Weekend crime
It was another busy weekend in Baltimore and I'm sure my colleagues and I will be sorting it out today. I spent Saturday on Orchard Street in the Seton Hill neighborhood, where complaints about crime finally boiled over.
On Friday, an undercover city police officer made a drug buy and when he tried to make an arrest, police said the suspect resisted and one of his friends opened fire on the officers. They returned fire and at the end two suspects were wounded and the officer, Dante Arthur, an 8-year veteran, was hit twice in the face.
It appears that Arthur is going to recover -- he's still at Maryland Shock Trauma Center and doctors say one bullet grazed his cheek and the other shattered his jaw. Police released Arthur's name on Saturday, but it surprised me that they also released the name of his partner, Daniel Harper, who also fired at the suspects. That seems to contradict a new policy of not naming officers who shoot people. The names of both officers are in public court documents that were released on Sunday, so maybe that's why the department went ahead and put their names out. I'll be checking into this.
This incident occurred just steps from where police had put up a spotlight to deter drug dealing from a dark spot where Orchard Street meets Pennsylvania Avenue. Drug dealers had repeatedly broken the light and cut the wire, and the city had repeatedly replaced it. Then one day the city stopped and the Seton Hill community was outraged. I wrote about the back-and-forth between different city agencies -- the cops wanted the light fixed but were told by somoene in Public Works that they were tired to making the repairs. Public Works told me it was a problem of the transportation department, which told me they just carried the light back and forth. I still haven't gotten good answers, and while the light was there on Friday night, residents told me it hasn't worked for a week and a half.
"Now that a police officer has been shot, maybe they'll do something," one Seton Hill resident told me on Saturday.
The community is now divided. Seton Hill residents who live in some of the city's oldest rowhouses complain that their Orchard Mews neighbors (who live in subsidized housing) are a threat to public safety and that the management company that runs the townhouse complex does nothing. A management official told me on Saturday that they want to hire private security but Seton Hill residents don't want to help pay.
On Saturday, an Orchard Mews official said she had just joined the Seton Hill Association and a board member from Seton Hill said there has been talk about reaching out beyond their historic boundaries. It's a start.
In other violence this weekend, a 14-year-old boy was killed and police this morning found a body in a taxi cab. Also, a city police officer shot and killed a man who authorities said was stabbing another woman. Looks like we'll have lots to discuss this week.
Here's an e-mail I got this morning from a city resident about Seton Hill and Orchard Mews:
I just read your article about the terrible shooting of the undercover Baltimore City Police Officer on Friday the 23rd. I would like to point-out that not only is it Orchards Mews in that local vicinity that struggles with violence, drug-dealing and drug use, there is also Pedestal Gardens (1500-1600 Block of Eutaw), Medeso Manor (1900-2000 Block of Eutaw), and Madison Park North (1900 Block of Park Ave, along North Ave.). I believe all of these properties were sold through HUD and although privately owned, HUD does have some authority for the housing process.
In my opinion, I agree that there are hard working men and women who must live in these subsidized housing projects in order to make ends meet. Nonetheless, I think many of these honest hardworking folks would much rather have the opportunity to use a housing voucher and choose a place to rent as opposed to living in an environment that sustains a culture that truly threatens one's life if he or she chooses to speak out against the drug culture. Additionally, the onsite management of these porperties has the unenviable responsibility of confronting hardcore drug dealers when such persons seek to stay in these residences. Confrontation with a drug dealer seeking to live in one of the project housing units threatens the drug dealer's business of making money. This is met with violence toward one's self or one's family. Keep in mind the owners of these HUD properties do not come into direct contact with the drug dealers.
Another aspect of these housing projects that I find difficult to understand is how hard it is to find out who is the actual owner(s) of the property. Many times it is an LLC that has a resident agent but no description of ownership.... especially if it's a Maryland LLC owned by an out of state LLC.
I talk with the Baltimore City police leadership in the Central District. I do believe Major Bailey & William Cole are taking the problem seriously and devoting as many resources as they can toward the problems. Nonetheless, this is an issue that is complicated in many different ways. At the risk of sounding naive, I'd like to see the hardworking families in the housing projects receive housing assistance that can help them find a place to live that is safer, closer to work, or more amenable to their individual circumstances. Perhaps then, these housing projects, that provide cover for illegal activites, could then be turned into more productive endeavors.
Comments
The concern over drug distribution is one that will not get resolved anytime soon. Not only dealers are to blame but, consumers who are dependent must have their needs met. By allowing methadone clinics to dispense legal medication in drug areas, the problem of crime ceases. Of course no one wants these clinics in their neighborhood due to a certain clientele, however consider the alternative, crime, crime and more crime. Methadone is not the answer, however, a person becomes functional once again and the need to commit further crime goes away. The choice is the addicts responsibility, if he knows the need to go out and get money for that fix is not necessary, then crime reduces itself. I've never seen drug crimes where methadone clinics are located, the city needs to look at alternatives and this is one that works.
frank
Posted by: frank guerassio | January 27, 2009 7:24 AM
Peter-
And so the cycle of youth exterminating youth continues in the city, and I have to wonder how much Mayor Dixon's office and Police Commissioner Bealefeld's office care about this powder-keg situation. Perhaps Mayor Dixon's minions are too concerned with rebuilding her image in the wake of her relationship with Mr. Lipscomb (we can call it "GiftCardGate").
Perhaps Commissioner Bealefeld's office is preoccupied with petty items such as street cameras.
The public has to push for answers to the pressing question "what is being done to address the situation of youth on youth violence, the murder of our city's youth, and the subsequent decay of our city as we know it"?
If it goes unaddressed, I dread to think of the consequences. All I know is the the coroner's office will have to double up on their purchases of body bags...
Get angry, citizens of Baltimore, and demand answers!
Posted by: patrick lynch | January 27, 2009 7:32 AM
legalize the drugs and take the profit out of it.but i,m afraid baltimore is a lost cause.bad schools a ton of crummy parents, out of the loop on job creation.william donalds dream of a great inner harbor that forgot about bringing business that paid a living wage to b-more
Posted by: satch | January 27, 2009 1:19 PM
I've lived in Seton Hill since the summer of 2002. I've watched the neighborhood and the surrounding area go from frankly scary to not too bad. Lately, however, Jasper street is now a place to buy drugs, people who are ON drugs urinate and deficate where they think they can't be seen. Walk three blocks down to Mulberry and you can hear calls for "BUP!" and the crazy names for God-knows-what drugs someone is carrying in their pockets. That the city is trying to clean up the West Side is a joke. Mayor Dixon's eyes are clearly off the ball and her people have become distracted. As for Orchard Mews, it is single factor that keeps Seton Hill and the surrounding residential area from improving. Kids stand with menacing looks at the corners of Orchard street. Large cars with dark tinted windows cruise up and down Orchard and Little Monument Streets. When Orchard Mews had reached it's 20 year agreement with HUD, they were supposed to have converted to market rate. That was the agreement made with the first owners. But, it didn't happen. They made some cosmetic improvements that the police didn't like (makes it hard to chase people). I do my best to keep my block safe with my neighbors. We hear a noise, we come out side. We greet people as they walk by, even if we don't know them. We are present. Orchard Mews should do what they need to do to keep their street safe. They are not. They should be shut down as the street is littered, some of the residents just throw their trash on the sidewalk, there is drug parephernalia everywhere. Seton Hill is a neighborhood of mostly professionals, many of whom are in their late 20s to 40s, and quite a few of us not native to Baltimore. It has a large gay community and is ethnically very diverse (Asian, Black and White Americans, European and West African immigrants, Latino are all here). It's a fantastic neighborhood with a very active neighborhood association. But, as of now we are being strong-armed by the drug dealers and parent company of Orchard Mews (who really owns that place -- they qualify as absentee landlords in my book). We need help. We've needed help. But none of our city leaders, nor the owners of Orchard Mews live in Seton Hill, nor do they live in the West Side. To them, the West Side and Seton Hill are a goal. To me, it's home.
Posted by: Kevin-Douglas Olive | January 27, 2009 1:41 PM