Thoughts and observations about crime and security around Town

Just a few thoughts related to recent meanderings around Baltimore and notions of crime, security, and safety:

• Buz likes to eat at the Subway sandwich shop on Falls Road, near 37th Street, sitting by one of the windows looking out onto the street in beautiful downtown Hampden, hon. And we saw Hampden's version of Citizens On Patrol. Only it was JOP: Junkies on Patrol! Up and down, back and forth; wandering aimlessly all day long, some of the gals looking longingly at guys in passing cars. 
• Before I went into the shop a guy stopped before entering, and went "putoooo", as he spit on the sidewalk in front of and before he went into a food store. Nice. But as I was sitting in there eating, watching the JOPs, a guy in a big pickup swung his head out his window, and went "plottch", as a big gob of spit went flying out into the street. Um, public health, anyone? As the swine flu starts to hit bigger, many people will whine and complain, but simple measures like not spitting on a public street will go a long way toward slowing the spread. Baltimore was once one of the hardest hit cities by the spread of tuberculosis, and outlawed spitting on the sidewalks with a city ordinance because of this. Needless to say, ignorance is bliss, and one can see a lot of spitting almost everywhere you look. Like, why? Kinda holding onto that tough guy image, I guess. And since a large number of folks in Bmore never finished high school, they didn't learn much about health and stuff like that.
• Your consultant ran into an officer who used to work for him in Northwest a few years back. He said that the Inner Harbor areas are, as John reported to us, staffed with lots of recent academy graduates, as well as cops detailed from the Tactical Section and other places. He and I also expressed amusement that the Pimlico race course in trying to market the infield as a "family event" this year. You gotta be kidding!
• At this writing, haven't heard much about the reported stabbing and kid/gang fights going on around the Inner Harbor over the weekend; it really hurts when the Sun has no staff working over the weekends because of Wall Street.
• Buz noticed that Pimlico's infield security staff last year didn't seem to really have control of some situations, and didn't really want to get into it with some of these muscular drunks out there fighting, "playing", wrestling, etc. He was told that they had gotten a black eye for some of the action nationally posted on YouTube. It's really hard to believe that Pimlico's insurance company didn't have something to do with the new rule: no outside liquor allowed to be brought in. And in a city with such huge substance abuse issues, it's hard to believe the amount of publicity given to guzzling booze, drunkenness, and general irresponsibility which goes on and has gone on for years in the Infield. At least the city police aren't providing hundreds of officers (some of whom get hurt) to enable this "party".
• We noticed that Holly G in Mount Washington had a security "riot screen" barrier in addition to wire mesh installed in one of their doors. Guess the window smashers were out that way too.
• Recently Grind-On Cafe had its window smashed and lost substantial stuff of value, also.

But, of course, since crime is "down", we don't have to worry about any of that.

Peter Hermann's article on police pat-downs, etc.

President Rosslyn to Commander of  Battlestar Gallactica: "The war is over: we lost."

Buz read with interest Peter Hermann's article a while back on how police came into a hardware store in Southwest Baltimore, made a guy go outside, "pat him down", find nothing, and just let him go back inside and go about his business. It was treated and accepted as just the "code of the streets" and how it supposedly applies to police stops in high-crime areas. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'll betcha plenty of defense attorneys out there had nice smiles on their faces, just thinking about the stat-driven police force which has them wandering around (in Southwestern District-home of the famous Flex Squad, no less), jacking people up because they think they might be dirty.

Dragging a guy out of the store and patting him down?

Patting down (searching?) the store owner who was taking out trash?

Um, okay, stop and frisk. Terry vs. Ohio? Wonder if that is still taught in the police academy.

We now get a little more insight into why the State's Attorney's Office drops so many cases without charges, in Baltimore City. And how, though this guy didn't seem to mind much (after all, what could he do?), many males in Bmore object to being summarily stopped, frisked, having their pockets gone into, and pants pulled down in public {though they may be wearing 3 pairs of pants in the winter}. Does anyone think about: "The fire next time?"

And I'm pretty certain the store owner minded being stopped and patted down while taking trash out behind his own place.

While all of us are glad crime is "down", except for murders, of course, Buz wonders if police would be better served that instead of stats, they were patrolling, looking for guys where the evidence was already there; preventing and looking for burglaries; preventing, responding to and looking for robbery and theft suspects. I know, I'm starting to sound like Peter Moskos, but you just gotta wonder: is jacking up people for little or no reason because you think they might be dirty, really a good use of your community relations if you don't find anything, or good use of your time if you do?

April is the cruelest month

Buz had an occasion earlier this week to journey to Emmitsburg, Maryland, home of the campus of Mt. St. Mary's University, a small Catholic liberal arts school in the Catoctin mountains close to Pennsylvania.

Buz thought he had been picked up and dropped in  heaven! And the presence of Catholic priests walking around in their black outfits with white collars added to this thought.

He was struck about how idyllic and peaceful and serene the campus looked, and he remembered that  not too long ago someone had fired a shot thru the window of a dorm room there on the campus. (Frederick County, where MSM is located, is a mostly rural/suburban area with lots of woods).  And, a few weeks later, gunshots were heard in the vicinity of the school, and were heard again as the unarmed campus safety staff responded to check it out. In both cases the school activated its version of an emergency notification system, keeping students informed about what was going on. (they were grateful!). Of course, there has not been a public determination by anyone who fired the shot(s), and whether they were the same person(s), or whether the school was targeted in any way. MSMary's, like most colleges in the U.S., has a small, generally unarmed, campus safety force, and relies on the local police force or state police to respond to dangerous, serious incidents.

Your consultant's thoughts turned to April. Today, April 20th, will be the tenth anniversary of the attack on that high school community by two of its own students. And just last week passed the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech "massacre"--32 killed by one of its own, who never felt part of the VT scene. Buz is pretty sure that the availability of an emergency notification system, such as used at Mt. St. Mary's, would probably have not made much, if any, difference at either Columbine or the home of the Hokies. Though updates to students might have helped a little. Other than that electronic innovation, and school "Thereat Assessment Teams", not much has changed in the American landscape of security against mass killings. It's still pretty easy for any crazy or semi-crazy or just plain upset person to get a gun around about anywhere.

Just this month:

• Three police officers were killed at one time in Pittsburgh by a nut-job with a rifle.
• Thirteen people were killed in an immigrant center in upstate New York by another nut-job, who blocked a rear door with his car to maximize death from his "going postal".
• A family in Washington State was killed when dad thought mom was fooling around; if he couldn't have her exclusively, nobody else would. Oh, might as well kill the kids, too.
• And a guy in Frederick County, ironically not too far from MSM, killed his wife and kids and himself because he felt like it.
• This list can probably go on.
• And, of course Columbine occurred in April; a new book has come out about that mass killing, vigorously researched by a Salon reporter, Dave Cullen. Buz hasn't read that book yet, but it apparently has a lot of new info challenging many long-held assumptions about that incident.
• And, of course Virginia Tech occurred in April; apparently, not much happened in VT response to nut cases, despite the occurrence of Columbine a number of years before.
• Oh, and just before April began, a parolee in Oakland, California shot and killed 4 police officers on the same day: 2 initially, then 2 members of the SWAT team later, shooting and killing them right thru a house wall.

Policy prescriptions, anyone?

Hundreds of colleges and universities have spent millions of dollars on "emergency notification systems", which now include text message and email alerts, as well as sirens on campus to alert people on campus to "significant threats to the campus community".  And, apparently, the latest department of Education rules under the Clery Act require them to have some sort of notification system. Most high schools, however, don't have such systems, except the time-honored public address system, and the ole fire alarm. While better than nothing, these systems largely ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room: the Secret Service study of school shootings (though somewhat dated now), estimates the vast majority are over in 2-4 minutes. The actual Columbine shooting of others was over in less than 15 minutes, though it took some time later for them to decide to kill themselves. Those involved, police, students, etc., thought it went on much longer, because no one at the time new that the cowards had already killed themselves. Police are now trained to respond immediately, as soon as practical, to get into the school (or wherever) to try to stop the shooting. Usually, it will already be too late.

By the way, Columbine High School did have an on site "School Resource Officer", an armed, unifomed police officer on duty at the school, but he was driven away from the school, along with another colleague, by the heavily armed students.

Many schools and colleges are trying to create "threat assessment teams" for figuring out what to do with loony students who scare others. This is the only real answer: to separate disturbed and distressed students from the rest of the campus, at least temporarily, to find out more about them, and to try to learn if they have firearms, if possible. And to have a way for students to alert campus authorities to potentially dangerous folks. [Of course, none of that worked at Virginia Tech, where teachers repeatedly tried to get help for future gunman Cho, but he kept falling thru the cracks, since VT, like most schools then-and probably now-do not have the mechanisms to deal with people like him.]

Some thoughts on recent crime/security news--and Easter Sunday rant

• Cham reports that she believes a wave of Oxycontin use will sweep the city this summer. See her comment on Baltimorecrime.blogspot.com.  As this deep recession evolves into a depression, I guess people don't want to feel any pain.
• One of Buz's job seeking clients at his part-time job expressed concern about working shift work at a plant at Park Circle. Though he lives within walking distance and is "in recovery" from the drug world, he said his neighborhood in "not safe" because of all the "young hoppers" hanging out in the streets of lower Park Heights.
• The newest coffee house/cafe in Lauraville/Hamilton got broken into last week by bad guys who threw a cinder block through its glass door; heavy $$ losses resulted. Buz admires small business entrepreneurs who take risks by opening their dream business. All too often, though, many small businesses get robbed physically, get broken into, or their employees steal them blind.
• My favorite liquor store near the Roland Park water tower got held up again--the third time in as many years. So far no one's been hurt there. A nearby liquor store clerk told Buz: huh, I dare them to come in here and try that! They'll be sorry! Hmmmmmm. Sounds like a guy who'd be dear to Sebastian's heart.
• Everyone is a bit buoyed because the stock market went up a a bit this week. Don't get your hopes up too high, folks. Really, not much in the fundamentals of the economy have changed lately. We just see some bottom-feeders snatching up some cheap stuff. The banksters still wanta do what they want to do (take big risks and get big commissions), and when things go bad, they want the government (us) to bail them out. And they'll do it again! Of course, they want to have it both ways: they want the government to give 'em the money to help 'em out, but don't want the government to tell them what to do. {Omighosh! that would be "nationalization"}.
• And did you all see that Larry Summers, former Prez of Harvard, and one of the O-man's economic big shots made for working one day a week at one of the big hedge funds? Like millions for his advice and stuff. Sheesh. and this is from a guy who thinks women can't do science. Did he really mean lying, cheating, and stealing? Ooops, I mean finance. Look, these bank guys have been lying, cheating, and stealing to each other for so long, it's hardly a surprise that none of them trust each other now. And until that happens and/or the gumment buys all their zombie stuff, not much is gonna change anytime soon.
• Speaking of hedge funds: Buz has learned that the University of Maryland and its Assistant Football Coach are running their own little hedge fund! That is, UM has guaranteed that it will pay him 1 million bucks if he IS NOT selected by them to be the Head Football Coach when the current paragon of physical fitness finally decides to retire. And he'll get no less than $2.5 million per year for leading this mostly mediocre team of "student athletes". We're very glad that Maryland's values are in the right place. 
• The city has decided to "double down" its bet on the survival of the Senator. A few weeks ago, they were going to loan the beleaguered movie house $300K, but now they're (we're) gonna spend more than $600K to buy the mortgage--this less than a week when a study group concluded that turning the place into a nonprofit would not be fiscally do-able. HMmmmmm. How 'bout a real big nightclub like the ones on Market Place and Fed Hill and the Point. Strategically situated between Towson U. and Loyola and Hopkins, and not far from Morgan, it would immediately be $$$$ successful. And the kids from Towson and Loyola wouldn't have to drive! Since the Preakness is apparently so important, we could build a retractable roof and have Preakness there every Saturday--year round. [horse races? what horse races? you mean running drunkenly across the portapots while your "friends" throw beer cans at you in between their throwing up?!] Seriously, Preakness day was/is the only day of the year that Pimlico actually made money.
• And, seriously, the city is probably worried that if the Senator is bought by the "wrong" kind of "investor", or, worse, is left empty, it places at risk all those neighborhoods at the top of York Road, many of which have seen crime and blight drift into their area from time to time recently.
• Osama bin Laden is probably laughing his butt off at the U.S.: "hey, we thought we did good, knocking down the Twin Towers. We couldn't hold a candle to what they are doing to themselves! Killing police 3 and 4 at a time. Not a single martyr needed. Killing lots of people a bunch at a time in upstate New York, and Washington, and all over. They completely destroyed the U.S. and world economy without us zealots lifting a finger. Oh, and they're selling guns to our Mexican narco friends that are  used to kill hundreds of police and soldiers so their country can smoke weed and do coke that the narco-trafficantes bring into the U.S. Oh, and I forgot, heroin, too. Oh, and I forgot, they also destroyed their own auto industry. Sheesh what can we do to them? Oh, well, might as well go ahead and de-stabilize Pakistan."
• Buz has mixed feelings about the demise of PAL, but whatever you may have thought about Frazier, he was kinda on the right track here.

Companies with Thieves

Buz has learned that in the security consulting field, it is usually estimated that about 70-80% of theft from most firms is assisted or done by employees.

A couple Thursdays ago, I saw a good example of it in action--just by pure happenstance-which only confirms the estimate above.

And these jerks have good jobs making good money.

Your consultant was sitting on the back lot of the Rotunda, happily getting ready to dig into an unhealthy MickeyD's breakfast sandwich. We had pulled up into the parking lot just a few spaces away from a food service delivery truck, which features frozen Italian products like pizza and such. Kinda thought he was taking a break or straightening out his truck. Then, a beer distributor's truck pulls up between my auto and the food truck. The driver got out and while walking over to the food truck, slowly, get staring at me in a vaguely menacing way. At one point, I looked back, wondering WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?

He walked over to the rear of the food truck, and still kept looking at me every now and then. Then old street Buz kicked in: the look was one of guilt and a fear I might notice something! Oh, I see what's gonna go down! (After all, why would the beer truck pull up on the back lot of the Rotunda; there's no liquor sold there.)

Sure enough, the food driver pulls beer driver into the back of his truck; I hear some stuff being moved around. Then, sure enough, the food driver jumps down with a whole bunch of frozen food in his hands, chatting with beer guy, this time both looking at me suspiciously and a bit angrily (what are you doing here?). They walk between the two trucks out of my sight; I hear the beer truck rollup doors being moved. Sheesh.

It became quite clear: the food guy is giving or selling some of his company's product to the beer guy at an arranged meet, probably in exchange for some beer. I guess they would be glad that Buz wasn't a private investigator hired by either company. As I finished eating and began driving away, the Beer guy gave me a final dirty look. Hey, bro, if you ain't doing anything stupid, you wouldn't have to worry about me, would you?

Just think a minute: these two clowns both have good jobs, almost certainly CDL drivers, making good money. A lot of people in this country would give so much to make the kind of money they do. Yet, they risk it all for a quick grab of a few goodies from their trucks: goodies which don't belong to them; we all pay the price for "shrinkage" at the store.

Betcha they're both stealing a lot more from their companies than even I saw or could guess

 (2-1). Betcha, 3-1, one or both could not pass a CDL drug test.

It's just a sad commentary on human nature.