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 GPS out of sight; if it's stolen, WATCH OUT!

There was a meeting of the neighborhood in Govans the other night, as Justin Fenton reported in the Sun, about the recent upsurge of crime in the Northern District's top end, just above Belvedere Square. One of the organizers of the meeting, who posted on the neighborhood Yahoo group, Citizens Teaming Against Crime, sent this out:

One of the more interesting and alarming details to com out of last night's meeting with the police is that in the Northern District, there are at least 12 recent cases where a GPS stolen from a vehicle then led to the corresponding home being burglarized. Police are concluding that burglars are taking GPS units, making note of the car, and using settings within the GPS maps to make a link between a home and a car. They then wait for an opportunity when the car is not home to break in and burglarize.

The original theft from auto can occur anywhere, including while homeowners are out running errands -- their GPS units can be stolen from shopping centers, etc. But once a thief can link your car to your home, they can identify when you're not there.

The advice is to either not leave your GPS in your car, or
to not use any settings/searches where your home address is
entered. Use a nearby public area (such as a school or
shopping center) as your "home" location on your GPS.

In other City districts, the GPS link to burglaries
is even more pronounced, with up to 30-40 related
crimes in some districts. So beware.

BBBBBBBBBBBB__._,_.__

Buz wonders: is there really anybody left in this city who doesn't know the GPS devices are one of the most often taken

items in larceny from auto? Apparently, a fair number of our citizens believe that since our city looks so nice, and there's never been a problem, they never even think about such a thing.

And, of course, there is a huge market out there, apparently, in the buyers of stolen goods, who want something "cheap".

So, when you get to your destination, if you have a GPS thang, take it and all of its accouterments off your windshield or dash, and either take it with you, or put it into your trunk. Don't program your home into it. And if it is sstolen, and your home is there in its little memory, ya better make sure you have good locks on your doors and windors, and an alrarm.

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.]

Hopkins Slasher, Kennedy Krieger hand and bag Shooting, Police crotch shooting: The Crisis of Crime in Baltimore

There have been a lot of disheartening stories about crime in Baltimore this year, but 3 are linked in Buz's iconoclastic mind: the shooting of 2 Kennedy Krieger Institute employees shot as they left work recently, not even victims or involved, but the errant shots of an angry, violent thuggy-wuggy dad who never grew up, and didn't believe in calling the cops (one of the gals was not actually shot as her handbag and contents deflected the round); the shooting by an off-duty officer of another thuggy-wuggy who, at gunpoint tried to force the officer to the floor in his own home (sources tell us that the bad guy was shot twice in his penis); and the killing of the career criminal burglar by the Hopkins undergrad this morning.

While the stats show that crime is "down" to many year lows, one has to wonder if the system of measurement is faulty. And though we are pleased that the commish and his team are doing a good job keeping murders down, along with nonfatal shootings, we have to wonder if police intervention in a private civil war is actually having the unexpected side effect of causing other criminals in other areas to be bold and not expect to get caught. And of course, with the economy still in shambles, things will probably get worse before they get better.

I wonder about the criminal justice system, not just the police, and how many, many repeat offenders are out there, who may have been stopped much earlier in their careers with proper interventions or prison.

Our police patrol force has been cut to the bone: each district has, at last check, been assigned 160 officers, for around the clock coverage--no matter how large the district or how bad its problems: the thinking is : the Violent Crimes Impact Division will take care of it. We hope

The perils of a small business in Baltimore

Buz has learned through experience that most small businesses in Baltimore (and probably in most big cities) will eventually be victimized by crime, particularly robbed physically using force or threat of force, or broken into--burglarized.

Recently spoke to an attorney who told me that his office was in a "zero" crime happening very quiet and peaceful area of North Baltimore. In June his office was broken into overnight, the perpetrators wearing gloves. They took several desktop computers and several laptop computers, and various other electronics and various other valuable property. It was not just the theft of the machines which were a modest financial hit, but like many small business owners, sensitive personal information for his clients/customers were on the machines. He also learned that the keys to a storage locker nearby were taken, along with the pass code.

He called the storage place, and had the pass code to get into the yard and building changed. But, lo and behold, here they come up to the gate on camera and pushed and entered and fooled around with the key pad trying to get into the storage unit yard. Were these guys bold or what?

Now, the camera at the storage place got a pretty good picture of the driver's face, his tattoo, and best of all the tag number of the car. Sounds like enough for a search warrant to me. And, the storage firm had an auction that day of stuff from units that had not paid rent. These auctions allow anyone to come into the yard to look at the stuff for sale. These guys were on camera coming back, wandering around, but couldn't get into the building (the padlock on the storage unit had been changed, but......)

Despite the film being held for them, the city burglary unit detectives still (burglary happened in June) have not gotten around to following up. Now, we know their job is mostly pushing paper and "clearing" cases on paper, but here's one which not only might be solved, but these guys, if arrested, might lead to solving other cases in North Baltimore--big commercial burglaries. Wonder what's up? And why no movement here. Lawyer friend is very frustrated.

A cynic's review of recent crime news

Despite the huge drop in crime, we are experiencing, there seems to be an unending amount of crime news these days. The curmudgeon has some comments:

• The story about the police horses seems to have taken just about the entire hour of Peter Hermann's time on WYPR yesterday. Um, it didn't really seem a lot like journalism; more like an ode to the wonder of the pretty, beautiful horsies, brave officers on top of them and the wonder of it all. Only one caller had an objection, bravely averring that officers on horseback are too distant and formidable.
• Well, Buz wonders if the Mounted Unit is subjected to the same sorts of scrutiny which other units are at the now famous Compstat. I mean, it's only a handful of officers, a very small unit, but we just wonder: how many arrests have Mounted officers made in, say, the last year? Tickets? Any? Guns seized?
• OK: I know, they are a "different" kind of elite unit, sort of like the honor guard, but cost a lot more: food, housing, 24/7 attention, vets, and that's not even counting the special equipment for the riders, and the salary and benefits of the hostlers and riders.
• Of course, it's the commissioner's department. I would imagine that he has a great deal of discretion when it comes to budget cutting that's needed. So, perhaps if he really wants to keep the unit, he could by giving up something else. I'm not sure "they" out there somewhere could make him give up the unit, as long as he gave up the same amount of money. It's just that one has to be able to justify it under "public relations", or "crowd control capability" or something. But the idea of the public helping fund it is a nice try.
• I think horse units are nice, they're great if deployed in a coherent mission, but I don't see it here. Anti-drug? Crowd Control ? (at night, too?) Traffic? Anti-crime? Public Relations? Not clear. They are probably capable of any of those things, but have significant downsides: they are not an around the clock, all weather deployment; they have to be rested frequently, and fed; the officer cannot sit there and take your report; he/she will have some difficulty in detaining a suspect who doesn't want to be detained; the horse unit runs high risks operating after dark in heavy motor traffic areas (especially with irresponsible and drunken and texting drivers; the unit is not easily and cost-effectively deployed outside of the downtown riding area (figure about an hour to load and another hour to off-load cutting into your deployment time), et al, etc. In any event, there's only a handful left.
• The idea of having a nonprofit collect funds for the Mounted Unit is interesting and ironic. It cannot be a one-time thing, as any director of a nonprofit will tell you. If the development director of a nonprofit is unable to raise funds or get grants for ongoing operations, the nonprofit will cease to exist. Few donors want to contribute operating expenses. The irony here is that the former PAL program, when rolled out by Commissioner Frazier, was in fact a 501(c)3 full nonprofit. It was unable to raise enough money by fundraising or grants, and it essentially went out of business, even before it got euthanized this year--even though it initially had grant funding and several business supporters. But if you can't keep the money rolling, you're out of business. It has to be an ongoing thing.
• Saw the police surveillance video of the SWD shooting of little Raven. The film is so bad, one could argue either way: at times it looks like he's got a monitor on, and other times he doesn't. In any event, the camera is so poor that one cannot recognize the face of the shooter. And this whole business with Juvenile Services and their monitoring is nonsensical.
• Of course, from a security perspective, it just shows, once again, that cameras do not PREVENT crime in many cases: everyone knew there were cameras up there on that pole, but after a while, miscreants sorta know: they are not working, or monitored, or have such poor quality they won't show, or just aren't looking at me. And, once again, they are often of little value in CAPTURE, if the quality is so bad--unless they are actually being monitored, and have a force available to immediately respond. (like downtown, or institutions with a security force).
• Loved (?) not right word, but was fascinated by the story of the latest breakdown of police discipline wherein a police sergeant handcuffed a homicide detective during a "dispute". One wonders, with all these bad PR things happening to the city department, if maybe they all should be assigned to the Mounted unit or something. Seriously, what is wrong with these people? Apparently, they have been infected with Aggravated John Wayne Syndrome. This syndrome is giving real, dedicated, decent officers a bad name. Seriously, there's something wrong with this picture. I mean I know policing the city is tough, but............One thing the commissioner needs to do though (perhaps the FOP might agree, but probably not): when an officer is involved in a "strange incident", e.g. silly testimony, silly video watching, crazy accidents, handcuffing people (or each other), taking people for "rides" and dropping them off, visiting a project and getting shot "on your lunch break", being accused of rape, shooting at cars off duty, pointing guns at people off duty, the list goes on, the officer(s) involved need to be taken down to Mercy for a drug test. I know it sounds weird, but the fire department is much more rigorous about this stuff.
• On the sad death of a woman just driving down the street by the worthless, "erratic" clown fleeing the Regional Auto Theft Task Force: oops, he wasn't fleeing, he was driving because he got scared and saw police. There's almost certainly gonna be a lawsuit here; and if a supervisor ordered the chase to cease, as they say, and it continued (with ANY evidence to that), there's going to be heavy liability for the city or county or whoever.
• In all the hullabaloo over the umpteen people shot on Ashland, the two young man murdered the same night on Conkling street have received almost no notice--like it didn't even happen. Whassap with that?