Crime Victim's Week

Buz has learned that this past week was National Crime Victim's Week, and he didn't do anything about it. Yikes!

So, to make up for it, Buz, an Independent Security Consultant who is non-product-related, will offer crime victims answers to one little tidbit of a security question-free. Bloggers can comment and ask right here on my Blog or you can email me directly at jerry@buzoncrime.com. I'll do my best to answer crime and security-related questions with a "tidbit" of an answer to all you crime victims out there. (Sorry, I won't give away the store---a detailed analysis of your complex problem.)

Of course, there are hardly any crime victims out there, are there?

Crime and Security in Baltimore: random thoughts

I just learned that the needle exchange program in Hampden has been quietly moved for lack of attendance. Well, gee, who woulda thunk? After some back and forth negotiations with the neighborhood honchos, the Health Department located the van in the 3800 block of Buena Vista Avenue. And nobody came. Guess what, guys? The Fraternal Order of Police offices are in the next block! And, you know, cops and junkies don't really mix very well. So, it's no surprise that the program ended.

It's not that there's no drug use in Hampden--there's plenty. You can see them all up and down Falls Road with glazed eyes and hanging out waiting for the stuff to get there or for a ride to where it's at.

The Health Department started the program because of the high number of emergency room visits for overdoses from Hampden.

Liquor store held up

A liquor store in North Baltimore was held up a couple of weeks ago by an armed hoodlum. It happened just about dusk at 7pm. The thug sensed the two employees in the store were not cooperating, and were contemplating resistance with their attitudes. So the robber puts the gun on a woman customer, and they gave it up. This was their second armed robbery in less than a year. The earlier one, last summer, ended when a muscular employee tackled and pushed the robber out the door, and slammed him on the ground, causing the gun to go off. After a brief struggle, the thug broke free and escaped, pausing briefly to fire a shot at the employee. A citizen of the area saw this going down and followed the two miscreants to a car on Falls Road; he took down the tag number and returned to the store to give to the police. They were able to make two arrests that same day. One guy got 10 years, the other 5. Despite that, the store still got held up again.

Now, the security consultant sees several issues with the design of the store. One cannot look in and see the register very easily, and for the most part the inside of the store is isolated from outside view. Thus, the store lacks what security consultants call "natural surveillance". The big decision most criminals make is whether or not they're going to get caught. Natural surveillance makes them think twice. Buz to store owners in retail everywhere: increase your natural surveillance.

Crime and Security in Baltimore: random thoughts

There's been soooooo much happening with crime and security stuff in Baltimore and elsewhere that it's' been hard to keep up!

• A teacher's beating on a cell phone camera, which occurred in Reginald F. Lewis High School, is alarming and disturbing--but not entirely surprising at at all. Fighting is apparently an elective at many of the city's zoned high schools. Sheesh. Doesn't that young woman teacher know that? When she told the student to sit down, and she didn't, that was it: the teacher could have told her to leave (the girl probably wouldn't have) or just ignored her and kept on going with her lessons. I hate to say it, but the dumb principal was right in one respect: once you say you're "going to defend yourself", that's a trigger word to these street thugs who just wanna fight. By the way, why didn't the principal report the incident? Betcha, 6-1, because word has come down from Dr. Alonso that our "children" need to be in school, not suspended--and she didn't want her own lack of control in the building to be noticed. (Also, she was probably saving her suspensions for when she "really" needed them.) Besides, don't these city teachers know that fighting skills are important for them as well?
• Buz has learned from an informed source that "hallwalkers" are really getting prevalent at Reginald F. Lewis, now that the weather has turned warm. Hallwalkers are "students" who check into the school, but don't go to some or any of their classes. They walk the halls of the building all day. Ok, sometimes they run when they see an Assistant Principal or School Police. It's very sad. I see the results every day when I work as a vocational coach at a nonprofit: folks who dropped out of high in order to participate in the fun of the halls, then the streets. They never go back for a GED, and then years later, they lament the fact that they can only get the very lowest level laborer jobs (or too often, no job at all). I spoke with one man who lamented that he was 40 years old, and was washing dishes at a local hospital and he felt awful about it. Well, he had no GED, several arrests, no real work history, and wondered why, perhaps, the hospital wasn't having him help with the surgery.
• Your consultant tried to teach a couple of classes at Walbrook High School a few years ago, to the Criminal Justice students, no less. Neither I nor my Community Service Officer could control the class for even 5 minutes. The class would not stop talking or fooling around. We eventually gave up and showed them a movie. Because we were not their regular teacher, they felt they owed us no respect or attention: it wasn't going to be on the test. 
• Baltimore has several "elite" high schools, which require standards to get in and stay in: City, Poly, School for the Arts, Western, Carver and Mervo. If they did not exist, the entire school system would collapse and many middle class families  would move out. 
• This teacher beating came on the tube the same day that the news broadcast a story about 8-10 kids attacking two others with lacrosse sticks (this is Baltimore, after all). It even showed the attackers running. (Not back into the school, though). And then it showed them running into a building where an adult came out and was showing and  pointing a rifle (this is Baltimore, after all). Police said that part was unfounded. Huh? I guess he was just demonstrating his right to bear arms. 
• All of this means that if you are relocating to Baltimore, you must find out where the good schools are at the elementary/middle level and move to that area. For example, the Tuxedo Park and Roland Park areas are zoned for Roland Park Elementary and Middle Schools-which are good and have a high level of parent involvement. Otherwise, you must go the parochial or private school route.

The Sun's story on criminals who get murdered while not apprehended

I am not sure I understand the implications of the Sun's story this morning about the thug who, though 18, had been committed to a juvenile facility in  Pennsylvania, and was murdered after he walked away/escaped. The article seems to suggest that because the police did not arrest him quick enough, they were somehow responsible for his being murdered. The article also mentions a bunch of other juvies who were murdered while they violated home detention. Well, gee, they shoulda stayed home.

This particular car-jacking thug got away from the place in Pa. causing Buz to wonder:

• How'd he get back to Baltimore? He sure as heck didn't walk down 83.
• What's his girlfriend see in him anyway? Supposedly, she dropped him off at the place on Wilkens Avenue just before he got killed. Maybe he had a source for some good weed. On the other hand, she might have set him up.
• He was supposedly afraid of being shot and killed since he was shot 3 times on a previous occasion. Well, gee, if he was so afraid, why didn't he stay up in Pa. till his juvie sentence was up. So much for learning from experience, I guess.
• He got a call on his cell phone. How's he got the money for his cell phone, or do they issue them at the juvie place? Sounds like somebody is/was enabling him.
• What's a carjacker doing in an insecure facility, anyway?

I just think the implication that the police didn't arrest him fast enough to keep him from getting killed is a little far fetched. You know, people make decisions, and sometimes those decisions have consequences. My guess is that he was heavily involved in the drug trade in Baltimore, much like our two recent kidnapping victims from Catonsville.

On one level I feel compassion for his since he was abandoned by his parents at an early age, and had the deck stacked against him. However, on another level, he was wily enough to arrange his escape, engage in carjacking before that, get and learn how to use a cellphone, and make enemies enough who wanted to kill him (and they did).  If he had lived, he would have contributed mightily to those city's lousy crime rate.

The Cynical Chronicles: In Memory...

See thought of the Baltimore Cynic regarding Zach Sowers' murder at his blog:

The Cynical Chronicles: In Memory...

Buz has some random thoughts:

*From what I read of the evidence, the case against dirtball Trayvon was pretty weak as to his specific involvement-absent the testimony of his three cronies. No one really knows what happened except Zach and them. So the prosecutors had to roll with what they had. Most city prosecutors work hard to salvage the best they can from their cases, and must weigh the risks against an unknown result from a jury trial. Most prosecutors in the city, I have found to be dedicated public servants. (By the way, Buz still believes that most juries try to do the right thing most of the time, some well-publicized cases excepted.) At least now we know that Mr. Trayvon and his bunkies are now in a place where if they like to fight, there'll probably someone there to accommodate them. Maryland's prisons are incubators of violence. My guess is that they're really not tough guys, because probably all four were involved in the robbery. Most likely sissies playing at being tough.

*It is hard to believe that when I read the website City-Data and its Baltimore Forum, and then read Baltimore Crime blog, that we are talking about the same city. Check it out for yourselves and see the gushing civic boosterism. Buz to jonjj: It was good that you suggested that a newcomer to Baltimore might not want to venture too far west from Eutaw Place.  This was the first instance I saw when you didn't declare every part of the city mentioned to be wonderful.

*Baltimore has a persistent criminal street culture that goes back many years. If I knew what to do about it, I would make a lot more money than I do now. But I hope that people will take note that after dark, in most parts of the city, the streets belong to the thuggie-wuggies, (they're not cuddly for sure). The criminal justice system is mostly broken, and the police department, sad to say, is mostly broken. I'm glad to see that the Southeast District investigators in this case earned Anna's praise for their hard work.

Security Updates

• The victim of the home invasion/rape in Roland Park last summer has finally returned home. There have been no arrests since the first suspect was released.
• Friends School has suffered the same fate as Bryn Mawr and Boys' Latin: an early-morning burglary with a projector stolen.
• The Bassett family of Roland Park has sued General Growth Properties, owner/operators of TowsonTown Center, as well as Allied Barton Security as a result of the murder of William Bassett, a faculty leader at St. Paul's school which occurred in the mall's parking garage nearly three years ago.
• GEDCO finally got a visit from the police and is apparently determined to stay in their present location despite the recent rape/robbery of an employee last fall and other earlier crimes.
• Charles Village had an inaugural "Citizens on Patrol" walk in order to kick off a COP program there with a lot of dignitaries and the Commish. Now comes the hard part: organizing and keeping a citizens on patrol group running and getting and keeping volunteers to keep doing it.