Keith Biddle sent me this nice e-mail on today's article on the disconnect between Baltimore's lowering crime statistics and fear:

Your story on statistics vs perception was a good one until you got to the wedding theft part.  Devoting over half the space to theft from a wedding card box diluted the piece. So one of their scumbag guests most likely heisted money filled cards? Someone should have kept a better eye on it. There doesn’t appear to be evidence that someone came off the street, at least none is mentioned. And in defense of the police, already dealing with multiple shootings, this would by all rights be a low priority. It’s a done deal, no chance they catch the thief.  It’s an insurance case at best, the hotel or caterer may be liable, who knows. I don’t think it was a good example of Balto City crime, as there are so many others available each day.

Here's why I used this example: to me it shows how even a simple thing as a stolen gift card at a wedding can frighten people about Baltimore. It was an extreme case but it demonstrates all too well people's perceptions about this city and how much there is to overcome.

It might well end up that another guest stole the money, and that strengthens my argument that fear outweighs reality. I wrote about this particular case because it was a wedding, just the sort of event the city needs to attract, and it ended with people feeling bad about their city and their police. Even if their fear is unjustified (such as the police responded correctly and the theft was internal), it unfortunately becomes a black mark for the city.

And that is why we have so much work to do to not only make the city safer, but make people feel safer.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Back in October 1999, a Baltimore Sun reporter had the most routine of assignments -- the government gave 2,000 Maryland sixth-graders scholarship money to help them with their education. "I'm very excited because it means I have a better chance to go to college," Sirlilar Stokes, then 10, told reporter Howard Libit. "It's something I want to do."

In May of this year, a different reporter, Jacques Kelly, wrote this about that same little girl, again, a routine story: "A 20-year-old Baltimore woman has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder in a pair of shootings in 2008."

Now, that routine May story has taken a different twist -- a series of raids on Thursday by Baltimore police and federal authorities to bring down a Bloods gang started with Stokes, who went on a shooting spree to avenge the death of a rival gang member involved in abudcting another gang member from The Block and killing him (at left, in a photo of Baltimore Sun staffer Amy Davis, Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy addresses a news conference about Thursday's sweep. Behind her is Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein).

I've tried to reach out to Stokes' family but through her lawyer they declined my request. Back in 1999, she made the news simply because she gave the perfect quote for a feel-good story. Now she's in the news for an entirely different reason, and it raises questions about whether she ever took advantage of the opportunity given to her 10 years ago. I also want to know what happened to the other 2,000 kids who had the same offer. It could be that 1,999 are successful now.

Authorities in Baltimore have conducted several raids on gangs that are now part of the city's violent culture -- we've seen connections to Maryland prisons (in this latest case, cops even raided jaill cells) and now the cops have make links to California, another troubling sign that maybe the gangs in Baltimore aren't just former street crews adapting more threatening names, but actually are strongly linked to their West Coast cousins.

For more on Stokes, here is Jacques Kelly's May 11 story:

20-year-old Baltimore woman has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder in a pair of shootings in 2008.

Authorities say Sirlilar Jewelle Stokes of the 4800 block of Briarclift Ave. shot two men in retaliation for the killing of "close associate" Kenneth Cooper "Cash" Jones the day before. They say Stokes, affiliated with the PDL Bloods gang, was targeting people she believed to be members of the Spider Bloods gang.Two co-defendants, 21-year-old Lavel Edmond and 26-year-old Gerod Damon Lewis, were sentenced to 15 years after pleading guilty to lesser charges.

According to court papers, Stokes, Edmond and Lewis drove a white Dodge Charger to the 300 block of S. Addison St. in West Baltimore about midnight June 10. While fellow gang members waited, Stokes saw Tavon Kuniken, produced a .380-caliber AMT handgun and opened fire, striking Kuniken in the upper right leg.

Immediately after the shooting, authorities say, Stokes, Edmond and Lewis drove to the 3000 block of Spaulding Ave. and began to fire. Authorities say Stokes shot at the front of 3063 Spaulding Ave., striking Dean Bartley in the chest. They say Edmond shot at the rear of 3047 Spaulding Ave.

When she was 10 years old, Stokes was interviewed by a Baltimore Sun reporter about a federal grant the state had received to help children graduate from high school and pay for college.

"I'm very excited, because it means I have a better chance to go to college," she said in the 1999 story. "It's something I want to do."

Last week, Stokes pleaded guilty before Judge David Young to two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of using a handgun in the commission of a violent crime. She was sentenced to life in prison, with all but the first 50 years suspended.

Edmond, of the 2300 block of Allendale Road, and Lewis, of the 2400 block of W. Mosher St., pleaded guilty before Judge Martin Welch to one count each of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to use a handgun in the commission of a violent crime.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Breaking news
        

To follow today's raids by federal authorities and Baltimore police targeting gangs, you need a cheat sheet. And the feds, in their indictment make public this afternoon, provide a neat glossery of terms to help you follow along.

For the complete indictment, go here. Otherwise, have fun with the terms and the nicknames of the people indicted from the Pasadena Denver Lanes gang straight from the court documents:

PDL members often use a system of verbal codes to communicate with each other
and to signify their association with the Bloods or a set of the Bloods. Examples include the
following:

a. "crab" is a derogatory term for a member of the rival Crips gang;
b. The letter "c"is often replaced with the letter "b" to represent PDL
members' disdain for the rival Crips gang;
c. "550" refers to a civilian, that is someone who is neither a Bloods nor a
rival gang member;
d. "999" or "Triple 9" refers to cooperating with law enforcement;
e. "Platinum" refers to a firearm;
f. "Baby love" is a reference to money;
g. a" 10-20" or an "SP" is a superior or a sponsor in the PDL organization;
h. a "pup" or "peanut" is a pledge;
1. a "Big Homey" is a leader;
J. a "911" is a PDL meeting;
k. a "stack" is a reference to $1000.00;
1. if a person is "on the menu" or "labeled food," that person has been
designated as someone who is going to be "eaten," meaning seriously beaten or killed;
m. "roscoes" is a term for police; rio to "roll" or "peter roll" means to kill or assault;
o. "twelve" means to talk;
p. "on point" means to be prepared for retaliation;
q. "red" means "right" or "understood";
r. a "mission" is a violent act;
s. a "birthday boy" is a person who is to be robbed;
1. a "birthday party" refers to a robbery, assault, or other act of violence to be
committed; and
u. a "Bloodette" is a female Bloods member.
7. PDL also created and maintained a hierarchical membership structure from senior
rank to junior rank. For example:
a. OOOG ("Triple OG"; "OG" is short for "Original Gangster")
b. OOG ("Double OG")
c. OG ("Original Gangster")
d. G .("Gangster")
e. OYG ("Original Young Gangster")
f. YG ("Young Gangster").

At times relevant to this Indictment, the following defendants were members of
PDL: TERRENCE RICHARDSON, a/k/a "Squeaky," a/k/a "Don," a/k/a "L-Don,"
EMILIANO AGUAS, a/k/a "Blikk," a/k/a "Two Times," a/k/a "Smurf," FRANK
WILLIAMS, a/k/a "Nitty," a/k/a "Kelly Lee," a/k/a "Lee Kelly," DEMETRICE GRIMES,
a/k/a "Murder," DERRICK TRUESDALE, a/k/a "Paperboy," ANTOINE REED, JR., a/k/a
"Wop," a/k/a "Owop," JASMINE MONIQUE SYKES, a/k/a "Jazzy," a/k/a "Jazzie," NICOLA
BRIGHT, a/k/a "Bola," CHRISTOPHER HARRIS, a/k/a "Duce," a/k/a "Du2e," AVON
BANKS, a/k/a "Cakes," a/k/a "Nutzo," RONALD ELZEY, a/k/a "Duff," ANGEL JOHNSON,
a/k/a "Montana," ERNESTINE COTTEN, a/k/a "Jersey," LARRY MITCHELL a/k/a "Gotti,"
" DEREK LIVINGSTON, a/k/a "Savage," ANTONIO WHITE, a/k/a "Fat Tony," JAMES
MCCUIN, a/k/a "Looney Reds," a/k/a "Loonie Reds," MARCUS BROOKS, a/k/a "MB,"
QUINCY WILLIAMS, a/k/a "Bandana," RICHARD WATERS, a/k/a "Buff," CARLENE
WEBSTER, a/k/a "Little Mama," a/k/a "Lil Mama," RUSSELL JONES, a/k/a "Nosebleed,"
a/k/a "Bleed," and ANTOINE DAVIS, a/k/a "Pusher," a/k/a "Pen."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news
        

Details are still coming in with regards to a sweeping series of raids targeting Baltimore gang members, but we just got word that once again there is a connection to prison cell phones. The state prison system sent out a news released just a few minutes ago with this detail:

Today's indictment alleges that monitored cell phone conversations indicated that Bloods members were attempting to send money from street drug deals to imprisoned gang members to help them pay attorney fees and buy minutes for cell phones smuggled into the prisons. A contraband smuggling plan was also discussed.

Just two weeks ago, Division of Correction (DOC) intelligence officers teamed with law enforcement to use an inmate's modified cell phone in prison to connect two people to a 2008 murder in Baltimore City, and to record conversations implicating at least five other violent criminals who are believed to have committed a dozen other killings.

Calling that project "Operation Dial a Cell," federal prosecutors hailed DOC and DPSCS' work as "bold and creative undercover investigating" and say more charges are likely. In addition to the two people indicted on the Baltimore home invasion and murder, federal authorities say five other violent criminals responsible for at least 12 murders, have also been identified thanks to the cell phone recording effort.

Operation "Dial a Cell" refers to an initiative in which cops gave an imprisoned informant a cell phone that allowed him to record conversations of people he was talking to, and conversations of people around him. It to two arrests in several shootings and murders. That came weeks after another raid showed that imprisoned gang members were using smuggled cell phones to order lobster and champagne.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news
        

In May 2000, Douglas I. Miles, then the head of a group of Baltimore churches, stood on the steps of a East Baltimore rowhouse and called for a renewed effort by faith leaders reduce violence and help the police.

On Wednesday, eight years and more than 2,000 murders later, Miles joined another inter-faith group, including Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, to again call for an end to violence, particularly among the city's youth.

This time, the clergy has more of a plan, including asking for school building to remain open in the summer to serve as safe havens and for a weekend Sabbath next month in which people will be asked to donate $1 to help fund Operation Safe Streets, a project run by the city's health department in which street counselors mediate gang disputes. They also pledged to hold more job fairs and work closely with neighborhood groups.

The religious leaders, in unison, called on Mayor Sheila Dixon to restore funds to keep rec centers, pools and libraries open. Miles, who now heads the advocacy group Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, was the most forceful critic of budget cuts (the City Council has to vote on the budget before July 1). "Whether we stand under the cross, bow to the Star of David or kiss the stone of Mecca, we stand together and say the violence must end," Miles said.

Budget cuts mean difficult decisions must be made, but I'm not sure we can describe the $65 million shortfall in the terms used by Dixon's spokesman, Scott Peterson, who told me "we're racing against a global meltdown" and we're facing "economic catastrophe." He added that "no one wants to shut down a rec center or anything for a kid," and I believe that, but the message being sent by shuttering any when people are still getting killed is a bad one.

There is an effort underway to save the Police Athletic Leage Centers -- two are being closed and others are being folded into Rec and Parks -- and I've stated before that I think the PAL Centers started with good intentions but have now been largely abandoned by the city (starting several police commissioners ago).

Peterson send me a link to an interesting report by the PEW Foundation that compares the budgets from several cities, including Baltimore's, and what each are doing while facing budget problems.

Miles' organization is holding a meeting tonight to press the issue of PAL Centers:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Hundreds of cops and federal agents conducted raids throughout the city last night and today in an operation targeting gangs linked to murders. It was one of the largest operations in recent memory (see more details here) and it underscores the hold gangs now have on city crime.

We will have a more detailed accounting of the days events after a 2 p.m. news conference planned by federal prosecutors, who began their investigation after the abduction of a drug dealer outside The Block.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I spent this past Saturday night and early Sunday touring the Central District night clubs with City Councilman William H. Cole IV. We went from lodges in Bolton Hill to the ever-busy Belvedere to the Inner Harbor (above, Baltimore Sun's Karl Ferron captures city police officers arreesting a man this past Saturday after a fight on Calvert and Redwood streets).

A few fights and lots of cops in an area that has seen more than its share of violence -- from fights, to stabbings (during a disturbance at the Harbor) to shootings. We spent a lot of time with the Central District Commander, Maj. John Bailey, who stayed out well past 2 a.m. (which he does virtually every weekend).

He was busy again last night with another shooting, this one near Camden Yards at Lombard and Eutaw streets (see Baltimore Sun story for more information). That's near 1st Mariner Arena, near several hotels, near a big fire station and a Light Rail stop. Police had few details this morning, but said the victim was 32 and that the shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m., after bars and clubs closed for the night, outside a carryout and after a fight.

I could be easy to dismiss this as routine given that most tourists are in bed at this hour and attribute the violence to the rowdy after-bars crowd. I'm interested in learning who the victim is and what happened -- even at 2:30 in the morning, this is close enough to hotels and still at a time when some people who aren't hoodlums could be returning after an evening out.

Crime is down in the city -- as police said earlier this week, 9 percent -- but it's hard to sell that number when people are gunned down near the city's ballpark, no matter the hour. When I was out this past weekend, police, the city councilman and and deputy director of the Parking Authority talke about people beaten on The Block and around the Harbor and noted the dozens of cops positioned around downtown to control the crowds that pop up at various places throughout the night.

I'm planning on writing more about the downtown scene in Sunday's paper. You can also plot city slayings on our crime map. I'd love to hear stories from people who are out and about on weekend nights in the downtown area.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III gave an interview to the Internet site Exhibit A, in which he talks about crime, police overtime and staffing and frustrated officers and citizens.

It comes as the top cop releases figures showing that crime has dropped in Baltimore this year, good news for the city and the department. In Friday's paper, I'll be examining whether a 9 percent crime drop or a 5 percent crime increase really mean anything to anybody. We have a disconnect between cops saying crime is dropping and people reporting that crime is out of control.

Here is an exerpt of the interview with Bealefeld (the entire interview can be reached through the link above):

They [people] get bombarded with the negative. And it’s not smoke and mirrors. People perceive that. They say, “It’s just fuzzy math – the crime rate’s not really going down, look at all this unreported crime.” There was a big push on that when I first got here, there was a lot of noise about all the numbers, and [people saying] it’s a lie, and part of that is fed by disgruntled people. We had people working against us inside the police department. I had to get rid of them. And there were people who focused on the anecdotal and, God bless them, here’s a reality: You think cops up here in the early 1980s weren’t taking reports? You think cops in the ’90s weren’t taking reports? And so, in 2008 when people say “Oh, my gosh, they didn’t take a report!” It’s happened before.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods, Top brass
        

At tonight's meeting of the Central District Police Community Relations Council (at MICA's main building, Room 110, at 7 p.m.), residents will be able to sign up to ride with a cop for an evening on June 26. I'm pleased city police are giving people an opportunity to see what it's like from the point of view of a squad car and I encourage people living in the neighborhood to sign up -- it's a great opportunity.

Here are some details from Sgt. Charlie Hess, the neighborhood services officer for the Central District:

One item I was going to bring up at our meeting is a Citywide ridealong on Friday, June 26, 2009 on the 4-12 shift. The ridealong is meant to make citizens aware of normal  patrol officers activities and to enhance communication and  citizen involvement in community relations activities. At 8:00 pm the citizens will be brought to H.Q.`s Atrium for a discussion about the evening`s events. Refreshments will be served

The Central District will be able to accommodate twenty five participants in the ridealong. Any Central District community leader, neighborhood crime and safety coordinator or concerned citizen interested in going on the ridealong can contact me by phone or e-mail and I`ll add your name to the participants list until the twenty five spaces are filled.

News reporters used to be able to accompany cops on a routine basis but that practice has all but ended with requirements that include mandating a public affairs official to be in the car and other obstacles. We at The Sun would love to see the gun squad in action, spend an evening with officers at the Inner Harbor, but we'll have to rely on participants to let us know what happens.

I'd love to hear from people who took part in this program and for you to write me your experiences, thoughts and perceptions. One of the biggest complaints I hear at every community meeting is that people call 911 for nuisance crimes (including prostitution, which I wrote about today) and the cops simply does a "drive-by." For you spending time with an officer, I'd like to know if your perception changes after a few hours in a patrol car.

In a post yesterday, I discussed how I spent time in downtown, Mount Vernon and Bolton Hill on Saturday night, touring with a city councilman, and I didn't get any feedback. Please let me know about crime, especially on weekend nights when the clubs are full and the Masonic lodges on Eutaw Street rent out their spaces to partiers. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

The good news from Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton this morning is that crime is down in just about every category this year, from burglaries to violent crime. Homicides, during an unusually slow May, are on par with last year, which recorded a 20-year low. See the Baltimore Sun's homicide map.

Still, Baltimore is a violent city -- four people were slain over the holiday weekend and another person was stabbed near downtown on Sunday night. We still have a lot of work to do but the numbers are encouraging. Of course, the numbers mean nothing if you are among the victims.

I spent Saturday night driving around the city with City Councilman William H. Cole IV and the Peter Collier, the deputy director of the Parking Authority. I wanted to see what it was like when clubs are open; we hear of so much violence, from stabbings at the Inner Harbor to shootings outside the Belvedere, that I wanted to see for myself (above, Baltimore Sun's Karl Ferron took this picture of a man being arrested after a fight on Calvert Street near the Inner Harbor on Saturday night).

We drove from club to club; some were quiet, others were hopping, including Club One and another spot near the Farmer's Market under the JFX, where an international heavy-metal festival attracted about 2,000 people.

We raced from a fight on Calvert Street near the Inner Harbor to a disturbance on Saratoga and Gay streets back to another fight on The Block. The commander of the Central District, Maj. John Bailey, was out late, as he always is on the weekends, looking for trouble. There were four cops working overtime at a single garage on Water Street and another two hired by the Belvedere Condo Association to watch over the clubs in that building.

One of the, Suite Ultralonge, has been targeted by the city for closure; the liquor board pulled its license but the owners have a stay until a Circuit Court judge rules on its appeal. One of the owners, Louis Wood, spoke to Bailey and one of the Mount Vernon leaders and told them he only had 60 kids for an underage night inisde his club on Saturday. That made it easy for Bailey, who likes the club to close at 11 p.m. so the kids can get off the street and back home by midnight curfew (At left, another pic by Ferron of Cole and Maj. Bailey talking about the Ultralounge on Saturday night).

But other clubs were more trouble, including a new on Calvert Street that just suddenly appeared. It looked as if someone had put a sign in a vacant building and announced a party. By the end of the night, city police had to close not only East Baltimore Street, which do when The Block shuts down, but also North Calvert Street because of the clubs and illegally parked cars blocking a lane.

Of the clubs, Cole said, "It's a moving target."

It's nice to see crime down. But judging from what I saw Saturday night into Sunday morning, we still have work to do. But again, it's less the cops and more the people who come, a diverse crowd that could include metal-heads, hip-hop fans, suburbanites at a wedding, college kids at Brewer's Art and families taking a night-time stroll at the Inner Harbor or enjoying a meal.

We were standing outside the Water Street garage when a group of kids walked by. They were loud and jostling each other, and Bailey stepped stood in the sidewalk to ask them to quiet down a bit. They brushed by him without saying a word, but they did get quiet, at least until they reached the end of the block, headed toward the Harbor.

It was 12:30 a.m. and Cole wondered where they could be going. "There are no clubs down there, nothing," he said. Earlier, he wondered aloud, "There has got to be away all this can co-exist."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime, Mapping crime
        

I'm all for instant crime alerts -- though it seems the Baltimore Police Department has cut back in recent days -- but what the leaders at Loyola College did this morning is downright dangerous. They sent out an alert that shots had been fired on campus, that an "active shooter" was on the loose and urged people to barricade themselves inside.

That came out at 10:56 a.m. At 10:59 a.m. and 11:03 a.m., the college sent out another alert saying the one about the shooter had been a test. A spokeswoman told the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton that the school had warned students earlier, as part of a broad e-mail of daily news, that the public safety department would be be holding a public safety exercise.

That just isn't good enough to justify scaring everyone (though school is out for the year). What were they testing? If it was whether alerts were being received, there are other ways instead of saying a shooter is on campus. If it was to measure how police and students react, there are other ways to do that as well.

Too often, police and other agencies are criticized about notifying people too slowly or not at all about events they need to know about, only to send out frightening alerts that aren't needed at all.

I'd love to hear what people think about this. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news
        

The Baltimore Retired Police Benevolent Association on Wednesday night named a city homicide detective, 40-year veteran Randy Wynn (left, in a picture taken by the Baltimore Sun's Chiaki kawajiri), officer of the year for investigating the tragic suicide of a fellow cop who had no friends and family.

It was a touching ceremony at Heritage Gardens in Parkville that brought veteran cops to tears. Wynn told the group he had done nothing special, "I did what I felt needed to be done." But his Baltimore police colleagues disagreed -- the story of Patrolman Edward William Eldridge, who shot himself in the head in January and was buried without family or friends, spurned a new movement among cops to help their retirees.

Wynn had responded to the shooting in Northeast Baltimore but didn't know the victim was a fellow officer until a day later; the condition of the body made it hard to immediately identify. Eldridge (left) was having financial problems -- he had lost much of his $550,000 savings to the stock market, and couldn't find anybody to wait for him at a hospital for simple knee surgery.

"His way of dealing with this was to pick up a .40 caliber Glock and put two bullets in his head," Wynn told those gathered. Wynn spent days picking through Eldridge's things but could not find a friend or a relatives. All his phone numbers, listed on his fridge and programmed into his cell phone, went to an accountant, a take-out pizza place, a video rental store, a repairman for his house. He spent his time polishing his gun collection and watching movies; he had been robbed in a home invasion a few years earlier and he kept a hunting knife in each room and had black garbage bags covering all his windows.

"He was as paranoid as you can get," Wynn said.

Eldridge was buried with police honors; people came who never even knew him to pay their respects and Wynn tried but failed to find a relative. One did finally surface just a few weeks ago, but only after a probate firm hired to dispose of the dead officer's estate found a cousin. Karen Zglobicki told Wynn that she would use money from Eldridge's estate to help the retired officer's fund.

Wynn came to the ceremony with his wife and boss, Maj. Terrence McLarney, head of the homicide unit. One of the heads of the retirement association, Richard D. Nevin, spoke of Wynn's hard work that brought attention to a long-hidden problem.

"There is compassion," Nevin said. "There is kindness and mercy. He could've just written the reports and left. Nobody would've known and I don't think anybody would've cared, because there were no family members involved. He sat down and went through this man's history."

Nevin said he was heartened that "the department let him" take the time to investigate a case that could've easily been closed. "It shows there are some thinkers still in the department."

Nevin told the group that he started getting calls about Eldridge the morning the story appeared in the Baltimore Sun, before he even had seen it, and that calls kept coming all day. I got more than 100 e-mails about this topic, more than I've ever gotten throughout my 20-year career.

Wynn prepared well for his speech. He researched suicide on the Internet and couldn't believe that he found a manual on how to kill yourself, published just a few years ago in Japan. "One million people have bought this thing," he told me over dinner. He then went down a long list of various ways to take your own life. I asked how many of these he had seen in his career. He paused, read through the list and said, "Well, I just had a freezing the other day."

The detective warned the retired cops that they are in a high-risk category for sucide -- over 65, male and in law enforcement. He urged them to reach out to friends and old partners, "They're not going to ask you for help. Edward Eldridge wouldn't have asked for help if he was on fire."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Heroes
        

After two days of shooting and weeks of waiting, we can finally watch the British Broadcasting Corp. video of me talking about crime in the city. I'll let the video do the talking -- I have to say I'm impressed by the way they compacted 30 hours of footage into about five minutes and still preserved just about everything we did.

It's set to air tonight at 7 p.m. on BBC America (Comcast Channel 114). My impressions are in today's column.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Just when you thought the crooks in this city had stolen everything they possibly could, the ante gets upped: overnight, someone stole four teddy bears that were among 80 put on display at the city's NAACP office to honor victims of homicide.

I had written a column on the artist, Faith Bocian, a student at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, and blogged about the ceremony. I headed up to the building  to see what happened. At left, Officer Michael Gordon of the Northern District looks at the display with Joseph Armstead of the NAACP. "Who could have the indeciency to do somthing like this," Gordon said (I'll have a fuller story on this issue in tomorrow's column).

Armstead told me that one of the executive committee members noticed this morning that a tarp put over the display had been torn and that four plastic links securing the bears to a railing had been cut. Each bear had a nametag on it with the name of a person who had been killed this year.

Just why would anyone steal a bear that honors a murder victim?

"It's a real touching memorial," Armstead told me. "Times are hard. Maybe a junkie would figure he could get a bag of dope for four teeddy bears. A parent with some crazy thinking might think her babdy might like this. Or maybe someone anti-establishment wanted to destroy the piece. Who knows?”

At 1 p.m., Armstead was headed back into the city to call police -- "For the statistic, I guess" -- he told me. Meanwhile, the "I Can't, We Can" drug rehab group has vowed to help Faith keep the project going so that by the end of the year there is a bear for every person killed in Baltimore.

Faith told me she might move the exhibit to a museum or even to a rolling display so that everyone in the city could see it. I was touched that one of the city police officer's who responded to investigate the theft took the time to actually look at the display and find names of victims from cases he investigated.

In that way, Faith's idea to provoke thought worked, even it if took something bad to get it going. Armstead said he thinks students from nearby Margaret Brent Elementary School took the bears and he told me the vice principal is going to make an announcement tomorrow to get the bears returned. Armstead said he wouldn't press charges if a child took them; he even agreed to help mentor kids and to take 50 of them to an Orioles game.

Maybe something good can from this after all.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Neighborhoods
        

The police can't do it alone, but they're often the only agency that people have to turn to when everything else fails. We've had violence on successive weekends outside the Belvedere in Mount Vernon, where the liquor board is trying to shut down a troublesome club, and victims are complaining cops are doing little.

Extra patrols don't seem to be enough, and this week on a radio show the city's top cop lashed out, calling for more help from others. Both he and Mayor Sheila Dixon have in recent days also reminded people that they have a "personal responsibility" to reduce violence and crime, and keep their city looking good.

Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton reported the following:

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, who has been speaking out about the city’s problem bars and clubs for months, called out the liquor board on a radio appearance Tuesday, the second time in less than a week that he has criticized the board’s efforts.

Bealefeld said on WBAL’s C4 show that “people need to step up and do their jobs,” specifically citing city judges and liquor board inspectors. He said there has been a “smoke screen” of blaming police for violence outside of clubs. Last fall, in response to such claims, Bealefeld barred police from working second jobs outside of bars, and the agency has padlocked a liquor store and a club linked to violence.

The comments followed similar statements made at the police department’s budget hearing last week. At the hearing, Councilman William Cole told Bealefeld that “quite frankly, you guys [police] are doing everything you can up to the door, but what's happening inside is not being enforced by the liquor inspectors.” He asked Bealefeld if there was anything else police could do.

“I think you and I share the same frustration,” Bealefeld said. “I think the accountability of the licensee ought to be much greater in light of our reality … Every single one of you [councilmembers] has this problem in your district with problematic clubs. The city really needs some teeth in its bark.”

“We’ve tried what we can with working around the padlock; we got some people’s attention. But the capacity of the city police department and mayor’s office to do that all over the city is problematic. There are people who get paid to do these things. … We need much, much more – in a hurry – to get this under control.”

Stephan Fogleman, chairman of the liquor board, pushed back when reached for comment Tuesday.

“I am certain that the Commissioner did not mean to imply that the Liquor Board is not doing their job. He is well aware that we are a regulatory agency - not authorized nor trained to serve as law enforcement officers nor do we do have the right to declare bars closed by emergency order. Nor does this board look the other way on violations. We've issued record fines and violations, ordering the suspension or closure of many bars. The Commissioner also is aware that the Board's jurisdiction ends at the bar's front door under Maryland Law.

“Let me also note that there are over 3000 sworn police officers in the City of Baltimore, and there are 15 full time liquor inspectors. We have 1/200th of the manpower of the BPD. Suffice it to say, we can't do our job without their assistance. And as of today, I think the Commissioner and his officers have worked well with the liquor board. We met with the Commissioner about six weeks ago and I think some of his new command is doing a lot to combat problems with bars with our full cooperation.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The recent and latest attacks in Mount Vernon on Saturday, May 9, has sparked more people to write in about violence in the area. Chris Brown, who works at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, wrote me about an attack May 17 on her son's roommate.

She questioned how Baltimore police responded to this and I'm checking with the department's chief spokesman, Anthony Guglielmi, to see if a report was written on the incicent. It happened a week after a man and a woman were brutally attacked just before a Circuit Court judge heard an appeal from the owners of Suite Ultralonge, located in the basement of the Belvedere, a number of blocks south of where this latest attack occurred, who are appealing a decision by the liquor board to pull their license to sell alcohol after a scuffle led to a shooting on the street outside earlier this year.

City Councilman William H. Cole represents the area and wrote this in response to the complaints:

There have been a number of attacks in recent weeks that match the MO you describe. Unfortunately, we are not dealing with one group. For example, the attackers on Charles Street two weekends ago were all female; the attackers on Calvert Street were a mixture of males and females.

Councilman Young and I have both been in direct contact with Central District Major John Bailey and with Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld. The police department has deployed a number of additional resources in the area until this recent wave of assaults is extinguished. I was out last Saturday night between 10PM and 1AM riding through the area to see the police coverage and it was definitely visible. While the largest concentration is around the Belvedere (which is likely the source of these teenagers), they are also canvassing the area and keeping a close eye on large gatherings.

If the Circuit Court upholds the decision of the liquor board regarding the club in the basement of the Belvedere, I firmly believe that we will rid the area of a true nuisance establishment. The appeal hearing was last week and we expect the judge will rule within the next 2-3 weeks.

Here is the e-mail Chris Brown sent me:

I am writing to bring this to your attention, having read your article in the Sun Paper (March 2009) about a rapist in the Charles Village / Mt Vernon area and thought this was something similar that you might want to look into.

Several assaults have recently taken place in the Mt. Vernon /Charles village area and there is no coverage about it on the news. Police may respond to a 911 call, but don’t always file an assault report about it. They can’t seem to find these thugs or do anything about it.  And if the assaults are happening in different districts it’s also possible that they don’t realize that cases could be related. One thing hampering catching the police is that these thugs are just coming up behind people, so the victims are caught unaware and don’t really get to see them while they are being beat up. No robbery - just brutality.

What is also upsetting is that this is not being publicized at all so people are really unaware of this going on. They could use the information to take more care or just not go out if they knew about this.

The most recent attack that I am aware of happened to my son's roommate on Sunday evening (May 17th) in Charles Village, while he was minding his own business walking a block away from his apt. on 26th street near North Charles. He had just gone out to pick up some food. The punks just ran up behind him and beat him up badly. They did not rob him or demand anything. This sounds like it could also be some type of gang initiation activity.

When my son (the victim’s roommate) came to the scene to help, several policemen who responded were just hanging around chatting and laughing amongst themselves while the EMT worked on the victim. I was not there so I don’t know what else they did or did not do, but just hearing about this type of behavior is upsetting. It was not very professional of them, no matter what they could or could not do about finding the perpetrators.

When my son called the Northern district station to ask to speak to a supervisor about it, the officer who answered the phone told him to quit playing around and actually hung up on him.  He did finally speak to the shift commander who assured him that the police did canvas the area for these thugs, but when this actually happened we don’t know. And, since the victim could not see who beat him up, there is a problem of who exactly they were looking for. In any case, no one but those involved really knows about this happening.

My other son’s girlfriend works at the Baltimore Hostel and told us that one of the other victims of this same type of assault was an out of town guest of the Baltimore Hostel who was beaten in a similar way in Mt. Vernon / Downtown. The police did not even take a report from him and said they could not really help him. This poor guy got a really bad experience in Baltimore and you can’t really blame him if he never comes back!

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

The crew from British Broadcasting Corp. spent nearly 30 hours filming me over two days and will use about five minutes when the show airs as scheduled tonight at 7 p.m. on BBC America (Comcast, digital cable channel 114). Z on TV also promos the show.

They wanted to know what crime was like in Baltimore through my eyes -- the success of The Wire in Europe the peg of course. The producer didn't ask me about the show, but more about the culture of violence. We went to two crime scene, one a fatal shooting near a school (seen above in a video taken by The Sun's Gus G. Sentementes), another a minor shooting in East Baltimore in a driving rainstorm. In between, they filmed me talking and walking near the courthouse, in front of Lexington Market, and filmed the city skyline from atop Federal Hill and Washington Hill and boarded rowhouses in East and West Baltimore.

I'm not sure what impressions my tour left them (I know we ate well, but those scene didn't get filmed). The producer Sarah Gilbert did say that folks back home would be shocked to have violence so close to their homes -- what passes for routine here is exceptional there. They have crime in London, and not all London neighborhoods are like Piccadilly Circus or South Kensington.

But they don't have the gun violence we have here.

I'm interested to see this -- it was my first time narrating a television program (it's different than being interviewed). The crew did discover at the fatal shooting scene that witnesses are hard to come by. Not only do people tend to fade away when the cops come, they don't want to talk to anyone, reporters or the police.

"Nobody knows but everybody knows," the deputy major of the Southwestern District, Charles V. Carter, told me and the television camera.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore Sun's Brent Jones reports today that another body has been found in the Inner Harbor. That makes five or six this year (I've actually lost count), with still only one in Leakin Park, our most famous body dumping ground.

Few details were immediately available on the latest find; most of the bodies are not crime victims, and some could've been under water for months or even years before finally making their way to the surface.

Back in April I wrote about four of the bodies that were found there and my colleague Laura Vozzella mentioned in her column how visiting prosecutors stumbled upon police retrieving one of them.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking news
        

I spent some time Monday night with members of the Old Goucher Community Association, who are fed up with transgender prostitutes that proliferate Calvert and St. Paul streets between East 20 and 25 streets.

The met with Northern District Police Officer Douglas C. Gibson Jr. who explained the difficulties of cleaning the area up, and ones I'll explore in a column this week. One woman, a public health nurse who moved here from Portland, wrote an e-mail saying she was tired of finding used condoms out back and "of being picked up on when ever I go out and sit on the steps on St. Paul -- the first time a guy asked me if I was working I didn't even know what he was asking -- I said -- 'Yeah, I work, I'm a nurse.'"

Residents asked the officer if the city could establish a Prostitution Free Zone, as allowed for under the city charter. But Gibson said those laws, good-intentioned as they may have been when formed, don't work that well. As with Drug-Free Zones, police can't simply sweep the area of loiterers; they have to prove the people were loitering for the purpose of selling drugs or engaging in prostitution. And if they can prove that, then they can charge with with the underlying offenses.

I walked the streets with a community association member for a bit last night and two prostitutes passed my car as soon as I parked on East 21st Street. I saw several, including one man wearing a thong and little else standing on a corner next to Lovely Lane United Methodist Church (where hours later the community meeting had been held).

None of the women "working" were loud or obnoxious, though several were talking on their cell phones. I saw no pickups, but I was only out for about 20 minutes. Residents describe loud arguments, shouting and a coordinated effort by the workers to vaporize as soon as a police car drives by. One police commander told me the area is noted on Craigslist as the place to come for a male prostitute dressed as a woman.

Other neighborhoods have tried various ways eradicate the problem -- Curitis Bay and Brooklyn want police to send letters to men who circle blocks looking for women to scare them away; Gibson said the Northern District major and deputy major hit the streets recently and stopped four cars, but one driver was single ("a letter wouldn't do much good") and two others were from out of state and in rental cars, so the letter would go to the car company, not their homes.

In Pigtown, residents hit the streets armed with video cameras and photograph women and men, and their license plates, and post the information on the Internet. But I just noticed today that Baltimore John Watch has been removed, so that might not even be up and running anymore.

Residents also demanded that officers who respond to their calls get out of their cars instead of just driving by; Gibson said it's hard to move people who are just standing around, as they aren't breaking any laws. To get a good arrest takes a sting operation in which cops pose as johns and get the workers to admit they are exchanging sex for money. It's takes a lot of work and time, and even then the workers escape with probation.

Here are some e-mails from concerned residents:

My husband and I have also noticed the recent order-of-magnitude increase in the activities in and around the vicinity of East 21st Street and its intersections with both North Charles and Saint Paul Streets. The actions of these people are quite simply, astonishingly brazen and intolerably disruptive to the peace and quiet, and no less important, the feeling of our safety in our neighborhood. Like you, we have called 911 numerous times to no apparent effect, and like you, have come to suspect that the "lookout" for the group must be monitoring some sort of police scanner, as they all seem to scatter or pile into a vehicle and depart the scene just before the police arrive, IF they arrive at all.

Too many times we have had to make repeat calls three and sometimes as many as four times before a squad car ever drives by; and that's EXACTLY what they do: drive by. Even if (some of) the scantily and provocatively clad people are still there, we have NEVER seen an officer stop the car and get out and say anything to them. A perfunctory drive-by without some sort of challenge is a completely toothless and useless threat, and they know it.
 
As soon as it can be arranged, we plan to have a special called community meeting with representatives of the Police Department, Mayor's Office, surrounding community associations and as many members of the media as we can interest in the situation, to try and bring some sort of effective action to bear. The alternative, as you so correctly point out, is to protest with our feet and our tax dollars. I know the next time our property is assessed, we will be appealing the assessment on the basis of living in an area where known prostitution activity takes place on a daily/nightly basis. Lower assessments mean less money for the City. It's pretty much a no-brainer. We are all living in the city, perhaps for different reasons, but none of them include daily confrontation with, intimidation by, and lifestyle disturbances from prostitutes of indeterminate gender that is now our continuous lot.
 
Among other possible remedies, we intend to ask for two immediate measures to help combat this blight. First, we need a set of the generator powered emergency work lights to be stationed in the middle of the unit block of East 21st Street, directed both East and West to cover the primary areas where this activity is occurring. This will help in at least two ways: It should discourage the overt soliciting behavior in the vicinity and it will almost certainly discourage the potential customers from stopping to initiate transactions. These lights have been effective in various areas of the city where unruly activities are a problem.
 
Secondly, we intend to respectively insist that the Police Commissioner invoke Police Ordinance 19, Subtitle 27, Paragraphs 27-1 through 27-16 to establish a maximum permissible sized "Prostitution Free Zone" in and around this area of the Old Goucher neighborhood. The Ordinance implies, and we will expect enhanced Police enforcement of the City's existing anti-prostitution ordinances within this area for the maximum permissible time.
 
In the meantime, it will fall to everyone in the community who feels affected by this problem and wants to see it change, to begin collecting and recording incidents and anecdotes that they observe, including dates, times and locations. These data will be absolutely essential in convincing the Police Commissioner of a) the unarguable need for the Prostitution Free Zone and b) the area of coverage that it must encompass.
 
The days are gone when even supervisors in the Police Department can boast publically, apparently with great satisfaction, that they have been able to drive the prostritutes northward across North Avenue from the Mount Vernon community into Charles Village and Old Goucher. "We're as mad as Hell, and we're not going to take it anymore."  
 
 
And from the nurse:

I realize it's been quite a while since I've written- the problem however for the prostitution at 21st and Saint Paul Streets continues to escalate. When I leave my house, I find several "ladies" in the street, often standing right in front of my car. 

This morning, as I was leaving for work, one such was standing a foot or two in front of my car and antagonistically watched me as I entered same and as I attempted to leave, just stood in front of the car. I had to press forward slowly and she finally let me pass. This is unacceptable! I should not have to deal with this on a daily basis, which I have been for quite some time now, as I am sure you continue to be aware.

While I recognize that it is difficult to catch these persons in the act, an it is not illegal to stand on a corner, to talk to someone in an automobile etc, I should not feel intimidated when I leave, have to force my way through them just to go to work.  It is even more frustrating when I note that while my property taxes have increase 400%, we can't eliminate this scourge from our neighborhood. I know of at least two families who have already moved or are contemplating moving just on the 2100 block of Saint Paul because of the either real or perceived dangerous nature of our neighborhood.

What can be done? Or will I need to be one of those abandoning the neighborhood?

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

My column last week on the decapitation of Sister Myra, a Gypsy fortune teller who was killed 15 years ago, brought back memories only for me but also for readers. Many people have recalled the matriarch who worked and lived out of her home on Pulaski Highway, and how she was killed by a man who thought she had put a hex on him.

The supect, who pleaded guilty but not criminally responsible for the crime, has since been released from a psychiatric hospital. I'm waiting court clerks to pull the file from the basement so I can learn how and why he was deemed fit for release into his mother's care.

I remember how he was arrested after trying to kill himself by jumping under a moving Amtrak train (he failed) and then confessed to killing Sister Myra while being taken to the hospital in an ambulance. He was feard so much that at his first court appearance, guards sedated him and he was bound and secured in a wheel chair and guarded by 17 corrections officers.

Here are some stories from the paramedic (Brian Britcher) who transported him and from a corrections officer:

Here’s an addition to the fateful day that created the “house of horrors”.

Until you wrote the piece of the house along Pulaski Hwy I couldn’t have told you from memory the name of the victim or the person who confessed to the crime to me. I remember working on a city medic unit in east Baltimore that day being dispatched to north Washington Street for a “pedestrian struck”. On arrival the scene was unusual as an Amtrak police officer was on location and the first to provide us with details of the “Pedestrian incident” when we arrived he began saying…  I ran him over.

Waiting for the punch line, the officers told the rest of the story that he was dispatched to check that area of the Amtrak line as a passing passenger train radioed they had struck someone near that location.   When he arrived the man jumped from the train bridge that crossed north Washington Street.  I don’t remember how he ended up being run over by the officer, if he jumped into the path of the officer, or threw himself under the car as he approached. 

So now the story as we were putting it together was that of a man who tried to end it by getting hit by a high speed passenger train(unsuccessful), Jumping off a bridge(unsuccessful) and running out into the path of the police vehicle as a last resort (still unsuccessful) was what we were dealing with.  

Now comes actually interacting with this guy who has went through all this confirmed by witnesses.   You would think he would have large obvious injuries but he kept ranting about “a root”. With no outward massive trauma that you would expect someone like this to have, we still did the same treatment as if he did. All along he kept ranting about “A root” while we were treating him. We were kind of dismissive but humoring his ranting allowing him to continue while focusing on his treatment until he put one entire sentence together, “I had a root on me, she wouldn’t take it off, and that’s why I had to cut off her head."

The district officers that were standing to the rear of the medic unit became silent and attentive.  One of the officers told me off to the side that they have a ongoing call that involves a decapitation. It just happens to be along the same rail line that runs a block north of the Pulaski Hwy incident. I didn’t get the details of how he got there but I assumed that he traveled the rail until a train came along and struck him that caused the remained of events to play out.

We transported him to Hopkins I listened to his same rant thinking to myself this guy thinks he’s dying so I guess I’m listening to a dying declaration. At the time I had to get someone to plant the “root” to me. It was explained as another term for a spell or curse. Until today while reading your story I haven’t heard the disposition of the case and only remember a similar story used for the series Homicide life of the streets. 

I often wondered the details or disposition of the case over the years when passing the house with the porch removed. I didn’t realize it was 15 years ago.

And this:

Your article toady brought back some memories. I was a correctional officer at the Baltimore City Detention Center working the 11pm to 7am shift. I was told to go to the Captain's office. When I got outside his office I was met by a sergeant. He said he was going with myself and  another officer to the hospital to pick up a patient. This was very unusual. It doesn't take two correctional officers and a sergeant to pick up one patient. The Captain spoke to us, he said he wanted to tell us want the patient had done. Correctional officers are not told what crimes a person is accused of committing. Every inmate (or resident as we called them) was to be considered dangerous
so we didn't need to know about crimes they may have committed.

The Captain said that the patient cut off a fortune teller's head. He ran away and jumped in front of a train. The conductor called the police. The police arrived and allegedly he rolled over a police car. He was taken to the precinct (no central booking then). While there he attacked an officer and was subdued by multiple police.  This is why he was taken to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital I thought the guy had been seen and was ready to be taken.  Wrong! He was still in the paddy wagon in leg irons and arms cuffed behind his back. The police officers looked like they were about to poop their pants!  We very carefully put the
guy on a stretcher (cuffed to the stretcher, also). After the doctors checked him out, we took the guy back to the BCDC. We took his clothes and gave him and attractive one size fits all paper suit and put him in a isolation room at the BCDC clinic. The next day he was go ing to be sent to Perkins. He started fighting and the tactical team was called in to subdue him. I was told he was given a tranquillizer and rolled out in a wheelchair.

A police officer said the gypsy had a camera in her parlor and this was on tape.  Her funeral service was at the Greek Orthodox church on Eastern Avenue. A friend told me the gypsies left a mess behind. At the funeral, the followed some gypsy custom by pouring alcohol on the
grave. That amounts to alcohol abuse!

You should get a lot of info from that file on Monday. Write a script, this could easily make it on a true crime TV show. I wouldn't be surprised if the gypsy fortune tellers at the North Point Flea
Market knew Sister Myra.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Marvin L. “Doc” Cheatham Sr. scanned the crowd and asked three questions.

“Are there any representatives from the state senate here? Are there any representatives from the delegates here? Are is there anyone from the mayor’s office here?”

Silence from the roughly three dozen people who showed up at the city NAACP branch office on West 26th Street last night to view a memorial to the 80 lives lost to murder this year in Baltimore.

“Pathetic,” Cheatham, the chapter president, told the crowd. “This is what you get from your elected officials.”

Many City Council members could be excused; they were in a budget hearing for the police department. But the others who represent the city? No shows, and Cheatham noted, “There should be thousands of people here.”

The evening belonged to Faith Bocian, a 19-year-old student at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, who put together a display of 80 teddy bears, one for each victim, each with a nametag. (She's at left with her mother, Katherine Bocian, a city fire paramedic). As she unveiled the artwork outside the NAACP chapter, each bear attached by a wire to a railing, so they covered the entrance, mothers and relatives of the recently killed stepped forward to find their loved ones names.

“That’s my cousin right there,” said one man as he looked through the bears.

We either come to used to death or we just assume no one cares or can do anything about it. Rallies, like this artwork, raise public awareness, but that’s a first step toward solving the problem.

Anthony McCarthy led the opening prayer: "We seem so beaten down by the violence. We’ve heard the mother’s cries. We’ve heard the broken hearts of fathers, brothers, sisters. We need to do our part. Lord, we’ve lost so much hope. Every young man, every father, every mother, every child who has given their lives to the war on these streets, it’s a lost opportunity.”

Faith, whose mother is a city paramedic, came with friends from her band wearing a white T-shirt with the slogan, “Crying out against violence” and clutching a teddy bear. She addressed the crowd with heartfelt feelings. She’s never known anyone lost to murder, but reviewing the stories of the 80s lives lost she has now grown an attachment to the departed.

“There is a war going on on these streets,” Faith said, her smiling mother dressed in her blue paramedic shirt, her ambulance, Medic 6, parked on the street. Faith said she doesn’t talk much, but lets her art speak her sorrow and anger.

“Paint a mural, instead of picking up a gun and fighting,” she told the group.

Faith unveiled the tarp covering the bears as the crowd chanted, “Save our children, stop the violence.”

“This is just this year,” Cheatham said, looking the wall of bears that represent just the first 133 days of the year. “I know it’s hard to swallow this.”

The mothers of three young men lost to the streets, one a 14-year-old boy lost to the gun of a Baltimore police officer in 2006, spoke about violence.
 
“When someone takes someone’s life, you don’t realize the impact it has on the family,” Greta Carter said. “You used to step on somebody’s foot and had a good fight and it was over. Now everyone wants to pick up a gun and take someone’s life. ... The younger ones have to teach the older ones how to act.”

One person in the crowd asked whether the display could be made permanent, and Cheatham said he’d ask the mayor’s office about finding a spot, though he doubted she’s want to highlight the darker side of the city. Faith said she plans to add bears throughout the year.

 “I just hope it doesn’t go all the way to the end of the street,” she said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Last night's City Council hearing on the Baltimore police budget focused in part on plans by the city to shutter the Police Athletic League program and turn centers run by cops for years to Rec and Parks.

I've been writing a lot about this issue here and in my column, mainly because this program was once hailed as the centerpiece of police administrations past. As I discovered when the city first announced the program, once copied all over the country, was being shut down, the city hasn't cared about PAL in a long time. They shut down the nonprofit that used to be used to raise money, more than $1.7 million a year at one point, and the centers are shadows of their former selves.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III doesn't want PAL Centers. Fair enough, and given their current state, I agree the children need something better. The commissioner last night quoted from one of my columns in which a girl told me she liked the cop at her PAL center but not the ones who patrol the streets. Bealefeld doesn't want that division.

The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton was at the hearing and here is his report:

Councilman Warren M. Branch challenged the police department and mayor’s office on criminal justice as to why they weren’t pursuing grant money to keep the PAL centers open. He noted that with summer rapidly approaching, his 13th District had very few safe recreational options for children.

Bealefeld gently mocked the idea that PAL centers had been promoted as the “backbone” of the police department’s outreach efforts, saying that it represented only 24 of the 2,400 officers in the agency. He said most beat cops “don’t even know that PAL centers exist” and said the children who attend them “might as well be anonymous,” and said the notion that they were a major outreach effort had been “excellent cover” for his predecessors.

He quoted from my column, in which I visited a PAL center and a young girl said the officer at the PAL center was nice, but the ones she sees on the streets were “different” and hassle people for no reason.

“I gotta tell you, that right there, that paragraph made the point in a way that I struggled with trying to make throughout this process,” Bealefeld said. “I cannot have kids in this city seeing one officer at a time as a good guy, and the other 2,400 as the ‘other guys.’  I have to figure out a way, to close that gap.”

To solve that problem, Bealefeld said police on day and night shifts will now be required to visit all recreational centers, not just PAL centers. “As long as those centers are open, cops will be required to go there throughout the day. And their supervisors will be required to make sure that they go there,” he said.

Branch wasn’t convinced.  He said his daughter will have to travel further to get to the nearest recreational center, and he worries that she will encounter gangs and could be hurt, or even worse, killed.

Bealefeld acknowledged the point, and noted that police are actively involved in the Eastern District – including the Police Explorers program, a “young girls to ladies” program, and other efforts. He also said the district had achieved the biggest drop in homicides, on a percentage basis, of any district in the city last year.

“We are tasking our police commands to maximize the programs that they are involved in,” he said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Neighborhoods
        

The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton attended this morning's hearing on Club Ultralounge, whose owners are asking a city judge to overturn a liquor board ruling to revoke the nightclub's license to sell alcohol.

And lest I forget, a helpful reader reminded me that in a previous story, we noted that a Bloods gang was caught in a police wiretap using the Belvedere as a meeting place to talk about drugs and other business. This is the same gang whose jailed members complained they couldn't get lobster smuggled inside.

Here is the account:

About 70 people – including two who were attacked over the weekend near the Belvedere hotel in Mount Vernon – attended a hearing Wednesday morning where the owners of a club linked to area violence asked a Baltimore Circuit Court judge to reverse the liquor board’s decision to revoke the club’s license.

Peter A. Prevas, an attorney for Louis V. Wood, the owner of Suite Ultralounge, argued that a new law governing BYOB “bottle clubs” that went into effect last year was “sloppy” and unclear, and said the club’s due process rights had been violated at a revocation hearing. The club operates from the basement of the historic Belvedere hotel and attracts a hip-hop crowd that sometimes swells to hundreds, though the hotel houses other bars as well.

But attorneys for the city and neighborhood association said the liquor board was within its rights to shut down the bottle club. At a hearing last fall, police and community members said the club had been linked to an uptick in violence in the trendy neighborhood, including a double shooting and a stabbing on Oct. 11. The club’s license was revoked in November, but it has remained open pending the appeal. Since then, the violence and noise complaints have only gotten worse, residents said.

“The liquor board has to ensure the safety,” said Alice G. Pinderhughes, representing the liquor board. “There is a danger to this community, and [the board] has to be able to do something.”

In attendance were two people who said they were attacked in separate incidents on Saturday night that residents believe stem from the club. Both said they were passing through the area on their way home when they became victims of unprovoked attacks.

A female victim sporting a black eye said she was attacked from behind by a group of young females who choked and struck her, and a 30-year-old man said he was also attacked while walking in the area. He did not remember the incident, due to a concussion, but his wounds told the story:  cuts above and below his eye, which was nearly swollen shut, two missing teeth and 14 stitches to his lip.

“I don’t want this to happen to any of my friends or co-workers,” he told reporters outside the courthouse.

Judge Kaye A. Allison said she would issue a written decision following the hearing.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Justin Fenton just returned from the hearing on whether the basement Belvedere club Ultralounge can stay open. A Baltimore Circuit Court Judge will rule within 30 days; the hearing itself went back and forth with bar representatives arguing over liquor laws and Mount Vernon residents saying the situation has gotten worse since a shooting a few months ago.

I've posted several stories from victims here; a man and woman who were beaten up Saturday night attended this morning's hearing. The Liquor Board revoked the club's license but it has remained open pending its appeal, which was heard this morning.

I'll keep you up to date.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

The Baltimore Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, is still at the Circuit Court hearing where the owners for basement Belvedere club Ultralounge is fighting its liquor license revocation. Several people have asked for an update and I'll provide one as soon as he returns.

Meanwhile, more people have e-mailed me stories of violence and other problems. There were two more attacks on Saturday that I posted this morning. Here are some additional stories:

"Thank you so much for keeping us informed of the situation with this club. I live in the neighborhood and have become increasingly worried about the crowd on Saturday nights. And now I read your recent posting and realize that my worst fears have been realized. I witnessed the crowd of “club-goers” out on the corner of Saint Paul and Chase that evening and am just glad that I wasn’t one of those who were assaulted. 

I was not able to attend the hearing this morning but would greatly appreciate it if you could keep us all up-to-date on what is going on with this club. The club-owners have proven that they are utterly irresponsible and I hope that they are shut down permanently. In fact, I hope that they are never allowed to open a club anywhere ever again. They and their patrons have complete disregard for the neighborhood, not to mention the historic building that they are “partying” in.

I cannot emphasize how much I am scared and disgusted by this. This is our neighborhood, our city and I refuse to let it get to the point where we’re afraid to simply step out of our front doors on a Saturday night. Hopefully the city will do what is right and protect the safety of its citizens.  The incidents mentioned in your blog obviously point to a much larger problem simmering up in Baltimore, but hopefully we can start by at least taking one step in the right direction. Thank you again for keeping us up-to-date, Colby Johnson."

From a resident who didn't want her name used:

"Thanks so much for again raising the crime factor and undesirable element generated by the bottle club at the Belvedere. While I can’t attest to the crime (which is indeed frightening) I can tell you how it affects me as a resident of the 1000 block of Charles Street.
 
I love living in Mt. Vernon -- except on nights when the Club is open. I live between two parking lots on Morton Street in a small condo on the fourth floor. The noise from the denizens of the Club (and yes, I know they are coming from the Ultrasuede rather than the Hippo or Grand Central) is unbearable.

They park (illegally) in the spaces around my building, drink bottles of whatever is left over after they leave the club (or before they get there) and dump the empties in the lot or the alley by my door, blare their urban hip hop trash music until I can’t get back to sleep, and shout to each other in ghetto speak that would defy even the Big Phat Morning Team.
 
I dodge broken glass, fast food wrappers, and urine just to get to my car (and yes, it has been rifled, too.)
 
I’m sure the club will contend that “anyone” could be the offenders, and I’m not going to confront them to publicly say otherwise.  But after more than a year, I have become fluent enough to translate their language, and that’s the sewer they’re coming from.
 
I’m a hostage in my own home.  Worse, I can’t say anything about it because they know where I live.
 
Please post this anonymously on your blog. I don’t mean to trivialize the crime aspect. But when that furor dies down, the nuisance factor is an ongoing, every night problem that people are afraid to address, lest they seem “insensitive” to other cultures, or even racist.  This isn’t a race issue – it’s the right of the taxpaying residents of this city to be able to sleep at night and not have their neighborhood trashed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Who would've thought a repo man could be a hero?

Well, Maryland State Police say a repo man helped catch an alleged car thief -- a tow truck driver who was picking up abandoned cars on roadsides and selling them for scrap. A repo man searching for a 2000 Infinity was informed by the woman who had possession of the car that she had left it on the side of I-695 at I-83 because it had broken down. The repo man checked the car wasn't there.

The repo guy turned on the car's GPS system and followed the signal to a recylcling yard on Erdman Avenue in East Baltimore. He called state police who found the vehicle; the owner of the yard said he payed the rego man $325 for the car.

The Regional Auto Theft Task Force then got involved and found three other cars reported stolen on the yard, and all had been left on roadsides as disabled. They were a 1991 Volkswagon, a 1997 Chevrolet Lumina and a 2001 Nissan Altima. As many as seven more cars had been towed to the lot, police said, adding that up to 80 might have been stolen and recycled at the yard this year.

Not a bad business. The suspect seen above in a picture provided by the Maryland State Police, Charles Jennings III, 38, of Labyrinth Road in Baltimore, has been charged in Baltimore County with four counts of auto theft and four counts of theft over $500. He is being held at the detention center on $50,000 bond.

We all suspect towing schemes are active; this only confirms that some people who leave their cars don't get towed for legitimate reasons. I'd love to hear from people who have left their broken cars only to have them mysteriously disappear.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The owners of Suite Ultralounge at the Belvedere in Mid-Town are appealing a decision by the liquor board to revoke their bottle license, even as reports of more violence are blamed on the night spot.

The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. today at Baltimore Circuit Court, 111 N. Calvert St., in Room 403.

The Liquor Board revoked its license after several incidents of violence, including a shooting, were linked to it. It is one of, if not the, last bottle club in the city, which essentially are BYOB bars. Residents of the condo and neighbors have long complained that the club didn't fit into the historic building and neighborhood.

Below are some chilling tales posted as neighborhood crime alerts. Both occurred Saturday night, according to the victims, and I have inquires into city police and will advise:

From a female victim:

As I walked north on Charles Street towards the train station last night just before 11:30, I was assaulted from behind and struck several times. As I turned to face my attacker a group of young females started to chase me. I ran across the street towards Brewers Art. The girls chased me across the street and continued to assault me by choking me from behind, and striking me. I believe someone outside of Brewer's Art finally saw what was happening and yelled at them but I am not sure as I was somewhat dazed at this point.

A gentleman on a Segway and the employees at Brewer's Art called for the police several times. The employees of Brewer's Art kindly offered me ice while we waited for the police to arrive. The "police" who were on the scene (they were wearing badges around their necks and plain clothes - whom I'm told were off duty and working for a club in the basement of the Belevedere) asked if I needed an ambulance but when I said "no" they simply walked away.

[I checked with Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielimi and he told me police are aware of this incident, but the people the victim encountered were private security, not city police officers, who are banned from working overtime and off-duty shifts at bars and nightclubs]

While we waited for police who were on duty, someone mentioned that they saw a few of the assembled young people putting a baseball bat into their car. After some time the crowd across the street dispersed and the gentleman on the Segway (the only eye witness to step forward) gave up on the police's arrival, as did I. A young man called a cab for me and I went home.

This morning I am badly bruised and swollen and quite upset that an area I considered safe has been overrun by throngs of young people with nothing better to do than randomly attack people on the street.

I'm told that this crowd of young people is now a regular occurrence in the area because of an all ages club I'd never heard of in the basement of the Belevedere (This morning I've googled this place, is this the Ultralounge?).

This morning I have learned from friends that this situation has been escalating for some time. However, now these young people know they can get away with such behavior and the next person they randomly attack will most likely not fare as well as I. I would suggest doing something about this situation before one of your neighbors or patrons gets killed.

I will certainly think twice before going to any of the establishments in the area and I will certainly share my story with everyone I know!

From a male victim:

I was told that you would like to hear about the attack on me on Saturday. First of all, if you were the one who rode in the ambulance with me, thank you so much. Also, thank you for caring enough about the people of the city to focus some of your time on making it a little safer for people to live their lives. 

As far as the assault goes, I will give you what I can because I don't quite remember everything.  It happened on St. Paul Street between Chase and Biddle in front of the New Refuge Church. I passed a group of young African American individuals standing on the stairs in the alcove of the church (not sure how many but I am fairly certain there was one girl in the goup). I was heading North on. St Paul (church on my left side), west side of the street. I was walking north and I remember one of the people in the group sprinting past me on my left--at this point things get a little bit hazy. The next thing I remember is leaning up against the wrought iron fence of the church courtyard and someone helping me to sit down somewhere and somone else offered me water. I couldn't see anything when I came off the fence. Then someone called 911 and called me an ambulance. Someone in the ambulance asked me if I had anybody I could call  and I gave them [my friend’s] number. 

Went back to the scence yesterday which helped put some of the pieces together. There is a very large bloodstain on the sidewalk along side the church garden. I can only image that it is mostly mine. There are also several blood splatters and blood spots including the spot where I remembered holding onto the fence.  We found a tooth--don't know who it belongs too.  I took it to the dentist but they didn't examine it any further than saying it wasn't good for further use. 

In terms of my injuries: I have a large gash completely circling my left eye (Katrina wonders if I may have been hit with a rock), lacerated lip over 12 stitches to close, am missing two of my front teeth and a 3rd was broken in half. I need maxillofacil surgery. I have a contunsion behind my right ear where they must hit me from behind when I wasn't looking -- which leads to neck and back pain.  As far as my han ds and arms, I have several gashes and scrapes on my hands that are most likely defensive wounds and from holding onto the fence.

I have pictures of my injuries from 12 hours after the incident as well as pictures of the scene the next day. I can also narrow the time frame within which it happened as I texted [my friend] at 11:00:58 and the attack time should have happened right after that and be recorded by the dispatcher. You called her at 11:44 and she meet me at the hospital at 12:15.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (34)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

First, the inmates in Baltimore prisons were using smuggled cell phones to order hits on witnesses(see Murder on Call story). Now, the feds have turned the tables, allowing in a smuggled cell phone that could record not only the person talking, but the conversations of those around him.

As a result, the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office has filed charges against two men in connection with a home invasion robbery that left one victim dead. In other cases, the devices have enabled authorities to arrest five people suspected in at least 12 murders or shootings in just a few weeks.

"Technology trumps crime," Theresa R. Stoop, the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said in a statement. "ATF's Violent Crime Impact Team has reversed the tables on these violent offenders by using the same tools of the trade against them as they use to carry out their crimes."

So with the Carl Lackl case behind us and the man who ordered the witness killed by using a cell phone from his prison cell imprisoned for life, now we get some retribution. This comes after the governor announced he is pushing to get cell phone signals blocked at state prisons.

Here is a statement from the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office:

Kevin Dorsey, age 26, and Rodney Lockett, age 25, both of Baltimore, were charged by criminal complaint today with committing an armed home invasion robbery in which two victims were shot, one of whom died, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland  Rod J. Rosenstein.

The affidavit filed with the criminal complaint reveals that evidence of the crime was gathered through a modified cellular telephone that law enforcement officials gave to an inmate in the Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center in Baltimore, also known as “Supermax.” The cell phone was used to record telephone conversations and also as a listening device to record conversations held in the vicinity of the phone. 

“I am grateful to the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services for supporting this novel, bold and creative undercover investigation, in which law enforcement officials gave a cell phone to an inmate in Baltimore’s Supermax jail and recorded conversations made on and around the phone,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.  “We expect other charges to result from the many conversations recorded during ‘Operation Dial-a-Cell.’” 

“Technology trumps crime,” says ATF Special Agent in Charge Theresa R. Stoop. “ATF’s Violent Crime Impact Team has reversed the tables on these violent offenders by using the same tools of the trade against them as they use to carry out their crimes.”

According to the affidavit, during the course of this undercover operation, an inmate used the cellphone to conduct conversations with violent offenders regarding firearms, drug-trafficking, acts of violence, and other criminal offenses.  Based on the use of the cellphone, law enforcement officers were able to obtain accurate, often real-time information about the whereabouts and criminal activities of other violent offenders, including several who were suspects in shootings and murders.  The inmate also used the cellphone to have recorded conversations with violent offenders on the street about crimes they had committed.  The inmate also engaged in, and was sometimes able to record, conversations with other inmates at MCAC regarding efforts by those inmates to intimidate or retaliate against witnesses.  Based on the conversations and other evidence developed through the use of this cellphone, at least five violent offenders who were collectively responsible for at least 12 murders or shootings were arrested on federal or state drug or gun charges in a matter of weeks.

According to the complaint, Dorsey and Lockett committed a home-invasion robbery in Baltimore on December 29, 2008, in which two victims, a male and a female, were shot, one of whom died.  The affidavit alleges that on December 30, 2009, Dorsey called the cooperating inmate on the inmate’s cellphone and described the incident in detail, often using “pig latin” as a form of coded language.  During that conversation, the complaint alleges, Dorsey stated that he had shot the male victim, who later died, and that Lockett had shot the female victim.  Dorsey also stated that they had stolen approximately $7,000 in cash along with some jewelry.  Dorsey later told the inmate that Lockett had used a .357-caliber handgun loaded with 38-caliber ammunition.  Lockett was arrested on January 5, 2009 after being found with marijuana and a .357-caliber handgun loaded with 38-caliber ammunition and is currently in federal custody on drug and gun charges relating to that arrest.  Dorsey was arrested two weeks later on drug charges and is currently in state custody on those charges.

The complaint alleges a conspiracy to commit a robbery affecting interstate commerce and possession and discharge of a firearm in furtherance of that robbery.

The evidence developed during this operation regarding the Chauncey Avenue robbery and shootings has been forwarded to local authorities for further investigation.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the robbery conspiracy charge and a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine for the firearm charge. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

It's been more than three months since I wrote about Edward William Eldridge Jr., the retired Baltimore police officer who killed himself after he couldn't find anyone to stay with him for out-patient surgery. His death served as a stark reminder to our retirees who sometimes have no one to help them in their times of need.

A city homicide detective, Randy Wynn, who had the awful task of investgating the death, spent hours upon hours inside the former officer's home searching for a relative. He found none, and Eldridge was honored at his funeral service by former colleagues and strangers. His story touched many, and left those who did know him sad that they hadn't kept up and known he was in trouble.

This morning, I awoke to an e-mail from a cousin, the first correspondence I've received from any relative. The officer's parents are dead, he was an only child and he never married. It's another sad chapter in the day of Officer Eldridge:

Dear Mr. Hermann,
 
I little over a week ago, I learned of my cousin's death from an opportunistic, probate-research firm based in California. It appears their researchers saw your story and promptly went about digging for those missing family members and an easy cut of an unclaimed estate. Within minutes, I located Ed's obituary and your Baltimore Sun articles about his death.  I've read those articles and comments many times over. My sense of sadness growing more profound each time. Here, I am in Philadelphia reading about the tragic end and circumstances of a stranger, my relative just an hour plus away.
 
Ed's father, Ed Sr., was the brother of my grandmother, Edna Eldridge Oelschlegel. He also had three more brothers and a second sister, all of which have passed. Ed Jr. was one of eight, Eldridge first cousins and some of them, including my mom and her sister, are gone as well.
 
I've tried to remember times spent with Uncle Ed, Aunt Ruth and cousin Ed, but I only remember bits and pieces of holidays of when I was little. The last few times I saw them were at family funerals in the 80s. Christmas cards and periodic phone calls were still being exchanged then, but responses decreased with time and ceased all together at some point; not to be noticed nor picked-up by the next generation. The sad truth is that there are several Eldridge family decedents in the Philadelphia area, and none of us had any contact with cousin Ed since those funerals from what I can tell.
 
I remember Ed as Mom's nice, soft-spoken cousin who knew a lot about everything and was a policeman down in Baltimore. I was glad to read that those traits were true throughout his life & career. Thank you for bringing his story to light and raising the awareness of isolation with age and the tragic consequences of not keeping-in-touch. Thank you for helping to start the discussion within the police community about retiree outreach. Thank you for bringing me reflection on what's important.
 
Sincerely,
Karen Zglobicki

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Heroes
        

I just came back from Faith Bocian's dorm room at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Bolton Hill where she described for me her school project that is designed to bring attention to violence in our city.

Faith, who is 19 and just completed her freshman year, has got a used teddy bear for each of the more than 80 slayings in the city. She plans to give each one a nametag with the name of a victim, the age and location of the killing. On Wednesday, all the bears will be on display at the NAACP's city branch headquarters at 8 W. 26th St., from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.

I heard of Faith from the NACCP president, Marvin L. "Doc" Cheatham Sr., who held a rally earlier this year across from City Hall but was disappointed by the turnout and organization. He wants to raise awareness of the killings, and found Faith's project encouraging. She got the idea from seeing teddy bears strapped to poles and trees in makeshift memorials around the city.

The photography major did this for a class called "art matters" and she told me most of the bears are donated an used. She wanted them "pre-loved" to represent memories. Her mother is a paramedic with Baltimore Fire Department Engine Co. 42 on Harford Road and I plan to ride with her Tuesday morning and write a column on the bears for Wednesday.

“I wanted to show how big a problem this is," Faith told me as she packed up her dorm room (it was move-out day in the dorms; down the street, graduates were preparing for their big day. she's now been through the list of victims several times: "It’s crazy. Some were involved with gangs. Some were just drunk. I can’t imagine being in that situation at all.”

NAACP- Voices Against Violence II

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Want to know how many burglaries have occurred in your Baltimore County neighborhood? Or parking complaints? Now you can know with the Baltimore Sun's new crime map for Baltimore County, launched today.

It took a while, but now we have crime maps on line for Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties, along with a homicide map for the city. We hope to add more in the near future. It should be a great help in figuring out what is occurring where you live. Play around with it for a while and let us know what you think.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking news, Mapping crime, Neighborhoods
        

Saturday's newspaper brought two explosive headlines -- that four local educators have endorsed a black empowerment handbook that federal authorities say was distributed by a violent gang to recruit new members and that a convicted murderer had worked in a city school.

Police say the Black Guerrilla Family used The Black Book -- Empowering Black Families and Communities -- to spread its message through the prison system. One of the people endorsing the book, Andrey Bundley, twice ran for mayor and now runs alternative education for Baltimore's school system. In the book, Bundley praises a man police say is one of the leaders of the gang; Bundley told Baltimore Sun reporters Justin Fenton and Sara Neufeld that he met Eric Brown during an outreach program and was impressed by his work to help soon-to-be released gang members.

In the second story, Sara tells us about a man who was hired by a nonprofit to help resolve conflicts at an alternative school. The man also is a top lieutenant in the same gang that uses the Black Book, according to authorities, and was one of the organizers of a gang meeting last month in Druid Hill Park that was busted by police days before sweeping indictments against the gang were announced.

Back in 1998, I wrote about Norris Davis, who was a drug dealer in the 1970s, a petty thief in the 1980s and a counselor at what was then Northern High School starting in 1993. He was hired not because the city school system failed to do a background check, but because officials thought his criminal past helped him connect with troubled teens. A new administration, learning of his past, promptly fired him.

Davis asked, "When do you stop paying for your past?"

Trouble is, we never really know when the past is really the past. In the two most recent cases, authorities say these men are part of the present problem, and if they are indeed using materials endorsed by city school officials to recruit gang members, then then need to be stopped.

Baltimore is a small town and if you grow up here you have friends and sometimes relatives who took different paths. I run into cops all the time who know people from their neighborhood who died in drug fights or who are in prison. And it's not just cops, but teachers and prison guards and probably most other jobs as well. It's hard to make a clean break when you return home and are confronted by your neighbor or your uncle. But a clean break is sometimes necessary so we don't mix real education with gang education.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

It feels like spring cleaning day in the Baltimore police department.

The man whose door cops broke down serving a drug warrant at the wrong house got word that the city would tear up the littering ticket he got for storing the broken door in his back yard -- after he had called bulk trash to pick it up. Seems the least they could do.

Then, we learn that the deputy major in the Eastern District has been cleared of wrongdoing after having been accused of sending text messages to (instead of arresting) a community activist charged in a warrant with beating his wife, who he was later charged with killing. Police still have deal with what a spokesman described as "procedural issues" in how the warrant ended up with police who knew the activist instead of with the regular warrant squad.

And we still have to figure out why two city officers on a violent crime task force drove a teen-ager to a park in Howard County and left him there without shoes and his cell phone. The youth said on television he was picked up for no reason, but I'm hearing he was getting in the way of a drug operation in West Baltimore by warning friends the cops were coming.

Regardless, cops can't abduct citizens and leave them places. Thanks to the Howard County police for finding the boy and returning him to his parents unharmed. If he's really obstructing, then arrest him. Law and Order did a show a few years back in which NYPD officers dropped a teen off in a bad neighborhood, making sure the dealers saw them get out of the marked squad car. In the show, the teen was killed. Luckily in real life the Baltimore youth made it okay.

Both officers are under investigation. It boggles the mind.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Talk about adding insult to injury.

First city cops bust down the wrong door on a drug raid. Then, when Andrew Leonard tries to get the city to put his door back, the city tells him to forget about it -- Baltimore police may have the wrong house but they had the right address on the warrant. So the raid team didn't make the mistake; the person who wrote the warrant did. Makes no difference as far as city liability goes.

But Mr. Leonard's problems don't end there. After he tried but failed to get public works to pick up his broken door and throw it away, a city inspector stopped wrote him a $50 ticket for keeping an untidy back yard -- because of his broken door!

How many ways can a city roll over on you?

Ed Norris, the former police commissioner, had great fun on his radio show this morning, explaining that cops do hit the wrong doors but that the city needs to step up and help this man.

 "For God's sake, just do the right thing?" he proclaimed. Can the city afford to fix the door? You bet," Norris said, reminding listeners of money officials recently discovered sitting in an account: "They just found $39 million under a couch!"

This whole thing is another example of mid-level bureaucrats so tied to their rules that they're blinded to common sense. I wrote about a man a few months ago whose door was broken down by Baltimore County police, who were told by neighbors a girl was screaming rape inside. They broke down the wrong door and it turned out to be two kids playing.

In both cases, cops can't be faulted, but that doesn't mean the homeowner should be left hanging. In the case in the county and in the city, the owners got letters saying the jurisdiction isn't responsible because the cops did the right thing. And in both cases, higher-ups stepped in and promised to make the owner whole.

I hope it was because common sense prevailed and not because of the publicity.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

When I visited Michelle Ha's convenience store on East Biddle Street last year, she told me she never had any problems inside, despite the dangerous neighborhood. Michelle is one of the most involved people in her neighborhood, and both the cops and the residents made sure she and her shop were protected (the video above is from the November interview).

This morning, about 8:30 a.m., the violence from the street finally invaded her corner store. A man was shot in the leg and thigh; Michelle was inside her shop but behind her bullet-resistant glass at the time. The gunman escaped. "All I could tell the victim was to hold still, the ambulance is coming," Michelle told me this morning.

Michelle is a fixture on her corner and in East Baltimore. She helps the cops by putting on crab feasts and raising money; she helps the elderly by working to turn a vacant rowhouse into a clubhouse to get them off the dangerous corner. She's not afraid to call police and proudly hangs pictures of cops on her walls. In return, when she dials 911 or calls a cop on his cell phone, they come quickly. Her husband lives down south so their young son can play golf; Michelle prefers living above the corner shop.

"It's Baltimore, I feel alive," she told me.

So I was dismayed to hear that someone had been shot in her store. "It happened so fast," Michelle told me when she called. "I was behind the glass." She told me the victim was a longtime customer but she didn't recognize the gunman, who got away. She said police are reviewing video tapes that might have captured the shooting, but she had no idea why it happened.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Breaking news
        

A day after federal jurors spared the life of Patrick Byers for ordering from his prison cell the killing of a witness in his murder case, the Baltimore Sun's Melissa Harris brings us another chilling tale of intimidation.

She along with the Baltimore Circuit Court jury watched as a defendant in a murder trial locked eyes with a witness as lawyers and judges were pre-occupied at the bench. Melissa reports that he held up a document in one hand and pumped a thumbs-down gesture with his other, saying, "I know your name. You're going down. You're going down."

That prompted an extroadinary private meeting between the judge and the jurors; he allowed the case to proceed but his close-door session will surely be an issue for appeal. But given that such threats must be taken seriously (see Byers case) this brazen activity has got to stop.

The trial involves members of the Black Guerrilla Family, a prison-based gang that was subject to a mass indictment recently in which federal authorities discovered that while behind bars members not only had access to cell phones but to vodka, cigars, salmon and shrimp as well. In court documents filed in that case, authorities intercepted phone comversation in which one jailed member order another on the outside to attend his hearing to stare down witnesses.

The case Melissa writes about was particularly brazen; usually, gang members just have to show up and sit in the gallery to intimidate; the witnesses know exactly who they are. We can't have a judicial system scared of the people being tried. But this is not a good sign. The lessons from the Byers case have not yet been learned.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A federal jury spared the life of Patrick Albert Byers, but it was the statements from his relatives that infuriated listeners to the Ed Norris show this morning. The mother of one of Lackl's children -- Byers was sentenced to four consecutive life terms -- told the media outside Baltimore's federal courthouse that now both families have lost sons.

Ebony Green said she won't be able to see Byers on a day-to-day basis, "just like the Lackl family won't." She also added, "He was a loving father, just like Carl Lackl." That may be, but her one-time boyfriend also ordered Carl Lackl shot in front of his Baltimore County home for agreeing to testify against him in a city murder case. It was a cold-blooded, ordered execution of a witness. At left, Byers' mother and cousin talk about the case in a photo by Baltimore Sun's Algerina Perna; the family's comments have enraged some.

Norris, a former Baltimore police commissioner, was angry beyond belief that federal jurors did not hand down the death penalty. Patrick Byers, he said, "gave the Lackl's the death penalty." And Lackl wasn't killed in some fight or argument on the corner; U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein called Lackl a hero.

Emotions run high outside courtrooms, with victory meted out hearing by hearing. The Byers family was angry when the jury convicted, then understandably relieved when he didn't get the death penalty. But that relief should be tempered if the family has any sense of remorse. Instead, what we see are people denying responsibility, and that stings more than what happened inside the court house.

The Byers' won't see Patrick "just like the Lackl family won't."

No, if that were the case, the government would kill Patrick Byers just like he ordered Carl Lackl to be killed.

Said Norris on his radio show this morning: "You're right, you win."

Cases like this test anyone's resolve to oppose the death penalty, and statements like we got from the Byers family don't help. They clearly don't get it, and it does make you wonder what it takes for people to really understand.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (74)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The Baltimore Sun's Gus Sentementes just posted a breaking story on a off-duty corrections officer who shot and wounded a 15-year-old boy who police say tried to rob him with a toy gun this morning at a convenience store.

Police have not released the officer's name (it's still very early in the investigation), but I'm guessing that because of their new policy of not naming officers who fire their weapons, they won't release the name at all. Police are considering revising the policy but haven't said much about it lately.

Anthony Guglielmi, the Baltimore Police Department's chief spokesman, took issue with my statements and said withholding the name of this corrections officer has nothing to do with the policy but is being done because he's a victim of a crime. Police used to release all victims' names; now they are far more reluctant, and given the climate of retaliation it's hard to blame them. Two others involved in the holdup have not yet been arrested.

Guglielmi also argued that the corrections officer is a civilian and not a cop; in this case, he was off-duty and using his personal weapon (corrections officers have to forfeit their guns when they go off duty). It's also a valid point -- while city cops are always "on duty" even when their off, as in they are expected to intervene in crimes that are in progress and do carry their guns even when not on the job -- it's different for corrections officers.

I still believe that given an appropriate amount of time, the names of everyone who shoot people, whether it be civilians or law enforcement officers, should be made public. I don't like the  city police policy, and I believe eveyone should be held to the same standard. 

Ironically, police union lawyers were in court today to argue that a trial for a city cop charged with manslaughter in a duty-related shooting last year should be moved out of the city because the policy prohibiting the release of names of officers who shoot has created so much controversy. The police commissioner has said that he will release names of officers in questionable or bad shooitngs; this officer was named and his lawyers are now saying the department has publicly convicted him before trial.

The real story is that the officer's name was released before the policy was introduced and that it would've been released anyway upon indictment. The irony is that the union supports not naming cops who shoot but will argue the opposite in court. It just shows the confusion this new policy has brought. The judge said he would make a ruling within a week.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Police shootings
        

As the co-owner of the Utz potato chip stand at Lexington Market fights stave off eviction, her brother talks to Baltimore Sun's Tricia Bishop while in "Supermax." Michael Papantonakis is accused by the feds of selling guns from the stand and is awaiting trial.

He talked to Tricia for about five minutes and denied selling guns over the counter, though he did admit to completing transactions there. He also said he did not sell weapons to gangs, such as the Bloods and Hells Angels, though he did tell two buyers that to make them think there was competition.

So what the feds say is arms dealing Papantonakis describes simply as good business practices. But it's hard to win sympathy while admitting to selling guns, even if they were, as he says, from his personal collection.

This story does have it all: the suspect's unabashed sister defending her brother from the stall, facing eviction while hanging signs blaming the market management, even as security guards tear the signs down. We've got gangs and bikers and court hearings and guns and bounty hunters and a world-famous market and allegations of mob-style retribution.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The year was 1999 and Baltimore police commanders were tired of seeing empty patrol cars sitting on lots as crime was spiraling out of control. The two chiefs of patrol put pen to paper and wrote a memo that for once owned up to the harsh reality:

It said staffing was "inadequate at best" and warned that "no shift, will, in the future, hit the streets without the required manpower to cover all posts." The commanders authorized overtime pay to fill the slots.

At that time, the force's strength was 3,188 officers (today it's 3,071) and police commanders were quick to criticize their underlings: "They are personnel managers," one colonel told me then. "They have to work around these obstacles and earn their money."

Countered the police union president at the time: "You can't have a job that requires 20 police officers, give commanders 10 and then blame them for not getting the job done."

It's a battle that is waged in virtually every job across the country. Only ones involving police involve public safety. And the cop who risked his career to take me out to show low staffing levels this week demonstrated just how bad it is. This cop jumped from call to call, often falling behind "in-progess" calls that ordinarily would require immediate response.

Police have tried all sorts of things to increase staffing. One commissioner even put two cops in every patrol car, introducing the old concept of "partners" for the very first time in Baltimore, but that experiment was short-lived when millions of dollars of overtime money ran out. Now the city doesn't even have enough overtime money to staff all the cars it needs with one officer.

Police say they are only 15 officers down and that will change when the next academy class begins next month. Back in 1998, police had 200 openings but also had another 200 officers out on long-term medical leave. If the numbers city police are giving me are correct, they've solve that problem. But each district still has officers out on sick leave, suspension, vacation, military duty, etc. That's how you get empty patrol cars while still being "fully staffed."

But no matter how bad it seems now, the past is worse. In 1999, the comander of the Northeastern District on Argonne Drive shut his station to the public from midnight to 7 a.m., putting up a sign directing people to a payphone if they needed to call 911. Interesting, because in the district I visited this week, the commander did call two cops in on overtime to help fill spots, but one of those officers had to work the desk.

I heard this from a police officer this morning:

"Let Peter know that the article was true and EXTREMELY accurate. Command will push the 'number' that we have staffed, however, they fail to mention the fact that they include 'cadets' in those numbers as well as the kids (new hire-ees) that aren't even in the academy yet.

"Command and the City government are boldly lying to the citizens of Baltimore and believe that nobody will pay attention.  It is a serious problem that needs to be addressed and the article written by Peter merely touches on the unbelievable atrocities the Depart. is doing to bandage up the bleeding."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)