Saturday, December 30, 2006

December 30

Says NPR's Laura Sullivan in, "New Crime Data Has Experts Concerned," the federal budget for crime fighting is now a little more than one-third of what it was 10 years ago, and violent crime is up 4 percent nationwide.
Thanks, Republicans!

Three correctional officers were stabbed at Jessup.

Kenneth Megginson, wanted for murdering a Baltimorean in October,* was arrested in Berks County, PA. (Like the site's typo disclaimer!)

The Sun's Gregory Kane celebrates Festivus late, enumerating the (rather surprising) people who disappointed him most this year, including Rod J. Rosenstein and the Court of Special Appeals.
(No word yet on who gets '06's "Negro, Please")

Burglary, robbery, assault, etc. in the Blotter.

* Searching the archive for this guy, I found a comment I hadn't read! Good stuff!
Anonymous said...
If you've ever investigated a murder in the city, or talked to people in some of the f-ed neigbhorhoods where they occur, you'll soon realize how, in many cases, few want to talk to police or reporters about the gangbanger/drug dealer who just got his brains blown out. Please, I implore some bloggers/posters here to pick a murder in, say, the heart of the eastern district, and just show up at the address and start talking to people. don't just plot it out on your makeshift computer map and think you got some real handle or insight into city crime. Next, while you're out in the 'hood, imagine you're a homicide detective: you need to get people to cooperate, first by persuasion or by appealing to whatever compassion for their fellow man that they might have. Sometimes, there just isn't much compassion, so detectives break out the good cop/bad cop routine and act like pricks. Or if you're a reporter, you need to come back to your editor with on-the-record interviews from people who knew this dead gangbanger/drug dealer, or it's hard to put them on TV or quote anonymous sources. Try to get people in this neighborhood, who knew the victim, to give you their real, full name so you can quote them on how this dead gangbanger/drug dealer had some problems, but he was, at heart, "a good man." sure, right, of course he was... but even if he wasn't a good man, he still deserves justice for his murder. it's incredible to see how many, many cops doggedly pursue that justice, for someone who they knew nothing about, and who did little with their life except to cause a lot of problems in other peoples' lives and neighborhoods. talk about thankless work.

In many neighborhoods, residents, neighbors and obvious witnesses won't even acknowledge your presence or your questions; they'll just turn around and walk away. Like you have the plague. I shit you not. They don't want to talk to you, nor do they want to be seen talking to you. Of course, when someone does talk, they are thinking, or asking you: "will i be subpoenad? you gonna make me go down to homicide now? will i be quoted? will you show my face on tv? do you have to? i have young children who live here...please don't quote me."

Don't just imagine doing this while sitting at your computer and clickety clacking away in cyber/blog land, with your cop/media critic hat on. Unless you've tried to do it, you have no idea. So, go out and do it for a day. Give yourself a deadline later that day, and when that deadline comes, figure out how much you can really say about the life and death of someone, when virtually NO ONE wants to talk about him or her. And you'll get just a taste of what the police, prosecutors, The Sun, The CityPaper, The Examiner, and WMAR, WBAL, WJZ and WBFF/Fox get when they try to report on the "average" homicide in B-more. You can blame that general dearth of information, in no particular order, on: witness intimidation, general callousness, revenge motives, and the sad and pervasive belief that police, prosecutors, and the city, state and Feds can't be trusted to protect witnesses who cooperate. This blog might be kinda new, but this climate -- this landscape that police and local media operate in -- is not new. It's been around for years in charming Charm City. The murders have thrived in this twisted conspiracy of silence.

If people in certain neighborhoods are angry about the murders, or how they don't get covered in the media, then they need to pick up the phone and call the police and help them solve them. Start Snitching. DROP A DIME. Also, pick up the phone and call the media and cry and lament about the gangbanger/drug dealer who was just killed on the corner, who was wanted for murder or attempted murder or robbery.

TESTIFY. TALK ON THE RECORD.

But ya know something? most people don't call about the murders of such people. They don't call police. They don't call the media. They don't talk. They just endure it. And that's the general shittiness of Baltimore Crime, circa 2006.

Signed,
Anon.
Going outside? Lamenting on the phone? As if!
We have all the "idea" we can handle as it is, thank you!
But thanks for the comment, non! In honor of you I'm going to turn 'non comments back on!

Friday, December 29, 2006

December 29

Ehrlich granted 17 16 pardons (and one medical commutation). Ed Norris' was not one.

morning

If you're into tawk radio between 10 a.m. and noon EST, give a listen to Ed Norris today and Monday... Troy Johnson is great, John Bou-shay is ok, Ed comes back Tuesday.

"Three men arrested early Wednesday in a house in the 3300 block of Noble St. have been charged with the fatal shooting Tuesday night of a man whose identity has not been confirmed." [271]
Homicide 272 was 46-year-old Willie Lewis, shot during a home invasion Wednesday.
Also, a 17-year-old shot in the shoulder on Norf Abnue.

The Justice Department says that Domestic Violence is half of what it was in 1993.

"Bricky" Bykowicz covers the Jamaicain-themed double funeral of Roy and Cliffy Holder of Maroon Town.
Said Jablow, a "person connected to the Holders was being protected by officers."

The woman shot by a suicide in Glyndon is Candace Treadway, 44.

The Post's "Being a Black Man" goes bowling.

Kane makes a good point, kind of: "With no death penalty, just how will [murdered prison guard David] McGuinn's murderers be punished?"

Salisbury police are looking for gangbangers Dominic Damar Barkley, 17, and Derrien Brett Douglas, 16, who shot two bystanders at a condo complex.

In PGC, Richard Rose, 26, was charged with child abuse resulting in death and is being held on $1 million bond.
Police say Rose is responsible for the death of six-year-old Tyrell Hannibal of Fayetteville, N.C.

In Pasadena, police say Steven Ray Ellison, 24, died of "excited delirium" which led to a heart attack.

Lock your doors, Joe! A wild police chase in Mt. Airy followed a Wal-Mart shoplifting incident, and a suspect is still on the loose!

Carjacker Rudy Alfredo Carpio-Vasquez, 31, was arrested (he might be Hispanic).

Sheesh, handing off Bédard the Québécoise could take months! Hope the ladies show her a good time at Jessup!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

December 28

He used to love her, but Robert Bush Wolfe Jr., 48, is accused of killing and then burying his girlfriend behind her home in Osprey, FL, and he's now at the Sarasota County Jail after being extradited from our fair city, where he was hiding out.

December 28

The city's 272th murder was a 46-year-old man, killed in a home invasion in that neighborhood between 25th street and the Alameda.

Murder 271 was a man shot on the pavement in the first block of North Clinton street.

A man's in shock trauma after being shot in the head in the 2100 Block of W. Fairmount in the Western.
Also an arrest for the murder of 69-year-old Freddie Thornton, found in Leakin Park.

A police chase from a Shell station in the County gets mired in a barricade situation in the City.

Yuck, an attempted murder-suicide in Glyndon in the County.

The seven homicides of the apocalypse? Annapolis has had seven murders in '06, as has HarfCo.

A man died after struggling with police in AAC.

See, it does happen! A woman in a Chevy Malibu with a red light on the dashboard pulled a man over, took $15.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Another Baltimore Show?

DavidSimon
Slate adds fuel to rumors there will be a Season Six of The Wire, focused on the Central American population.
David Simon, meet the other Simon!
I'm sure he could help you write a great script-- cheap!

December 27

The Ink is brief and goes to 267.
The Un-ID'd woman was Annette Bradney, 31, 800 block of North Stricker Street.
That's reassuring: "Bradney is the 26th woman murdered this year in Baltimore City."
Wonder how many white women?

How do you find the fruit-flush, Mr. Sherman?
WBAL reviews the "Top Stories of '06".

Dr. Nelson Hendler, accused of trading pain pills for sex at the Mensana clinic, is now being sued for $50k.

AAC: "Man Punches Officer, Yells 'You'll Never Catch Me'"

Retiring County SA Sandy O'Connor talks to Dave Durian.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Dec 26 nite

In Leonardtown, an army reservist named James E. Dean who served in Afghanistan and didn't want to go to Iraq was fatally shot by police after a standoff which began yesterday.

md-fred2The Court of Special Appeals upheld the search and seizure of a van containing evidence used against Sonya M. Daniels, (left, William J. Hennessy Jr. for The Post) sentenced to life in 2005 for the double murder of 16-year-old Deanna Marie Prichard and her 5-week-old daughter Makayla Ann Frost in Frederick County in 2002. Daniels was, police say, jealous of Prichard's relationship with the baby's father, Tracy Frost, 32.

bedard myriamFascinating Visitors from the North: AP QT Brian Witte says Olympic-champ Québécoise and alleged abductress Myriam Bédard will have a hearing on Friday ... and that her current husband is a low-level art thief. Interesting footnote: two years ago Bédard blew the whistle on a big Canadian government no-show-job scam.

JZ Headline Writers Playing it Safe: "Baltimore's Murder Rate is Not Decreasing."

30. 06Like stories about ammo? NPR's Elsa Heidorn reports on the Springfield thirty-aught-six cartridge, which turns 100 today.

morning

"The city has recorded 270 homicides, one more than in 2005 ... The most recent victim was Stephen Brunson, 37, whose body was found shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday ... Yesterday, police announced they had identified a body found in Leakin Park on Saturday as Freddie Thornton, a 69-year-old city resident. He had been stabbed repeatedly..."

A article on Christmas in confinement: "The Single Hardest Day Of the Year: Inmates Mark the Yuletide With Reflection and Regret"

File under human trafficking, prostitution: Jair Francis, age 33, of Wheaton, Maryland was convicted of conspiracy to transport hundreds of women for prostitution purposes to Montgomery and Prince George's Counties.
Elsy and Eliazor Aparicio and their mother, Olinda Aparicio (age 65), Dorinalda Aparicio, Manuel and Rosibel Jandres have pled guilty to their involvement in the prostitution ring.

Eight weapons indictments from the feds.

Racketeering conspirator and ex-Sen. Bromwell is stepping down as head of IWIF. Update: What the?! IWIF agreed "to pay former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell $400,000 to step down in advance of his trial on federal corruption charges." Crazy!!

horseheadGift horse dept.:
Mrs. J's theory on her $83k pay raise (as told to Laura Vozzella) is that Kitty wants the job in 2010!

Monday, December 25, 2006

December 25

National: Tempe, AZ: COP WHO MADE BLACK MEN RAP CLEARED

morning

A man was found stabbed to death in Leakin Park.

And, "The body of a missing 74-year-old Dundalk man was found late Saturday in a stream less than a half-mile from where his partially submerged rental car was discovered that morning."

Wow, some schools have taken my advice and added Mandarin! (nothing to do with crime, we know)

RIP, Grandma Ginny. You'd be sorry to hear that the estate tax probably won't be repealed [<-MD TDR sub.]-- though of course you already knew that was never going to happen! You were right all along-- as usual. And yes, Christmas is a good time to remember to rack up deductions.

Merry Christmas, galt, eeb, Snay, Cynic, hocoJoe burger and all my invisible friends!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

December 24

"For the first time in decades, Congress is poised to pass a bill that aims to make the lives of prisoners and ex-prisoners easier, not more difficult."

Radio Jamaica: Matt Jablow "tightlipped" on Holder brothers' murder.

It's Christmas in the HoHoHoCo Hotel and Boxing Day extradition for Quebecoise Olympian, child-custody-order violator Myriam Bedard, caught by local police in conjunction with the Mounties at the behest of babydaddy Jean Paquet.

MD in the National spotlight: first the gays, then the jail sex, now today's most-exported story is Executions and the "broad shift in dynamics that has sprung from a narrow ruling."
In Being a Black Man, the Post profiles one of the FBI's top-ranking Negro agents.

A "bandit shot" on Perring Parkway and Hillen right over the County line in the NE.

Hagtown prison is going to start raising drug dogs.

If you think the city's young offenders have it bad, what with being forced to attend classes and all... check out African juvie.

david evansProsecutors in the Duke lax case had DNA proof back in April-- six months ago-- that the boys (including MD's David Evans, right) could not have been involved.