Twas the night before New Year's and all thru the city...........

On the day before New Year's Eve, Buz went to one of his favorite local eateries, the Subway sandwich shop in Hampden. Usually, one can get a good front-row seat of the street action in Hampden's Falls road while you dine in the "dining room."

I think that all of the good folks who work there are Nepalese, one of who used to be my neighbor. So, as my sandwiches were being made, I told her about the Baltimore custom or tradition of shooting guns off at midnight on New Year's. She said, "you're kidding, right?". Unfortunately, not.

Now, I grew up in Baltimore, first in Perkins Homes, then in Fells Point, and in Butcher's Hill, but I had never noticed (or remember) this phenomenon. I didn't see or hear of this until, when in the Air Force, I visited a buddy in Grand Forks, and at midnight on New Year's, he took out his trusty shotgun and fired several rounds off into the air.

Many of you probably read Peter Hermann's piece in the Sun about this issue. Early on in my time in the police department, I attended roll call one New Year's Eve in the Western District, and the sergeant giving roll call said (paraphrasing, since it's been a couple of years ago, at least): for those of you who haven't worked a New Year's before, when midnight approaches, make yourselves scarce. Get the fuck off the streets. Go behind a school, factory, or under a railroad bridge. Your pretty cars with those funny bubble-gum machines make great targets for payback to the cops.

Though I thought these directions unusual, I did not really find them weird; they seemed imbued with common sense and experience. In my short time in the Western then ( a little over a year), I learned the truth to the saying: "a policeman's lot is not a happy one". Coming out of college after a 4-year's in the Air Force, and being recruited as an idealistic yet somewhat naive young person, I was shocked at the antipathy that the police received from the "community"--although perhaps I really shouldn't have been. That uniform and badge mean little, especially when some tough guy wants to stick it up your ass. Being nice isn't what it's all about. Although, it's nice to be nice when you can.

Anyway, more than 10 years later as a sergeant in the Southwestern, I found myself, on New Year's Eve giving the same admonition to my squad--make yourselves invisible at 12- with the caveat that they should still handle calls for service if it was safe to do so.

As it got close to midnight, I drove my marked patrol car around to the rear of Edmondson High School which sits high on a rise on the western edge of the city affording good views of downtown at night, figuring I'd watch the fireworks downtown. Ha! As soon as midnight hit, there were fireworks all around me, except they weren't fireworks! I thought I was in downtown Beirut! Guns were going off all around me as the dispatcher wished us all Happy New Year.

Darn, wouldn't ya know one of my guys was driving down Collins Avenue and saw a dude firing in the air, and decided to go after him in a house ala Bealefeld; of course he called for help and of course the whole squad came flying ignoring the flying bullets. We got the guy and the gun, but it was a bit uncomfortable for a while.

Were we derelict in our duty, those of us making "ourselves scarce". Well, no, it was just a matter of survival for us poor schmucks in patrol. These were the days when there were no extra 1000 police on the street going after people with guns. If anything, there far less police on the street, because we always operated on minimal strength on the big holidays. As many people were given time off as possible. Only when O'Malley came into office with Norris did there materialize any effort to attack the NYE gun problem.

Buz gets dispersed!

Buz read with interest all the hullabaloo about the community activist and leader in Union Square who got arrested, then unarrested, then got cited in a beef with one of the Southern District boys in blue. Basically, he calls the police, they come, then the stories diverge. Ultimately, he's told to go in his house or get locked up. Now, he being a good law-abiding citizen and all, knows that he doesn't have to, especially if he's not doing anything wrong, and he's standing on his own porch.

Well, the officer would see about that!

Now, look, we weren't there, and all we know is what we read, but usually there's two sides to a story; sorry, officer, that's the best i can do here. As far as the gentleman/landlord/community supporter of the police goes, Buz detects a whiff of "don't you know who I am".

Well, here's my little story--summed up sorta twitter style:

Buz sees a police car with its lights flashing a couple blocks away from his house.

Another police car comes rolling up, lights also flashing, blocks intersection.

Nosey ole Buz goes up to see what going on.

2nd officer has three tough-looking guys sitting on the curb, while 1st officer has 4th tough-looking guy giving some info while he's in his car.

Buz asks elderly black lady in another car if she's ok; she says the other car hit her, but she's ok, just thirsty.

I ask if she wants me to get some water for her; she says no, her friend's on the way.

2nd officer, tough, fit young guy comes over: "do you live around here, sir"?

Yes, says me.

Are you involved with this accident?

No, says me.

Well, says officer, I need you to leave the area. This is an accident investigation!

Oh.

Now, Buz could have left the old lady, stood up way on the sidewalk out of the way, and said: I'm not interfering, I have every right to stand on this public street and watch!

Did we do that?!

No!

There's little doubt in Buz's pea brain that this officer would have ignored all the tough guys, and arrested Buz, who was wearing a nice polo shirt (tucked in his nice khaki pants), sporting no tattoos, and not wearing any baseball caps--sideways or otherwise. He may even have enjoyed using the Tazer and rubbing it in at Central Booking.

Moral of story: ya can't fight city hall in the person of the cop on the beat, whether he's right or not--unless...............well, unless you want to end up like Mr. Taylor of Union Square.

Or, to paraphrase Peter Moskos, the Bmore cop turned Ph.D., you don't have to respect him, or agree with him, but you must obey him.

So, Buz, who spent nearly 30 years in the Baltimore Police Department, gets dispersed. Yeah, his arrest might have been dropped and illegal, but who wants to visit Central Booking, the 7th outer circle of hell?

So, the district commander, and the department was placed in an awkward position by this aggressive officer. They cannot openly criticize him, because the "arrestee" may sue. But betcha (4-1), this officer doesn't get a gravy special unit job anytime soon. And, yeah, we're amazed at how aggressive the Baltimore Police are after having gone to that fancy, schmancy, Adam Walinsky training this year, and we're hoping that same aggressiveness is keeping the crime down this year. But maybe a nuance or two, guys?

Let's lock up! A Christmas season crime alert

Buz has read in the Messenger, a local paper which covers North Baltimore, that the community of Medfield has been victimized by a "cat burglar" (the type which comes in stealthily in the middle of the night when you're home and asleep). Both occurred on the 17th of November--a Tuesday. One was in the 1400 block of Medfield Avenue, between 1230am and 7am, suspect climbed thru an unlocked rear window on the 2nd floor and took two purses. The other was in the 1400 blk. W. 41st Street; entry was gained, again, thru an unlocked rear window; resident awoke and saw the man at 3:20am; he dropped two watches, but escaped with some jewelry. I guess we can all get a little complacent about our low crime rate in our neighborhood of a high-crime city. However, these two are a wake-up call that we need to be vigilant about how someone can get into the rear of our houses.

A surprising number of burglaries occur through unlocked windows and doors (in some areas/cases as much as a quarter). Criminals thrive on a lack of security consciousness on the part of their potential victims.

I can't tell you how many times that I've traveled (or even in the city), and discovered that people don't lock their doors. Oh, we've never had a problem. Um, so, you're hoping to have one?

Now, people can be forgiven for not locking their upstairs windows, but if you don't, please be cognizant of how easy (or hard) it will be for someone to climb up there: are there good handholds and places to grab for an athletic risk-taking druggie? Don't think about whether you could do it; could a skinny, athletic tree climber/roofer type assistant do it. If yes, lock your window near to where they could get up. No guarantee, but it will go a long way.

Buz had predicted hung jury, but now..............

Over the last several months Buz has been pondering the upcoming trial of our beautiful, fit mayor, Madam Sheila Dixon.

Buz had a strong hunch: ain't no Baltimore City jury gonna convict her for nuthin'. (Please forgive the street lingo, sometimes a habit is hard to break). The reason: it only takes one juror to hold out and say that they are not going to vote to convict. They can give any reason to why they have reasonable doubt and/or why they don't believe one or more of the state's witnesses. Perhaps in a perfect world, we wish it weren't so, but it is. Thus I predicted a hung jury. And if the state retries her, another hung jury.

So, as part of my research, I pestered 4 judges (one retired) in my travels and asked them whether or not they agreed with me. Three out of 4 agreed that Buz is quite likely correct in his assessment of a likely outcome. One judge took the Warren Brown approach: that juries do not like stealing from the poor. While we agree with that in general, and that is possible, this is not a typical case. This is a mayor who is very popular in the community, and many people think that, other than this ethical taint, she is doing a good job and appoints good department heads (except all those folks on the Internet sites who want her burned alive at the stake or crucified; oops, wait a minute, isn't that Frank Reid's take? Oh, never mind).

One of my interviewees did go a step further though, based on his experience: he said that if one or two strong African American males step up and argue for conviction, they could convince the rest of the jury to go along. He has seen this happen in several cases. We're not sure that would happen in this case.

One high Baltimore executive interviewed in buz's gym said that he might not vote for conviction, and probably a lot of white people wouldn't either. He said that he would weigh the evidence, but, at the end of the day, he might say: yeah, what she did was wrong, but I'm not going to find her guilty of a crime here. She's suffered enough humiliation.

The beautiful woman who cuts Buz's hair in her Hampden shop said, for example, this is bullshit; they've spent 10 times the money chasing after her than what they said she stole.

But now, a new revelation: the state lost all courage and is refusing to call the affable Mr. Lipscomb to the stand. I'm sure I know why: the defense was just licking it's chops ready to cross-examine him and destroy him on the stand. Can you imagine the questions they would ask? And, even more, can you imagine the image he and his answers would represent in the mind of jurors? Um, Mr. Lipscomb, how many LLCs are you involved with? Why so many?, etc.etc.

So, now, the jury is left with what? Your consultant (who doesn't do jury consulting) can just imagine the jury thinking: is that all there was? Some gift cards left at city hall, the our lady mayor might have used one or more of? But she never acknowledged them or ever thanked him for them--even though she was later with him at a small party. And why is a developer, who wears a beard, and a suit coat with no tie, and builds fancy, schmancy condos out of old grain silos (costing zillions of $$) leaving gift cards for the mayor? Like, what sort of favors does he want? Like, why didn't he say: sure, I'll give gift cards to Goodwill, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and Beans & Bread. Nah, I'll drop em off at city hall with the mayor's name on em; they'll, you know, get where they belong.

Now, Buz really, really thinks, not only hung jury, but a good chance of outright acquittal.

Drunk drivers and the killing of the Hopkins Student

Buz has been following the story of the numbnuts who wandered around the city last week, scaring the beejesus out of everybody, both before and after he hit a Hopkins student, left the scene, did not render aid, and she later died.

We shook our head in dismay, but hardly in surprise. More than 30 years ago, I used to go to traffic court a lot, and had arrested a fair number of drunk drivers myself. I was amazed at how many of the offenders in court were repeat offenders. And I began to realize how weak the Maryland law is on boozehounds. It eventually dawned on me that fines, license suspensions/revocations and the threat of jail does not deter and does not punish these folks.

Ya don't need a license to drive, you only need a set of car keys. So, the only real way to stop them is to, for some period of time, take their car away--on the first offense, and longer on subsequent offenses. Of course, I know: it might be someone else's car they are driving, and there may be "hardship" in the family. tough. Gotta do the time if you're gonna do the crime. And it has to be combined with jail, or the threat of jail, along with some kind of treatment for his alcohol problem. Not to mention the lack of responsibility problems these folks have.

Jail and treatment work for some folks, but not for many. Time after time, people who get convicted for drunk driving charges simply continue driving.

Only jail and seizing their car, or the car they were driving would stop them.

In this latest case: more questions arise than are answered:

• Why was he out on only $100,000 bail while he was awaiting trial?
• Didn't the jurist who set the bail have any concern for public safety (unlike the distinguished her honor Nancy Shugar)?
• Who paid the bail?
• Did he put up a house he owned?
• Did a relative put up a house?
• Or did one of our bondsmen offer him a get out of jail 1% bail, financing the other $9K, so poor little drunkard could go home to have another one on us.
• Who's car was he driving?
• How did he get tags?
• Who insured that vehicle?

The sad truth is all of us are complicit in some small way in that Hopkins student's death: our ambivalence toward drinking; our legislature full of wine-drinking defense attorneys; our love of Ravens and tailgating (betcha they're not drinking Pepsi out there); our ignoring people driving away from Ravens games with beers in their hand; our night clubs offering deals to get you drunk as a skunk before you go back to the dorm; judges and MVA officials who fall for sob stories, and the drinkers themselves, who love the taste and their high--but don't want to take any responsibility for what they do drunk (everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die). The list could go on for a while.

Crime Tip of the Day: Keep your eyes and ears open when entering convenience stores

Buz went into the Royal Farms Store in the area of his palatial residence on the border of Hampden and Medfield on 41st Street. They have the nicest staff there of all the Farm Stores!

While waiting for his decidedly unhealthy chicken dinner to be put together, your consultant chatted about possible job openings for his nonprofit clients.

The pretty gal who was waiting on me said "sure, they're hiring, but it's a dangerous job"! Whaddaya mean, we said. She said that she was working there about 5 weeks ago when two guys with guns came in and robbed the place. She said that though they didn't hurt her or take any of her personal belongings, they really scared her. Now, this gal does not look like the type who scares easily. She told me that it was about 7pm. I said, wow, it was still light out back then. She said: "I know, people are just crazy".

And we had also just read about the Dunkin Donuts, just up the block on 41st Street also getting robbed recently--about 2pm on a Sunday afternoon. But I'm not really surprised; police uniformed patrol has been cut to the bone. And betcha (2-1), it even worse on Sunday afternoons during the "season".

I have read the working in a convenience store is one of the leading causes of injuries or death for women: while being killed in robberies (or hurt during them). So, her anecdotal evidence was buttressed by national statistics. {Also read recently where another Royal Farms employee had hot chocolate thrown in her face by a robber.} Unfortunately, we must have compassion for the poor employees in these circumstances who have to take these job, at which, while the pay is competitive, come with certain risks by nasty thugs.

So, your consultant urges dear readers: before going into any convenience type or chain store, take a peek inside before you go in: this is especially important for fast food joints, convenience stores, and places open all night or late. If something doesn't feel right, or you feel uncomfortable for some reason, don't go in. I know, I know, it's probably not gonna be obvious, but, still, look.

As we're getting close to Halloween (a sacred sacrament day in some neighborhoods), the weather, especially in the evening is getting colder and the hoods are coming up and on. And the hoods of the other kind are coming out with their hoods up, making them hard to see and recognize. Alas, holdup season is probably getting ready to gear up.

The highest crime time of the year is generally the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Cold weather, shopping, and hoods and bulky coats work together to make it a challenging time for crime prevention.

Crime Tip of the Day: Keep your bikes inside where there are no windows!

Buz took his trusty bike to Joe's Bike Shop in Mt. Washington the other day for a tuneup, new tire, and new odometer. While he was there, we chatted with a gal who mentioned that she was shopping for a new bike, since hers had just gotten stolen at her place in Charles Village.

She related how she kept her bike outside on her deck at her palatial CV property, but it was chained and locked to her deck. And lo and behold she came out to look for it, and it was gone!

The chain was still there, but the suspect(s) literally took her deck apart in order to get at the bike, after climbing over a high fence to get to it.

Well, I'm pretty sure the walls in Charles Village are no match for the athletic burglars who live in and near there. And usually, most walls have handholds and grips where miscreants can boost themselves and climb up the wall. Most of these so-called privacy fences and walls only provide a modest measure of security.

The next point is that bikes are, in the city that drives, a very often-stolen commodity for some reason, particularly around the Hopkins campus. If bikes are seen outside visible anywhere, these strange bike criminals will move heaven and earth to get to them. I know of one case in Roland Park, where several bikes were in a shed, but the shed had a glass casement style window, with very secure locking system. Nevertheless, the crooks came and used tools, made a bit of noise, but literally pried the entire window out of its frame (not even trying to defeat the lock), climbed thru the window and passed the 4 bikes out and vanished. (The shed's door remained locked). It really took a lot of work!

Buz always is amazed at the mechanical skill and virtuosity that these burglars possess. You have to wonder why they never put those skills to use in decent jobs, instead of turning into thieves and ne'er-do-wells.

However, for us poor law-abiding folks: if you don't want your bike to fall into the possession of one of Baltimore's bike-stealing rings: you must keep it inside, and inside means in the house. If you can only put it/them in a shed, the shed MUST NOT have windows, where the bike can be seen. The best bet is to put it into the house and away from windows. I give credit for this tip to the owner of the defunct Horizon Cycles on York Road, Marty, from whom I bought his last Bianchi, before he went out of business. (Marty also said that he did not buy any used bikes, because that simply created a stolen bike market). {Oh, you mean like pawnshops and EBay and Craigslist?}

Oh, and be sure to write the serial number down somewhere, in the unfortunate case where your bike might get stolen. The Baltimore police recover hundreds of bikes (mostly abandoned, but some with suspects and some of victims), and most do not have any reports on file of being stolen.

[by the way, the staff at Joe's were nowhere as nasty and look-down-their-noses-if-you're-not-a-world-class-bike-racer as they used to be, but when they install an odometer for ya, and you ask where the booklet is, you shouldn't get the "don't know, whaddaya need it for, we installed, you can find it on the Internet" look. Just a mild beef.]