Saturday, March 28, 2009

Sometimes I fear..................

Sometimes I fear for the future of our city. Oh, Buz knows crime is "down", and everything is all right, but...........We couldn't help but wonder, after looking at some of the events involving our "future": our young people.
  • An offshoot of the Bloods street gang (I think, for some reason, a whole bunch of people around here are enamored of the Bloods), called the Bounty Hunters, lured a member to a motel on Reisterstown Road. They then beat him, stabbed him til he stopped moving, then rolled him up into a rug. They carried him to a car and put him in the trunk. When they got to a little-used service road in Leakin Park, they took him out, and when he started to move, they beat him and stabbed some more till he stopped moving. Then they poured gasoline on him and set him afire--essentially burning him alive. And the VAST MAJORITY OF THE SUSPECTS ARRESTED FOR THIS ARE TEENAGE GIRLS! One of them, when she was arrested, had all kinds of red clothing on her. And one of the girls had been attending cooking school in Atlanta. [So much for the excuse that she was "forced" to join the gang because of the 'hood she lived in]. Sheesh.
  • Your consultant then reads some of the comments of the readers of the new internet site investigative voice.com and is astonished to see how many thug/gang members read, comment/and justify/excuse/enable this behavior.
  • Then we had the 17-year-old boy who "vacantly" testified that a couple of years ago, when he was 15, he shot and killed at point-blank range a person who had never done anything to him, in fact a person he had never met. All to carry out a "mission" ordered by his bunky, who was currently incarcerated at the time. Mission accomplished! This kid murdered a state's witness to a murder; now he is pleading guilty in federal court in exchange for his testimony getting him no more than 40 years. Well, I'm glad I won't be around when he gets out and starts thinking about his next mission. {And of course, the person who ordered would have done it himself instead of ordering an adolescent to do it---gutless coward!}
  • And then he had the 14-year-old who shot and killed a pizza delivery driver--and to learn mom whine and complain that he is being held on no bail in an adult facility. One has compassion for mom, but he will actually be held in a wing with other adolescents. We wonder: after police questioned him several times, did she ever question him? Did she ask him about the cell phone, about where he was the night of the murder. Did she know he carried a gun? Did she search his room? Who knows?
  • And then there was the report in the Baltimore Sun about the percentage of students in the state's  high schools who have not passed the High School Assessments yet. When you scan the list of city schools, all but the city's selective high schools are at nearly 50%. And none of the surrounding counties have any schools even close to that. The school honchos say not to worry: there's be only a handful which won't pass and won't graduate. Buz hopes that is true, but: these test are only at the 10th grade level. And for the rest of their lives these kids will have to take some test to get into college, for some jobs, to get into the service, etc. Oh, but they can do a project instead--because they are kids who just have trouble taking tests. Well, I guess there are kids like that, but we have to wonder how rigorous these "projects" really are to prove they can master the material. But, hey, at least these kids are still in school. Look at some of the schools on the list and see how few seniors there are. It's generally believed that about 50% of kids entering as freshman drop out before their senior graduation in city public schools, and that number rises to about 75% for African-American males.  
These are just some reasons I fear to the future of our fine city sometimes.

2 comments:

Bmore said...

Hey Buz, good stuff as usual

Some things that have me worried about the future of Baltimore are:

"Bloods Backlash"

Yes i invented that term : ). I am afraid that the bigger the Bloods get, the bigger another gang will get in order to protect themselves from the Bloods..in the same manner that Bloods were created for protection from the Crips in LA.

"Spanish Pride"

Im sure you have seen the surveillance camera that caught a Hispanic male getting robbed and pistol whipped

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBWA5C4juMU&feature=channel_page

...as we know attacks on Hispanics are common. What if they do what we really cant blame them for doing,which is banding together for protection.

This can be a HUGE issue if they ever formed massive MS 13 clicks...i imagine that many Hispanics could venture to Bmore to support "the cause" of protecting their own in a drug infested city...now if they come around and then decide to take part in the drug trade, thats where the issues will start...you would think that Hispanics have not only many many many soldiers but also better access to high quality narcotics..

My point is that what is stopping that from happening? MS 13 are huge in PG county and Northern VA...whats stopping them from coming to Bmore and honestly out numbering the mostly black gangs that we have in the city? I would assume that a booming drug market, a lack of protection for latinos, and a open opportunity to expand would be the PERFECT ingredients.

buzoncrime said...

Bmore---It's kinda funny: you don't hear much about the Crips around here--just about every street clown wants to be a Blood. However, they ultimately get their own Bloods Backlash. Who is gonna hire any of these folks who believe the way out in life is to join a gang?

The government has publicly stated recently that Mexican drug cartels are responsible for more than 95% of the marijuana, heroin, and cocaine smuggled into the U.S. But so far, here in Baltimore, we've only seen a tad of narco-trafficante influence--though I'm sure whoever the local boys buy it from eventually get it from the Mexicans. Buz did however, learn the likely reason for teh 3 Mexican kids being decapitated in Northwest Baltimore a couple of years ago: it's a very common technique in Mexico now, for people who want to collect on a drug debt or intimidate police.
I couldn't make out much from the video about what was going on, except the 2 cowards ran away after a few minutes of beating, especially when the "victim" grabbed and tripped one of them.
And yes, MS-13 has a huge presence in PG and the Northern Virginia suburbs. But so far, thankfully for whatever reason, they are either relatively quiet here or just feel the folks here are too entrenched.

And, throughout history, humans in similar groups have banded together for protection. One of the biggest reasons people join gangs is to protect them against "The Other". And it started in, and is rampant in prisons. So, when you blow away the purple smoke, gangs proliferate because of the inability or unwillingness of government to provide the protection needed. And yes a lot of crimes against Hispanics are not reported; clashes between black and Latino gangs are big in the Los Angeles area--unfortunately, uninvolved civilians are often chosen as victims representing The Other.