Heard it on Facebook. That’s all I know. But it’s a big fire.
Tag: Baltimore
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Baltimore Officer Shot
A one-year veteran was seriously shot on N. Calvert Street early Sunday morning.
He’s expected to survive. I hope he does.
From the Sun:
A man opened fire on him near the downtown nightlife hub, touching off a running gunbattle as tactical officers pursued the suspect up North Calvert Street.
The suspect fled on foot, then sped away in a silver-colored Toyota Camry before crashing into a light pole near Calvert and Franklin streets. Police apprehended him at Mercy Medical Center, where he was seeking treatment for several gunshot wounds.
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Several tactical officers, who patrol the area on weekend evenings, shot at the gunman, firing at least 20 bullets on one city block, police said.
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Court records show that Gross, who was identified as the suspect by law enforcement sources, had been convicted of three prior felonies. A police source said he was on parole for armed robbery at the time of the latest shooting. -
Balto. City Police Reject Contract, 19 to 1
The story by Julie Scharper in the Sun. The contract would have reduced wages by 1.95 percent in exchange for five additional vacation days. The FOP president said, “It’s not just a rejection of the city’s best offer. It’s a rejection of the mayor and her inability to respect what these men and women do for the city every day and every night.”
Now if there’s no new contract, the old one stays in effect, right? When I was there, the city dragged its heals for years on giving us a contract. Now it seems like the shoe is now on the other foot.
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Trick or Treat
Some very good Halloween pics from Baltimore by photojournalist Martha Cooper.
(Though it’s titled “Halloween in da Hood” and from what I can tell — occupied blocks and well maintained buildings — she’s in a pretty decent neighborhood.)[thanks to A.H.]
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RIP Tommy Portz, Jr.
Portz is the first Baltimore City officer to be killed in the line of duty since 2007, and the third city officer killed in less than a month. His funeral is today.
You can read my account of a police funeral on the last two pages of this.
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Two Down in Sector Two
Four killed in 15 hours in Baltimore. Two, I believe, in the Sector Two of the Eastern District.
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A fresh start with a new State’s Attorney?
People normally don’t get very excited over the elections of a State’s Attorney. But the recent election lose of Patricia Jessamy (and victory for Gregg Bernstein) is the most exiting crime-fighting development in Baltimore in many years.
Peter Hermann has a good story in the Sunabout the potential for corporation between police and prosecutors.
In my last poston this, people asked for examples of why Jessamy was no good. I give some in my book, Cop in the Hood. And Hermann provides more examples of the typical B.S. that came from her office:
Another minor and long-forgotten skirmish in what has been a years-long war between Jessamy and most if not all of the six police commissioners who ran the department during her 15-year tenure as Baltimore’s elected top prosecutor.
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She kept a list of officers she deemed untrustworthy and unable to take the witness stand, effectively ending their careers, even if nothing was ever proved.She once required a minimum 30 rocks of crack cocaine or vials of heroin to bring a felony drug charge.
And she had a standing practice of not prosecuting homicides and some other crimes in which police had only one witness, even if there was other evidence.
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[In one case] Her staff agreed to a plea deal and a suspended sentence … even though the victim begged to testify at a trial…. The suspect got out of jail [and two-years later was] charged with robbing three women at gunpoint and abducting a college student.
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A few months ago, a prosecutor dropped a robbery charge against a man…. The suspect was later charged with fatally stabbing Johns Hopkins researcher Steven Pitcairn in Charles Village.Read the whole story here.
Now Everything Jessamy said and did wasn’t crazy. Sometimes she was right. Sometimes police are deserving of criticism and need a little slap to keep them honest and grounded in reality. But it’s possible to criticize police and still be pro-police. Jessamy wasn’t. With her constant harassment, Baltimore cops didn’t work better. We get demoralized and wondered why we’re putting our life on the line. I worked hard and her office let people walk. Why bother?
Think about this: Al Sharpton is at times a lying libelous self-aggrandizing anti-police buffoon. But the NYPD probably does a better job because of his existence. Still, I wouldn’t want Al Sharpton to be District Attorney (New York’s equivalent of the State’s Attorney). Baltimore doesn’t have an Al Sharpton. Maybe it needs one, but that anti-police attitude shouldn’t come from the Office of State’s Attorney.
She’s the prosecutor. She’s supposed to partner with police and be anti-criminal.
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A little excitment on 324 Post
Justin Fenton and Peter Hermann report:
So many police officers are at Hopkins at this hour that the department had to call in officers from other districts and detective units to help answer other 911 calls in the Eastern District. One plainclothes officer reported being out in his personal car, and he warned his dispatcher he was patrolling “with no lights, no sirens, no nothing.”
Needless to say, usually shootings in the Eastern don’t get such a massive response.
Update:I just heard on the radio that the gunman was shot and killed (apparently self-inflicted). Hopefully Baker Shift will get home on time!
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Bernstein defeats Jessamy!
Jessamy may finally be on the way out as Baltimore City State’s Attorney. And good riddance to her!
If these results hold, it’s good news for police and good new for Baltimore. Do I know anything about Berstein? No. Nothing than the fact he’s not Jessamy, who has been at the post since 1995. And while it wouldn’t be fair to blame Jessamy for Baltimore’s crime, she has, to put it mildly, never done much to help police. A sign of that was Police Commissioner Bealefeld’s public endorsement of Bernstein.
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14-year-old girl killer
She must have “hated Mexicans,” too.
Two men were sitting on their stoop when, Peter Hermann writes:
When a young girl armed with a silver handgun approached and announced a robbery. “Because of the age of the suspect the victims began to laugh at which time the suspect fired one shot grazing the victim Wilmer Bonilla’s head and striking Jose Coreas in the center of his forehead.”