Baltimore's a hotbed of crime news!

Man, there's a lot going on with crime in Baltimore!

• Buz was interested in some recent plea bargains in Baltimore's Court. In one a doctor driving drunk the wrong way on I83, crashed into a car and caused the death of one woman who died at the hospital and seriously injured another person, who has had several surgeries, and will probably never fully recover. The doctor whined and cried and said "I'm sorry". What BS. He's only sorry because he got caught. He'll only do a year in jail. Betcha: 7-1, he will not successfully complete his probation and go back to the juice, but he'll not go back to jail. And the judge said he could get his "conviction" erased!
• The woman pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the methadone poisoning of her daughter and got a completely suspended jail sentence; the prosecutors went for this because they couldn't prove she actually gave her daughter the methadone. Then her lawyer gets out front in front of the cameras to say the poor thing didn't do it, and had to plead guilty to get some help. Well, duh, the lack of responsibility here is astounding. One of the things a judge reads to defendants when they plead guilty is: "you are pleading guilty, because you are in fact guilty". Betcha: 24-1, she won't get the help she needs, without the push of  some actual jail time. (Many people sentenced to treatment stop coming to it.) Her lawyer would have better served her by having all but say a year of jail suspended, then after a few months taken her to Marian House, so she has an inpatient type of support system to help her break out of the miasma of ills in the Inner City. Of course, the good sisters at Marian House will not introduce her to birth control, though. But otherwise she would have what she needs there, along with a drug treatment regimen. Betcha 5-1 that she gets arrested again, but does not complete what a reasonable person would call a successful probation, and betcha 8-1, she still does not get violated. Betcha 3-1, she'll get pregnant again.
• Buz notes that in the two above cited cases Baltimore prosecutors declined to take their chances with Baltimore juries, in the first case thinking the jurors might have felt the doctor did not cause her death because the family is suing the hospital for negligent treatment. Well, she would not have been in the hospital if the doctor hadn't slammed into her car. In the second case, the defense would have said one of her many boyfriends at the party might have given the baby the methadone--by mistake of course.
• Buz heard Marc Steiner out at Goucher last night, and agrees with him on the sense of hopelessness which pervades the inner city now. And for young adults, especially, it's the thug culture of toughness and fighting and contempt for the rest of us. Marc stated that conditions for the black underclass are probably worse now than at any time since slavery. Dunno about that, but it is pretty bad.
• Read the Sun article today about comments Judge David Young said at the sentencing for the bus beaters and one becomes overwhelmed with anger, contempt and hopelessness oneself.
• A friend was driving back from Columbia the other day, and cut thru the West side and was driving along North Avenue, when she was shocked by the thugs driving All Terrain Vehicles all over the streets: "terrifying" in their intimidation of  all others.