behind a women on a scooter when a rather lazy scooter jacker walked up to the scooter and told the lady to get the fuck off her scooter. The burly lesbian got out of her car with her auto club and threatened to beat the shit out of the guy if he didn't walk away. The guy was smart and didn't want to fuck with a burly, South African lesbian. End of story.

If You Need to Kill...

do it in Baltimore. 67% of 2008 murders are still open.

Via Baltimore Crime.

Battling the Flu and Urban Violence

I'm working on the former, Baltimore is working on the latter. The Baltimore Sun recaps the significant drop in murders in 2008:

Baltimore will end 2008 tonight with its fewest homicides in two decades, fighting through a late-year spike to mark one of its biggest year-to-year drops.

The decline - a drop of almost 50 killings, from 282 to 234 as of midnight - continues a trend that began in late 2007 when Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III took command of the Police Department. It restores the city's homicide total to levels not seen since the late 1980s, before an infusion of crack cocaine routinely drove the annual body count above 300.

But the improvement has been tempered by several confounding factors. While homicides and nonfatal shootings are down, violent crime overall is largely unchanged and Baltimore remains one of the most violent large cities in the country. The killing of a former city councilman also served as a sobering reminder that while the majority of the victims are involved in the drug trade, the city's crime problem touches all corners.

I'm about as pessimistic as anyone could be about turning around Baltimore (I firmly believe that until you deal with the war on drugs, or find another economic driver for the city besides the drug trade, the city can only make incremental progress), but credit is deserved for drastic reduction in violent crime over the last year or so; even with increases in other crimes. Reducing the stigma of an astronomically high murder rate is an important step for the city to make, I just question whether it lasts or not.

Full story here.

When You Criminalize Every Aspect of Society, You Make a Nation of....Criminals

Oh my, those rebels in the UK. The Daily Mail reports on the lawlessness of British subjects:

Many may not know they have done anything wrong, while others simply might not care.

But the average person breaks the law at least once a day, a survey has found.

Speeding, using a mobile phone while driving and dropping litter top the list of rules and regulations regularly flouted.[...]
While some of these crimes can have fatal consequences, 58 per cent say they are not very important.

Another 20 per cent say that because everyone is up to it, they don't even see the actions as being illegal.

Only 5 per cent of Britons say they never break any laws .

John Sewell, spokesman for www.onepoll.com, which carried out the survey, said: 'It's worrying to think that so many people are breaking the law on a daily basis.

'And it's an even bigger concern that many aren't at all bothered about it.

Yes, it is worrying to think that so many people are breaking the law on a daily basis; but only because it should be worrying that there are so many laws to break on a daily basis. Let's take a look at some of the most commonly broken laws.

• Cycling on pavement
  
• Eating or drinking while driving
  
• Parking partly on pavement
  
• Taking your child out of school for a holiday with out the head's position
  
• Smoking in a public place
  

Murder, rape, robbery, and theft were conspicuously missing from the list. I'm not an expert on the dynamics of British society, but I'd be willing to guess those crimes are missing because in fact, Britons as a whole are generally law abiding people. It's when you begin to criminalize all aspects of society that you create a general apathy towards the law, or downright disrespect of it.

Oh How the Almighty Have Fallen*

It's gotta be tough to live up the expectations that this name brings along:

Members of the East Central Narcotics Task Force arrested a West Hartford man was arrested after a short chase in South Windsor Thursday evening.

According to police, Almighty Supremebeing Allah, 35, of 119 Elmhurst St. West Hartford refused to stop for a marked cruiser and was detained about a mile down the road after the initial stop.

He was charged with Reckless Driving, Disobeying an Officers Signal, Interfering with an Officer, Criminal Attempt/Sale of Cocaine Criminal Attempt/Possession of Cocaine.

Story here.

*Title ripped off from Sean Higgins who e-mailed the story to me. Too good to pass up.

Psst, Dude, Got Any Hedge?

Sometimes the best place to hide something is in plain sight:

IT looked like an average Nerang [Australia] back yard with an above-ground pool and neatly trimmed hedges.

But a closer look at the shrubbery revealed they were actually cannabis plants and that put a new twist on the expression 'cultivating drugs'.

Nerang officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Gary Symons said police yesterday removed 30 healthy and mature plants, some more than 2m tall, with a street value of more than $100,000.

The plants, trimmed and shaped to form a screen near the pool, were growing in tubs, but the thick cannabis hedge along the side fence was planted in the ground.

***
Sen-Sgt Symons said he had never seen cannabis shaped and trimmed into a hedge in his 25 years in the police service.

Neighbours looked over the fence in amazement as police dug up the manicured crop and removed it to be destroyed.

"They are a lovely couple," said one neighbour. "Who would have thought that hedge was grass? It just looks like an ordinary hedge in a suburban yard."

It worked fine until somebody dropped a dime on the crafty gardener. The whole story can be found here.

So, Even if You Don't Plan On Raping a Child, You Might Want to Avoid Louisiana

Christ, this seems a tad extreme. Gov Bobby Jindal Signs Castration Law.

I feel better about executing a convicted child rapist than I do about chemically, or even physically castrating him. This couldn't seriously get through the courts, right?

'Cause My Anaconda Don't Want None Unless You Got Buns Hun

In news that's certain to be good for somebody -- you know who you are -- Florida women are apparently eager to show up at hotels with strange men and have even stranger things pumped into their asses:

Miami-Dade's medical police busted a ''pumping party'' Thursday, where a man with no medical license had set up shop in a hotel room, offering to pump an unknown substance into women's backsides for ``buttocks enhancement.''

As the procedure was about to start, the women, three undercover police detectives, arrested Anthony Donnell Solomon, 22, of Miami, charging him with practicing without a license.

A similar incident resulted in the 2001 death of a Carol City woman.

''What's amazing to me is that this is not even unusual,'' said Dr. Seth Thaller, chief of plastic surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine. 'People get themselves injected with God-knows-what. What I want to ask them is, `What were you thinking?' ''

Read the whole story here. Wikipedia page on Sir Mixalot's classic here.

Can You Trust Anybody On The Internet These Days?

From the Tampa Tribune:

UTZ - The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is pursuing leads from a high-priced jewelry heist involving a nude maid.

A resident of Maisons Drive on May 23 reported that a woman hired from a nude cleaning service that he found on the Internet had stolen more than $40,000 worth of his wife's jewelry, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

The woman came to the house, stripped and cleaned the house, Carter said. The homeowner left the woman alone while she cleaned the bedroom, and after she left, the jewelry was gone, Carter said.

Carter did not have any information on how the jewelry vanished.[Emphasis added]

Ummm, so the guy hired a nude cleaning lady and then left her alone? Not only did that make the heist possible but it kind of defeats the purpose of the service, doesn't it?

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.

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.

Has Anyone Checked Her for a Heartbeat?

It's an old story: Stripper-turned-criminal conspirator-turned-soccer mom and former state ethics board employee goes to jail for murder. I'm thinking Maggie Gyllenhaal for the lead with Tony Fuqua to direct.

Meet Mechele Linehan. The thirty-five year-old was sentenced to 99 years in jail Wednesday for conspiring to kill her former fiance in Anchorage, Alaska, back in 1996. She was trying to get a cool mil in insurance money.

So what was she doing in the intervening years? Well, for a while she was an administrative assistant for the Washington State Executive Ethics Board, which ensures ethical conduct by state employees.

As with any good crime story, it details like that that capture interest. And this one has tons of them. Linehan was working as a stripper in 1996 at a club called - I kid you not - the Great Alaska Bush Co., when she convinced John Carlin III, a boyfriend, to shoot her then-fiance Ken Leppink.

Unfortunately for Linehan, Leppink had recently changed his will and even wrote an only-to-be-opened-in-the-event-of-my-death letter to his parents saying that if he died that Linehan was behind it. She got nothing. So did prosecutors, who didn't have enough evidence to try her at the time.

Linehan then apparently went straight, got a degree in psychology, married a Washington State doctor and had a kid.

Things started to fall apart in 2005 when Carlin's now-grown son provided damning testimony against his father and Linehan. She was convicted back in October.

The kicker here? She was inspired to do it by watching the movie the Last Seduction. As the AP reports:

"The Last Seduction" is a modern-day film noir in which a ruthless beauty - played by the sultry, raven-haired actress Linda Fiorentino - uses her sexual wiles to manipulate others.

A former stripper, Lora Aspiotis, testified that she watched the movie with Linehan and that Linehan admired the tough-talking Fiorentino character.

"She told me that the character was her heroine and that she wanted to be just like her," Aspiotis said.

Well, not quite. In the movie she gets away with it. Sorry, babe. Anchorage just ain't Hollywood.

A Culture of Knife Violence

A political SNAFU, or a glimpse at reality in a gun-free country?

Harriet Harman, the leader of the House of Commons, has been drawn into an embarrassing row after being pictured wearing a stab-proof vest as she toured her own constituency.

Ms Harman took to the streets of Peckham, south London, at 9am on Monday surrounded by several police officers wearing a kevlar-reinforced jacket.[...]

However the picture has annoyed some of her constituents, while Opposition leaders seized on the picture to prove Labour's poor law and order record has made the capital one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

Pretty stupid move. Wait, scratch that. It was a pretty stupid political move. Very smart move for her own personal safety.

I'll take our "gun culture" over their "knife culture" any day of the week. When it comes to self-defence, my knife fighting ability is limited to what I've picked up watching West Side Story a dozen or so times. Needless to say I can sing a mean show tune, but I'm not too handy with a knife.

Full story here.

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.

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.

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.

You Tell 'Em Ozzy

Ozzy Osborne is rightly pissed about the underhanded tactics of the Cass County, ND, Sheriff:

Osbourne claims his reputation was tarnished when Sheriff Paul Laney invited 500 people with outstanding warrants to a phony party at a Fargo nightclub before the rocker's concert with Rob Zombie at a nearby arena. More than 30 showed up and were arrested.

"Instead of holding a press conference to pat himself on the back, Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests," Osbourne said in a statement.

"It is insulting to me and to my audience and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job," Osbourne said.

Although maybe the people were a bit naive for believing this, and undoubtedly many of them deserved to be arrested, this strategy makes me uncomfortable. It's probably a safe bet that many of them had warrants for nothing more than pot possession or unpaid parking tickets.

Yes, I know these things are in fact illegal and the sheriff must enforce the law, but the means seem like overkill. Did the Sheriff actually, you know, knock on these people's doors first?

And it doesn't help when the Sheriff says shit like this:

He said mentioning Osbourne's name in the invitations was no different than a bar advertising a Super Bowl party by mentioning the teams playing in the game.

Actually, it's completely different. Off the top of my head:

* The Super Bowl is real. When the bar advertises it, the event will actually happen.

* The bar wants to attract voluntary customers, not to take them into custody.

* The teams in the Super Bowl are widely known anyway.


And this is just unbelievable:

"Three people called to say, 'I got one of those letters. Since you're being so creative, I'm turning myself in. Give me a court date,'" Laney said.

Next Mayor of Philly

Michael Nutter, the soon-to-be mayor of Philadelphia:

PHILADELPHIA - Michael Nutter, the man who is nearly certain to be Philadelphia's next mayor, promises to reduce gun violence, launch an all-out crackdown on no-bid contracts and offer $10,000 tax breaks to companies that hire convicts.

Can someone give me a sound argument against the tax break idea? I'm tempted to say it's a decent idea....Logistically it might not work, but as a concept -- What's wrong with giving tax breaks to companies that give convicts (the majority who have drug convictions) a chance to escape the criminal world? That's gotta be in the top 5 for worst symptoms of the Drug War. Too many black males in our inner-cities are not hireable because of past convictions and this in turn prevents them from any real shot at a future.

This, I don't like the sound of (and we have it in certain neighborhoods in Baltimore). It has failed to work wonders yet.

He promises to declare a "state of emergency" in high-crime neighborhoods and use "stop-and-frisk" tactics to crack down on guns.

Translation: Whatever few rights remained against unlawful search and seizures has now been thrown in the trash like a used condom. If cops want to stop you and search you because you look suspicious and are in a shitty neighborhood -- aka any young black male in the city -- then it's A OK to do so. I'm not sure where in the 4th Amendment that exception is specified, but I'm going back to double-check...

Full article here. Thanks to Sean Higgins for the link.

Around the Papers

Yikes. Detailing the economic impact of the impending writers strike. It's not pretty for LA County.

Looks like someone may be getting a kidney back. Here's hoping it works out for my favorite Socialist mayoral candidate.

Massive protest (or as the organizers were calling it, a "lie-in") fails to be massive. Organizers had planned to match the total number of murder victims (246ish) with live protesters lying down on the ground wearing "No More Murders." Unfortunately no one seemed to care and only about 175 total showed up, including not one elected official. Here are the organizers on the seeming irony of the situation. The Baltimore Sun:

"Apathy, alienation and cynicism have taken root in our community - But we believe that these weeds can be removed before they spread further," reads the Web site for Justice Maryland, the group that planned the event.

Asked whether yesterday's attendance shortfall was evidence of the very issue she was trying to combat, Kimberly Haven, executive director of Justice Maryland, said, "We don't know why people didn't come.

Ahhh. That's right, we just need to believe. Is it possible to believe that I could be even more cynical?...

Mobtown Beat

Fun with numbers:

As of Wednesday, Oct. 17, 241 people had been murdered in Baltimore City in 2007. On that same date in Washington, a city with just 50,000 fewer residents than Baltimore's 630,000, there had been nearly 100 fewer homicide victims to date. And New York , which has a population of more than 8 million, had just over 100 more murders than Baltimore on that date.

Put into perspective, 38 out of every 100,000 Baltimore City residents are murdered, based on this year's homicide numbers. In New York, just five out of every 100,000 residents is murdered. If New York had Baltimore's homicide rate, more than 3,100 people would be murdered there each year--yet the highest number of murders the city has seen in recent years is 2,262, in 1990. On the flip side, if Baltimore had New York's murder rate, the city would see just 29 murders per year. Instead, the lowest the murder toll has fallen in recent memory is 253, in 2002. That number will likely be passed for 2007 by the time Justice Maryland holds its Oct. 28 lie-in.

So the local NAACP branch, and other activist groups like Justice Maryland (sounds like they should all be wearing capes) are planning a lie-in on the War Memorial downtown as a way of...a way of...Well it has a purpose, I'm sure of it.

I poke fun, but of course I'm behind any actions that might get people to care about living in a war-zone. Even if it is stupid and ineffective. What really burns me is this:

Cheatham is critical of the work being done by the city and state government and the police to stem the violence. "I think the new commissioner definitely is concerned, but there's a major disconnect between the police department and the community," he says. "And some of that has to do with the people that they're hiring. They're hiring people that don't look like this community, they don't live in this community, and to a degree don't respect this community. How can they help people that they don't even respect?"

Both local and state governments, he says, have failed the city by failing to act on the crisis. "All of them run on an education platform, on a crime platform, and some of these folks have been in office 10, 15, 20 years," Cheatham says. "They have to accept some responsibility."

I can't really blame the police for not "respecting the community". Have you seen the community Doc? I can blame the War on Drugs, and piss-poor, one-party management for ruining this city and it's people, but at some point the people who call the neighborhoods their home have to stand-up and take a certain amount of responsibility for the conditions. I suppose if vigils accomplish this then great. But if the point of rallies and vigils is to get people to care --the people who are used to living in violence -- then I'm unsure how some signs and candles will accomplish anything. These things work where people care in the first place. It a way of organizing people who care. Not of getting someone who lives in the shit to see the number of murders written down on a sign and say "Oh shit, that's a lot of murders...I hadn't realized"

Oh, yeah Doc, we are aware of the fact that the same buffoons have been running this city for year after year after year. More like 90 than 10 or 15. That's what happens when you choose to deal with only one party. It boggles the mind.

Mobtown Beat here. Sun article on the event here.

P.S. Justice Maryland is on the right side of the drug policy debate, as well as other criminal justice issues. For that I give them credit.

News of the Day: Allowing Untrained Cops to Take Patient's Suspect's Blood Sample Could Lead to Infection

Nothing says a fun night out like getting stopped by a cop for suspected drunken driving and ending up with an infection in your arm. After he jabs you a couple times with a syringe.

Attorneys are putting new scrutiny on a practice that has become common among law enforcement in the West-- having officers, not medical personnel, draw blood with syringes in suspected drunken driving cases.

That comes after a man developed a persistent infection at the site of a blood draw administered by a Pima County sheriff's deputy. He has filed what is believed to be the first claim in Arizona against the practice, which could put local taxpayers on the hook for any damages.

Arizona law requires that drunken driving suspects submit to a test or lose their license for a year and it's the officer's choice, not the driver's, whether to use a breath or a blood test.

And the reason for this unsafe, and invasive policing tactic?

Law enforcement agencies say having officers do blood draws themselves is quicker and more convenient than going to a hospital and more accurate than a breath test.

Or, we could just start arresting anyone in a bar who has keys in their pockets. Quick, certainly more convenient, and the most effective way to make sure no one ever drives drunk again.

Via The Corner, full article here.

Head to Toe: No Longer an Option?

SFGate is reporting that due to lack of space, some 50-60 "criminals" in San Francisco's biggest jail have been forced to sleep on the floor. In fear of a lawsuit for trampling on basic rights, early releases have been scheduled for those convicted of petty crimes.

Sheriff Michael Hennessey said,

"If they keep bringing more people in for low-risk crimes, at some point I'm not even going to take them...And that point is coming up pretty darn soon."

But wait!...then the Sheriff said something very un-Sheriff-like:

"You can't continue to crack down on drugs, crack down on the homeless and make more typical drunk-driving and violent-offender arrests without having the jail space to put them in," Hennessey said. "And you can't keep hiring more cops - who if they're doing their jobs are going to make more arrests - without having the space."

What I am sensing here, Sheriff Hennessey --- and you can totally refute this --- is that you don't necessarily think all of these people who committed "petty crimes" should be in jail in the first place? Implying that, maybe, we should seek other ways to deal with "crime" so as not to make an Alcatraz out of an AA meeting?

Oh, and what is that? Mayor Gavin Newsom agrees with you?

"For his part, Mayor Gavin Newsom is "committed to pursuing a variety of options" to address the overcrowding, a spokesman said. Those include home detention monitoring and residential drug treatment."

Oh, hold the phone! I think my brow just furrowed and my bureaucracy bullshit meter just buzzed! I'll get back to TtP in ten years when this story develops!

Ron Paul

So I'm lazy. Comes as no surprise to the handful of readers that would like to see more than 3 new posts a day, but at least I'll admit that I'm lazy. I'm so lazy that I missed Ron Paul speaking on the Drug War, death penalty, and other criminal justice issues at the last GOP Candidate-less Forum. In Baltimore. Where I live. I think I may have had to actually try not to watch it. We are talking like a full week after the fact, and I'm just now catching the video. Luckily for the blogosphere we have guys who actually pound out posts that are full of information, facts and passion. And not horse on man passion. We have plenty of that here. Facts are harder to come by at TtP, but we do occasionaly make some shit up that sounds awfully convincing. Does that count?

We Need Code Pink at a City Council Meeting

Violence rages on throughout Baltimore, including police-involved shootings. 27 total this year to go along with the 215 murders up to this point. It's time someone said it, the War in Baltimore is a failure. Insurgents control whole neighborhoods, local authorities are hopeless to contain them.

A Baltimore police sergeant shot and wounded a man who authorities said pointed a gun at officers as he tried to run from them early this morning in Northwest Baltimore, according to a department spokeswoman.

[...]

It was the third police-involved shooting since Sunday. Today's incident pushed the total number of police-involved shootings this year to 27 -- nine fatal and 18 nonfatal. In all of last year, five people were fatally shot by officers and 10 people were wounded, according to police statistics.

Street violence has been on the rise this year, fueling a sharp rise in the city's homicide rate. So far this year, 215 people have been killed, compared with 191 victims for the same period last year.

Full article here.

War On Casual Sex In Minneapolis

Believe me, I tried hard not to blog about Sen. Craig. But Radley's post here is dead on.

No matter how unbecoming Craig's approach was, if trying to get laid is now a crime, I seriously need to rethink my game plan.

Also, if this is what the police do at Minneapolis airport, I'm robbing a gift shop next time I'm there. It must be comforting to real criminals to know that as long as you keep your feet still while on the crapper, you might just get away with whatever else you might be up to.

Late Afternoon Friday Links

Retrosexual? Or just homosexual?

Measuring 6 feet 3, with chiseled pecs and a bushy beard, George seemed like a model of manliness. Yet two years ago the 47-year-old Virginia businessman (who declined to give his full name to protect his privacy) decided he didn't look quite macho enough. So he went to see Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, a Miami hair-restoration surgeon, to have 3,000 hair follicles ripped from his scalp and transplanted into his face, chest and belly.

Amy Winehouse might have a drug and weight problem. In other shocking news; I like pot and I'm going to try and bone my female roommate tonight.

Depending on which count you go by, Baltimore has surpassed 200 murders for 2007. Baltimore Crime has 204 (although they note it is not definitive), Murder Ink has it at 198 (once you add the 2 murders since the 15th). Who knows what the Sun has it at; I couldn't find a count anywhere on their site.

Finally, a reminder for any TtPers in the Seattle area. Hempfest is this weekend. The Seattle PI has a glowing profile of Rick Steves, who is a outspoken critic of US drug policy, and is speaking at Hempfest. From the piece:

Off camera and off mike, so many people who interview Steves on radio and TV whisper "Right on!" to him but only a few celebrities and high-profilers risk saying it out loud. "We're embracing a lie in a country based on truth and freedom," Steves said. "And it hurts the credibility of parents and teachers and the police. If I were a kid, I wouldn't listen to any of them."

I Say Up the Ante, Go For 300,000 Arrests

One more hole in the zero tolerance policing approach, from the Examiner:

Zero-tolerance policing implemented under former Mayor Martin O’Malley has failed to slow the soaring homicide rate in Baltimore, internal police statistics indicate

[...]

And even after two straight years of more than 100,000 arrests, in 2002 and 2003, the number of homicides has not dropped to the 2001 low of 251, the stats show.

[...]

“I’m not surprised,” said former Police Commissioner Ed Norris, who presided over the most dramatic drop in homicides in the past decade, from 305 in 1999 to 261 in 2000. “I’ve never supported zero tolerance. We would make low-level arrests, but it was with a purpose. It was focused on an area that was having problems. We would have detectives on hand to debrief people to solve homicides.”

[...]

Since 1999, city police have arrested more than 700,000 people — a pace of 250 people day every day for eight years. Arrests peaked at 110,000 in 2003, when the number of homicides rose nearly 7 percent.

I tend to think that a zero tolerance approach, when executed forcefully, will reduce violent crimes. I tend to think this; but I certainly don't study the statistics enough to give an intelligent and informed opinion on the subject. Since the certificate on my wall that says "Trained Criminologist" is really a place mat from a Greek restaurant that I wrote -- in crayon -- "Trained Criminologist", I'll let the experts debate what lowers crime, and I'll stick to asking questions about the larger implications of living in a police state.

i.e., is it a good idea, even if violent crime significantly drops, to arrest citizens at a rate of 1 in 6? And remember, we are talking about arresting individuals for quality of life infractions, and not bringing charges against them. It's a significant infringement on your civil liberties to be held in jail for a day or more, and then not be charged with a crime. This is standard practice in an O'Malley style zero tolerance approach.

How much does crime need to drop to make serious civil liberty violations OK? Any? Is there a percentage where it becomes acceptable? Is there a long-term effect from criminalizing a large segment of the population? Mostly the members of what you could call the underclass. It certainly can't be positive for community police relationships...Full article here.

Updates!

The Guardian Angels announce they will open a chapter in New Haven, CT, and walk beats alongside the Edgewood Park Defense Patrol. How bad is your neighborhood when it's reminiscent of 1979 New York?

In related New Haven governmental apathy, a man struck and detained a robber with an ax handle, then called police. When an officer finally arrived, he arrested the man -- and very nearly arrested an off-duty detective who intervened on the man's behalf. Thank you, New Haven Police Department. Your lack of judgment and slow response times are a shining example to racist cops everywhere.

MeMe Roth received death threats after she criticized American Idol winner Jordin Sparks.

And finally: this is a week old, but law enforcement surrounding Ed Brown's Plainfield, NH home disbanded uneventfully, although they did seize his wife's dental practice and its alleged network of tunnels in nearby West Lebanon.

Brown, who asserts that the federal government has no jurisdiction in New Hampshire and no authority to charge him under a non-existent law, said the activity surrounding his properties in Plainfield and West Lebanon yesterday was a "Zionist, Illuminati, Free Mason movement."

And with that, any remaining sympathy I had for the man officially evaporated.

Good Advice

The Examiner:

Annapolis (Map, News) - Nearly five years after Straughan Lee Griffin’s carjacking death in Annapolis, law enforcers are divided over how to prevent the type of violent crime that killed him.

The prevailing philosophy for responding to carjackings and other armed robberies — complete submission — has changed, said Officer Hal Dalton, a spokesman for the Annapolis Police Department.

“Traditionally, police everywhere used to tell people not to resist robbers,” he said. “We’ve rethought that now. They have to make their own choice based on their own abilities.”

It would be fun to try and compile some extremely vague stats about the number of people killed because they were blindly following the traditional advice of law enforcement. Of course, if you think you had a chance to fight back during an attack, and you choose not to based solely on the advice of police who do not know you and often do quite a poor job themselves in preventing crime, then....maybe it didn't matter.

It just seems to me a bit odd that we have law enforcement officials instructing us to make our own best decisions in a life or death scenario, based upon the facts available to us. Shouldn't that be common sense? Full article here

Raiders of the Lost Park

Murdering time yesterday in New Haven allowed me to reacquaint myself with the city and how far it's come in the 12 years since I first moved there. Temple Street was barely recognizable to me. In 1995, the three blocks between Chapel and Route 34 were nothing but empty storefronts and hypodermic needles in the gutters. Yesterday it glittered with bars and restaurants. A cineplex has taken over the deserted meeting hall of the vaguely sinister White Eagle Club. And of course now there is also the Omni Hotel.

But appearances aside, New Haven is still the same city I knew and detested in the mid-90s, an urbanscape constructed on the borderland of perpetual civic breakdown:

People don’t feel safe in the daytime anymore, said East Rock alderman Roland Lemar, due to recent brazen crimes. Two people were mugged in broad daylight in mid-May, including one woman who was beaten up. There have also been nighttime muggings by gun-toting teens; a pair of Yale English grad students were held up at gunpoint on Edwards Street.

Source (second item).

Mrs. Kuhl lived on Edwards; I lived a few blocks away. East Rock is a nice, well-kempt residential area full of enormous Victorian and early 20th-century homes, many subdivided into apartments for the students. It's difficult to imagine it as a place of violent street crime, even though such things happened when we lived there too. I would blame DeStefano but he's only been in office 13 years. Don't rush the man!

Recently the police force numbered as many as 419, but they’re now down to the 370s, mostly due to retirements, explained Assistant Chief Herman Badger. They’d like to be up in the 450s, but the recruitment drives have had such a poor turnout that New Haven police won’t be able to fill enough positions to restore the ranks to 419. The current class of police recruits is only 29 strong—they’ll graduate in September.

All of this by way of explaining what's happening across town in Edgewood:

Members of a politically influential yeshiva led by Rabbi Daniel Greer -- who have spent more than a decade rebuilding their stretch of Edgewood -- have organized an armed citizens patrol.

This is already all over the MSM which, as usual, is light on background. The yeshiva is an island in a poor, predominantly black ghetto. While the rabbis and black leaders occasionally stage a photo op together and mumble something about brotherly love, really they just hate each other. The attack on Rabbi Dov Greer, which apparently precipitated the formation of the Edgewood Park Defense Patrol, was outrageous but probably not random.

The group takes its name from nearby Edgewood Park, a series of rolling, lightly wooded hills perfect for every variety of crime. Police don't patrol it because, like the rest of the citizenry, they're terrified of going inside. Yet now it seems that a bunch of whiskered Torah-readers have the cojones to do what New Haven's crookedest cannot. G-d bless 'em!

Curtis Sliwa is supposed to meet with the Patrol today. Yesterday, while waiting for my big break, I compared the Edgewood Patrol to the Guardian Angels and the teen behind me didn't know who or what I was talking about. Boy, did I feel my age.

UPDATE: Crime in New Haven IS down from the notorious heights of the early 90s. But to focus on homicides a moment, there were 24 murders in New Haven in 2006, comparable to those in the mid-90s (see these crime stats). If we assume a population of 124,512 (according to the 2003 estimate of the US Census) -- and if I've done my math right -- that puts the city's 2006 homicide rate at 19.275 per 100,000 people. According to the FBI, the national rate in 2005 was 5.6 per 100,000.

I'm Rooting for the Bloods

Time to partition Baltimore! Via Baltimore Crime:

BALTIMORE -- Officials at an inner city Baltimore prison have determined what caused a large prison yard brawl last week that injured 18 inmates.

According to sources at the Metropolitan Transition Center, Friday's fight stemmed from an argument between members of the Bloods gang and Sunni Muslim prisoners.

Am I crazy, or is it odd that their are Muslim gangs, in a Baltimore prison, that are broken into sects? Seems like a poor recruiting strategy -- I don't notice too many Muslims walking the streets of Baltimore...Full article here.

Another Death, and Another Death, and Another Death

It keeps getting worse: [emphasis mine]

Three men were killed in separate incidents last night and early this morning, pushing the pace of homicides in Baltimore to an average of one a day in May.

Law enforcement officials attribute at least part of the violence to drug turf battles and an increase in gang rivalries. In many cases, police and prosecutors complain that victims and witnesses are reluctant to cooperate with investigators, and instead settle scores outside of the city's criminal justice system.

Community leaders are reluctant at best to point the finger at the Drug War. Instead they talk about a culture of violence that has created young men and boys that solve every dispute or problem by picking up a gun and shooting the other person. I think they miss the point entirely. To begin with when you actually look at the murders, most are turf related or due retribution -- because of talking to the cops, or gang disputes. Either way, both are entirely caused from drugs. Think The Wire. It may be a television show, but it's awful scary how close to real world Baltimore it comes.

As for a culture of violence I don't dispute that fact. But where did this culture of violence come from? It has to be the Drug War. It's like plopping a bunch of hardened child soldiers from Africa into a civilized city and expecting them to act like responsible, non-violent members of society. Why would they? It's not a perfect analogy of course, but it's not far off. The sad thing is that this isn't some civil war ravaged, African nation. It's a mid-major city in the richest country in the world. These kids should have a chance and it's a shame for us to take that away all just because we want to stop people from getting high. Full article here.

Baltimore Beat

I was going to just comment on Leo's post, but then realized about three paragraphs deep that I can post at TtP, so why not do that?

First, I had seen Curran's idea this morning, but not the details. There has been a lot of talk about beefing up foot patrols in high-crime areas, because, surprise, it tends to lower crime when police patrol communities and engage with residents. More police tend to reduce crime in general; but the community interaction addresses the real problem in violent crime prevention in the city. The lack of reliable witnesses for violent crime. Not witnesses to the shootings or murders, plenty of people see these crimes, rather witnesses willing to come forward. A couple of reasons why that is the case.

1) No one is willing to trust the state's attorney to provide protection. It's inadequate and anyone who can read the paper or lives in the city knows that. You come forward, the criminals find you, and if you're lucky, shoot you. If you are not lucky they firebomb your house and kill your entire family in an inferno. Prove to city residents that you can protect witnesses then more will come forward.** 2) No one in this city trust the cops. White, black, poor, wealthy. No one trusts them. Why? A lot of obvious reasons that you could find in any city, i.e. police corruption (although I could make the argument that for a police force the size of the city's, corruption is abnormally high). But another factor is the lack of police patrols outside of patrol cars. We don't have regular foot beats (it's beginning to change and has shown to reduce crime) that help foster relationships between officers and communities. Increase the size of the force and require all cops to do a year or two of foot patrolling in their district and you will prevent murders. I do not doubt this.

Is the economic condition of the city as bad as Leo claims? I don't think so. The city still carries the moniker Crane City and has an increasingly vibrant downtown. To compare it Pittsburgh is comparing apples to oranges. Baltimore is still a city of neighborhoods that people actually live and work in. It has (I believe) the deepest cold water port on the east coast and it has done its part to stay competitive. It doesn't hurt that the city is located where it is, near the ever-growing federal bureaucracies and a favorable location for BRAC. I need Leo to quote more than one firm leaving the city before I will give in to her point.

**Another problem is the unwillingness of witnesses to take advantage of protection. Too often these are folks who have never left their neighborhood in Baltimore, let alone the state, and won't move to protected out-of-city residences when they are told to. Who knows how you convince these people to leave.

Why Do You Keep Asking Me if I Really Want to Hurt You?

Boy George is in some trouble again, having been

arrested on suspicion of assault and claims of false imprisonment.

According to tabloid reports, the ex-Culture Club star allegedly kidnapped a 28-year-old male on Saturday, April 28.

Also busted for assault: a woman from an English band I've never heard of, a woman I've never heard of from American Idol, and a WNBA player I've -- you guessed it -- never heard of.

Headline of the Week

Man Describes Alleged Attack By 7 Lesbians In N.J.

Claims '06 Incident Was Hate Crime Against Straight Man
A man who was beaten and stabbed after a street fight with seven avowed lesbians testified Wednesday that he thought he was going to die after they jumped him last year.

Catttyy. Full article here.

Cops Gone Stupid

How do you scare residents in a largely rural county? You tell them things like this at a "gang forum":[emphasis mine]

"These guys are here. They're committing crimes here," Detective John Burroughs of the Charles County Sheriff's Office told the small gathering Thursday night, punctuating his remarks with photos and statistics projected in a computer slide presentation.

[...]

The Blood sets in Charles often wear red clothing. Burroughs said they are likely to follow what Bloods in Northeastern cities are doing: switch to brown or green clothing, especially articles linked to a sports team.

"If you see the Boston Celtics walking down the street, and you're pretty sure they're not actually the Boston Celtics," Burroughs said, "that might be a Blood set."

Or it might just be a young, black kid in a Celtics jersey. Fact is -- I think the odds are -- that it's just a young, non-violent kid wearing a basketball jersey. But call me crazy, the NBA probably doesn't sell too many Paul Pierce jerseys. Right? Full article here.

Disclaimer: I grew up 'round that area. Not too long ago either; and it wasn't much of a gang-wasteland then or now.

New Haven Police and the 'Estupido' Caper

You thought your small-to-medium-sized city had problems... Unless you live in Cicero -- the city, not the blogger -- your backwater likely can't compete with

a whirlwind week's worth of controversy involving allegedly corrupt cops, an FBI sting, the mayor's responsibility, discontent with City Hall in the black community, and whether or not the head of the state NAACP used the scandal to pressure the mayor for money for his organization.

Man, that is some week!

The FBI sting found city drug cops, including Billy White, head of the police department's narcotics unit, on the wrong side of the law in what's aptly being called (thanks to White) The "Estupido" Caper. The whole thing's worth a read, but this bit is especially entertaining [emphasis mine, brackets not]:

"When back in the [undercover agent's] car, White emptied the bag, White wrote 'estupido' on the money-bag, and White had the [informant] do the same. After concerns about whether his face could be seen, White put the empty bag back in the trunk." Earlier, White had "made several phone calls to figure out how to spell 'estupido.'"

Check out more at the online-only New Haven Independent.

Freedom of Assembly? Pshaw...

Example number.....Well I've lost track of how many examples why I don't believe in any rights that you don't claim for yourself as a right. The Constitution is nice and all...but it would be even better if we actually abided by it as a country. From the Examiner: [emphasis mine: what group wouldn't fall under those specifications?]

This bill “allows prosecution of gangs as a unit,” said Attorney General Doug Gansler, who would gain additional authority to prosecute gangs operating across county lines. Gansler denied that the bill infringed on freedom of association.

The bill prohibits a person from participating in a criminal gang knowing that the other members engage in crime, and willfully promoting or assisting in the commission of a long list of violent crimes. To be a gang, it must have some kind of identifying sign, symbol, name, leader or purpose.

Funny. I wasn't aware they (Baltimore cops at least) needed more reasons to arrest people. They do a pretty good job as of now arresting 1 out of every 6 city residents. Especially those darn dark people. Full article here. Via Baltimore Crime.

Drugs and Money OK, Violence and Death Not

A very good write-up in the Washington Post on a huge, local drug case that ended very poorly for the government. A quick run-down on the particulars of the case.

A wiretap on the cellphone of a reputed drug kingpin led police to a stash house where they found almost 100 kilos of cocaine and nearly $1 million. A force of more than 100 federal and local agents swept up nearly a dozen suspects in raids across the region.

[ellipsis]

The jurors, after deliberating for weeks, deadlocked earlier this year on many charges against alleged kingpin Antoine Jones, including the most serious: conspiracy. And on more than a dozen other counts, the jury came back with verdicts of not guilty. The three men on trial with him, charged with conspiracy as well, fared even better.

Kevin L. Holland and Adrian Jackson were acquitted of all charges; Michael A. Huggins was acquitted of all but one lesser charge, and that eventually was dismissed by the government.

[ellipsis]

Jones, who has drug convictions in the District and Virginia, lives in Waldorf and owned a nightclub in Northeast Washington called Levels. The now-closed club, prosecutors argued, was the hub of the conspiracy, providing a place to launder drug proceeds and a pretense for all the coded telephone talk of "tickets" and "music" -- allegedly terms for drugs.

The feds also had documented evidence from a GPS transmitter on Jones's jeep, as well as pictures taken at the stash house, that numerous trips to the stash house were made with that particular vehicle. Where this case gets interesting -- and I should add that my only legal training is writing this while watching Boston Legal and putting the LSATS off a record 3 times in one year -- is in the analysis of the jury's decision. The defendants were accused of running a massive drug operation with no violence surrounding them. There in lies the probable reason (and the Post article spells this out nicely) that the defendants were acquitted. Probable I say; but in reality it was most likely just one of many things that led the jury to acquit. That being said, let me go with that supposition. Doesn't that prove the obvious - that when it comes down to do it, what the public really wants (when they are put in a position to think about it) is action on the violence and coercion that follows the illicit drug trade, rather than the drugs and addiction (and all that goes with it) that follows those drugs?

The question becomes, why is it so hard to explain to people that the majority of the crime and violence stems from the illegal nature of the drugs, rather than the drugs themselves? The answer I think, isn't that your average American is an idiot, rather they just don't care. It isn't on their radar. Unfortunately we find those average Americans in places where the electoral power lies-like middle America and those dreaded suburbs. My guess -- having spent most of my short life in those places -- is that if you polled moms and dads in the local mall about problems facing their children they would respond as if they were reading from a nightly news script. Addiction from pills and marijuana. Some guy grabbing their kid from the parking lot..and etc. Not too many would talk about the thousands of young, black men gunned down in cities, or the unlucky 7 year old who catches a stray bullet. Or the fact that our inner cities look like a war zone, consistently getting worse and worse over the years, practically dooming generations of Americans to a life of poverty and crime. The problems that arise from prohibition are not percieved as personal issues for most voting Americans, and so then, how do you convince them that it is a serious problem that we are making much worse? Who knows....

Rapist Apoligizes for the "Inconvenience"

Had to pass this one along. From the Examiner, now convicted rapist Raymond Boyer offers his apologies at the sentencing hearing for his rape of a 4' 10", 90 year old woman.

“I just apologize for everything, for the inconvenience,” he said in Baltimore County Circuit Court. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about myself. I just apologize.”

Awful big of him.

Via Baltimore Crime.

Slow Day

John Tierney has a post up at his NY Times blog about the significant crime decreases of the '90's and the slight uptick in crime that we have seen in the last few years. He put the question to a panel at the annual meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The general response was "We have no fucking clue" what the main factor for the big drop in the '90's. Why do I find it interesting? The comments section. Comedy gold my friends. I'll share a few, but if you are looking to waste some time I recommend checking the thread out for yourself.

Exposure to maternal and/or paternal smoking in pregnancy and any associated offspring mental retardation and criminality began decreasing dramatically from the 1960s on. That time course could explain much of recent crime decreases in Canada and the US. Tobacco companies and their many Federal, other governmental, Republican, … allies have lots of money to confuse these issues.
New York City, Mayor Bloomberg, Dr. Frieden and allies have many smoking decreases and resultant benefits to be proud of.
[ellipsis]
What do you think the long range prognosis is if you take lead out of the environment. When you go out into the bay on a boat and look back at NYC, you see it engulfed in a cloud, which used to be leaded gasoline. Knowing the effects of lead on the brain and subsequently the higher concentrations in the city, what would you expect to happen if lead is removed: the politicians taking credit for the earth, stars and the moon

And the award for the only intentionally funny remark goes to...

Re: New York City crime reduction.

A contributing factor may be that NYC has become so expensive that muggers can’t afford to live there anymore.

Via Hit&Run.