Bill Toohey, the longtime public face of the Baltimore County Police Department, is gone, to be replaced by a uniformed officer in front of the cameras. It's a loss, not just for the media that grew to trust Bill, but for the citizens as well.

With Bill, they got a person who spoke and sounded like them, who could translate the most arane police verse into English. As former city police spokesman Robert W. Weinhold Jr. told me: "The most important message is the message received."

I'll let Nick Madigan's story on line and in today's print edition speak more about Bill (he also has a Facebook page). I don't know whether it matters that a police agency has a civilian or a sworn cop as it's mouthpiece; there are various schools of thought.

In one corner: police officers know the ins and outs of the department, are trusted by cops who don't trust outsiders, and can explain to the public how cops work and think. Even departments with civilian spokespeople like to have uniformed cops addressing the public at crime scenes. They say it adds credibility to the reports.

In the other corner: citizen spokespeople can challenge the police command in ways sworn rank and file cannot, can find ways around the bureaucracy, bring a fresh, outside perspective to a problem and add credibility when something controversial is going down. As Weinhold said, people may trust the spokesman in a suit to defend the department and see a uniformed cop as part of a coverup.

The Baltimore Police Department has had a civilian PIO for as long as anyone can remember, but they've hired people from diverse backgrounds. Two in recent years were cops in the spokesperson's office who had to resign to take the chief spokesperson job. Two others had been reporters for local television stations who had to quit to take the job.

As Prince George's County spokesman Maj. Andy Ellis told me: "I like the civilians because many times they bring experience in the media that our sworn officers just done't have. I think they can give the chief a fresh look on things. But the sworn commanders have an intimate knowledge of the police department. Much of what our PIOs do is educate the public through reporters as to what our police officers so. It's invaluable to have a police PIO who can explain police procedures. Getting information inside a police organization to give to a reporter is many times challenging. ... Cops are a funny bunch. Many times they will not trust a civilian to give them information." And, he added, "The uniformed officer in front of the camera is able to explain police procedures better than a civilian."

At the same time, Ellis said one of his biggest challenges is to get his police spokespeople to talk like a civilian. "We have to get them out of policespeak. That's where a civilian PIO excels. They talk in a language people can understand."

And that's why this is important to people. Police agencies are communicating not to other cops but to the public. A terse 'no comment' or "we can't tell you because it's part of the investigation' leaves too many people wondering why they're not being told something. A civilian might be able to explain it better. Cops are paramilitary and are used to short answers and unused to giving explanations. Follow oders. But the public demands more.

Cops might want to keep news of a serial rapist from the public to avoid raising alarm or thinking that their investigation will be ruined if details get out. A sworn cop may feel compelled to agree, or may in fact agree. But a civilian spokesperson might argue that the community needs to know that a rapist is out there and if the public learns they weren't warned of the danger they'll be upset.

Bill was good about things like that. When a county police sergeant e-mailed crime summaries to a community group but got upset when that same information wound up in the paper (he threatned to cut off residents who sent the info to the media) Bill stepped in to remind him and others that if he sent the info to the community, then he made it public and he can't control it after that.

In 2006, my colleague Nick Madigan wrote this about the way Bill handled a big story:

Continue reading "Longtime county police spokesman gone" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

More fear for East Baltimore where nine women have been attacked and raped near bus stops after police find a body of female in her 20s behind a convenience store on East Eager Street.

Police have been hunting for at least one rapist in connection with a string of attacks since Oct. 20. Some or all may be related. In this latest case, police are trying to match evidence from the body to determine if there is a link.

The body was found Tuesday about 4:30 p.m. in a grassy area. A cause of death has not been determined but police said the woman had been injured. Anyone with information about the body should call Baltimore police homicide unit at 410-396-2100. Anyone with information about the rapes should call 410-396-2076.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The tragic stabbing death of 15-year-old Jason Madison Jr. last week, allegedly at the hands of a convicted murderer who had a forced sexual relationship with the boy in his aunt's home, brough a tearful letter from the victim's teacher.

The boy was found in his aunt's upstairs closet, gagged with a pillowcase and stabbed in the head and throat. A suspect, Donte Parrish, was arrested a few days later at a convenience store in Northeast Baltimore.

A spate of other killings this week has brought Baltimore's homicide total to more than 200 for the year, a grim statistic as we end the year. A map of city murder is here.

Here is the note from Jason's teacher, Ryan C. Jones (note, he uses a different spelling for the victim's last name):

Continue reading "In memory of Jason ... " »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore police lost the football game but came away with $22,000 to help its embattled Mounted Unit. Cops played in the annual Shomrin game on Sunday at Northwestern High School. The group of mostly Orthodox Jews serves Northwest Baltimore witha private foundation and crime patrol.

The folks from Shomrim won 24-21 and then donated $15,000 to the horse unit; another $7 came from Boost Mobile. The horse unit needs $150,000; Sunday's donation gives it about $96,000 in donated proceeds.

Here is a statement from Mayor Sheila Dixon and a link to donate money to the horse unit: 

Continue reading "Cops play football, raise money for horse unit" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A group of Iraqi police officers and representatives from the Pentagon are scheduled to visit with Baltimore police next month to learn about informing the public about crime and interacting with residents.

The public will get a chance to interact with the Middle East visitors at two events -- a community forum (the details are being worked out) and a community walk in Southwest Baltimore. Should be an interesting visit.

Here are some more details put out by the Southwestern District Police Community Relations Council: 

Continue reading "Iraqi cops coming to Baltimore" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I had a chance this afternoon to see the German shepherd, Blade, who was mistakenly shot by a police officer about 6 p.m. Sunday in South Baltimore. The dog was in her cage, being petted by her handler through an open door.

While was in the room, the dog got up and turned around. He had a bandage on his left leg; Officer Steven W. Sturm told reporters outside the Falls Road Animal Hospital -- doggie Shock Trauma to some -- that the dog suffered a gunshot in the left shoulder from a .40 caliber handgun.

He said it appears that the dog might be able to go back to work. "He's a tough dog," Sturm said, explaining he went for a walk on Monday and put pressure on his wounded shoulder. He said the bullet appears to have hit soft-tissue and missed bones.

Blade was shot while pursing several people who bailed from a car whose drive evaded a traffic checkpoint. The dog's handler released Blade from his leash and commanded him to track down the running suspects. A police officers who responded to help approached from the opposite direction and the dog attacked him, prompting him to fire. Police said the officer had no idea he was being attacked by a police dog.

Sturm said being a police dog is dangerous (I'll have more on this part in tomorrow's Baltimore Sun). "They were just both in the same spot at the same time, and Blade was doing what he was taught to do," Sturm said. He added, "It's dangerous because unlike us ... we see somebody with a gun or a weapon, or whatever, we will get out of the way. Dogs react totally the opposite. They go. No matter what they see, they're going to be going unelss we call them off."

To watch video of Blade:

Continue reading "Wounded police dog improving" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Please forgive no posts yesterday -- I took the day off to rest up after a virtually non-stop week of helping out our British crime reporter from The Independent. I see there's quite a bit of catching up to do ...

In another blog, I'll talk about new developments in the Annie McCann case, and of course the DC sniper is set to be executed tonight, the mayor's trial continues, the police dog Blade, shot in a case of friendly fire, is well on his way to recovery, prosecutors dropped charges in an alleged brothel in Patterson Park and two more people were killed.

First off, Mark Hughes seemed to enjoy himself though he left with no interview with either the city's police commissioner or the mayor. In fact, we tried to catch Sheila Dixon on Saturday at a tree planting ceremony in North Baltimore but she declined to speak. "I'm planting trees today," she said to a spokesman, but in earshot of both Mark and I. There's much more on their Tale of Two Cities blog.

Too bad. For all the city does to counter the image of Baltimore as The Wire, the silence of the two leaders on the topic of crime left him the impression they've got their heads in the sand. And coupled with the crime he did see -- a murder while out with union cops and a shooting just moments after he arrived at the train station -- our leaders didn't do much to dispel the notion of a dangerous city to our friends overseas.

We followed the mayor as she bicycled around a neighborhood delivering trees; she could've saddled up to Mark and used the moment to talk about her initiatives and how she thinks they helped bring crime down. We were in a park that had a murder a year ago; she could've used that to explain how planting trees gets the community energized and is indeed a part of combating violence. We were on the street where a community activist lived whose house was firebombed several years ago by angry drug dealers. She could've used the tree moment to again talk about reclaiming the streets.

Instead, mark went home feeling snubbed and our image of crime and our inability to deal with it only reinforced.

On the other side of the pond, our very own Justin Fenson found that cops in London don't report breaking crime, usually until an arrest is made. He quoted one spokesman saying that reporting, say a body that was found near where Justin is staying, would only incite the public into thinking crime was worse than it really was. I can't imagine that line going over too well here! Justin had some quiet nides riding with cops, but I was more heartened by some of the comments from people who wanted to make sure he got to the really bad parts of town.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Annie McCann, Confronting crime
        

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.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Our visiting crime reporter from The Independent, Mark Hughes, got a taste of some our problems on Tuesday when he spoke with city State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy. Long documented animosity between her office and the cops once again showed itself, with her describing the relationship between the two as "schizophrenic."

Relations between prosecutors and cops seemed to have improved since the 1990s when they went at it tooth and nail (who can forget O'Malley's profanity-laced tirade against Jessamy) but it appears that there's still some mending to do. I know prosecutors are upset over cop no-shows at trials and over a list Jessamy keeps of officers she deems unfit to testify, rendering them practically useless as cops. And her office has always complained over the quality of policing and what they feel are "abatement" arrests that clog the system but don't go anywhere.

Police routinely complain that Jessamy's office doesn't win as many convictions as they would like and dumps cases by the truckload.

It's an old argument and one that Mark saw first hand while touring the Riverside neighborhood on Monday. He watched cops arrest two strung-out addicts for being disorderly -- they refused to leave the area after an officer told them too. The community love the cops for taking swifty action, but the charges will never hold up.

A perfect example of bad charges, prosecutors say

A perfect example of good community policing, the residents say

The only way to solve a problem and prevent something more serious later on, the cops say

And around and around we go.

Here's the broader picture this argument presents to our visitor: that police and prosecutors, who should be on the same side fighting crime, don't have the same priorities. And that makes the system appear dysfunctional at best.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Ray Lewis leans over Dennis Rafferty (left), their faces inches apart. 

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 

Continue reading "Cops getting fit with Ray Lewis" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

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 plea deal are here (it appears she was killed by someone she knew in a dispute over drugs) and the New York Times profile is here.

It was just last near that the body of Nicole Desiree Sesker was found in Northwest Baltimore, the day after her 39th birthday. In 2005, the New York Times talked at length about her for a story on Baltimore, and how a big-city police chief handled a relative strung on drugs and surviving by prostitution. Above, in a picture by The Sun's Andre Chung, police officers question Sesker after arresting a drug suspect in Northwest Baltimore a day after The Times story was published.

Hamm, a product of Baltimore, was one of the first police commanders I had ever met, and he called me angry about one of the first stories I had ever written. He was commander of the Central District at the time, 1994, and I had written about a man wounded in a hatchet attack. It was a short story, but the then-Evening Sun gave it big play above the fold for its early afternoon edition. He thought we had hyped the story, and he was right.

The New York Times wrote about Hamm and his daughter because it showed how, in a city already known for its addiction to drugs and violence, even the police chief's daughter is not immune. Hamm talked about how difficult it was given she refused all help, and when we had reporters go out the next day, we found police, the very ones who worked for Hamm, arresting a man and giving a lecture to Sesker. In the profile, the New York Times ran a picture of Sesker standing on a corner prostituting herself.

A difficult time for the city. A telling story about how drugs has ravaged some neighborhoods and some lives. And proof that arrests won't get us out of this problem.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Our visiting British crime reporter Mark Hughes ended his first full day in Baltimore by walking with the South Baltimore's Riverside community group. They spent about an hour walking through the neighborhood with police, who even made a couple of busts.

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.

One of the sergeants on the walk ended up arresting a man and a woman on a disorderly charge (the woman was high and both refused to leave), at least temporarily abating a problem for the night.  Mark is here in part because The Wire is so successful in Great Britain (The Sun's Justin Fenton is headed there on Wednesday), but walking through Riverside was a chance for him to see a neighborhood with other, more pedestrian problems.

Mark has a blog up to recount his experiences, and he and The Sun's crime reporter Justin Fenton are on the Ed Norris show, (105.7-FM) this morning at 8:10 a.m. At left, Bloodsworth chats with a woman one of his officers had just arrested on a disorderly charge at Light and Heath streets.

Just before the walk, the spokesman for the mayor's office, suggesting a better column than one was planning to write, sent me a suggestion of his own (NFS stands for non-fatal shooting):

"The Mayor was sworn in on January 17, 2007.  She has been Mayor for 1,022 days. In that 1,022 days, there have been 2,276 combined homicides and NFS. In the 1,022 days before she took office (April 1, 2004 to January 16, 2007) there were 2,558 combined homicides and NFS.  This represents 282 less combined homicides and shootings – a decrease of 11%"

If those numbers are accurate, in the 1,000 days before Sheila Dixon became mayor, the city averaged 2.50 shootings and homicides a day. Under her tenure, the average has dropped to 2.23 a day. There's a disconnect between fear of crime and stats that city leaders just don't seem to get.

Does a crime drop of a few tenths of a percentage point make you feel any safer? Do you even know what that means?

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The embattled Baltimore Police horse unit is hanging on but still needs more money. As you might remember, the city cut its funds last year in the budget crunch and since then the cops have been soliciting money to keep the mounted unit going. Photo of one of the city horses at left by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.

They need $150,000 to survive the year. A fund-raising effort has netted $70,698.34. Sheryl Goldstein from the mayor's crime office is emphatic that the mounted unit is not going away. "The Unit is intact and the plan is to keep it that way," she told me.

It turns out that Baltimore's is not the only horse unit in trouble. In Boston, supporters of that department's mounted unit started a Facebook page, called Save the Boston Police Mounted Unit, where it was noted the Boston Red Sox donated $400,000 to the department.

But it seems to have gone for naught -- the 140-year-old Boston Police mounted unit disbanded this summer and the Boston Globe reported the horses were bought by a local sheriff and are now resting comfortably on a farm. Five other horses went to the New York Police Department.

To donate money to help the Baltimore Police Department's mounted unit:

Continue reading "Saving police horses (not just in Baltimore)" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Giovanna Blatterman's daughter, Gia, took issue with my column last week on the Little Italy crime meeting. I'll run her entire e-mail below, but like others, she didn't like the tone of the story focusing on neighborhood drama, saying that it obscured a real and frightening issue over crime.

Gia says there are two factual errors. She says I used "Gia" -- insinutating the daugher -- instead of the mother. I looked back at blog postings and the printed article and I reference the mother as "Giovanna" and on subsequent times "Blatterman." Other posters to the blog used "Gia" for Giovanna." Also, Gia Blatterman is the sole name on the restaurant's liquor license. I had both mother and daughter running the establishment. In previous restaurant reviews, all of them positive, mother and daughter are listed as co-owners.

Here is Gia Blatterman's letter:

Continue reading "Little Italy crime fight (continuted)" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Today's Crime Scenes is about a new Family Crimes Unit to handle the more than 25,000 domestic violence calls Baltimore police get each year. I spent some time with the members of the unit, led by Baltimore Police Lt. Vernell Shaheed, DeVera Gilden and Assistant State's Attorney Julie Drake. They work out a makeshift office and there are so many reports there's no room to file them (photo at left).

What they've essentially done is model a domestic violence divison, with detectives and social workers, after the homicide unit. In serious cases, they respond and handle the investigation, rather than leaving it with patrol officers. As a result, they say domestic killings have dropped from 13 or 14 in years past to four thus far this year.

It turns old ideas on its head. In years past, police commanders would dismiss domestic killings as unpreventable crimes. It happened inside, was "just a domestic" and thus people don't need to worry. Julie Drake sees it another way -- intervene in troubled households early and prevent the situation from becoming a homicide.

Officers are supposed to call the unit when they're on the scene of a serious domestic dispute, but Shaheed told me they're still trying to get the word out to beat cops to make the proper notifications. It's a new program so it takes some time to work out the kinks. In some districts, she said, officers call her unit on every singe case.

They also review every domestic violence report, even ones involving no phyicial violence, to see if they need to intervene. Three calls to the same address gets their attention, Shaheed said, and will get them involved. That shows a pattern that could later erupt into violence.

One of this year's few killings involved an address in Southwest Baltimore in which police had responded repeatedly for calls for help, but somehow the new Family Crimes Unit wasn't notified in time. That case is under internal review.

And earlier this year, a deputy police commander in the Eastern District was suspended, then cleared and reinstated, after it was learned he had exchanged text messages with a man wanted on a domestic violence warrant. Before the warrant was served, the man shot and killed his wife on outside a courthouse on North Avenue and was then shot and wounded by a city police officer.

The incident raised concerns as to how diligently police worked to serve the warrant -- the suspect was a well-known community activist -- and why police in the Eastern District had bypassed the new domestic violence unit while handling the case.

This new program appears to be working but clearly the word needs to get out that these cases are being treated more seriously then ever before. I was pleasantly surprised to see Officer Kate Wood in the new office. I had covered the tragic case of her daughter back in 1997 who was shot and killed by her boyfriend.

Two days before the fatal shooting, the daughter had called 911 when the boyfriend showed up at her house with a gun. The daughter had a temporary protective order but at the time that order didn't allow police to seize the weapon. They ordered the boyfriend to leave but let him keep the gun. Two days later, he fatally shot her with that very gun, prompting Wood to work hard to tighten the law, which was finally done only this year. 

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

My article today about the Little Italy crime meeting has brought several responses, and many conspiracy theories that I can't rehash here but certainly left my head spinning, and reminded me of some old-timer that we sorely miss for their antics.

Some people objected to the article's tone; my goal was to write about the issue as a neighborhood drama, which I believe it is, instead of another neighborhood crime story that is the same no matter the setting.

This reader felt my attempt failed:

ID YOU WRITE THIS NEWS ARTICLE? WERE YOU AT THIS MEETING? GIA HAD MANY MANY RESIDENTS THERE TO SHOW THIER FEAR OF CRIME IN LITTLE ITALY.MANY WOULD NOT COME FOR FEAR OF RETALIATION FROM MOES SUPPORTERS. I KNOW THAT GIA HAS CONCERN FOR BRINGING ATTENTION  ABOUT CRIME HERE AND WHAT EFFECT IT COULD HAVE ON ALL BUSINESSES HERE IN LITTLE ITALY. DID YOU INTERVIEW ONE INTERESTED RESIDENT ABOUT THIER CONCERNS? NOT IN THE ARTICLE PRINTED IN THE SUN OCT. 22. WHERE DO YOU LIVE? ARE YOU SAFE ? IS THERE FEAR? AGAIN I ASK YOU WHO WROTE THIS ARTICLE? HAS YOUR EDITOR READ IT? IF NOT PLEASE SHOW IT TO HIM/HER ALONG WITH MY RESPONSE. I am an 81 YEAR OLD RESIDENCE AND CONSIDER IT A COMPLIMENT TO BE A GADFLY

I did talk to resident and as I stated in the article, I believe the fears of crime are real. And I also believe residents have legitimate complaints against some of the restaurants and other establishments. But there's also a constant tussel between old and new, between tavern owners and residents about patrons and what they do when leave the bars, an issue that is repeated over and over across the city.

Behind the scenes of the legitimate Little Italy complains is a orchestra of animosity, factional in-fighting, disputes between bar and restaurant owners over perceived favoritism from city officials, whether the crime issue itself is overblown or a real problem. I think it's a real problem but in danger of becoming lost in neighborhood disputes.

Giovanna Blatterman has a long and tangled history in Little Italy. But she did stand up and openly confront an issue that many others hide from. She put her name out there and the fact she had been robbed inside her home. Baltimore police sent me a copy of the police report today and its below if anyone wants to read it:

Continue reading "Little Italy crime" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

After more than a year of debate, a failed effort by the liquor board and contant complaints by residents of Mid-Town Belvedere and Mount Vernon, Baltimore's police commissioner has issued a padlock order to Suite Ultralounge.

This bottle club has been a constant irritant for residents and defended by its owner and lawyer as a victim of misplaced community outrage. They say violence outside the club but attributed to patrons unfairly demonizes the nightspot that attracts teens.

The debate over crime outside Ultralounge grew into a citywide debate over crime downtown at aother nightclubs and led to talk about whether the city was safe at night. Police have been using the padlock law to hold bar and liquor store owners more accountable and have forced several to close or revise their security plans.

A double shooting and stabbing that police say began as disputes inside the club on East Chase Street, in the basement of the historic Belvedere hotel, are just the most public. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi gave some more examples:

-- 17-year-old patron held up at gunpoint at 12:58 a.m. on Jan. 18 outside the club, beaten and robbed of money and a cell phone.

-- A 15-year-old patron who robbed two 15-year-old male patrons at gunpoint as they left the club on Feb. 1

-- A male patron who was stabbed near the club and suffered life-threatening injuries on Oct. 11, which prompted a retaliatory shooting that left a female with a through and through gunshot wound to the thigh that same night. Police said the dispute started inside the club.

“The reality is there is no question you can tie a number of violent offenses to this club,” said City Councilman William H. Cole IV. “Whether or not the liquor board does what it needs to do, the city has its own tools it can use in the most egregious cases. The entire community has been begging for this for well over a year now.”

The attorney for the club, Peter A. Prevas, didn't return a call I made to his office this afternoon.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

The anniversary of Anne McCann's death nears and her parents are still fighting for some resolution. As many recall, the 16-year-old Virginia girl mysteriously disappeared from her home and was found dead two days later in Baltimore, near a trash bin in the Perkins Homes public housing complex near Fells Point.

See an earlier two part column series on the case: Part 1 and Part 2.

Baltimore police have suspended the investigation. They believe she overdosed after ingesting Bactine (an empty bottle was found at the scene and the active ingredient, Lidocaine, was found in her system, but the Medical Examiner's Office has ruled her death "undetermined"). Her car was found a few blocks away and Daniel McCann and his wife simply don't believe their daughter took her own life and are angry with police for not pursing leads and trying to answer vexing questions.

Police found what they term suicide notes in Annie's bedroom indicating she wanted to run away; The McCanns say that portions of those notes suggesting suicide were crossed out, and to them that means she changed her mind. Why did she go to Baltimore, a city she had only visited a few times with her parents? Private investigators hired by the McCanns have identified several teens that they said took Annie's car and moved her body; police interviewed at least one of those teens but never pressed charges, saying they had nothing to do with Annie's death.

That brings us to the latest battle. The McCanns say they tried to file charges on their own but were thwarted when a court commissioner called police and they say police talked her out of filing the paperwork. My understanding is that police, worried that charges for taking Annie's car might hurt any chances at legal remedies farther down the road, pressed them not to follow through. The McCanns want to know why police care if they've suspended the investigation.

The family firmly believes someone lured Annie to Baltimore and that she fell victim to a crime. There are simply too many unanswered questions for them to put this to rest. They sent a scathing letter to Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, and police tell me the commander of homicide has given the mayor's office information and that they will be drafting a response.

Dixon's spokesman, Scott Peterson, sent me this: "The Mayor continues to have empathy towards the McCann family for their horrible loss. The Mayor also has faith in the Baltimore Police Department that they are doing their jobs properly and handling this incident correctly. “ 

Here is a timeline of events provided by the McCann's, followed by their letter:

Our daughter, Annie McCann, was found dead early in the morning of November 2, 2008, behind a dumpster on South Spring Court in Baltimore.  After a vigorous early effort, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) investigation waned.  In early March 2009, following a family press conference, the BPD promised to re-invigorate the investigation.  After more than two weeks with virtually no additional effort, we pressed for a meeting with police officials.  On March 20, senior BPD officials clearly and angrily informed us that, "This investigation is over!" Later in the meeting they corrected that position - the investigation was suspended.

We proceeded with the private investigation, collecting additional information.  We expect soon to present to police officials a significant new finding.

On Saturday, October 10, Annie's father traveled to Baltimore to file charges against the now five individuals known to have been at the scene, with our car and Annie's body.  A document we prepared to support those complaints accompanies this statement.  (Names and addresses of the prospective defendants have been deleted.)

While the complaints were being processed by the Court, but not yet sworn to, a clerk asked Annie's father to accept a phone call.  It was Major Terry McLarney, chief of BPD's homicide unit.  Major McLarney explained to Annie's father to this effect:  "You're not doing any good here, Mr. McCann...I want to be clear, nothing has changed.  If anything, we've spent too much time on this case, to the point of borderline malfeasance.  But based on your letter to the mayor, threatening litigation, we have examined all of our actions, with a view to protecting the city from a possible suit...We believe that you may be right, and that perhaps we should have arrested the boys.  We are watching the calendar, and November 2 is coming up soon...No, dumping a body is not a crime...There have been frequent meetings with the Commissioner and the Mayor's Office and the State's Attorney; I was going to contact you earlier this week.  We'll be meeting further with the State's Attorney, and will probably press charges.  I will keep you informed, and call you this week."

Six days later, this past Friday evening, Major McLarney sent us an e-mail update.  He informed us that "We consulted with the State's Attorney's office and have been advised that there is no statute-of-limitations ref this matter...At no point in our telephone conversation on October 10 did I intend to communicate that any actions on my part were, or would be, fashioned to "insulate" my police department from possible civil litigation. If you wish to sue the Baltimore Police Department that is your business. Any action I take is consistent with my sworn duty to enforce the law, and to that end alone..."

We don't wish to sue the BPD.  We don't know yet if the reference to statute of limitations is for homicide or for grand theft auto.  We don't know what in the world the BPD would be waiting for, with respect to law enforcement; nearly a year ago, their detectives collected physical evidence and individual admissions as to auto theft, a felony.  (If body dumping is not a crime, is it somehow viewed as a mitigating factor?)

We are also providing a copy of our letter of August 24 to Mayor Dixon, to which Major McLarney referred on October 10.  Please note that we asked for the investigation to be re-opened, for the five males to be prosecuted, and for the return of personal belongings, including Annie's rosary and baby blankets.  To date, we have not received a response - except for Major McLarney's reference to it, over the phone on October 10.

 - Mary Jane and Dan McCann

Here is their letter to the mayor:

Continue reading "Anne McCann's parents still fighting" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Annie McCann, Confronting crime
        

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.

They were patrolling a quiet neighborhood in Hamilton in Northeast Baltimore when a pickup truck speeding at 63 mph went through a stop sign and broadsided their cruiser. The impact knocked the bolts from the frame and both officers were killed. The driver was later convicted of two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Early on the case that many twists and turns. McCarthy's family fought an ugly fight over custody of his 9-year-old daughter that ended with a Baltimore police lieutenent defying a court order to make sure the young girl could attend her father's funeral.

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.

Later, police protested the 10 year sentence (with all but six years suspended) for the suspect, Shane Daniel Weiss of Middle River, the cops protested again when he was sent home on probation after serving a little more than half his sentence.

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.

It's a tough story that never seems to go away. Laurie's children, Rachel and John Jr., were 3 and 4 when their father died and are now young teens. Laurie has gone back to work as a elemenary school teacher and she's trying to move on. But the judicial system keeps pulling her back in. I remember covering the single funeral for both officers; I never thought I'd have to write about them again.

Here's the funeral story I wrote in October 1997 (the photo of the procession was taken by Kim Hairston):

Continue reading "Pain of police loss still lingers" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

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 citywide survey that found 92 percent of people questioned feel safe in their neighborhoods during the day.

The mayor blamed the media (see Baltimore Sun story today) for making too much of the crime issue and scaring everybody. "Of course, the great media helps us to keep reminding people that we have a serious problem, when overall we've reduced crime in all areas."

How can 92 percent of the people feel safe in their own neighborhoods and at the same time 86 percent cite violent crime and illegal drug use as a serious or very serious problem for the city? It's not the media (in fact, we report on just a fraction of the crime that happens, and more often then not, we're bashed for failing to report crime that does occur.

What I agree with is that numbers and perception are too different things. Earlier this year, when a near riot, a shooting and other attacks occurred downtown, the police commissioner went to the Inner Harbor and recited stats to prove the city was safe, even as residents repeated they felt unsafe downtown and elsewhere.

If you're out at the harbor and get mugged, you return home saying the city is unsafe, even if muggings are actually down. No stat in the world will convince you otherwise, and that is the problem city officials face. They can repeat stats such as crime is down 7 percent but its meaningless to people who were attacked,  or who had a friend attacked, or who heard about a co-worker getting attacked.

The media does play a role in fostering this perception but I argue people misread or come away misinformed. The other night on TV, a reporter asked a man about a killing inside a house in an upscale neighborhood in Baltimore County. The man's first reaction: all that city crime was creeping into the suburbs. He had no reason to believe that the shooters came from the city; in fact, the cops were calling it a targeted hit or robbery. The city gets unfairly painted by a crime that occurred far away. It's a reputation that is difficult to overcome.

It's one thing to bring the numbers down. It's quite another to make people feel safe. And it's great people feel safe where they live, but they should feel that way about the entire city. Nearly 50 percent of the people surveyed by the city called downtown Baltimore unsafe at night. That's a perception that needs to be changed.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Lee Corrigan, who runs the Baltimore Running Festival, which includes the marathon, posted a blistering letter on The Sun's website that once again takes me to task for writing about the marathon route going through some troubled, crime-ridden neighborhoods. He writes in part:  

I had no idea that he and the folks at The Baltimore Sun would present it in such a negative way. I found it interesting that Mr. Hermann buried the fact in the article that no crime had ever been perpetrated on any of our participants over the first eight years of the event. If the author's intent was to truly cover crime and how it relates to the marathon, why wasn't this fact in the lead paragraph? Clearly the article was a blatant, calculated attempt to scare away our visitors and give one of the city's crown jewels a black eye just one day before the event.

What The Sun did was big slap in the face to all the runners, sponsors, citizens of Baltimore, benefiting charities and city agencies that have made this event a city tradition. The word "Baltimore" is in the name of your paper. Whose side are you on, anyway?

I've answered many of these questions in past posts, but I think it's important to reiterate that in no way was the article saying that runners were at risk along the route. It merely pointed out that sections of the 26.2 mile marathon passed through some dangerous and depressed areas of the city. It quoted residents saying they loved the fact that runners would get to see different parts of the city, both the good and the bad, and subsequent posters noted they came to Baltimore, not despite the route, but because of the route.

This was one of many articles this newspaper did on the race and crime was a consideration in how the route was designed. My intent was to inform readers of what some of the areas they were to run through were like; you can't hide the blight and the fact that at least 13 people were killed this year along just two sections of the route.

Mr. Corrigan asks what side we are on. That's the point -- we aren't on any "side." Our job is to inform -- sometimes that involves invoking our watchdog role, other times it is to entertain, still other times it is to report back on what our government and citizens are doing. The story on crime along the marathon was but one in a package that included, over the course of several weeks, front page stories on the "greening" of the event, on the race itself, on a couple who got engaged on the route and on the tragic death of a participant. What our job is not is to cheerlead.

In fact, many readers felt we fell down on the job by not playing up more a shooting that occurred a block away from the route in East Baltimore, just about an hour and after runners had gone by the location. The victim died. Here is another side to our reporting:

I thought you did good job articulating the fact we should not all walk around with blinders on and pretend the town is the beacon of hope for all. It is nice to have a paper that reports both sides of life in the city. As an outsider however, I was blown away at how very little was reported about the shooting on Kenwood. Had it been an hour earlier, and with  the city known for stray bullets hitting innnocent bystanders (the woman outside Kennedy Krieger hit in the purse for example), it could have been a lot worse. So thank you for reporting facts  that every day city citizens live with every day, and that those who live in suburbs never see don't seem to care about and don't want the rest of the country to see.

Here is Mr. Corrigan's letter in full:

Continue reading "Crime and marathon -- whose side are we on?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The shuttered Rosemont Police Athletic League Center may get a second chance after all. Residents in West Baltimore have been trying to reopen this rec center since the city closed it several months ago and turned over the police youth centers to the rec department.

But the man leading the charge, Richard Mosely, whose son Sean plays for the University of Maryland basketball team, has met nothing but obstacles. Today, at a scheduled meeting of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Gary D. Maynard, secretary of Public Safety & Correctional Services, offered to help.

Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton reports:

Continue reading "Help for Rosemont PAL?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

So, by pointing out crime along the marathon route I'm bringing down the city and a good event with sensationalism. By not reporting in full a shooting that occurred about block from the route an hour after runners had gone by, I'm helping the city cover up its crime problem.

Can't win. Here's a couple of notes from readers this afternoon:

Good job on the article. While Baltimore is a beautiful city, it has serious challenges it must confront publicly and not try to hide. Case in point: my mother in law lives on East Monument, just down the street from where marathoners passed. Why did the media not cover the fact snipers were on rooftops, helicopters were flying over, and a general warzone ensued during a shootout and hold up on Kenwood to the point she could not go to work? It's sad, this whole thing got covered up. Justin Fenton reported it via Twitter, but didn't see much after that - probably because it would bring negative publicity to those trying so hard to cover up the violence behind the inner harbor post card. Watch a marathoner get shot, then let the administration start asking questions.

From another reader"

So, the notion of writing about crime and the city and various events, and tourist, etc. is not a far-fetched one. Look at the publicity the Sun gave to the fights/attacks at the harbor area. Now, the marathon is a somewhat different event, and as Peter points out, hundreds of police officers are present along the route. And though the mayor is doing her job in praising residents who welcome
runners, Peter is doing his job in reminding us about the day-to-day challenges of crime.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Some days, well, actually, most days, you just can't win.

Mayor Sheila Dixon sent me an e-mail Saturday night calling my article on Friday on crime along the marathon route "unacceptable." Within the hour, a reader from Little Italy sent me a note accusing me of covering up a murder near her home in order to placate the city and advertisers.

The mayor said she wasn't sure what the Baltimore Sun was trying to prove with the article and she mentioned that residents who live along the route in some of the depressed areas of the city worked hard to make the runners feel welcome and contribute to the day's festivities. I have no doubt that is true.

The purpose of the article was not to scare people away but to simply note that the 26.2 running route cuts across several different types of neighborhoods in Baltimore, from the upscale waterfront to places hit hard by drugs and crime. It wasn't meant to scare runners away but to show something that everyone, including event planners, took into account when designing the course -- crime. I thought it was an important reminder to people that we shouldn't sweep our problems away by not talking about them. Thousands of runners ran by delapidated rowhouses, corners that on other days are open air drug markets, and within a block of where 12 people got shot at a cookout in July.

I would agree with my critics if this was the only article on the marathon this newspaper did, but mine was a bit part in a sweeping landscape of coverage, that included front page stories on the "greening" of the event, on a local serving in Iraq duplicating the race in the war-torn country and several other stories about the runners and the day. On the front page of today's newspaper are photos of the race and of a man proposing to his girlfriend. The unfortunate death of a runner is on the inside of the paper (for two television stations, the death was their lead story of the night).

I have to mention that about 1 p.m., a man was shot and wounded in the 700 block of Kenwood Ave. That's one block off the marathon course, near Linwood and Madison streets. It happened shortly after the last runners had rounded that very corner.

Crime is a hard thing to write about. If I write too much or on topics like crime and the marathon, to many I'm a spoilsport for ruining a "great day for Baltimore" even though it's a topic that many people talk about. How many runners come back from the marathon commenting on what East Baltimore looks like? (though many runners said they get their best support from residents lining those streets). At the same time, if I don't write about crime, I get angry e-mails accusing me and the newspaper of helping in a cover-up.

The reader in Little Italy says she has pictures of a blood trail on a street proving what the cops are telling me is wrong. I'll look into it more on Monday. Cops tell me someone was shot coming out of a bar with friends and took a taxi to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries. Police told a reporter that it occurred in the 900 block of Eastern Avenue; it may be the victim walked a few blocks leaving a blood trail.

I won't convince the mayor that I wasn't trying to ruin a great day for the city by plotting crime along the marathon route and I won't convince the Little Italy resident that I'm not complicit in a cover-up of crime.

Here are their letters:

Continue reading "Marathon and crime, mayor responds" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I thought that after writing about crime along the marathon route I'd get a ton of hate mail, but the first two messages, printed in an earlier blog, were supportave. It took until this afternoon for people to get angry

Here are two notes I just received:

I have run the Baltimore Half Marathon many times, and it goes without saying that I, nor any of the thousands of runners who have done the same have ever been crime victims. It's such an absolutely preposterous idea; I wonder if you've ever attended or participated in a road race before?
 
What would you like to see? Would you feel safer if the course ran only through Guilford, Homeland and Roland Park? What would it say to the people in low-income areas if the course were carefully planned to avoid their "crime-ridden streets"? It would send a nice, clear message: we don't trust any of "you people".
 
Of course, that might be just the message some folks want to send. And it's the message I got when I read your article.
 
Richard R. Espey
Towson

How is this story in the public interest? Is the goal of the Sun to
become the New York Post? -jk3

My response:

Continue reading "Marathon and crime, Part 2" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

My article on crime along the marathon route has brought two nice e-mails from readers who made a valid point that I missed -- many people run not despite the route going through some depressed neighborhoods, but because they go through some depressed neighborhoods.

I found these comments refreshing. I know the marathon planners try to avoid the most dangerous pockets of the city but that's next to impossible while planning a 26.2 mile trail. I think people in these neighborhoods need to be include in more such events.

Here are the nice e-mails:

Continue reading "Marathon and crime" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I've been asked to compile a list of the top-10 most notorious crimes in and around Baltimore.

This is not an easy task given the volume. I'm asking for help from readers who may remember crimes that I don't. I've covered cops here since 1994 and I remember many crimes that go back before then, but I could use some assistance.

I've thought of some of the more obvious ones -- the Palczynski hostage drama, the firebombing of the Dawson house, the beheading of a gypsy, the killing of a nun in her convent, the killings of John Thanos, the politician Bromwell and the savings and loan swindler Jeffrey Levitt.

I'm not sure what criteria to use but maybe after some more tips I'll narrow the list a bit. There's violent crime and corruption, criminals who are more known for their antics then for the crimes they committed, and vice versa. There's all sorts of ways to define this.

Some I picked out just for the details -- a convicted drug lord who calmly popped a life-savor as the jury found him guilty and Thanos, who not only wanted to be executed told the family of his victims he wished their children would come back to life so he could kill them again.

So I throw it open to you. I look forward to your responses.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the shooting death of Baltimore Police Officer William J. Martin (at left, in picture from Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 3), who at the age of 37 was shot in the head in an ambush while investigating drug dealing in an apartment building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Other officers returned fire and wounded the suspect, who is serving a life sentence.

On Saturday afternoon, 20 years to the day of Martin's death, a flag will be flown over the White House in Washington in his honor. It will then be escorted up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and will be presented to Martin's eldest son, William J. Martin Jr., at Hogan's Alley bar at 1501 Covington St., at East Fort Avenue.

The public is welcome to attend and should be at the tavern no later than 1:30 p.m. to meet the police escort.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Police shootings
        

I got this question from Paul Marx of Towson:

Dear Peter:
Can you help with this? Saturday night in Towson between approximately 10 and 10:30 four Baltimore County police cars with lights flashing were parked on W. Pennsylvania Ave. near York Road and the entrance to the Towson Commons. I observed this from my apartment on the 23rd floor of the nearby Ridgely Condominium. For most of this time a helicopter circled the site and came close enough to the Ridgely building to cause concern. If a helicopter could have been of use to the police, there was no close spot where it could set down. I concluded that the helicopter served no useful purpose but burned a lot of fuel.

Could you possibly find out whether this helicopter was indeed a police helicopter. Are you familiar with the protocol for the use of helicoptors by the police? What are their main purposes both in the City and the County? Are there recent instances in which police helicopters have been genuinely useful?

I have a question out to Baltimore County police to see if they can tell us why the helicopter was flying over at this location at this time. Above is a picture of the Baltimore police helicopter flying over where two city officers got shot in 2007 at Orleans and Port streets. The photo was taken By the Baltimore Sun's Glen Fawcett).

I'm not sure about patrol hours in the county, but in the city, Foxtrot, as the helicopter is called, is up almost 24 hours a day. And just like patrol cars, the chopper "patrols" the city. So just because it's pilot is hovering over a street doesn't mean something horrific is happening -- the pilot could be checking a routine car stop to make sure everyone is OK, or looking for suspects in a robbery or tracking a stolen car. Or something just caught the obverser's eye and he wants to check it out more.

At night, they use their spotlights to help cops light up the streets. In this particular case, it's hard to know if the copter was trying to set down or get closer to whatever was happening on the ground.

Hopefully Baltimore County police get back to me with a specific answer.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Today's story that a youth woker at a Baltimore County detention facility helped a 17-year-old sex offender escape, then had sex with him before they got arrested, reminded me of a similar case a decade ago.

Only worse.

In 1999, a convicted armed robber named Bryon Lester Smoot and convicted murderer Gegory Lee Lawrence escaped from the Maryland Correctional Institution in Jessup (cops had no idea somoene had scaled a fence until a young boy spotted the men running through the woods).

Police at the time said Elizabeth L. Feil picked the inmates up in her car. Feil just happened to be a counselor at the Patuxent Institution who met Smoot during her rounds. She had gotten fired in 1998 for inappropriate contact with inmates, but for some reason wasn't barred from visiting prisoners. She helped both inmates develop an elaborate escape plan, provided transportation and had clothes and food waiting for them on the outside.

They picked a day when visitors were not allowed and a guard tower was thus unstaffed. All were quickly caught; Lawrence was serving a life sentence for shooting and robbing a man in 1978 in North Baltimore; Smoot was serving 29 years for 11 armed robberies in Anne Arundel County.

In 1999, Feil pleaded guilty to a single count of being an accessory after the fact and served six months of jail time.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Today's paper is full of depressing crime news -- a portrait of a post-doctoral fellow as a drug addict, more news about the mayor's pending trial on corruption charges, a report that the teen suspects in the dog burning case may have gang ties, another city cop suspended, two charged with killing their landlord in Baltimore County, a community leader's battle to get a rec center reopened in a crime-infested neighborhood, a shooting in a strip club and a roundup of other mayhem.

I spent most of my day on Wednesday researching the University of Maryland School of Medicine researcher who died after apparently injecting herself with buprenorphine. The 29-year-old and her boyfriend, also doing post-doctoral work at the downtown school, used drugs including morphine and marijuana for years, according to police.

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.

Carrie's mother, who I reached by cell phone, talked openly about her daughter's apparent addiction, which she only found out about with a call from a Baltimore police officer telling her Carrie was dead. "These are two brilliant poeple who made a stupid error in judgment," she told me.

In court papers, McCracken told police he thought the couple could handle the drugs. Dr. Donald Janisky at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, summed it up best: "Anybody who handles drugs think they know how to control it." We wonder how two gifted people who studied drug addiction could wind up addicts themselves; it appears they thought that because they were smart enough to understand how drugs effect people's brains that they could get high responsibly.

It appears to have backfired on this couple; Carrie is dead and her boyfriend's career might be over. He faces several criminal charges in Baltimore and the feds are looking into the drug purchases overseas.

The rest of the news needs no further commentary -- click on the above links to read stories on the rest of the crime. The biggest mystery is why Baltimore's police commissioner suspended Maj. Roger Bergeron, the commander of the Southeastern District. Officials with the police union and on the City Council say they have no idea what might have happened.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

With all the talk of holding bars more responsible for the actions of thier patrons, and the police commissioner going around with padlocks, I got this interesting e-mail from a Jason Marhall of Jacksonville, Fla.

He recounts his experience at Fells Point bar after a wedding. It's complicated, and mistakes city police for sheriffs, but I found myself siding for him, then for the bar, and back again. I'd be interested to hear what you think:

Continue reading "Bar fight" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (41)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The altercation between Baltimore Police Officer Salvatore Rivieri and the skateboarding teen, Eric Bush, at the Inner Harbor two summers ago continues to spark debate. The news here is that a judge threw out Eric's lawsuit saying he filed too late.

We also learned that Rivieri faces three departmental charges -- using a discourtesy and excessive and unnecessary force. He's awaiting word on his punishment and could then challenge the ruling at a departmental trial board.

The views on his actions (the video is below) are still viewed in the extreme, which is what happens when attorneys get involved. I wrote an update on the case in Sunday's paper.

Here are some viewpoints I got over the weekend:

Amazing. ... I'm the daughter of a retired police officer as well as a mom of a son that skateboards. This officer had NOTHING better to do then to harras these young boys.  Most of the kids that skateboard (that I know) are good if not great kids. They are at an age where they have found skateboarding and it keeps them out of trouble.  This officer should be sent to the worst part of Baltimore City in order to FIGHT REAL CRIMES like drugs, murders, muggings, etc. 

I do not believe this you man was a "threat" to the officer. Obviously, this officer has never been threaten  in a real crime. I find it sad that this young man's mom filed the charges too late. ... I would have LOVED to have seen this officer pay the price for harassing this young man.  The things that came out of this officer's mouth and his obvious anger was TOTALLY uncalled for. 

Why in the world would this officer have displayed SUCH anger and verbal abuse to a 14 year old kid?

From another reader:

In the past my son has also skateboarded in the inner harbor. For the most part the police understand kids will be kids and as long as they are not bothering anyone they leave them alone.
I would guess this officer needed to show how important he was and knew he couldn't get away with his gestapo tactics with an adult. It's a shame one bad cop spoils it for all the other good ones.

And from Rosalind Heid:

Get a grip Baltimore City - you need to put your officers in the path of real crime; not some petty offense where these young men are, heaven forbid, skateboarding! What kind of a city is Baltimore? Will citizens just sit on their hands and watch a police officer and his family destroyed and say nothing?  How can Officer Salvatore Rivieri pay $1 million if Eric Bush and his mom win their lawsuit?

I am appalled the Bush family would pursue this flimsy case – but as they say, “follow the money.”  I live in the Inner Harbor and have seen the damage skateboarders do.  I have also been threatened and intimidated by them when I had “the nerve” to ask that they desist from destroying the marble steps of the Columbus statue near where I live. Many pedestrians also have had dangerous encounters with skateboarders since public safety is not their concern.

As a tax-paying resident of the city, it sickens me to think of the money this worthless case is costing in terms of court time and defense attorney fees.  And let’s not forget what it must be doing to police morale! If Eric Bush and his mom win their case, I’ll be ashamed to call myself a Baltimorean.

She added in a separate e-mail: I think you owe it to your readers just how much this case is costing taxpayers in terms of legal fees and court time. How is officer Rivieri paying his attorneys? Police officers don't make all that much money and the cost must be staggering. Or is the police union handling it. Since the case is against Officer Rivieri personally, is his union responsible or is the Police Department? You say there are "hundreds of pages of letter and legal motions with lawyers bickering...." this costs money. Also, is there a "discovery process" involved that would allow the complainants access to Rivieri's personnel file. Face it, Eric Bush and his mom are just "dialing for dollars" - in millions. I respect the police and think it is obscene the citizens of Baltimore are mute about this waste of money and damage to a police officer's livelihood. I circulated a petition here in the Inner Harbor and collected many signatures in support of Officer Rivieri. I never met the man but everyone who knew him said he was a "great cop." It sickens me to see the contempt being shown him now.

Here's the YouTube video:

Continue reading "Skateboarder versus cop" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I'll be doing another radio gig this afternoon -- an hour on crime with Anthony McCarthy on WEAA-Radio, 88.9 FM., from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

I'll be talking about crimes of the day -- from the sword killing at Hopkins to Inner Harbor crime to bars in Mount Vernon.

I look foward to hearing from you.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Not the best timing.

A spate of weekend shootings and a third of the Baltimore Police Department's patrol cars sputtered to a stop after mistakenly getting fed diesel. Playing off the mayor's desire to give city workers unpaid leave to fill a hole in the budget, one cop told me, "They've furloughed the cars."

Patrol cars were being fixed Monday and last night but it's safe to say this could cost the city thousands in overtime and other costs (at left, a pump as a crime scene at the Fallsway station in a photo by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor). Just a mistake the city didn't need. Cops have about 1,200 vehicles in their fleet and at least 70 went down because of this mistake. Most were marked patrol cars, the type used to keep neighborhood safe.

Coming soon in the newspaper, I'll take a look at nonfatal shootings in the city, which have dropped about 25 percent since last year and more than 60 percent over the past decade. Even with homicides going up a bit this year over last, city police say the years-long trend bodes well and shows that violence is ebbing.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has sent a letter to the city's police commissioner urging him to start padlock proceedings against Suite Ultralounge, the club in the basement of the Belvedere Hotel that has been linked to violence.

Fights and a shooting outside the Mid-Town club led to a summer-long debate over downtown crime and prompted the liquor board to revoke its license. The club owners appealed and in August Circuit Court Judge Kaye Allison ruled that the board acted inproperly when it pulled the license.

The liquor board is now drafting new rules and policies to close the club in the coming months. In the meantime, Rawlings-Blake and two other councilman are urging Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III to use the padlock law. City police have used the nuisance law to shut down a liquor store and force owners of other establishments to improve their security.

I have a call into police to see if they're considering the request. Here is the letter sent to Bealefeld:

Continue reading "City council president urges police padlock Suite Ultralounge" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I enjoyed chatting with some of you on Wednesday during the live chat. Some of the questions were quite compelling and are ones reporters like myself have long struggled to answer. All of the questions were interesting.

I couldn't get to all of them but I'll try to respond to a few more in this space.

One reader asked if I think tasers should be banned in Baltimore (the Baltimore County Council voted to ban them effective Sept. 21). I think this will come down to the same argument over guns and other weapons, with some saying people should be able to defend themselves and others saying tasers are lethal and should be prohibited. I'm not going to express my opinion on this one. City police carry them and in many jurisdictions around Maryland and elswhere suspects have been killed during their use.

Several people asked me about budget cuts and how they will effect crime. One specifically wanted to know if the city police department's technolgy department will face cuts. I know every department in the city is being forced to cut back and that means less services both to the citizens and to the workers. Police use computer crime tracking software and are giving cops BlackBerrys, and crime mapping has become an integral part of the crime fighting strategy both in how police are deployed and how commanders are held accountable, so I would guess that the technology section is one the police commissioner has to preserve.

A question I can't immediately answer, but one worth exploring, is comparing the Baltimore Police Department's budgt to that of other cities, I presume the reader meant of comparible size? The Baltimore Police Department's budget for fiscal 2009 is about $351.2 million.

Someone asked about the Police Department putting information such as shootings on Facebook. I'm all for any additional information thhe police or any other governmental agency want to provide citizens. It's update, useful info that people should know. The department is trying various things to spread the word about what their cops are doing (they also post big arrests and updates in major crimes). The trouble is that they define what to distribute. Earlier this summer when an unruly mob took over the Inner Harbor and two people were stabbed, there wasn't a word on Twitter or Facebook (and it took us in the media more than a day to pin it down). The rational: it was a nonfatal stabbing and didn't meat the criteria for Twitter or Facebook. I argued that the crime was a near riot at the harbor in which two people were stabbed, and not putting it up opened the police up to accusations it was trying to cover up downtown crime. I say put it all up.

Two readers asked about gangs and crime in Station North. Yes, the organized, West Coast Crips and Bloods types, are relatively knew to Baltimore but are here. But some tags that you might see around the city aren't necessarily the real thing. They could be copycats, groups that want to be affiliated with the gangs but aren't, or just random grafitti. Police have experts in their gang units that can tell the difference, and if you see some around, ask a cop or call your district station and let them know about it. As to crime in Station North, sure, anytime crime hits a neighborhood, whether its already established or up and coming, it hurts. The city is trying to take back some parts of town and that goes hand in hand with crime fighting. People will come to visit and live in a nice neighborhood full of restaurants, shops and art stores. They won't come if there's violence, but criminals won't set up shop in places that won't tolerate them -- such as neighborhoods with clean streets, regular police patrols etc...

Two other quick tid-bits. Someone asked about whether garbage trucks can go the wrong way down one way streets. I have a call into public works but I doubt they are exempted from the traffic laws, though I also doubt there's a cop in the city who write them a ticket. They drive big trucks down our narrow, car congested streets and alleys, and if driving the wrong way down some of them helps them pick up our trash quickly and efficiently, I'm all for it.

And lastly, many people keep asking whether the Johns Hopkins student will be charged for killing an intruder with a samurai sword. The answer is I just don't know. It's way too early and not up to police. They need to finish collecting evidence, make sure the students' statement makes sense and matches the evidence collected from the scene. Does the students' version match with his earlier statements? Lots of things need to happen. My colleague Justin Fenton wrote a follow up story in today's newspaper that might shed some more light on this topic.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I'll be doing a live chat on police and crime issues starting at noon today. I'll entertain just about any question you have, and with the violence this week that includes a Hopkins student killing an intruder with a samurai sword, we have a lot to talk about.

To participate in the chat, click here.

With such a busy schedule, I don't often get enough time to chat with readers, so I look forward to meeting all of you.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The Johns Hopkins student who apparently fought back against an intruder on Tuesday used a unique weapon to kill -- a samurai sword.

But looking back through Baltimore Sun clips I found that the samurai sword or weapons that resemble a samurai sword has been used many times before in our area (though I have to say, this appears to be the first samurai sword killing in Baltimore City in at least three years. City police list "zero" under sword killings in their year-end homicide statistical survey.).

Here's a website with a history of the samural sword that looked interesting.

I only had to go back to March of this year to find the first mention of a samurai sword. A California gang member was sent to Baltimore to separate real Bloods members from fake Bloods members, and police said he tortured a 19-year-old man, smashed him with a sledgehammer, cut him with a box cutter and stabbed him with a samurai sword. He then set the body on fire. The man's crime against the gang: he refused to send money to a gang member in prison. The victim died and the gang member was convicted of murder.

In 2003, an Edgewood man was accused of attacking his girlfriend in their home using a "samurai-style sword" and then leading Maryland State Police troopers on a 60-mph chase.

In 2000, police in Anne Arundel County shot a woman armed with a knife who was fighting with her husband who had a samurai sword.

In 1993, a fistfight at a party in Baltimore County ended with a 25-year-old man dead on a living room floor -- nearly decapitated by a samurai sword.

And in 1991, two men were fatally stabbed in Baltimore County after a fight in which one of the combatants was armed with a samurai-style sword.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

You can always tell when the rank and file cops are battling City Hall. Not an opportunity is wasted. A city police officer shot a man who he said tried to rob him at gunpoint outside his city home and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 union immediately jumps on the mayor.

The president, Robert Cherry, says this proves lots of cops live in the Baltimoe and Mayor Shelia Dixon should be more supportative and stop complaining that so many cops reside outside the city limits. I'm not sure she complains but she does express her opinion that she wishes more lived in Baltimore, as has have mayors before her.

More troubling for me is that police, citing their new policy that is now hardly new anymore but has been under review for about nine months, won't release the name of the officer to the public. It's difficult to assess the full story without all the facts. This is the 11th shooting of a civilian by a police officer this year; there were 20 in all of 2008 and 33 in 2007.

What I think is happening behind the scenes is a fight over budget cuts. Police are struggling to slice more out of their budget and keep crime initiatives going. At the same time, the command staff is going on a retreat costing $11,000 (it's Leakin Park, not Hawaii), but it has raised some questions.

And now I'm hearing from The Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, that police are being forced to give up planned raises to deputy majors and majors, something that was a long time coming in an effort to make command positions more desirable. Commanders don’t receive overtime, so in addition to being on the chopping block and non-unionized, they were making less than people ranked below them. The idea was to bump up deputy major pay through a stipend, and then as a result were to raise majors as well.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said that is being shelved for the time being as they sort through the budget mess. Also, police are going to significantly scale back non-operational overtime, including public affairs and legal.

I'm not sure the budget cuts and the new swipe at City Hall are linked, but the two have historically gone together. Here is Cherry's statement:

Continue reading "Officer robbed, shoots suspect" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The theft of Cal Ripken Jr.'s No. 8 statue from Camden Yards (crime scene at left in photo by Sun photograher Amy Davis) reminds me other strange things people have pilfered over the years in Baltimore. I'd love to see a Top 10 list. Here's a few to get us started:

In 1995, someone got away with a one-of-a-kind baseball from Babe Ruth Museum that had been signed by 22 members of the 1934 American League All Star team, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Fox. The "Matchless Ball" was returned as mysteriously as it disappeared.

In 1997, someone made off with 300-pound solid brass doors to the city's downtown Circuit Courthouse.

In 2005, someone stole the large fiberglass crab statue from a sidewalk in front of Eddie's grocery store in Roland Park. It had been wearing a chefs jacket and holiding tongs and a whisk in its claws.

These are just a few cases I can remember. Now we've got one more to the list -- the stolen No. 8 from the plaza in front of the main entrance to the baseball stadium near Eutaw Street. I just got back from the scene and spoke to a few tourists from Cleveland waiting for a tour. They couldn't believe someone from Baltimore would pull off such a theft from the Orioles.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

There's already more than 450 police surveillance cameras in Baltimore. Add hundreds more from private companies, some of which link in to the police Citiwatch Center, and you're pretty much under watch just about anywhere.

Now you can't even escape to the corner bar.

At least if Shirley's Honey Hole on East Oliver Street is where you go.

City lawyers and cops crafted a unique plea deal for the bar owner to avoid getting padlocked under the city's newly enforced nuisance law -- she closes for the month of October, hires a security guard and installs a camera that gives city cops a live video feed. Plenty of businesses have surveillance cameras, but this one is inside, hooked up to the government.

That's a key difference and it's perfectly legal because the owner consented. But a  key question, I think, is how much consent did the owner Shirley Barner really give if she accepted the terms as part of a plea deal to save her business? And what's stopping the city from making cameras-linked-to cops a part of other plea deals with other problem bars? And why stop there. Make it a condition for a liquor license, or zoning improvements, or just about anything else?

If the corner bar is no longer a sanctuary, what is?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for this new city campaign holding bar owners responsible, even outside their front doors. Some bars attract customers who don't deal drugs, who don't scream as they walk home at 2 in the morning, who don't overturn flower pots for the fun it, who don't attract police cars every night. Bar owners know who the troublemakers are and they could take a stand on behalf of their neighbors to tell patrons who disrupt the surroundings by yelling or urinating on peoples' front steps that they're barred from the establishment until their behavior changes.

Just be good neighbors.

I understand that in many parts of this city, where drug dealers run the streets, it's difficult if not impossible for owners to stop the violence, and we don't them to be cops. Even calling 911 can risk death. But try to be responsible and as Eastern District Police Maj. Melvin Russell explained on Tuesday at the Honey Hole hearing, "help us to get the bad guys out."

It will be interesting in March when attorney Peter A. Prevas challenges the constitutionality of the padlock law in Maryland's second highest court, the Court of Special Appeals. He represents the very first extablishment to be padlocked,  the Linden Lounge, which remained closed for months until its owner agreed to make security improvements and was allowed to reopen just before it's year-long ban ended.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

After the all the controversy over state Del. Jon S. Cardin using a police boat and cops into stage a fake raid for an elaborate marriage proposal, here's how to properly use a police helicopter for such an event, as first reported in today's Washington Post:

Take your hopefully future bride-to-be hiking (as this man did in Montgomery County along the Billy Goat Trail in Great Falls), propose, get a yes, continue hiking and watch your fiance of a few minutes fall off a cliff. The U.S. Park Police had to fly over the area to rescue the woman, who apparently is now recovering.

On the Cardin front, this story is turning into a text-book example of how to not make a story go away, both from the police and the political perspective. The cops had the upper hand at first, playing this off as low-level officers who accepted an inappropriate request under pressure from a state delegate. They simply used bad judgment.

It was Cardin to kept the story going by at first refusing to be interviewed and releasing a vague statement that left people wondering whether it was he or his friend who actually set up the whole misguided adventure. Then the city added to the confusion by sending Cardin a bill for $300, which many felt way too low, and refused to make public either the bill or how the in-house accountants arrived at the figure. Then the cops said they woudn't under any circumstances divulge who owned the boat.

Cardin is remaining mum and evasive (he did send a letter to the editor at the Baltimore Sun, paid the $300 and threw in another $1,000 donation to the Police Department's horse unit), meaning when the city's police commissioner says during a radio interview that it was Cardin who asked the cops for help with the proposal, that small tidbit became news, and another headline on a story that should've have disappeared by now.

Is it any wonder that in a Baltimore Sun Internet poll, most people don't think Cardin has made appropriate amends. Now it looks like both Cardin and the cops have something to hide.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The court documents just filed in the arrest of a Baltimore police officer accused of stealing money from a drug dealer (who turned out to be an undercover detective) provide a detailed account of the case.

Authorities say the officer was targeted because of complaints and moved from a drug task force working Pennsylvania Avenue to the Northwest Police District. There, he was put in charge of training a rookie cop (done, police tell me, to avoid tipping the officer that he was under suspicion). The rookie is not in any trouble.

Members of the department's Internal affairs Integrity Unit set up the sting for Thursday night in the 3900 block of Carlisle Ave., in an area normally devoid of drug dealers. At 9:45 p.m., an undercover officer parked a green Cadillac at Carlisle and Mt. Holley Street while another officer called 911 and described a suspicious green vehicle driving around the block, supposedly looking to buy drugs.

At 9:48 p.m., a dispatcher sent Officer Michael Sylvester (in picture) to the call and told him a person was sitting in the Cadillac for 15 minutes and "acting strange." At 9:50 p.m., court documents say Sylvester pulled up beside the vehicle and shouted, "What are you doing here?" The undercover officer answered, "I'm waiting for my home boy to come meet me."

The court documents say Sylvester ordered the driver to turn off his ignition, turn over his license, get out of the car and sit on the curb. The man gave Sylvester permission to search the car and he emptied his pockets onto the front seat of the car. The charging papers say Sylvester conducted the search alone. After the search, court documents say Sylvester told the driver he was free to go and drove off.

Police say that the uncover officer had $259 in marked bills in his pants pocket and an additional $135 in marked bills in the arm rest of the Cadillac. After Sylvester and the training officer left, the undercover says in court documents that $50 was missing from the money that was in his pocket and $20 was missing from the money that had been in the car.

Undercover police officers followed Sylvester through the remainder of his shift, which ended at 11 p.m. They stopped Sylvester in the parking lot of the Northwestern District after he had changed into civilian clothes and was about to get into his personal vehicle. A lieutenant escorted the officer to an office while detectives searched his locker and reported, according to the charging documents, finding three blue zip lock bags containing suspected cocaine in the breast pocket of his uniform.

Police say Sylvester, 29, is being charged with theft and drug possession.

Here are the charging documents:

Continue reading "Details emerge in cop bust" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Patrol officers have long complained they're short-staffed, so now Baltimore's police commissioner is giving them a another cop in their pocket.

BlackBerrys armed with an application called PocketCop that allows them to quickly search for outstanding arrests warrants, pull up mug shots and arrest histories. It could replace computers in police cars (an endeavor that in the city has historically failed. Most officers don't have computers in cars or the ones they do have don't work). At left, Sgt. Shawn Edwards uses the device during a demonstration in a photo taken by the AP.

I would love to hear back from police officers who are or who are going to use this.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III says this could help get cops out of their patrol cars and into the community, now that they're taking their work stations with them. But this device also allows the bosses to do something else -- using GPS, they can track the locations of officers, and already have used it during a test phase in the Western District to see whether officers were properly deployed when a person got shot.

I can see defense attorneys drooling!

Already, the Baltimore Police Department's Facebook page is lighting up with comments from the community and cops. Any new technology should help city police, who have long lagged behind their suburban counterparts who have computers in cars, direct access to the same screens that 911 dispatchers have (a patrol officer in Anne Arundel County can watch as a 911 operator types in an emergency call and can scroll through the text to get absorb all the information).

The department is using $3.5 million in federal stimulus money to pay for this for 2,000 patrol officers; it's not clear how they will pay next year.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime, Top brass
        

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.

But in this case, it might be enough to send an alleged drug lord, Terrell Allen, to prison for life, following his conviction in federal court on Tuesday. All for having 27 rounds ammunition in a Winchester box.

The tale starts back in 2008 when two Blackwell brothers were kidnapped and then mysteriously returned without police filing any charges. Cops vowed an investigation into two feuding drug gangs but nothing much happened, except for a series of retaliatory shootings across the city and a detailed account of how the Blackwells paid a $500,000 ransom.

Earlier this year, the Blackwell's were targeted at a cookout on Ashland Avenue in a shooting that left a dozen people injured, including the alleged leader of the Blackwell clan. That was part of a night in which 18 people were shot on the Eastside (see map above), and the violence bought renewed attention to the Blackwell-Allen feud. The city's police commissioner and mayor criticized the seemingly slow pace of the investigation after the kidnappings.

In their investigation, federal authorities had searched Allen's house after he got shot in May 2008 in front of the family's appliance store on Greenmount Avenue near East North Avenue. Over the years, Allen has been convicted for manslaughter and drugs and has escaped many other arrests, including a charge of murder.

The irnony in the drug world is that he becomes a victim and gets busted anyway. Though he faces life in prison, Baltimore Sun reporter Tricia Bishop quotes his attorney saying he's hoping for fewer than nine years.

It's too bad that cops couldn't get more on these two gangs that police say is responsible for so much violence, and going after Allen for ammunition found after he had been shot more than a year ago, while a worthwhile tool to get him off the streets, even if only for nine years, unfortunately shows shortcomings in an investigation promised more than a year ago.

Now, its seems police are paying renewed attention to the gangs. Last week, police arrested the alleged leader of the Blackwell group, Stephen J.R. Blackwell, and charged with causing a disturbance linked to police surveillance of him.

Here is the federal case against Allen from court documents filed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives: 

Continue reading "Alleged drug kingpin goes down -- for bullets" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A new report from the Baltimore Health Department reaches some interesting but not necessarily startling conclusions. Like adult susects and victims, in which both groups typically have dealings with the criminal justice system, children too live in both worlds.

Looking at past criminal histories, problems with truancy and in school, researchers found the youngest of our victims and suspects to be virtually indistinguishable:

Among the findings, youth who later become victims and perpetrators of violence in Baltimore City begin to show signs of concern to child serving agencies within a year of entering Kindergarten. Among youth with reports to the Department of Social Services for allegations of abuse or neglect (48%), the average age of first involvement was 6.6 years. Academic records point to truancy and suspensions, both with an age of first occurrence around age 13 years (92% of youth with an available school record had a history of chronic truancy and 62% had a history of suspension or expulsion.). The average age of first referral to the Department of Juvenile Services was 13.6 years (73%).

Here is a link to the entire report.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Editor's note: The Web site and Twitter accounts referenced by this post were not written by Mayor Sheila Dixon or her staff. Instead, they were produced by a British prankster. A fuller explanation is available here. The Sun regrets the error.

Mayor Sheila Dixon has launched her Twitter page and among her very first tweets is link to a defense of Baltimore following a disparaging statement from a British politician who compared his city of Manchester to that of The Wire.

He made his statements after riding with police there and noting that the city had 35 murders last year, none of which were committed with a gun and was reported by the Machnester Evening News. The city apparently is struggling with gang issues. He said, "It’s the world of the drama series The Wire."

To which Dixon responded:

Fellow citizens

This week I was alerted to a speech made by a Member of the British Parliament, a Mr Chris Grayling, who suggested his country should fear becoming like our city of Baltimore as portrayed in the HBO series, The Wire. We all watched The Wire and while it was sometimes a heart-breaking reflection of reality, it was in the main, merely entertaining fiction.

The television show failed to reflect the best we have in this city, our sense of community, our hospitality and our proud history and culture. To present a television show as the real Baltimore is to perpetuate a fiction that dishonours our city. It is as pointless as boasting that Baltimore has a per capita homicide rate a fraction of that in the popular UK television show Midsomer Murders.

The Baltimore Police Department is working hard to protect the people of this city and it should be remembered that The Wire was just a television show. As this video shows, there is so much more to Baltimore than The Wire.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

You got to figure robbing a store called Killer Trash can lead to nothing but trouble.

And robbing it three times can lead to real trouble.

The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton takes readers today through a crime spree in which police say one robber hit 17 shops in downtown, Mount Vernon and Fells Point. At one, Killer Trash in Fells Point, a clerk's boyfriend beat him with a baseball bat. That was after police said he had robbed it for the third time.

At a place called Tuxedo Zone, the owner and former city cop said the suspect tried on pants before holding him up, and then police said the man robbed a Lutheran Mission that gives mosts of its stuff away to anyone who asks.

"It's over," Fenton reports detectives telling the man he was finally arrested.

"Thank God," a police spokesman said 39-year-old Mark Lomax answered.

Charges are pending against the suspect, who of course has a long criminal record. Of note, Justin writes, is his robbery of a Subway shop on North Charles Street in 2005. He hit it three times in eight days, and his attorney at the time tried to argue to a jury that his client had to be innocent because what person in his right robs the same place so many times in such a short period?

The jury didn't buy it and a judge put him away for 21 years. But his conviction was overturned on appeal -- a prosecutor had mentioned during opening statements that the defenant had refused to talk with police after his arrest, which is something he is of course allowed to do without it having an adverse effect on his case.

But when Lomax returned to court and got pleaded guilty, a different judge sentenced him to 15 years and suspended all but five. Judge John Addison Howard then made the sentence retroactive to 2005, and Lomax was set free. The judge had accepted a plea deal worked out between prosecutors and Lomax's attorney.

That was June.

Police said the latest robbery spree started a few weeks later.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

In Baltimore, victims and suspects are often interchangeable, it just depends on the day.

That brings us to Stephen "J.R." Blackwell Jr., who police says leads a drug gang in the city and whose brothers were abducted by a rival group from their Catonsville home last year. After a police search with little help from the victim's family, the brothers were mysteriously returned through the help of an attorney. No charges were filed, but court documents later revealed a $500,000 ranson was paid.

That set off what police describe as a wave of retaliatory killings that remain unsolved. The Blackwell family was targeted at a cookout on July 26 in which a dozen people were shot, including the elder Blackwell. More shooting occurred that night, bringing the Eastside total to 18, some of which were related to the cookout attack.

It's unclear whether Blackwell was the intended target back in July; it's possible the gunmen were looking for another man who they had tried to kill a week earlier, instead killing Jerrod Reed, a 16-year-old bystander who had nothing to do with the feud.

Now, as police continue to hunt for suspects in one of the worst shootings in the city in recent memory, the cops are paying a lot of attention to Blackwell, who until Monday had a clean criminal record. As The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton reports, a cop approached him Monday night and according to court records, he became "loud and belligerent" and yelled "[Expletive] you all. I'm going to make it very hard on the police around here."

The cop arrested Blackwell, who was quickly released back onto the street on his own recognizance and has a court date scheduled Oct. 9.

This reaction is hardly surprising. Blackwell wasn't very cooperative while recovering from his gunshot wound at Johns Hopkins Hospital, reportedly refusing to tell police detectives who might have shot him.

If he indeed is going to make things difficult for police, it's only going to make it more difficult for all of us, especially the residents of East Baltimore.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A British politician spent a night with cops in Manchester's gang unit and promptly compared what he saw to The Wire, prompting what the Brits call a row over crime and grime. I've already fielded calls from reporters at the BBC and the Manchester Evening News over the issue.

I told them that yes the fictional Wire portrays a very real problem in Baltimore of gangs, drugs and violence. And yes, the show serves as an wake up call for all of to fix the problem instead of complaining about how we're portrayed. We're to blame as much as anyone for letting this culture of violence continue to the point where Baltimore has become, with the help of a TV show, the international symbol for American violence cities.

But at the same time the comparison to Manchester seems a bit of a stretch, and says more about how politicans hype crime than anything about Baltimore. Manchester has a population of about 400,000 and roughly 35 murders a year, compared to the 230 to 250 or so in Baltimore. None of the murders this year have involved guns.

Here's what Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling had to say:

A few weeks ago, I spent one of the most illuminating evenings that I have had since entering politics out with the specialist police team in Manchester's Moss Side that works to tackle the gang issues in the area. Even as someone well aware of the gang problem in our society, it was a shocking and enlightening experience. What was going on there at the time was nothing short of an urban war.

We saw the bullet hole in the window through which the shot had passed. The previous evening the homes of two members of the gang responsible for the shooting had been smashed up by their rivals in an act of revenge. We saw the broken windows and the smashed up doors. It’s the world of the drama series The Wire."

The newspaper then sent me some counter remarks from British Home Secretary Alan Johnson, who accuxed his "Tory shadow of trying to sound 'cool' with 'glib references' to TV shows:

“Chris Grayling should be praising the police for continued reduction in gun-related offences, rather than talking Britain down. The connection between The Wire and Chris Grayling’s grasp on the problems of modern Britain is that they’re both fictional. The serious problems being tackled in our communities will not be diminished by his embarrassing habit of making glib references to television programmes that he thinks will make him sound ’cool’.”

Here are comments from readers of the Manchester Evening News:

Continue reading "British pol compares his city to The Wire" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The comments regarding the arrest on Sunday of Baltimore Ravens rookie Anthony "Tony" Fein continue to pile up, with most of the talk focused on profiling. It's important to remember, though, that Sgt. Joseph Donato (left) approached Fein at an Inner Harbor restaurant becuase a security guard thought the player had a gun, and not because of the way he was dressed.

(Fein told The Sun after Monday night's game that he wouldn't yet comment on the details of the case but that there's another side to the story that would come out. Two other players who were with Fein said essentially the same thing. Backup wide receiver Jayson Foster said: “We already gave our report to other cops. So the story will be coming out soon from our point of view and their point of view. There are two sides to every story.") See the Ravens Insider blog for more on what they had to say.

True, the sergeant in his report did note that it seemed unusual for Fein to be wearing a hooded sweat shirt on a hot day, but that was not the primary reason for the initial stop that led to a confrontation and an arrest charging the player with pushing the police officer. Fein, it turns out, was armed only with a cell phone.

Many have compared this incident to that of the black professor in Cambridge who was arrested in his own home on a disorderly charge after an officer got a call that someone might be breaking into his home. It turns out it was the professor breaking in because he had forgot his key.

The cases are similar in some respects and not similiar in others. In the case involving Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., which led to commentary from President Obama and then beers with the officer and suspect at the White House, Gates was in his own home and the dispute was over whether he had properly proven he was the owner.

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.

Sgt. Donato is coming into the situation after getting a tip from a security guard who thinks he saw one man pass a gun to Fein (at left). The sergeant, believing the man might be armed, approaches the player, who is sitting at a stool at Johnny Rockets, from behind, according to his own report. He notices that Fein is wearing a "loose gray hooded sweatshirt" which "did not seem weather appropriate" and "based on time of year and temperature, could readily be used to conceal [a] handgun."

This is the line people are seizing on to cry profiling. But the sergeant already has probable cause to stop and frisk Fein, based on the account from the security guard (who is, like Fein, African American). The sweat shirt is an added clue for the sergeant but not the reason he is confronting the player.

When a gun is involved, police act first and ask questions later. They want the element of surprise and don't want the suspect to have a chance to go for the weapon. The first thing Donato notices is the silverwear on the counter. To him, that's also a potential weapon, and he orders Fein to stand up "and to keep his hands in sight, for officer safety concerns."

This obviously startles Fein who knows of no reason for being detained, and naturally his first response is to object. Donato writes: "Fein looked over his shoule directly at SGT Donato, made eye contact with SGT Donato , frowned, then turned back around and reached for the silver wear."

It may have been an innocent move, a reaction to being startled by a cop, or just plain misinterpreted. But for an officer who thinks a suspect is armed to even gesture to another weapon prompts a reaction. According to the report, the sergeant orders Donato to get up and again to "keep your hands where I can see them." The officer then says the player pushed him; the player's agent denies this.

That led to a forceful takedown of the player and his arrest in a public restaurant frequented by tourists.

Should the officer have more fully explained why he was detaining Fein, and would that have prompted him to be more cooperative? Maybe, but the officer first wanted to make sure the player wasn't armed and was away from other weapons. Fein was naturally upset and wanted to know why he was being stopped before he consented to the officer's demands. The officer needed to secure him before he expained why he was doing what he was doing.

It's simple to say that Fein should've immediately followed the officer's orders, and had he done so, the matter probably would've been resolved in a matter of minutes and the player could've returned to his food. This is where the mistrust comes of police plays a role. Based on past history, fair or not, African Americans don't trust police enough to believe that if they follow an officer's orders, everything is going to turn out just fine. In Fein's mind, he was being jacked up for no reason, he was angry and he felt he deserved an explanation before he consented to anything, an explanation the officer was not yet prepared to give.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The firestorm over the arrest of a Ravens rookie by a Baltimore police officer continues as readers debate whether this was profiling gone amok or good police work that ended in the arrest of a man who refused to cooperate.

A few thoughts. This isn't "profiling" in its truest since because the police officer was reacting to a complaint by a security guard who thought he saw one man pass a gun to another man. It turned out to be a cell phone.

It should be noted that the Ravens player, Anthony "Tony" Fein, is black; the arresting officer is white; the security guard who initially made the complaint is black. Much is being made of the fact the officer noted in his report that the player was wearing a hooded sweat shirt which raised suspicion because it was a hot day outside, and that such shirts can easily conceal a gun. These are things cops look for to determine whether somone is hiding drugs or guns. If that was the lone criteria for searching the player, then we could better debate the profiling issue. But as police note, it wasn't. The arresting officer was acting on a complaint by a securty guard who saw something (it also should be noted that the player's agent told the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton that his client wears the sweat shirt to cover tattoos to avoid being profiled).

And when cops are dealing with someone who might have a gun, they make sure the person is secured and search him before they tell him why they are taking such action. Maybe the officer could've said, "Sir, we have a report that you might have a gun ..." but they usually don't do that. They confront the person, issue orders and if the person doesn't comply, then they put on handcuffs to ensure everyone is safe.

The arrest of the Ravens player comes days after a double shooting in the very same pavilion
Sunday's arrest occurred, and after the mayor ordered her police to be more aggressive in confronting suspected gang members at the harbor. I've heard Dixon was angry upon visiting the harbor after the shooting and not finding any private security guards, who patrol inside the privately-owned shopping pavilions, and reacted angrily to the owner, General Growth Properties. Dixon knew her comments would spark concern, but she didn't care.

"People might not like it," Dixon said told the Baltimore Sun's Annie Linskey. "Some radicals are going to speak out about it. Our officers are going to have to be more aggressive."

Here is a copy of the police charging document:

Continue reading "Report on Ravens bust; was it profiling?" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 3:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

I first met Hikeen Crampton in April 2001. He was in the Baltimore Police academy, a star student who had been watched over by a veteran cop in the Western District. That cop had first met Hikeen when he was a little boy, who instead of hanging out with drug dealers hung out with the cops.

Officer Steven W. Sturm adoped the little boy and let him wear his had (at left, Sturm photographs Crampton, holding his child, at police graduation, in a photo by The Sun's Amy Davis). When Hikeen graduated from the academy, we ran a picture of him wearing the oversized had as a child and his every own hat as a new city cop. I went along with him on his first shift and watched him as he proudly reclaimed the drug turf that had so upset him as a child.

I lost touch with Hikeen over the years but did note that he made the news at least twice -- once for helping arrest suspected drug dealers who were part of the infamous Stop Snitching video that encouraged the youth to shun police, and later for getting an award for helping Baltimore County police.

But on Friday we got word that Hikeen had been charged with filing a fraudulent insurance claim on a car. He's been suspended and faces termination if convicted. A sad way to end a career that appeared to be one of the great success stories. At left, he makes his first arrest back in 2001. This photo also was taken by Davis.

Here is the article from 2001 on Hikeen:

Continue reading "Good officer in trouble" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

My colleague Justin Fenton got this e-mail from an owner of Charm City Roller Girls about helping the fisherman who was attacked in a hate crime at Fort Armistead Park this week:

Hi, Justin.
 
My name is Tara Gebhardt (aka, Cindy Lop-her). I'm one of the owners of the Charm City Roller Girls, and I'm writing to you in reference to the article you wrote about the beating of Mr. James Privott.
 
This morning as I watching the news, I was yet again disgusted by the local story about Mr. Privott having been beaten by 3 white supremacists while he was packing up from a fishing trip earlier this week. I couldn't help but think, "Man, I wish there was something I could do for him and his wife." Then it hit me - we own/run/play in a roller derby league with a bout happening tomorrow.
 
We have a bout at DuBurns Arena tomorrow night, and it's sure to be sold out (around 1,500 people) because our All-Star team is playing Philly's All-Star team, and we are both top-10 teams in the national landscape. Anyhow... I got on email first thing this morning and got things moving.
 
Tomorrow night we're going to hold a collection for Mr. Privott and donate 5% of our beer profits to him and his family. We're hoping this can help with his medical bills and any legal fees he may have to deal with. Additionally, we'd like to give him and his family season tickets to our remaining games in the 2009 season.

We'd also like to give Mr. Privott a $150 gift certificate for Sports Authority or Dick's, so he can get some new fishing equipment.
 
We want to encourage Mr. Privott to continue his sport (fishing) and show him he has the support of a young community (even though he was beaten by 3 young people). Our girls feel terrible about what happened to him, and we really want to be able to use the draw we have to help him out.
 
My question to you is, can you help us get these items to him??? If not, do you know who could?
 
Thank you for your time!
 
Regards,
 
Tara Gebhardt

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The head of communications for the Baltimore Community Foundation has let me know that people can donate money to the city police Mounted Unit online. He also notes that a contact person I've included in numerous postings is on vacation, so calls to her might be piling up in her voicemail.

Here are some further instructions:

Thanks so much for including the info on how to give on your latest post about the Police Mounted Unit. We have had tons of calls this week from people who say they’ve spent way too much time calling around trying to find out where to send their contribution!

One correction, please. It is not necessary to contact Laurie Crosley – people can send a check as you’ve explained, or they can give online at www.bcf.org/police , which is the online giving page for the Baltimore Police Foundation Fund at BCF.

Poor Laurie is on vacation this week and I’m afraid she’s going to come back to the office and have dozens of phone messages about this!

I appreciate all the attention you’ve given to this story. The response has been tremendous.

Best regards,

Gigi Casey Wirtz
Director of Communications
Baltimore Community Foundation
2 East Read St., Baltimore, MD 21202

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

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, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III unveiled a cornerstone in honor of the Matricciani family.

Led by patriarch Guy Matricciani Sr., now 94 (at left) his son Guy Jr., and cousin Wil (along with son Jay who recently passed away), the family has given money and time to Baltimore Police over the years. Most recently, they helped build a new fence and redid the parking area for the academy, which not only makes it look nice for the new recruits but also gives the surrounding neighborhood a facelift.

The Matricciani's have been longtime supporters of the Signal 13 Foundation, which raises money to help police officers and their families. Bealefeld noted during his opening remarks that the foundation helped with expenses for the family of city Officer Jerome Shaurette, who was shot and wounded in the line of duty in July while handling a domestic abuse call.

Bealefeld said the officer's wife was able to remain by her husband's hospital bed 24 hours and not worry about bills or work. The officer is now out of the hospital and recovering, though the commissioner described the wounds as serious.

Bealefeld said that typically such awards are given "after the person is no longer with us" so he was happy to present Guy Matricciani with the cornerstone and a mounted espantoon, the policeman's nightstick. The commissioner said the cornerstone with the family name on it will "remind the officers who come through there that there are people behind the scenes to believe in what we do."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The Baltimore Sun's court reporter Tricia Bishop reports today that a shooting caught on a police surveillance camera in 2007 has led to a conviction and a sentence of 18 years for the shooter. The victim in this case never came forward, so the video is all prosecutors had.

Police and prosecutors have debated the usefullness of the myraiad of cameras watching over us every day; often the cameras catch part of a crime but everything, and even then the images are sometimes dramatic but not very helpful in court. Rarely do the cameras catch a crime in progress.

Here's the video that got the conviction:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime
        

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).

While the politican was hiding from reporters for contributing the latest embarrassment at city police headquarters, the 9-year-old girl spent her Tuesday running a lemonade stand outside her home, and donating the proceeds to help save the embattled police mounted unit.

The unit is in trouble because of budget cuts and police are seeking private donations to keep the horses trotting on city streets. So far, they've raised a little more than $50,000. Sophia, who wrote me a letter last week that I published, got more than 100 customers and raised about $2,000 (a final tally will be available on Thursday).

Among her customers -- two mounted officers, two horses and the police commissioner. He looked happy in the pictures -- it had to be the highlight of his day that started with a hospital visit to a man beaten in a hate crime, a news conference in which he had to answer questions about Del. Jon S. Cardin's misuse of police resources and about the latest violence at the harbor.

The Southeast Police Community Relations Council is donating some of its proceeds from an upcoming crab feast to the Mounted Unit, and all of the money raised at a bull roast in May are going to the police horses. Here are some details for the crab feast:

Here's how to donate money to the horse unit: Contact Laurie Crosley at the Baltimore Community Foundation for the Police Foundation. Donations can be mailed to her at: Baltimore Community Foundation; 2 E Read St # 9; Baltimore, MD 21202-6903. Checks should be made out to: Baltimore Community Foundation, Police Foundation Fund. The cover letter or check should specify that the funds are to used to support the Mounted Unit. The phone number there is: (410) 332-4171.

Also, there is a move afoot in the City Council to ask police to tap a contingency fund to save the Mounted Unit: 

Continue reading "Lemonade, cops and horses" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

It should come as little surprise that the two young men who were shot on Saturday at the Inner Harbor are not helping cops find the shooters. "We have two young men who to put it mildly are uncooperative in assisting us in who may have shot them," Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said.

Here are the commissioner's comments on the topic.

The victims are suspected gang members shot by other suspected gang members and the violence again is raising questions about safety at the Inner Harbor. We had a respite from crime at the tourist attraction after a spate of stabbing, robberies and beating that started in April, some of which involved gangs.

Bealefeld talked alot about the Harbor today in meeting with reporters at an event in Pimlico, about whether the community should debate new curfew laws whether more police is the answer:

"I think we're making progress, but as saturday's incident illustrates, we have a lot more work to do. ... it is not necessarily and issue about numbers. It is an issue of what are we doing while we're in that space. I don't just need men and women in uniform standing around twirling espantoons. I need men and women who are vigilient, proactive and engaged. I'm not certain that dumping more manpower into this situation is the answer."

Bealefeld also talked about how he wants his officers to confront suspected gang members:

I think inknowing what i know about Saturday night's incident, that perhaps one of the only entres we had to approach these two groups was they're flagging. Cops ought to know a gang banger when they see one. Some of these guys fly very overt signs or signals to do that. And when we see that, whether it's flashing gang signs or something that somoene wears or a bandana or colored beads, we should respond to that and we should engage. It doesn't mean we're going to arrest everyone we see wearing a Cincinnati Reds baseball cap."

Bloods are now wearing the Reds caps and Crips are into Colorado Rockies.

Bealefeld said that "many of these young men don't even know Colorado is a state in the union, let alone know that the Rockies is a baseball team and they're in the National League and they play in a staduim where they hit a ton of home runs. It's a sign taken up all over the country to signify Crips, all over. This isn't brain surgery. They give us clues and we should act on those clues before trouble starts. Thats what I want my cops to do. I want them to go up and say, 'Welcome to the Harbor. Don't act like a jerk here. We want you to have a good time, but leave all this gang stuff at home. Or if you can't, go back home and we'll deal with you there. You don't get to act like a fool here."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

If you or I or anyone else walked into a police station and asked for cops to do a fake raid to help propose to your girlfriend, and then asked for the police helicopter to hover overhead, you'd be laughed out of the building.

Police officers have better things to do. Like fight crime at the Inner Harbor.

Or maybe not.

That's why this story of Baltimore County Delegate Jon S. Cardin getting police help him pop the question to his girlfriend is such a travesty. We give our elected representatives access to power not so they can use it to throw their own parties but to make lives better for us. And time and time again, they find innovative ways to abuse it.

It's not the money -- the cops who "stormed" Cardin's boat and "searched" for contraband, only to come with a box with a ring inside -- were on duty and the financial cost to the taxpayers was probably little. Sure, the chopper is expensive, but it was already up anyway.

The cost is more in the arrogance of power. Cardin now says he'll give back whatever money the city lost. That won't clean the egg off the face of police. How could even think this was OK? He said in a statement -- he refused to be interviewed -- that love blinded him. Arrogance blinded him. It was school-boy childish prank that cost the city police valuable public relations points with the public at a time when their distrust of cops runs high, they are scared of crime and the city is asking them to reach into their thinning wallets to help fund programs.

Two people were shot at the Inner Harbor over the weekend. Eighteen people were shot on a single night in East Baltimore earlier this month. A 5-year-old girl is still fighting for her life after being shot in the head.

And the city police find time to fool around with a state politician.

It's even more disturbing that members of the marine unit participated. These are the same cops who months ago complained that the city was jeopardizing the safety of residents by grounding the boats in winter and spring. Yet here we are at the height of summer and we find out this is how they spend their time.

Cardin should give back to the city what he owes. But that won't make up for proving to residents that their distrust of politicians is not misplaced.

Here's Cardin's full explanation:

Continue reading "Arrogance of power -- city cops pay for pol's marriage proposal" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (47)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Another weekend and more crime at the Inner Harbor.

I thought we had a respite after the early summer stabbings, attacks and large crowds of youths terrorizing the visitors (at left, Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III patrols the downtown area after a spate of crime in June). But Saturday night, after members of a Bloods gang passed members of a Crips gang in the Light Street pavilion, at least one person took out a gun and opened fire. Another shot was fired near an outside ice cream stand.

One reader wrote to me that he was at the Harbor Friday and Saturday nights but didn't seen any police. That's a bit much, even though the heavy contingent assigned to the downtown area earlier this summer has dispersed. The city couldn't keep that going with all the other violence in the city, but now that its no longer at full strength we see what happens.

On Sunday, both the mayor and the police commissioner said they wanted cops to take a tougher stance, even rousting suspected gang members who come downtown. "Some people might not like it," Sheila Dixon told The Sun's Annie Linskey. "Some radicals are going to speak out about it. Our officers are going to have to become more aggressive."

No mayor wants to lose the Inner Harbor to crime on his or her watch.

Here is the mayor's statement from Sunday night (though it pales in comparison to what Dixon told The Sun in the interview:

“I am outraged by the shootings that occurred yesterday evening in the Pratt Street Pavilion.  The Inner Harbor is for everyone.  It is the premier destination for Baltimore’s families and millions of visitors. We will do everything in our power to make sure it stays that way.   
 
We will not tolerate the Inner Harbor being a “hangout” for those who break the law, intimidate, or create a nuisance of any kind.   We have a lot of police deployed in the Inner Harbor. The Commissioner and I will continue to work dilligently and swiftly to improve security.

This incident is yet another reminder of the need for zero tolerance for illegal guns. We must all agree and ensure that if you carry a loaded, illegal gun in Baltimore -- you go to jail.”

Here is what a resident wrote me on Sunday:

Continue reading "Shooting at Inner Harbor" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (58)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Mayor Sheila Dixon issued the challenge a month ago in Carrollton Ridge, when 200 showed for a community walk against crime. They came because a little girl, 5-year-old Raven Wyatt (at left), had been shot on Pulaski Street, and the mayor implored the people to stay involved.

The test came last night.

Only three people from Carrollton Ridge showed -- the community association president, Connie Fowler, and two of her friends. The rest were cops, City Hall reps, reporters and people who lived elsewhere.

Of the 20 people who promised a month ago to help Fowler with her association duties, she told me only one person actually followed through. The community leaders tried to put a good face on a bad situation, but Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld, who came, was clearly disappointed.

"Let's be honest," he said. "What does it take?" He added later, "It should not be a spectator sport to get involved in your community."

It was only June when Raven was shot and now we got all sorts of controversy with an arrest of a junvenile who was on the street despite a long record, issues over whether he was properly monitored by a tracking device, and now a video that shows a gunmen firing at a man he's chasing up the street, a video that ends with little Raven lying alone in the middle of Pulaski Street.

I'll have more on Bealefeld's outrage in Friday's Crime Scene's article in the paper. The commissioner walked for more than an hour, imploring people to help with information or by just talking with people and encouraging them to do better. He asked everyone why they didn't join the walk and got back a steady stream of, "Next time" and "next month."

On one corner, he came upon a couple he thinks was selling marijuana on their front steps, even as the woman's young son sat next to him. Bealefeld lectured but the man laughed and texted on his cell phone rather than pay attention. Around the corner, man shouted into his cell phone, "Clean the corners," and it wasn't a call for people to come out with brooms.

A frustrating evening. For too many residents in Carrollton Ridge, the walk was sadly just a spectator sport.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A fund raising drive to save the Baltimore Police Department's Mounted Unit has brought in $54,000 so far, according to Sheryl Goldstein, who heads the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice.

The department needs about $200,000 and is negotiating with private companies and individuals for either a sponsor or a one-time donation to cover all the expenses. Today I wrote about a 9-year-old girl from Lutherville who is opening a lemonade stand next week to raise money.

Here is information for anyone who wishes to donate:

Continue reading "Money coming in to Police Mounted Unit" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

The woman hit by a stray bullet inside her Cherry Hill home Tuesday night is a community activist and has headed the Cherry Hill Tenant Council for the past five years. She's well known in her community, and when I stopped by this morning, two police cars were parked out front and neighbors slowed as they drove by and waved and made sure she's ok.

"I'm blessed," Shirley Foulks (in photo next to the bullet hole) shouted back, pausing between conversations on the phone, with the officers and with me. A crime lab tech came to the house to photograph a bullet casing found on her walkway.

Shirley had spent most of Tuesday visiting businesses to make sure they will donate back-to-school items for a fair on Saturday at the community center on Spellman Road. It is the kind of work that Shirely does tirelessly for her community.

Jack Baker, the head of the Southern District Police Community Relations Council, sent me this e-mail:

The wonderful lady who was hit is Ms. Shirley Foulks, President of the Cherry Hill Homes Tenant Council. Shirley has worked tirelessly for many years for all of the tenants of Cherry Hill Homes but especially the children. I have worked with Shirley for over five years on safety issues along with my teammates, the Southern District Police officers. I have been blessed to know Shirley, but working with her is an even greater blessing. The woman gives not just her time, but anything she owns, especially her love, to anyone who needs it. Let's all pray for her speedy recovery.

I'll have more on this shooting in Thursday's Crime Scene article.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Two strange bits of crime news in today's newspaper.

First, a woman watching TV in her house in South Baltimore's Cherry Hill is struck by a stray bullet and police in Northwest Baltimore are investigating whether one cop cuffed another cop at a crime scene.

The first item is just plain sad, but not all that unusual. The second is just pitiful, and is yet another distraction for cops trying to prevent bullets from flying into people's homes. It certainly leaves the average citizen wondering what is going on in our city.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Most of the letters I find in my mail slot start with a prison ID number. So it was refreshing to open one today from Sophia Litrenta, a 9-year-old girl who is donating proceeds from her lemonade stand to the Baltimore Police Department's Mounted Unit.

As we've reported, the city cut the budget for the six police horses and it needs at least $150,000 in private donations to make it another year. Police are trying to find a corporate sponsor to pick up the tab, but regular citizens, and now even children, are doing what they can.

The event is Tuesday, Aug. 18, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 8609 Countrybrooke Way, Lutherville, 21093.

Sophia's letter is priceless:

Posted by Peter Hermann at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Catch me this afternoon starting at 1 p.m. on WYPR, where I'll be the guest of Karen Hosler, an old colleague of mine at The Sun who is filling in for Dan Rodricks. You can even listen live on your comupter or tune to 88.1 on your radio dial.

Call 410-662-8780 or 1-866-661-9309 with questions.

I'll be discussing the Baltimore Police Department's horse unit, which is searching for donations to stay afloat, but I'm sure other topics will come up, such as the two gun-toting young men arrested by the city's police commissioner who escaped jail time and crime in general in Baltimore.

I look forward to your calls.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

An important community cop walk is coming up Wednesday in Carrollton Ridge. Lest we forget, this is the neighbhorhood where the 5-year-old was shot and critically wounded, and where hundreds came for a walk to join the mayor and just about every other public official (Gene Sweeney Jr. captures the walk, with Mayor Sheila Dixon chatting with community activist Steve Herlth).

That was the easy one.

Now comes the test. Do the people the mayor and the police commissioner and the longtime community president, Connie Fowler, implored to help out actually show up? Or will this be another example of how we react to crime only to forget and move on a few weeks later.

Community activist Steve Herlth put out this e-mail as a challenge:

Carrollton Ridge, Wednesday, Wednesday, August 12 at 6:30 PM.  Meet up will be at the Recreation Parking lot, S. Pulaski and Ashton Streets.

Now, this Carrollton Ride walk will be an interesting walk, for some of us who participated in the Mega walk last month.  We all know how hard the Carrollton Ride Connie Fowler, The Mayor, the City employee's, the various community Walkers, and our fantastic Southwestern and Southern Officers were in participating in that walk to get the community residents out. Now is their chance to come out and join us in making their community safe and clean. 

All who participated in the last walk threw out the challenge to the community residents.  Many of the residents promised to be there on this Wednesday.  This is where I say, "We must have faith in the community" so let us back that faith up with a little pray that they keep their word.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

In Baltimore, you can already get text messages from cops about crime (so far they're testing this only in Southeast) and you can send text messages with tips on criminals. Now, the Associated Press says a Police Department in Waterloo, Iowa is accepting texts for breaking 911 calls:

An emergency call center in the basement of the county jail in Waterloo, Iowa, became the first in the country to accept text messages sent to "911," starting Wednesday. Call centers around the country are looking at following in its footsteps, as phone calls are now just one of many things phones can do. "I think there's a need to get out front and get this technology available," Black Hawk County police chief Thomas Jennings said.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

All across the Baltimore last night, community groups held events to mark National Night Out. At Easterwood Park and Stadium Place, residents chatted and ate food. Near the Gilmore Homes housing project, rap and R&B acts performed on a big stage as part of an event promoted on radio station 92Q and sponsored by the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice.

But in Highlandtown, one Baltimore Police Commander took National Night Out to new heights, as The Sun's police reporter, Justin Fenton, reports:

More than 100 residents rocked out to a band made up of city police officers, including Southeastern District Maj. Roger Bergeron and his brother, Mark, who is a sergeant in the southern district.

The band, named “Damn Shame,” was making its first public appearance and the event was outside, on the property of the Abbott Memorial Presbyterian Church on Bank Street, so the concert attracted a fair amount of curious cops. They were treated to a full light show, a fog machine and plenty of rock poses. 

“There’s a lot of thugs in the neighborhood, who think these streets are theirs. Well I don’t know about y’all, but we’re not going to take it anymore,” Roger Bergeron yelled before the band launched into Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

The set list for the first half of the show also included Black Crowes’ “Hard to Handle,” ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man,” Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Gimme Three Steps”

Dep. Maj. William Davis was among the spectators. His review? “Not bad.”

Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Readers are expressing sympathy for the Baltimore Police Department's Mounted Unit, which could end its 121-year service at the end of September because of budget cuts. The department is seeking $200,000 in donations, preferably by a company, to keep the unit afloat after next month, when feed runs out (photo at left by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor).

Here is a sampling of comments I got by e-mail:

Shame on Sheila Dixon and the city council for once again making a political pawn of the police's mounted unit. To cut the unit's budget to a level that it cannot survive is a crime! The unit has been representing Baltimore for well over a hundred years, bringing joy to children and adults alike, by being a pleasant surprise to downtown tourists, and in general bringing positive attention to the police department. The city can manage to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars saving a tradition like the Senator Theater, but not a crime fighting police unit?   Something is very wrong with the judgment of those at city hall! I hope ways can be found to continue this wonderful part of what makes Baltimore special. And I will also remember this stupid move by our politicians next time I vote! --- Mary DeWolfe

Dear Mr. Hermann, I read your excellent article in the Sun today (page 1) about the city's possible decision to eliminate the mounted police.  I live in Otterbein and there may be some interest in organizing some support for the mounted police.  Do you have any idea whom we should contact to find out about making a donation? Also do you recommend writing to the City Council about this, or is there some other organization that would be more appropriate? Thank you for any help you might provide in terms of information. --- Victoria Cass

And here's a sampling from the Baltimore Police Department's Facebook page:

Ashly Alexander: What a mistake!They should double the mounted patrol unit not make cutsmounted patrol unit not make cuts! Increasing the unit is a step towards "Greening" the police force!

Ian Hall: Without the mounted unit the 4th of July and New years eve at the harbor will be a lot harder to control and harder to shut down....think it over Sheila!

Ryan Cleckley: Wow sad story. If i had the extra 150G's right now I would totally donate it.

Michael C. Davis: It's a travesty. This is one of the longest running units in the entire country. Let's be known for something else other then being number one in homicides per captia

Elliott M. Robertson: Is there a unique advantage which mounted Police have over, say, patrol car, foot, or bicycle in keeping order or fighting crime?

For anyone who wants to donate, here's how:

Continue reading "Police Mounted Unit getting support" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore Police Officer Traci L. McKissick changed her story on the witness stand and a man accused of trying to wrest away her gun during an altercation that left another man dead goes free.

This is a big deal in and of itself, but it's more important because back in February city police officials tried to withhold her name from the public citing a new policy of not revealing the identities of officers who shoot their weapons. McKissick and another officer who fired during the fight that killed the suspect's 61-year-old uncle, Joseph Forrest (seen above in a picture held by his sister, Greta, in a photo taken by The Sun's Jed Kirschbaum).

Police had the charged Forrest's nephew, also named Joseph Forrest, with stepping on McKissick's hand and trying to take away her gun. One officer shot the elder Forrest in the chest and McKissick unloaded her service weapon into the man's right thigh.

Police initially refused to name the officers, then blacked McKissick's name from a public police report on a previous shooting she had in 1995 when a suspect stole her weapon. The Sun obtained the name anyway and that led us to documents that countered what police had first told us about McKissick's encounter back in 1995 (instead of being dragged by a vehicle, as police told us, the reports showed she jumped into a car and had her gun stolen by the driver).

Now, on Tuesday, prosecutors were forced to drop charges against the younger Forrest because McKissick, who had identified Forrest as the man who stepped on her, testified in court that the person who tried to get her gun was a "mystery man."

That's quite different from a steadfast identification, an identification that helped a judge back in February order the younger Forrest held in jail without bail until his trial.

The policy of not naming cops who shoot is still being reviewed (it's now been six months) and while some identities of officers have been made public, others such as the most recent shooting of a man during a burglary in Northwest Baltimore have not.

I hope this incident with McKissick shows the department how withholding basic information such as identities prompts unnecessary questions and skepticism, and now that the officer in question has changed her story under oath, that should be taken into account as police investigate the fatal shooting of the elder Forrest.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Police shootings
        

Baltimore County native and NBA star Rudy Gay (at left in an AP photo) was in apparently in the city last night, Twittering  to his 19,000-plus followers as he witnessed a robbery, The Sun's Justin Fenton reports

His message: “Just now witnessed a robbery! Only in Baltimore, I need to get out of here!”

Gay was raised and attended school outside the Beltway. He commuted from Essex to the Cecil-Kirk Recreation Center in Northeast Baltimore, and played high school ball for Archbishop Spaulding. He spurned the University of Maryland for UConn and left after a stellar freshman season. He was drafted eighth overall in the 2006 NBA draft and put up 20 points and 6 rebounds per game in his second season. He averaged 18.9 points per game last year for the Memphis Grizzlies.

He hasn’t forgotten his Baltimore roots, returning to the city several times for fellow native Carmelo Anthony’s three-on-three basketball tournament and family day.

We’re not immediately sure which robbery Gay witnessed, but the time stamp on the posts puts it at “about 16 hours ago,” which would be about 10 p.m. Monday. He even posted cell phone pictures of police cars and Foxtrot, the police department helicopter, as it swarmed overhead.

Lucky for Gay, the robber apparently didn’t target the NBA star, who made $2.5 million last year and is seeking a contract extension in the neighborhood of $68 million.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

At her news conference last week after a dozen people had been shot at a party (18 overall on the city's Eastside), Mayor Shelia Dixon clearly had enough. She didn't want to talk about programs, and certainly not stop snitching, and she even got into it on prayer vigils (topic seems appropriate on the eve of National Night Out:

"People hae to be outrage, you know. Standing on a corner and having a candlelight vigil, that's fine and good. But what happens to those families in the midst of what happened? What are they going to do for those children so they don't get exposed? It comes down to personal responsibility. My concern, what are we going to do, how are we going to beef up that effort? What are we going to do if they (gunmen) decide to come over to the west side? I don't want innocent bystanders to be involved. If they want to take it out between themselves, fine and good, but that shouldn't impact our communities."

I mention this because on Monday, Marvin 'Doc' Cheatham, the head of Baltimore's NAACP branch, sent out a plea for a vigil and for men to meet children when they come home from their first day of school this fall. That brought an interesting response from City Councilam James B. Kraft (which follows Mr. Cheatham's request:

Dear Mayor Dixon, President Rawlings Blake & City Council Members:

Yes, we are in a crisis situation as it relates to crime in our community.  We are asking for and seeking out support and leadership from each and every member of the Baltimore City Council.

As you may know we have asked for the faith based community to significantly increase their community involvement.  It has come to our attention that the faith based community has met and has also scheduled a significant meeting.

We are now asking our Baltimore City Council members, along with the Mayor and Faith Based Community to hold a city-wide, simultaneous in each council district.

James, Nicholas, Robert, Bill, ‘Rikki’, Sharon, Belinda, Helen, Agnes, Edward, William, ‘Jack’, Warren and Mary Pat.

The date of August 28th has been selected as it is the Anniversary Date of the 1963 March on Washington.  If each of our council people were to bring together leaders in each of our city council districts we could have a significant impact on Baltimore City.  Churches, Mosques and Synagogues can be asked to adopt at least one elementary school, middle school and high school.  Community groups can be encouraged to significantly increase their activities and parents can be strongly encouraged to support their local school/parent group.  Businesses can be encouraged to financially help as much as they can.

On Monday, August 31, 2009 we are encouraging men of Baltimore to welcome the children back to school, but as a strong precaution we have advised them not to endanger the children by going in.  Just welcome them back.  We will be encouraging school supply drives in the next few days.

The Paul Robeson Institute, headed up by Executive Director Michael Johnson, will be coordinating the training that men will get to proactive deal with crime in our neighborhoods.  ‘The Men In Black’ will be recruiting David Muhammad and Imam Earl El Amin for they are experts in getting men in the communities.

We need every city agency involved in some what to help us make August 28th come to fruition.  Our community is crying-out for leadership as it relates to crime in our neighborhood and we are reaching out to those elected and paid to do such.  Let’s make  August 28th the real beginning of Stopping the Killing and Ending the Violence.

Larry Young, Michael Johnson and I would appreciate from each of you immediately.  We will share with the media what responses we get on Thursday, August 6, 2009.

Here is Mr. Kraft's response:

Continue reading "Prayer vigils and crime" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Neighborhoods
        

Today's story on the possible demise of the Baltimore Police Department's Mounted Unit is generating lots of calls from people who want to donate. Keep in mind, police are seeking corporate sponsors and the lieutenant who heads the unit tried to keep people from sending in their own money during these hard economic times.

That said, here is how to give money:

Laurie Crosley is the main point of contact at the Baltimore Community Foundation for the Police Foundation. Donations can be mailed to her at:

Baltimore Community Foundation
2 E Read St # 9
Baltimore, MD 21202-6903

Checks should be made out to: Baltimore Community Foundation, Police Foundation Fund. The cover letter or check should specify that the funds are to used to support the Mounted Unit. The phone number there is: (410) 332-4171.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Is this really the latest last gasp for the vaunted Baltimore Police Mounted Unit (seen at left in a photo by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor)?

It's been on the chopping block before, cut back and called an unnecessary throwback in the age of modern policing. Now, the unit's budget has been hacked and the horses Blacky, Butch, Barney, Buster, Binx and Bell, could find themselves in somebody elses stables by the end of September.

The money has run out and when the food runs out so does the mounted unit, unless private donations of at least $200,000 can keep it going for at least one more year. The unit is regarded at one of if not the oldest continuously operated police horseback programs in the country, having been formed in 1888.

For a complete history, see W.M. Hackley's history of the Baltimore Police Department, called "Ever on the Watch." He has a 66-page section on the mounted unit.

The Baltimore Sun has reported on the unit for decades, reporting on its history, its officers and various efforts to save the much loved horses from demise. Police love the horses because it gives officers a unique perspective on the street, enables them to clear crowds (such as ones that form downtown on Friday and Saturday nights) and they can't be beat as public relations tool.

Lawmakers spared the unit in 2004, though just barely. In 2000, then Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris, who ias a member of the NYPD was once pulled out of a hostile crowd by a mounted cop, tried to expand the program when he arrived here. He assigned them to some of the busiest drug corridors in the city.

In 1995 (the year The Sun's Algerina Perna took the photo at left), Officer Janis West retired, the first female mounted officer in Baltimore and, based on research by the city cops, she also was the first female mounted officer in the country. She rode a former thoroughbred race horse named Cady. At that time, the unit was being scaled back, from 23 officers to eight. That same year saw the departure of another longtime police rider, Officer Robert J. Petza hung up his spurs after spending 29 years on horseback.

A sad moment came in 1994 when a police horse helping chase a burglarly suspect in East Baltimore hit a park car and died on an East Baltimore street. The horse's body had to be dragged onto a flat-bed truck, the first line-of-duty death of a horse since 1990.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 6:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Baltimore paramedics prematurely pronounced a patient dead over the weekend while at the scene of a police involved shooting in Northwest Baltimore. The Sun's Richard Irwin reports that an investigation is underway by the Baltimore Fire Department (at left, din a photo by The Sun's Glenn Fawcett, detectives stand over a body at a homicide scene in West Baltimore).

This comes just a few months after we heard complaints from homicide detectives that paramedics were following new rules and taking even obviously dead patients to hospitals, marring crime scenes. Detectives like having their scenes untouched, including bodies, so they can learn as much as they can.

This case stems from a shooting by a city officer of a burglarly suspect at a grocery store. Cops say the man lunged at officers with what appeared to a knife but turned out to be a screwdriver. The man was hit in the head and paramedics prounced him dead at the scene and left.

But later, homicide detectives noticed that man either moved or made a sound and called the paramedics back. The man was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma where he remains in critical condition.

Fire commanders are investigating what went wrong. We had heard from cops and paramedics that they are quick to transport at even the slightest sign of life. One paramedic told me that "if we see life, we do something." Even obviously dead patients sometimes get treatment, the paramedic told me, such as when a man has been shot in public and his friends and family are around. The paramedics want to make sure the family sees that everything possible has been done. The paramedic told me that in one case, an elderly woman died in a nursing home and she was instructed to take the victim to the hospital anyway.

"If it was my son up there, I'd want somebody to do something," the paramedic told me. "If they guy is lying on the porch and his relatives and family are all around, I want them to know that I worked him."

Some homicide detectives have complained that bodies are being moved unnecessarily, complicating their efforts at scenes. But Robert Cherry, the president of the police union and a former homicide detective himself, said he hasn't heard any grumbling.

"A lot of our detectives want to spend a little more time at crime scenes looking at it the way it was," Cherry said. "But I can see a paramedic saying, 'I'd rather have Shock Trauma pronounce the person dead.' If there is even the slightest chance of survival, EMS has to do their duty and protect life. Where a body is there or not, we'll still do our jobs."

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

A story I wrote on Thursday about a convicted cop killer who a judge is freeing from prison in two years, reducing his original life plus 15 year sentence, brought an e-mail from a former police officer who was there at the time.

The shooting occurred in 1970 when three members of the Black Panther party opened fired on two officers who were sitting in their patrol car writing a report in West Baltimore.

Skip Panowitz wrote:

I will never forget this night. I was there, albeit after the fact. I was a young, "rookie" officer in the central district. I was leaving home for work on the 12-8 shift when the news flash came on the TV.

Officer Sager worked the post adjacent to mine on the shift before mine.I knew him. It was an eerie night. These officers were doing nothing more than sitting in a patrol car reviewing an incident report. It was a senseless, cold blooded killing, an ambush.

The night was spent looking over your shoulder wondering if you would be the next target. There were no one man patrol units that night-we worked at least in pairs. The suspects, including Johnson, were apprehended later that night.

My fellow officers and I were disappointed in the sentence as we thought that the death penalty was in order for all of them. I wish I had known about the hearing yesterday, as I would have been there to give my support for what it is worth. The young officers of today, and this judge, just don't have a clue. A lot of time has passed in almost 40 years, but that doesn't change the facts: Johnson is still here, and Sager is not, because of the act of Johnson & his associates. A life sentence should mean just that - Life in prison.

Posted by Peter Hermann at 9:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

Check back here at 2 p.m. for a live chat with the Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton, the lead city police reporter who will discuss the outbreak of violence that includes a dozen people shot at a cookout on Sunday.

Justin is one of five reporters who document in today's paper the history of two violent drug gangs that police say are responsible for many killings and shootings over the past year in East and Southeast Baltimore.

His story mentioned an appliance store on North Gay street that federal authories said was linked to the drug groups. One of the owners called Justin this morning and here is what he said:

Continue reading "Live chat on violence" »

Posted by Peter Hermann at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Confronting crime
        

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:

Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's pledge to reclaim 10 drug-infested areas within six months of taking office has been largely fulfilled, police said yesterday, with crime down and fewer people complaining about dealers and addicts. Homicides and shootings also dropped on streets surrounding the designated drug markets, which police say shows they are not simply shuffling the drug trade from one block to another. "The liberation of Baltimore's neighborhoods has begun," O'Malley said yesterday while standing at North Rose Street and Ashland Avenue, ground zero for a band of frustrated residents who have confronted dealers.

Rose and Ashland is two blocks from Lakewood and Ashland, where a gunman opened fire on a backyard cookout and wounded a dozen people, the start of a wave of violence that ran into early Monday. So much for the liberation.

As my colleagues on the crime beat point out in today's paper in vivid and chilling detail, the story of what happened in the intervening years is familiar but complicated. It starts with warring drug families, who apparently worked well together until one group engineered a home invasion and kidnapped two members of the other group.

That's where law enforcement and the suspected criminals they are supposed to arrest got tangled in a still unexplained web. The cops treated the kidnapping seriously, perhaps more seriously than the abductors had thought, by putting up Amber alerts and flooding the area with police. But suspicions quickly grew when the family of the victims refused to cooperate, and police quickly suspected one rival drug gang had targeted another.

A backroom deal was made which guaranteed the safe return of the kidnapped brothers, who were paraded to a police station in Baltimore County to prove they were indeed unharmed, and then all would be quietly forgotten. No criminal charges. No apparent investigation. What was unsaid then but revealed in court documents published in today's Baltimore Sun -- a $500,000 ransom was paid out.

Even if police decided not to arrest anyone in the kidnappings, they now had a roadmap of two violent drug gangs in the city. The feds took over and court documents show they had made progress, arresting a couple people on gun charges after a shooting outside an Eastside store, finding a gun and even coming up with the names of the suspects who orchestrated the kidnappings.

But nothing was ever done. While law enforcement slept, the two gangs went at it, leaving behind a years worth of killings and shootings that at first appeared to be routine random violence we are all so used to but now shows a calculated drug war that somehow was left alone as body after body fell in East and Southeast Baltimore.

Now we have Baltimore's police commissioner and mayor questioning the pace of the federal probe. But there are even more questions to answer. One of the victims of the cookout shooting was a member of Operation Safe Streets, an innovative program that uses ex-offenders to mediate gang disputes to prevent violence. It was hailed a success for its first year when no murders took place in a violent city neighborhood, and the counselor being at the party is indeed part of his job. But why didn't police know about the party? And now that the counselor is a witness, and a victim, he has an obligation to step forward and tell police what he knows. The program works under a city agency, the health department, and we can't have cops pleading with people to help them while allowing someone under another city agency to keep quiet.

Operation Safe Streets works because the gang leaders who don't trust the cops do trust the workers. If a counselor goes to the cops, the gangs won't cooperate. So we sacrifice information for quiet. But it's not quiet anymore, and serious questions needs to be answered from the program's administrators as to what they knew about the party, the dispute and the gunmen.

Questions also have to be asked about how and why Baltimore County Police allowed kidnappers to go free without pursuing criminal charges? Even if at the time the deal was sound because no one was giving up any information at all, cops can't simply sit back and allow two drug groups to exchange money for prisoners and then say case closed and walk away. The case was indeed closed in the county, where the kidnappings occurred, but far from closed as members retaliated in deadly precision on city streets.

Now we're all left to pick up the pieces.
   

Posted by Peter Hermann at 7:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Breaking crime, Confronting crime