Club Choices for Sale!

It appears that Club Choices is for sale for $25 million. The ad states that it has 3 unique licenses-the only night club in Maryland to do so: Adult Entertainment License (strippers, etc.?), an after hours license (hmmm. not much good happens after midnight, Brian Billick told the Ravens last spring), and a regular ole Baltimore City Liquor License.

Sounds like the perfect spot for Buz to open up his Vice Mall: Inside, anything goes: strip club, deprecations of all kinds, fights to the death, prostitution, all drugs ala Hampsterdam, and of course slots. Buz will be in charge of security and happily pay taxes on it to support education, horse, racing, etc, blah blah blah. He predicts that it will be so successful that Magna Entertainment will not have to have slots anywhere else. And the ad says that zoning will allow building up to 80 stories: the world's first high-rise Vice Mall! Just imagine: no new taxes for the next 10 years for the already wealthiest state in the country. Conventions, here we come.......Get in on it! 

"Crime Decline" in Charm City

Well, so far, it seems Baltimore is hanging on to its "low crime" start of the year. We had the lowest number of homicides in January in many years. Is the criminal justice system turning around? Or is this some wretched pure randomness? We'll see. The criminals, it appears, are just starting to prepare for their "spring offensive".  Though the numbers are down, there are plenty of violent incidents still out there.

We can speculate that Commissioner Bealefeld is following some of the policy prescriptions of David Kennedy, whom I heard speak at Friends School last fall. Fred Bealefeld was there to listen--though he left about halfway through (accompanied by Adam Walinsky of Police Corps fame.)

Kennedy is famous for his implementation of the Boston CeaseFire Project--which dropped their homicides dramatically. (They went crazy last year when their murders crept back up to 60). His key points were: that there are only a small number of extremely active, extremely violent individuals (i.e., more than 35 arrests) who lead violent groups. And unless these individuals are brought under control, violent crime will be difficult to reduce.

"Sales People" on ListServes

Recently one of my colleagues on a Campus Law Enforcement List Serve bemoaned the fact that "sales people" troll the list serve and somehow look for clients, thereby are harassing him, and he is tired of it. (I'm paraphrasing here.) Another person chimed in agreeing wholeheartedly. A third person exclaimed "Dito! Dito!" (his spelling).

 

Well, gee, the person did not give any evidence of the abusive behavior, if any, of this sales person or in fact what they were  selling. And, gee, he could politely say he is not interested, and hang up, or ignore the letter, or ignore the email.

And: news flash for members of the list serve: the "contractors, vendors, and sales people" would not be on the list serve unless your association gave them access. And these "associate members" , like me, pay big bucks to be such. I doubt IACLEA's management would agree to kick them off the List Serve.

Living is selling. Many small business people, like myself, subscribe to professional organizations in order to keep up with what's going on in the field, and yes, to get leads for possible business. If you notice, McDonald's, Pepsi, and your local car dealer never stop advertising.

But perhaps these folks are in secure, stable, employment making big bucks so that they'll never need to retire or start a second career, or, even start a business where they have to sell something. So, Buz understands, and asks for their compassion--at least a little. On the other hand, the consultant has compassion for them, too, since unwanted sales attempt can be annoying.

Burglars ripping and running

It's come to my attention, that, apparently, a lot ob burglars simply take the siren of your residential alarm and rip it off the wall--to shut the darn thing up. A resident of Mt. Washington just told Buz about this happening during a burglary at his home a while back.  Apparently, this was done recently at several burglaries during the recent wave of B&E's in Pigtown. The consultant recommends that prevention against burglaries be a defense in depth. Alarms have to be supplemented with good doors, windows, locks, and lighting systems. One will not be able to deny them entrance completely and indefinitely, but the object is to deter, delay, and detect their intrusion.

Many burglars, research has shown, shy away from houses which have alarms, but, of course, it is unknown how high this percentage is. But most hard-core burglars will know that they have a window of 5 to perhaps 15 minutes before arrival of police. The siren is only useful at times. So, it's important that alarms be such that the intrusion is detected pretty early, and your locks or grates keep the perpetrators out so long that they don't want to risk apprehension or simply give up and go somewhere else.

Recent crime reports: City College, Quarry Lake

Just reported:

A student at Baltimore City College was robbed last Thursday in broad daylight at 4pm as he was walking between the tennis courts to his car on the Loch Raven side of the school. He was approached by 5 teenagers--one armed with brass knuckles and another armed with a knife. (Courageous Baltimore thugs like the odds in their favor a bit.) One did the standard pre-robbery  question: do you know what time it is? When the kid answered it was about 4, the young gentleman said: you know that because you have a cell phone on you; give it to me. So the young student gave it up. He then got away from them and reported it to our crack, elite Baltimore School Police (there were 4 of them on duty!). They were able to swoop up and grab 2 out of 5, but no weapons or cell phone on those young lads. Our victim very ethically declined to identify the perps as the ones, because he couldn't be sure.

Buz says: Clearly 4 school police on site at such a relatively small property, in daylight, should have been able to prevent this kind of crime. Betcha: 3-1, they were all together in one spot laughing, joking, shooting the breeze, talking on their cell phones, and checking websites. I hope I'm wrong, but betcha there isn't much supervision going on once the school day is over.

Buz advice to school system: send out trusted or objective people out to your scattered sites to see what your folks are up to and if they're earning their overtime money. Betcha 4-1, it ain't gonna happen.

Also: just in: Up at Quarry Heights, the swank new development off Greenspring, someone stole all their flat screen TVs earlier this year, sounding very similar to the burglaries at Boys Latin and Bryn Mawr. The consultant just wishes these electronic techs could find some decent construction type job so they don't have to use their skills this way. Crime tip for businesses, especially new ones: watch your contractors like hawks--unless you've been doing business with them for a long time. Wish it weren't true, but a lot of contractors have a network of scuzzy (that's a technical term) buyers for their "aftermarket" for various goods. Hope you all enjoyed the super bowl real good, guys. Remember, all you users of fancy electronic stuff, the walls have eyes, and the eyes of ne'er do wells just can't take themselves off of electronics. And at the same time, they're looking around to see what if any security you have--if any. Don't tell them! For reasons of security, we don't discuss our security. 

New Developments in Security around the Baltimore area

1. Apparently, the burglaries at Bryn Mawr and Boys' Latin earlier in the year have evolved into becoming "whodunits": it now appears that unless the stolen property suddenly appears somewhere, this case will never be solved. I wonder about what, if anything, the two schools are doing with their contract security service-Abacus.
2. Buz suggested that the rear door of Alonso's needed additional securing after a server was robbed on a smoke break a couple of weeks ago. Eddie installed several powerful lights and video cameras in the immediate area.
3. The rape of the Roland Park woman  last summer has apparently become a "whodunit" along with that of the GEDCO employee, and now the city school student who was reportedly waiting for a bus at 33rd and Greenmount.
4. Article in the Sun reports that landlords have a website they can go to to find out about bad tenants. Consultant feels that if proper tenant checking is done, one will not have to  use such a website--usually. The first step is getting good ID and security deposit from the tenant, as well as a check of employment and past references. Try not to rely on phone numbers the prospective gives you for employers.
5. Did you know that landlords are the most-sued of all businesses?
6. The Reader's Digest just did a survey of college security situations and our Johns Hopkins Homewood came out #1 in the country. Loyola was #14. Kudos to former Secret Service honcho Ed Skrodzki at Hopkins and "Colonel" Tim Fox at Loyola.
7. MICA is looking for a new Director of Campus Safety. Applications close this week.
8. The Sun had a chilling article that the murder of Correctional Officer David McGuinn may have been ordered by corrupt guards--his colleagues. Buz wondered why no one could explain, right after his murder, why or who ordered his return to the tier after threats were made against him. And everything about that was all hush-hush. What's up with all that. Now the AG's office doesn't want anything released to the killer's defense attorneys about the alleged CO's personnel records. Well, forget that..........what about the killer's allegations. Of course, all those cell phones the gangsters in jail buy, and have, and use have to somehow get into and be used in the institutions somehow. Hmmmm.
9. Poor new fire chief Clack is coming to Bmore, and making the same mistake former Commissioner Frazier did. He's not bringing in several new command staff members to watch his back. I wish him well, but the signs area not hopeful, especially since they don't believe in para-military style discipline in Minneapolis (though it has failed us several times in Baltimore recently.)
10. Dan Rodricks has another article over the weekend about prisoners wanting help to get jobs, etc. when they get out. Buz suggests one solid thing which might help: DOC should ensure that each inmate, before they get out, has a Maryland State ID, and a Social Security card. I see lots of ex-offenders who don't have either or neither. Also, the first week they are incarcerated is the time to start working with them to get ready to get released, not their last few weeks: I'm talking GED, drug treatment, and life skills. I've learned that the vast majority are not interested til they start thinking near the ends of their sentences. Well, people make decisions!

Thoughts on the double murder near MICA

Buz has some strange eclectic thoughts about the shooting on Mt. Royal Avenue the other night in which two people were killed:

• Buz knows you're not supposed to blame the victim, but if an arrest is ever made in this case, experience shows that those charged will be very similar in many respects to the driver-victim: male, criminal record (long), a ne'er do well, unemployed, and just wandering around the city getting in trouble. Oh, sorry, he was just looking to turn his life around.
• Ok, so the argument with the guys in the green Jetta started around North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue. HMMMMMM. Everybody knows that they're selling real hot and heavy around there: coke and weed and sex all up and down the Avenue. One of Buz's recent clients told him that she doesn't want to go the library at North and Pennsy because she's trying to stay clean and there's too many people dealing around there.
• So, the consultant will venture a guess that they were driving around looking to cop, when they got into a beef near North & Pennsy with the Jetta-boys.
• By the way, what's a grown man "from Harford County" doing drifting around in the city with a 16-year old girl from Dundalk and two male teenagers in the back seat. Paper says they were friends. Huh? Ok, I know, he was running an after-school program, and they were all looking for jobs.
• I wonder, since he appeared to be unemployed, and had an address in Harford County, who was paying for his car, insurance, gas, and other living expenses.
• Buz sees that he had a lengthy criminal record, including domestic violence. He has dealt with a few domestic violence offenders and while most are ok, a large minority are very pushy, bossy, and hard-headed (sorta like Buz!--once in a while). Buz couldn't but wonder if he encountered a couple of guys who not did like to feel they were being disrespected and "punked out". 
• That service drive off of Mt. Royal is very dark in that block; it's not terribly surprising the thugs in the Jetta decided to make their move there. (Most of the side streets near MICA are dark).
• The Sun said that the incident happened two blocks from MICA. Well, yes, if you go by MICA's mailing address; but the college owns houses in that block in which students and some faculty reside; and it is only a half-block or so to one of MICA's dorms.
• Cops are keeping tight lips on this case--not saying if the Jetta, found in Northwest, was reported stolen or not or whether they have any prints or other evidence in it. I saw from TV that two of our best homicide detectives were on the scene: the black guy, whose name escapes me who was the hero when the woman in Roland Park got abducted and thrown in her car's trunk, and Dennis Raftery who is a good cop and used to work for me in Northwest. (He's from New York, like Ed Norris).
• The consultant notes that, a far as he knows, the other two recent fatal "road rage" incidents have not resulted in arrests: the shooting of the Pakistani cab driver in Charles Village, nor the Christmas shooting of the woman on Orleans Street near Hopkins hospital.