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 ! ?!

The mayor's lecture (her crime tip of the day) [probably not the last lecture]

Buz read with interest a recent most by Baltimore's pre-eminent crime blogger on her blog, Baltimorecrime.blogspot.com, concerning the mayor and Police Commissioner's news conference about the huge number of larceny-from-autos in Bmore Towne. My favorite poster titled her blog with something about how our beautiful and fit mayor is trying to drive taxpaying citizens out of Baltimore. My thoughts, strange and iconoclastic as they might be:

• She and the commish were doing nothing more than, say, a security director at a college or university might say or do when a similar crime wave occurs on a campus. Or when they are addressing the incoming Freshman class.
• And, well, it's not really the same thing as taking all your valuables upstairs in your house or bolting your TV to the floor. It's about keeping yourself from being a victim.
• Closing your curtains at night, and taking your wallet, purse, and cellphone upstairs with you might not be a bad idea, though. Sorry, we wish it weren't considered necessary or prudent. But the dum-dum druggie-wuggies are always looking for a quick smash and grab. They know (or think) us educated people aren't going to chase them. For the most part, they're right.
• Like, shouldn't we be warned or told there is a problem, with some ways on keeping from becoming a victim?
• I remember when the Virginia Tech thing went down: everybody whined afterward that the police didn't "announce" or "notify" the community of the potential problem on campus. (Though the police thought that they simply had a domestic murder, and in fact had a suspect in custody) {The killer had already been taken into custody by police on a previous occasion for psych evaluation.}
• Ok; I can see where one might think we're being blamed. I choose to look at it as us being warned: the criminals are out there prowling around; protect your property. Unfortunately, to use a basketball metaphor, the criminal bench in Baltimore is deeper than the police/criminal justice bench. There are many copies! 
• Why wasn't Sydnor in jail? Who knows? These guys all get "credits" from the moment they walk in the hoosegow, in addition to good behavior credits. The brains down at the General Assembly call them "diminution credits"-sort of a form of derivatives and structured investment vehicles for jail, I guess.
• The truth is: there aren't enough prisons to hold all our criminals for full sentences; the citizens of the wealthiest state in the country don't wanna pay for nothin'. So, we know have diminution credits, good behavior time, parole, and probation.
• Truth is and has been: the policy priority of the city is stopping/preventing murders and shootings. This latest emphasis on larceny-from-auto is a welcome event. Let's move from there to robbery!
• I recently spoke to a Goucher senior who is one of the few of that clan who live off campus--in Charles Village, no less (next to downtown, CV has to be the world's epicenter for larceny-from-auto). She told me that last week her car window was smashed and the miscreant pawed around and thru the high level of trash she had in the car. She had nothing of value in the car. What's up with that!? We guess that in the Village, the propensity for finding a goody in a random vehicle is so high that it pays to just pick em and smash. Perhaps a Hopkins statistician could work out the algorithm in a perp's mind on this. Or perhaps he thought he saw something. Or perhaps he saw her cig lighter was missing: aha, electronic device! Or perhaps the car glass repair place needed some business. Your consultant says: I dunno. (a technical term).
• But the sad truth is: criminal activity in Baltimore, unlike some places, is "legitimized", or excuses  made for, and a weak, overwhelmed criminal justice system struggles to deal with it. 
• In the meantime, the city and its law-abiding inhabitants suffer.
• All we can do is to minimize our own risk by taking all of our goodies out of the car, or putting them in our trunk BEFORE leaving to go to our destination, NOT after arriving at our destination.
• By the way, Buz is really, really amazed at how many people leave valuable stuff in their cars, though of course no one deserves to be victimized. It's  like, well, college! We all went to our safe, protected, pretty, rural, isolated campuses and nobody ever locked their doors or anything! And, now, somebody stole my stuff!! I don't get it. I guess Baltimore is really successful at projecting this wonderful image of beauty and inspired architecture, and sophisticated urban-ness, and stuff. So, really, the mayor should be bragging about what a great place this is, how safe it feels, and it's great that people perceive that Bmore is the safest city in America. Now, let's stop locking our doors, and go out on foot wherever and jog with headphones on by ourselves. And read! Um, I think I'll lock my doors to my house tonight.

The fights: City versus Mervo:scary school days

Buz has read with interest Sara Neufeld's article and blog in the Sun about the fights between kids who "attend" Mervo and "attend" City College here in Baltimore. Some commenters think that it's nothing and shouldn't even have been reported. Sorry: I disagree.

• It seems that these weren't really "fights" at all: merely group attacks on lone students who appeared to be associated with the Other School. (Rodney King: "can't we all just get along"?) Typically, these  cowards find a student who is alone and attack as a group. It appears that a group of City students did just that--injuring a Mervo student.  Did they attack him because he did something to them or were they just out to find somebody to "bank"? Then, later, a group of Mervo students went to beat up on a City student.
• City and Mervo are supposed to be two of the city's elite high schools, where students have to apply to get in and somehow be screened before being accepted. Wonder how Dr. Alonso's new policy will apply if the "investigation" finds a group of City students were the attackers/instigators here. We wonder if they would be expelled and sent to their zoned high school? He has recently stated that students in these schools couldn't be kicked out under standards used in the past. The schools are supposed to "work with" these students and not just flunk them out. Wonder if assaults perpetrated off school grounds mean anything. [We think Dr. Alonso is a great guy, but if the city's select high schools (City, Poly, Western, School for the Arts, Carver, Dunbar and yes, Mervo)  evolve to be just like any other of the city's high schools, the middle class in the city, who are committed to public schools, will just move out.]
• We're glad the School Police intervened; perhaps that will put an end to it. Usually warm weather brings a rash of this stuff out, and this is not a good premonition of spring.
• There was a really a scary post by someone claiming to be a teacher at Mervo. Apparently the hall walkers and druggies and gamblers are running amok there. When Buz worked at Walbrook a number of years ago, there were often lots, perhaps dozens, of hall walkers on many days (kids who check into school, but cut one or more or all of their classes, but not the "hundreds" cited by this teacher. I remember there was a disturbance at Mervo last year where a teacher was taken to the hospital. At Walbrook it was not unusual to have fires set in trash cans or in bathrooms {the school was never evacuated and staff put the fires out.}
• Since City's swimming pool (like others at high schools in the city) is not usable, City's swim team has been going up to Mervo to use its pool. Since the heavy street action has occurred, a decision has been made that the team will simply not practice at Mervo since the season is almost over.
• Several posters on Sara's blog indicate that they think this is no big deal, just kids fighting. Your consultant thinks this is a big deal, because these two schools are important in our city. City is surrounded to the east and south by the neighborhood of Coldstream-Harford-Montebello (CHUM), recently one of the most violent in the city last year, and so far this year. A young adult was recently found shot to death just on the edge of  campus on a recent weekend. Last year a student in the Baltimore Algebra Project was murdered at a bus stop just off campus. And to the north of Mervo is the Northwood shopping center, which has struggled with street crime, the scene of Councilman Harris' murder.  So, this tit-for-tat violence could very easily get out of hand. Neighborhood non-student youth could become involved.
• An acquaintance was robbed on school property last year as he left the building after a sports meeting. Though several attackers were arrested, he declined to press charges, since "they know what I look like, and where I go to school." 
• Buz believes that far too little is done to separate violent bullies from the school population. He believes that bullying, harassment, fights, other violence, potential violence and having to travel thru the neighborhoods on Others' Turf is what is a big factor in causing a lot of kids to drop out of school. Of course, we know there are lots of other factors, but this is the biggie-in my humble opinion.

Legalization:public policy to come?

Buz read the article in the Sun about the idea being tried abroad about giving free heroin to drug addicts in the same week as the Michael Phelps  and A-Rod stories broke. And he wondered about the multiple levels of thought occurring about these disparate, yet related events and how, if at all, they might relate to the idea: "oh, why don't we just legalize it!"

We think it's a complicated issue, but the biggie is this: Baltimore, or Maryland, or even the United States, could not unilaterally legalize or even "decriminalize" (what's the dif?) alone. Pretty much, all, if not most, of other countries would have to agree and do the same. When people talk about Prohibition, the key element which seems to me is missing is: almost all the other countries of the world remained "wet", while the U.S. tried to go it alone with being dry.

And, unlike booze, the responsibility for policing what are now "illegal substances" would fall on the private sector, even more than they do now. Drunk employees are easily detected at work (usually, if they show up). Drugged employees are not easily detected, except for those whose lifestyle causes absenteeism, lateness, carelessness, and criminal behavior (not just the criminal possession, either).

The fact is that even now, a large percentage of employers, if not a majority, test for illegal drugs for cause, before hiring, or sometimes even randomly. And Buz detects a growing trend in this direction. He and his fellow security consultants typically urge businesses to do so. Since the majority of thefts from businesses occur via your silent partners in the business (your own employees), this is one way of screening your staff, not only against theft, but with regard to getting reliable and safe workers. And in industry, if you get hurt on the job, you will almost universally be asked to take a drug test; test positive: good luck on you workers' comp claim.

So, while I hear a lot of people saying: we should just legalize it, as a public policy, it would be very difficult to implement (of course, in some cities, like Baltimore, marijuana use is all but decriminalized now). Students of public policy, particularly those in medical fields, are going to have a hard time implementing any kind of legalization here in the near future, Prez O's autobiography notwithstanding. It's a complicated issue, and isn't that simple.

Car break-ins: something not really discussed

Buz read with interest the recent Peter Hermann columns on car break-ins in Baltimore--no doubt a crime which is both widespread and really, really damages Baltimore's economic development and viability as a place to shop and do business.

We read:

• complaints about the police: the lack of patrol; their slow or no appearance, the "failure" to take fingerprints or look at the cameras, etc.
• complaints about the judges and their supposed lack of enforcing the law, with minimal sentences for the guilty thieves, etc., 
• complaints about the lack of drug treatment for the poor thieves, so they can stop themselves from going out to steal again, etc. (Drug treatment is not like going to the doctor and taking a pill: it's a long process of psycho-social personal change and lifestyle).
• complaints about the poor security in the parking garages, where the poor drug-infested thieves are forced to prowl to feed their tummies and bloodstream with food and other goodies, etc. (parking garages are always high-risk security environments).

But here's the thing I found missing from the articles  and letters and posts I read: um, who buys all these nice things that Mr. Sydnor and his drugged buddies steal by smashing your car windows? Huh? Anybody? If there was no market for stolen stuff, the thieves wouldn't steal your stuff. So where does it all go? Nobody seems interested in following up on this aspect. My guess is that the local gendarmes don't really spend a lot of time thinking about this or learning about where the  larceny-from-auto clowns take their stuff to get money for it. I wonder how many get arrested for larceny-from-auto each year in this town? Probably very few. And I wonder how many, if any, are interviewed with a view toward learning where they sell their stuff. Oh, I know, they might be interviewed as to who is selling drugs, or who is murdering someone, maybe. Remember, the policy priority of the city is to stop murders and shootings.

There's a "nice" store a Northern Parkway and Harford Road with a sign or two which boldly exclaim: "We buy anything of value". Hmmmmmmm.

Oh, and it's no accident that most of the folks working the counter at the pawnshop on Greenmount openly wear guns on their side. Maybe because they don't deal with only nice people.

So, when Baltimorons go shopping for stuff do they go to pawn shops or stores that sell anything valuable, or do they buy stuff off the street (hey, buddy, want a cheap GPS?), or in the rest room of a bar [or even right int the bar?]. For folks who do that, if they look in the mirror, they may see some parts of the crime problem which are the most intractable.

Leave Michael alone!

Buz just wishes that the certain members of the media-the gossip clowns-would just leave Michael Phelps alone. The latest brouhaha features a picture of him taking a drag on a bong.

It was first published by one of those infamous British gossip tabloids and I first saw it on Gawker.

Jeeez. Whoever was with Michael in that room and took that picture (probably on a cellphone) has done a tremendous disloyalty to him for what..................? money? fame? a thrill? And just think, Mike thought that whoever he was with were friends of his.

Now, Buz is no advocate of lots of wacky weed smoking (we have enough drugs already, thank you), he smells a whiff of hypocrisy by whoever took and sold the picture, and by the whole sanctimonious reaction of people who are "aghast", when marijuana is widely available almost anywhere, and apparently easily obtained by young people.

Buz to Michael:

1.  ya gotta be careful about what friends you hang out with (you need at least one different friend), 
2. and if you're you (Mr. Michael Phelps)  and bonging grass or hash, you must assume you have no friends while you're doing that.
   

We wish it weren't so, but it is. Wonder how much the bum got paid for giving the picture to the tabloid. And since the weed is still illegal in most places, people who are into that world are by nature deceptive, manipulative, and not trustworthy in that arena. We wish they would stop snitching.

Of course, this incident could spark a whole new conversation about whether or not drugs in general, or wackkkky weed in particular should be legalized. But betcha (2-1), it ain't gonna happen soon. Barbara Tuchman was so right when she said that in general politicians must cater to the right.

And a special curse goes out to the paparazzi and the gossip papers and gossip columnists. One section of Guantanamo should be reserved for them. I think that movie stars, athletes, and political leaders all deserve a modicum of privacy in their personal lives.

By the way, Buz has heard from an informed source that the whole business of bringing home the Las Vegas gal to meet mom for thanksgiving did not happen. And Michael has never worked out at the MAC in Inner Harbor East, with or without a bodyguard. So, it appears that my source and Laura Vozella's sources are somewhat in disagreement. Wonder who's right?

A Case Study of Public Policymaking: not naming the cops

Buz has followed with interest the new policy of the Baltimore Police Department in not, generally, releasing the names of officers who shoot or kill citizens.

As a student of public policy, Buz wonders: how did this policy, of all the things to worry about, come to the fore? What brought it onto the agenda? Why? How many officers were threatened because of shooting suspects?

It appears to have been introduced by a new player walking onto the stage: the department's new Public Information Officer. He said, it mimics policies from other big city departments, including New York and Boston, as well as the FBI. And Commissioner Bealefeld himself gave a reasonable explanation of his concerns in a later interview, talking about how the press contacted a wounded officer's kin shortly after the event.

And he said that there were 23 threats against officers last year. 

However, the press is outraged. And councilman (future mayoral candidate?) Young is outraged. Other council members are outraged.

Now we don't know where Mr. Guglielmi hails from, but it appears that he did not settle into his new job for very long before igniting this controversy, if in fact he was the genesis of this policy. It does, however, appear that he was not terribly sensitive to the political situation surrounding the police and this community. After a year basking in the praise of reducing homicides, was this the right time to start this New Policy? I dunno (a technical term). I am wondering what other students of public policy making think.