British crime reporter takes on Eastside
Mark Hughes, the reporter from The Independent who is here trying to see if Baltimore is indeed like The Wire, is unfortunately finding it easy to find our dysnfunction.
Already, the top prosecutor has told him her office's relationship with police is "schizophrenic," which must get him wondering why the two primary law enforcement agencies can't get along, which in turn must be one reason crime is so high.
The top cops won't talk to him, but he's met a few on Citizen On Patrol walks and Tuesday night he hit the streets with the police union president, who took him to a fatal shooting and other intense calls. Here's a bit from his blog, "Crime: A Tale of Two Cities":
The scene was one which must be familiar to officers, but was new to me. A car riddled with bullet-holes was crashed into another vehicle. Through the open passenger door I could see blood soaking the seat. And on the ground were multiple bullet casings, circled with red chalk and each marked with a yellow number. After listening to detectives exchange theories on what might have happened we left and headed to a project block nearby. There we met two patrolmen who suspected some men in the projects of holding a drug stash. The four police officers split up, two went one side, two the other. Justin and I followed the union guys. Two minutes later, amid the shouts of “five-0”, we heard a scream. The union cops ran in the direction of the shout. Justin and I, for some reason, ran too. When we reached the other side of the projects we learned that the scream was that of a man who was now in handcuffs. After some questioning and a search (no drugs were found) he was released and told to go home.
Later, Mark wrote about how most victims of homicide and most of those suspected of killing them have criminal records, which helps explain that while Baltimore has the country's second-highest murder rate, it's still not terribly dangerous for people engaged in legitimate activities.
It does hearten me that Mark is surprised that so many people seem to be following his work on line and in the newspaper. He always seems surprised when someobody recognizes him, such as when he went out on a walk in South Baltimore's Riverside neighborhhood. And even with the top cops not talking to him, he's met plenty of officers and citizens who have gone out of their way to help him.
Last night, we went on a Citizen On Patrol walk in Southeast Baltimore, in the Patterson Park area. He met a new group of residents striving to keep their neighborhood safe, though it was much quieter than one he did earlier this week in Riverside.
None of the residents or the cop, Officer Eddy Arias (above, chatting with Mark, in a picture taken by The Sun's Gene Sweeney), made any arrests (unlike in Riverside) but he did overhear a call on is radio for a report of shots fired two blocks from where we were at the time, Ellwood and Fairmount.







Rafferty, a 21-year veteran, is a former homicide detective who now works at
Lewis treated the workout session like a football training drill, minus, of
One of the most tragic and painful cases I can remember ended today when a man pleaded guilty in connection with the killing former Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm's stepdaughter. Details of the
He chatted with residents about crime (they're most concerned with car break-ins, loitering and grime) and learned that these walks are an opportunity for people to point out everything from dangling power lines to trash that needs to be picked up to blighted houses. At left, Mark is talking with the Southern District commander, Maj. Scott Bloodsworth, in an alley near Heath and Light streets.
Mark has a
The embattled
Today's
The anniversary of Anne McCann's death nears and her
I've written about too many deaths of too many police officers in the course of my career -- car accidents, shootings, a helicopter crash. All of them are painful, but the loss of in 2000 of Sgt. John D. Platt (left) and Officer Kevin McCarthy will be one I never forget.
Then we learned that Platt had been an unnamed officer captured in a Baltimore Sun photo three years ealier crying on the hood of a cruiser after his friend, Lt. Owen Sweeney, was shot in the back at a domestic dispute call. Sweeney had fallen into Platt's arms after telling the gunman, "We're here to help you." The photo taken by Andre Chung is at left.
Last week, near the 9th anniversary of Platt's death, I learned that Weiss had violated the terms of his probation by failing to complete 1,000 hours of community service and was sent back to prison for two more years. I talked with Laurie Platt just hours before she visited the crash site to lay a wreath (at left, in a photo by the Baltimore Sun's Ken Lam). I've written a more complete story on Laurie and her struggles with the courts in today's newspaper.
So we once again revist the paradox -- crime is going down, according to the stats, but people still think crime is a top issue for the city. The mayor got a bit of help in selling the crime is down mantra with her
Lee Corrigan, who runs the
I've been asked to compile a list of the top-10 most notorious crimes in and around Baltimore.
Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the shooting death of
I got this question from Paul Marx of Towson:
I think we all know that drug abusers come in alls shapes and sizes, but we prefer not to think about it. It's much easier to envision, and dismiss, the addict when we think of the junkie on the corner, and the violence that consumes this city over drugs. Carrie John (left, in the middle of the photo) and Clinton McCracken did not sand on street corners or carry guns, as far as we know. They bought drugs over the Internet, from the comfort of their rowhouse, according to police, without their relatives or neighbors knowing about their secret life.
Not the best timing.
You can always tell when the rank and file cops are battling City Hall. Not an opportunity is wasted. A
The
After the all the controversy over state
The court documents just filed in the arrest of a
Patrol officers have long complained they're short-staffed, so now Baltimore's police commissioner is giving them a
Already, the Baltimore
Baltimore's street violence seems overwhelming at times. And authorities who are left to pick up the piece often get left with just that -- a piece.
You got to figure robbing a store called
The comments regarding the arrest on Sunday of
In the case involving the Ravens player at the Inner Harbor, it's about a gun, which for police changes the way they approach a potential suspect. In both cases, it seems there was a communication breakdown.
I first met Hikeen Crampton in April 2001. He was in the
But on Friday we got word that Hikeen had been
Almost lost in the busy crime shuffle on Tuesday was neat event at the police academy building at an old school in Pimlico. Standing in the lobby,
It's been a rough week in Baltimore -- people shot at the Inner Harbor, cops goofing off helping a politician with his marriage proposal -- so it's time to take a mid-week timeout and visit with Sophia Litrenta of Lutherville (at left with Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, in a photo taken by Lloyd Fox).

Another weekend and 
The
Catch me this afternoon starting at 1 p.m. on
An important community cop walk is coming up Wednesday in
Baltimore Police Officer Traci L. McKissick
Baltimore County native and NBA star Rudy Gay (at left in an AP photo) was in apparently in the city last night,
Baltimore paramedics
A story I wrote on Thursday about a
In the midst of reporting the 18 shootings that occurred Sunday in Baltimore, a colleague sent me a story I had written in 2000 and all but forgotten:
Over the past 16 years covering city cops and violence (with a five year break) I've seen a parade of mayors and police commissioners standing grim-faced in front of television cameras and talking about violence.
"This was a very well planned and thought out event," Bealefeld said. "The timing of this is not lost on us. The targets are not lost on us. And we are certainly going to Monday morning quarterback every aspect of police operations connected to this incident, as we should do. We should be evaluating our connections to this community so we have good information about community events and whether there are memorials or large cookouts. We're going to hold people accountable for that and push harder to make sure we have coverage. We're going to be evaluating our effectiveness as it relates to some of these specific organizations and individuals that are operating in East Baltimore, and in Southeast (above, Dixon talks with the media in a photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor).
I tried to reach George F. Spicka (left, in a 2006 photo) on Wednesday after the