Bits of crime and security news from Baltimore

Some recent stuff about crime and security around Baltimore

• Anna Sowers has announced that the fundraiser to be held at Pazo on Sunday has sold out. It's to benefit the Johns Hopkins brain trauma research center, and to help folks like her husband Zach who was beaten unconscious and died of his injuries several months later during a robbery in "Patterson Park". See www.zachsowers.com. {No visible thongs, please!}
• Interestingly, the woman who had her house foreclosed on and became a "poster gal" for Acorn lived very close to where the Sowers bought their house during their years of hope in Baltimore after getting married and deciding to settle down here.
• It's Buz's sense that the area just north of the Creative Alliance (the old Patterson movie theater) is struggling to hold on. The criminal activity is splashing down from Baltimore street towards the south and Canton. Of course, the collapse of the economy and the housing market have not helped. A friend at the gym told me that his brother bought a house a couple of years ago in "Patterson Park", "near Canton" , but got transferred to Atlanta. Alas, he didn't get rid of it fast enough: now "bad people" have moved in and around the area, and he can't sell it or even rent it. He had one tenant for a while, but after they left, no one has even looked at it in 6 months.
• The lack of desirability for young professionals for living in Baltimore strikes us as somewhat alarming. In my little relocation consulting business, none of my last 5 clients rented in the city. And all were folks who the city desperately needs: fairly young, professional, and well-paid. We looked at a couple of city places on our tours, but they eventually all rented in Howard, Baltimore, or Anne Arundel counties. Now, full disclosure, it wasn't all because of concern for security or crime, but they loomed as large factors--as well as the schools.
• John Bergbower, a retired Baltimore Police major, and his crew at John Hopkins Medical Institutions are owed a debt of gratitude from all of us for coordinating the arrest of the Hopkins' Patient Services Clerk who stole the identity of a patient suffering from kidney failure, and might possibly be in danger of dying. Guantanamo Bay should be kept open to house persons like her, along with John Thain and Bernie Madoff. They should be made to listen to Andy Harris/Frank Kratovil ads for 23 hours a day til they confess and are reformed, and declared "rehabilitated". Sorta like Patuxent used to be. (Re: Defective Delinquents)
• Can you imagine how much identity theft goes on at other places, especially hospitals, that don't have dedicated investigative units, like Hopkins does? And, most of it is never detected as to the source. It's these clowns who have good jobs (that many people would die for), get greedy, and think that they can go on a spending spree. Oh, and think they're never going to get caught. We celebrate when one does get caught! [By the way, does anyone else notice that thieves and criminals always use their stolen money for goodies, like flat screen TVs, fancy cars, jewelry,  and such---not to pay the BGE bill or put food on the table?]
• We see the president of the FOP is still pursuing the Commissioner on getting cops in uniform to work at bars and nightclubs. Wonder what's up with that? Are our police having trouble putting food on the table? Are they missing the pretty women that much? They are really pissed at him about this. Maybe this is why he acceded to their desires to keep them secret when they shoot and kill. Just to placate them a bit.
• Buz has noticed the Mad River Grille in Federal Hill had a "cattle call", oops, open house for their search for new bouncers at their fine establishment. Hmmm. Wonder why they've had turnover. Could it be getting too rough there without the Off-Duty Cops right outside the door at 2am? (by the way, Buz thinks they're security was pretty good, even without the cops).
• And all the bars at Cordish's Power Plant Live are looking fro security too (along with a bunch of other positions).
• And Buz is still reeling at David Simon's blast at the city police in the current issue of city paper for not revealing the names of officers who kill people. But, David, they're still reporting on city cops who get arrested for stealing stuff, and get fired for beating people up and stuff.
• Wow! That woman police officer opened up on that guy who had her in a headlock after a sergeant shot the guy; she shot him 10-15 times; I'll betcha she was pissed! I guess it's a good thing he was already dead: can you imagine A. Dwight Petit getting hold of her in a legal headlock concerning excessive use of force? It's a strange case on a number of different levels.  

Whew! there's so much going on, there isn't time to write about it all! Comments, please ! ?!

Random, alternative, Iconoclastic thoughts on the Federal Hill brawl

Some thoughts on the "Federal Hill Melee"

• Buz has assisted a number of young professionals who are relocating to Baltimore. The vast majority of them immediately say that they want to live in either Federal Hill, Canton, or Fells Point. Nope, don't wanna look anywhere else! A couple even said they want to be near "the action". Translation: they want to be near lots of people just like themselves, and near lots of young people going to clubs and bars.
• Buz is leery of the "anything goes" atmosphere which accompanies bar-closing time around these bar-intensive areas. Reason: he spent many an early morning near 2am policing the Fells Point bar areas on Friday and Saturday nights (not to mention some other nights, too). If you go to that well often enough, bad things can happen.
• Now, there's nothing in Buz which praises or forgives stabbing people (and potentially almost killing them), but he is just pointing out that this is the nature of the beast. One has to be a tad judicious in living and frequenting these areas. And, in recent years, clubbing has only seemed to get worse and more risky in Baltimore.
• I read the shrill email account of the attack, (all those blanks and blanks and blanks made Buz's head hurt), and I did get the same sense that the police were holding to in the Sun report: there was a dispute. This is not to blame the victims, but there was a holier-than-thou/we are innocently attacked tone to the whole message.
•  A typical bar closing scene: WWWWhoooooooooooo;! Screaming at the top of your lungs in the middle of the street! (the mating cry of the Young Urban Professional male, who has imbibed past inhibition stage). Hollering, screaming, by the hundreds; peeing on steps; lots of fighting! It's wild! And it's Preakness night! The Infield continues!! Anything goes. Wooooooooooooo! Whoops, I just vomited on that lady's steps! F her! F the police.
• Newsflash to Young Urban Professionals: the old native Baltimorons don't like you taking over their neighborhoods--and some of them are nasty dirtballs. Don't you all know the neighborhoods after dark belong to the thugs? Are you trying to be better thugs than they are? Call them the Have-no-Blackberry crowd hating and resenting the Blackberry crowds. 
• Buz drove through Federal Hill late on weekend night not too long ago, and was amazed, though not surprised, about the huge crowds taking over the streets, and the yelling and playing in the street. In some posts on other forums Buz has read that people were upset about the lack of protection. For you or from you? Buz has talked to a number of homeowners and business people who want the imbibers protected from thugs, but also want themselves protected from the imbibers. It's hard to have it both ways.
• Buz was amazed that Detective Bailey, the lead investigator in the case, asked for any witnesses "who may have been sober" to contact him. Wow! I have never heard such a public statement about drinking witnesses from a police official before. I wonder if he was able to say it without a trace of sarcasm or irony in his voice.
• Police have not been able to find this MTA bus that was involved in the accident.
• Now, Buz was not there that night, nor has he read any of the police reports, nor has he talked to any of the victims. But he has spent many nights closing down bars--sometimes even off duty, as Buz likes a cool, refreshing, beverage every now and then. At other times, we were on duty and conducting crowd control. Buz has observed that the crowd is in a significantly different mood at 2am, and opposed, to say, 11pm. And significantly more mouthy. Buz sometimes told his shift at roll call, 1130pm before going on the street on Friday or Saturday nights: there's no point in arguing with drunks. Tell them no more than 3 times what you want them to do. If they still don't, there's no point in continuing discussion: either lock them up or walk away.
• "Sir, can you move along, there's been some trouble, here and we need you to go to your car" reply: "You can't tell me what to do! It's a free country! Woooooooooooooo!!"
• "Get out of the street!" reply: "you can't catch me!"
• "F this, F that"!
• My guess that the Southern District midnite shift was a little overwhelmed, and that their extra units had been detailed to the Preakness events and were not available. Or they could have just been busy with fights all over the place; it sounds like there were so many, even traffic couldn't get thru. Allegedly, even the nasties' car couldn't get through. Of course, police overtime might have been cut back--and there went the extra crowd control troops.
• When I was in Southeastern, we always did out best to have extra cops on hand after Preakness, 'cause a lot ot the party goers would come down to Fells Point afterward.
• And Buz is amused that the Young Urban Professionals believe that there is some kind of conspiratorial coverup going on because it wasn't reported. Newsflash: the reporters need days off too; crime happening late Saturday night into Sunday morning is often not reported. Especially on Preakness night. And there are fights and stabbings all over the city, including Fells Point, Canton, and, of course, Fed Hill. Most are not reported in the press.
• Buz is glad that Ms. Ashley Zion is now in a place where, if she likes to fight, there are probably a lot of other women there who can accommodate her. She so far has skated on all her previous assault arrests (several), probably because the complainants didn't show up. What set her and her friends off? Your consultant believes: she feels she was "disrespected" by the victims' group somehow (whether she was or not), she was probably legally drunk, she thought the yelling for her to stop was a form of snitching,  and betch, 2-1, she was coked up--a symptom of which in uncontrolled anger and hotheadedness. By the way, did anybody see that she has a judgment against her by her past bail bondsman: Big Girlz Bail Bonds. Well, maybe it's just as well she is on "no bail" for her current charges. And hoopefully with all those charges on her, she just might do a little snitching herself to save herself.

I know that most peojple who go to the bar/club scene are just out to have a good time, but sometimes it gets out of hand; part of the action.

So a couple of tips for safer barhopping in Fells Point, Canton, Federal Hill and other party spots: [No tips available for Preakness infield; if you go, may God have mercy on your soul!]

• Not much good happens after midnight. The later you stay, the higher your risks.
• Try to leave to head for home at 1 am--no later. This policy will be your best bet.
• Know and expect that things will be wild between 1:30 and 2:30am; thus, don't expect police to be around or to protect you, or come quickly.
• Keep your mouth shut; unless a comment is absolutely friendly, don't say anything to baltimorons you don't know. Accidents, fights, other sorts of bullcrap: just ignore it and get out of the way.
• Try not to hang at places which cater to thugs. If you feel afraid at times, you don't belong there.
• Remember, many Baltimorons without Blackberrys also have little brains, but often carry weapons and a need for respect. To the extent possible, be nice to them: survive and prevent harm.