What makes this one unique is that they got Snoop! And pictures.
Tag: Baltimore
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Tow Me
So here’s the longer storyin the Sun.
What I don’t get (there’s a lot I don’t get), is how could officers get a kick-back of $300 per car? The tow company would need to charge more than that. And the article says that approved towers are only charging $130-$140 dollars.
When I needed to tow a car, it was pretty simple. You tell dispatch you need a tow. A moment or two later KGA (dispatch) would tell you to wait for one of three(?) companies that towed from the Eastern. And then you waited. And waited. And eventually a nice older man would show up and tow the car. End of story.
Seventeen Baltimore Police Officers have been charged (just 5 live in Baltimore City). Eleven or 12 have hispanic names. Normally I wouldn’t point out the ethnicity… except that the B.P.D. made a big recruiting effort in Puerto Rico a few years back. I’m not certain how many officers were hired. I assume most are good officers. I’m also assuming (but do not know for sure) that many if not most of these arrested officers were part of that recruiting push.
I mention all this because I’ve heard bad things about these officers since the day they were hired. But since I know none of them personally, I’ve been a bit dismissive of these complaints, considering them more likely to be rooted in anti-Puerto Rican attitudes than in any actually fact.
I might have been wrong.
If there’s a moral in this (other than to trust what my friends tell me), perhaps it’s this: do not hire too many officers at the same time. If you do, you will have to lower standards. If you lower standards, you will hire bad cops. It’s not like this is the first time this has ever happened (Miami and New York City have had similar experiences). It’s not unique to Baltimore. Or, for that matter, Puerto Rico. Though as US citizens go, the police in Puerto Rican do seem to have more than their fair share of problems.
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The old gun-check ruse…
A “dozen or more” B.P.D. arrested?! Peter Hermann of the Sunreports:
a federal corruption probe that involves an improper relationship with a Baltimore towing company, sources said.
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The officers were arrested today at the police academy after being called in under the guise that their firearms needed to be checked.
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Multiple sources say the officers are mostly from the Northeast District and many of them are officers who were recruited years ago in a push to bring in Latino officers from Puerto Rico. That information could not immediately be confirmed. -
The Racial Reality
Using the Baltimore Sun’sfun interactive homicide chart, these are the sad and politically incorrect totals for 2010:
223 homicides: 202 black (91%), 13 white, 5 Hispanic, 1 Asian, 2 unknown(?).
Overall, the 2009 population of Baltimore is estimated to be 63% African American and 33% white. So roughly, the black homicide rate (50) is eight times the white homicide rate (6.2 — which isn’t that much higher than the national average of 5.4 per 100,000).
Is there a moral? I don’t know, but certainly we can do better. It’s also clear you can’t talk about this homicide problem without talking about race, and people don’t want to talk about race. Merely broaching the subject can get you labeled as racist. Who wants that? And hell, why should you care? It’s just “them” killing each other, right? And maybe you, no matter your race, moved out of the city a long time ago precisely to get away from this problem. It’s certainly an understandable reaction. But it’s not part of the solution.
Unless we do something major in terms of changing our drug policy, investing in police, and yes, even spending money on job creation, the killings will continue. These are choices we make. And mostly we choose to do nothing. So the killings continue.
This isn’t a local problem; it’s a national disgrace.
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You gotta be kidding me
Dog-burning case will be tried again
Jurors deliberated for more than 20 hours over three days, but couldn’t agree on a verdict. One juror wasn’t convinced of the brothers’ guilt in the attack, leading to a mistrial.
It was the longest animal-cruelty trial ever held in the city.
You tried, you didn’t win. Guilty or not, it’s time to move on. Like I’ve said before: this is not a good use of scarce prosecutorial or judicial resources.
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I Miss Baltimore Crab Cakes
I was at a good fish store on 9th Avenue in Manhattan yesterday and bought a pound of good fresh Maryland crab meat (non-lump, $16). So for breakfast today I made crab cakes. They were good. Delicious. Fried in butter. But still not even closeto as good as you can get at Faidley’s or almost any other place in Baltimore. What isthe secret?
I think it’s time soon to head south and get my fix.
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Animal cruelty and crocodile tears
Jean Marbella has a good column in the Sun regarding trial of two brothers accused of torching a pit bull in West Baltimore in 2009:
Somehow, I feel It’s come to this: The rest of us turn our backs on these neighborhoods, and the blue-light camera is the only one still looking.
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No similar urgency for justice swells up around most crimes in Baltimore, the largely anonymous shootings and other mayhem that afflict some neighborhoods on a near-daily basis. The reason, some will say, is because Phoenix was totally innocent and so often the human victims aren’t.I have no problem with innocent victims (people who don’t know the criminal and weren’t doing something criminal at the time) getting more sympathy than non-so-innocent victims. But I do find something slightly disturbing when people care more about animal suffering than human suffering. It’s all just a bit too precious for me.
Of course there are animals being hurt in this world right now. (It reminds me of some friends in Bali last year telling me, “Of course we kill and eat dogs–but only the bad ones.”) But to cry over animal suffering while ignoring human suffering? I don’t get it. Only one-in-twentyfelony prosecutions ends up in trial. I mean, of all the crimes in Baltimore, is this really a good use of limited resources? Right now this same courtroom would better be used to prosecute someone who has inflicted human cruelty.
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RIP William H. Torbit Jr.
Officer Torbit’s funeral was yesterday. It must have been painful.
Meanwhile on Tuesday night, another officer, a homicide detective, was shot. What a friggin’ job.
I’ll be back in the U.S. in a week. Everything seems very distant from here in Bangkok.
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Tragedy in Baltimore
Plain clothed friendly fire police shooting.
[please don’t post stupid or disrespectful comments, or respond to those who do.]