Here are pictures from the Eastern District today. I keep thinking that the Eastern hasn’t changed since I left. But of course it has. On one hand, Hopkins took over a bunch of it. On the other, I’m sure it’s even more abandoned than ever. The population dropped 30% between 1990 and 2000. There’s no reason to think that trend…
2008:I just got this pic of the corner from Durham and Eager in the Eastern. I love the new PR campaign: “My New East Side is Stylish.” “Clean.” “Innovative.” “United.” “Exciting.” “The Future.” “Family.” I hope it works. It looked nothing like this when I was there. In 2000 the corner looked like the picture below, which is of Eager…
Last time I was in town I noticed the scaffolding around the building from the train. That had to be good news. I think it might be the most beautiful building in the world. It just happens to be in the Eastern. It was a bad shape when I roamed around it in 2000. Now it’s being fixed and saved.…
Oops. Sorry. Not really. The story from the Baltimore Sun is here. This is Sector One in the Eastern, for those who care.
During any given year, a 15- to 34-year-old man in the Eastern District has about the same chance of being killed as a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq. That’s just wrong. The Eastern stats are from page 203 of my book. The Iraq stats are taken from DonHodges.com. I bring this up because of an interesting comment from a good…
My friend emailed me this: I think we were able to pull that surveillance off not only because it was quiet from the rain but also because it was 1 month and 3 days after 9/11. We were rolling 3 – 4 deep and had every spare car on the road.
Here’s a nice action video of a drug corner shot by a police officer friend of mine back in October 2001. Basically this corner is a three-man (or boy) shop. The guy in the green shirt is the money man and the biggest man of this not-so-impressive. The kid in the white t-shirt (let’s call him “Little Man”) is kind…
This video isn’t exactly action packed. In fact, nothing happens. Really. It’s just a one minute drive through the streets of East Baltimore. But that’s one minute more than you’ve probably seen. And notice the sleepy-voiced dispatcher over the police radio. If he didn’t sound sleepy, It would get your attention. He was skilled. The last thing you want as…
I just got an email from an academy classmate of mine. One of the nicest things about writing Cop in the Hoodis that I hear from people I miss, but with whom I had lost touch. So you know, I never left the Eastern District. I love patrol. I don’t know why, but I do. My beat is [***] post…