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Category: Police

  • In Memory of Marcellus Ward

    In Memory of Marcellus Ward

    Ward was killed 25 years ago. His assassination and last dying breaths were caught on tape and haunted the memory of many Baltimore police officers, some of whom I worked with.

    At a memorial, held where Ward was killed, Commissioner Bealefeld said that it is “not for us to judge the results of his sacrifice.” And certainly a memorial to a slain officer is notthe time and place for that.

    But at some point we needto ask. Why are we risking our lives? What are we getting in return? If we don’t ask these questions, more good men and women will die.

    The block Ward give his life to protect has long since died. Like too much of Baltimore, it’s vacant, boarded up, and abandoned. Here’s the 1800 block of Frederick, odd side. Ward was killed upstairs in the Formstone house in the center with the potential window display:


    By risking his life to protect others, Ward died a hero. That I do not doubt or forget. But it’s hard to imagine that Baltimore or Frederick Avenue would be any worse off today if Ward had simply called in sick that day. And the world would certainly be a better place if Ward and other officers killed in the drug war were still with us. I’ve said this before (to the consternation of some). I don’t want to see any other officers killed for a war we are not winning and cannot win.

    When I put my life on the line every night for the men and women of the Eastern, I would often think about the fallen officers pictured on the walls. Ward always stood out for some reason. (I’m not making it up that his picture hangs in the Eastern, am I?) From what I heard he was a good guy. And from his picture, he just seemed more human than most other cops pictured.

    Police Commissioner Bealefeld is a good man and the best commissioner Baltimore City has seen in a long while, certainly better than the previous five commissioners (I’ll only vouch for worse commissioners as far back to and including Frazier). Maybe Bealefeld even gets it when he talks about the war on drugs and the “seemingly impossible task” of winning it? Who knows. But the war isn’t his to call off.

    Here is Peter Hermann’s takeand his story in the Sun with the sad headline: “At memorial, a new vow to wage war on drugs.”

  • Uh, you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here?

    “Party is over, guys….”

    Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to invite the neighborhood drug dealers to your place to watch the game.

    The guests staying for three days, sold drugs out of his living room, and bound and tortured the guy by pouring boiling water and pennies over his naked body.

    Boiling pennies?! Where do they think of these things?

  • Ha!

    From the Washington Post:

    Correction

    Thursday, December 3, 2009

    A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number.

  • In Defense of Huckabee

    I like his Moxie. Seriously:

    “If he were a white kid from an upper middle class family he would have gotten a lawyer and some counseling,” Huckabee said. “But because he was a young black kid he got 108 years.”

    Huckabee said the sentence was “far disproportionate from any other punishment in Arkansas at the time for a similar crime.”

  • Maurice Clemmons shot dead

    Good shooting. Good riddance. Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper has a good analysis:

    Clemmons, nursing a two-day old bullet wound to the stomach, having killed four cops already and facing at least life in prison, frantically searching for a way out of the state if not the country, and packing one of the dead officers’ sidearms, would have beyond a shadow of doubt murdered again. There and then.

    He was denied that chance. Whether Clemmons was seeking cover to pull the gun and fire, or about to flee, the officer did precisely the right thing. It was not a “cold-blooded murder,” as at least one reader has asserted. It was a courageous and necessary act.

  • Mayor Dixon Convicted of One Misdemeanor

    She was acquitted of more serious charges. The jury deliberated 7 days.

    A bunch of stories in the Sun.

  • “Dupe” badges

    Seems like everybody in the NYPD is doing it.

    And so what? The whole concept is strange to this former Baltimore police officer. So is the language.

    I had three real badges when I was cop. They give you one, for your shirt or jacket. You need to pay for others. One other you need, for the wallet. I also got one more, one suitable for framing, a so-called plaque badge. The wallet badge is also a plaque badge (flat) with the pins cut and filed off. When I quit, I turned one of them in. You do the math.

    But cops know that the badge isn’t the big deal. It’s the “credentials” that matter. I had but one of those. And I turned it in like a good boy.

  • “This is the day I’ve been dreading for a long time”

    And it’s the fault of the Republicans!

    Imagine the conservative anger if Maurice Clemmons–armed robber, child rapist, messianic apocalypse believer, bad neighbor, and now cop killer–had been been granted clemency by some Democraticgovernor! Some criminal-loving cop-hating commie Democrat politician.

    Maybe with proper mental health care this never would have happened. Clemmons is clearly a guy who needed to be confined in a prison or mental hospital. And maybe if it weren’t for some of the other 2.3 million people behind bars (like the drug offenders), Clemmons would still be incarcerated.

    Regardless, I’m happy that the governor who commuted his lengthy prison sentence “over the protests of prosecutors” is a Republican. Do I think Mike Huckabee is personally at fault? No. At least no more than Michael Dukakis was to blame for Willie Horton.

    Had Huckabee been a Democrat, Republicans would be having a field day going after him. Would a Democrat have done something differently and prevented many horrible crimes? No. But at least now I don’t have to listen to some dumbass Republicans blaming Democrats for these cops’ deaths.

    [update: Huckabee isgetting plenty of heat for this.]

  • Support for legal marijuana growing

    Or so says the Washington Post.

    “Seriously,” said Bruce Merkin, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project, an advocacy group based in the District, “there is a reason you don’t have Mexican beer cartels planting fields of hops in the California forests.”

  • Four Police Officers Killed in Ambush

    Holy Sh*t! Talk about an unwelcome back to the ol’ US of A.

    Guns, folks. Guns matter. I wonder if four police officers have ever been shot and killed in England. Ever. There was one police funeral in England when I was there, just two days ago. An officer who was killed when a flood-weakened bridge collapsed on him.