Reality dictates hiring extra cops

December 5, 2008

Who says you can't have a cop on every corner?

Recent columns

• Questions about 3 men's deaths feed into the distrust

  December 4, 2008

  Jonathan Luna. Robert Clay. Kenneth N. Harris Sr.

• Drugs and crime ravage, yet define, NW Baltimore neighborhood

  December 3, 2008

  This is the scene twelve hours after gunmen opened fire on a car, killing three and wounding a fourth, and helping to make November the deadliest month of the year: two bullet casings embedded in the mud, shattered glass in an empty parking space on Oakford Avenue, four pairs of shoes, their laces tied, dangling from an overhead power line. Thirty-one slayings in 30 days.

• John Steele refused help, and now he's gone

  November 30, 2008

  John A. Steele Sr. was cremated without ceremony. Only his estranged wife and children attended the brief service at the Charles L. Stevens Funeral Home in Locust Point. No words were spoken. No death notice appeared in the paper. No obituary was written.

• An emergency crusade

  November 28, 2008

  Dr. Thomas M. Scalea is tired of calling crashes caused by drivers impaired by alcohol or drugs accidents.

• 'She gives respect' and owns her east-side corner

  November 27, 2008

  The corner of East Baltimore's Milton Avenue and Biddle Street has two liquor stores, a convenience store, a church, blowing trash, a police surveillance camera, kids peddling drugs and idle men worn from age and disability catching up with old friends and old times.

• The children are left waiting for some answers from the adults

  November 26, 2008

  Kenneth Morrison's mother dealt drugs and hasn't been seen in years. His father dealt drugs and just got out of prison. His brother dealt drugs and was stabbed to death three years ago on Malvern Street near O'Donnell Heights.

• Safety roles unclear at nightclub

  November 23, 2008

  James E. Troxel is barely discernible on Iguana Cantina's crowded dance floor, lost amid a mass of drunken patrons gyrating to thundering music under pulsating lights. One moment, he's there, the next moment he vanishes, swallowed by the crowd without missing a beat.

• Dixon the mayor, teacher and mother mourns another young life lost

  November 22, 2008

  On the Friday of American Education Week, Baltimore's mayor found herself inside a city middle school, addressing teachers in the gym and then students gathered in a hallway.

• Confusion and consternation over attacks in the Mount Vernon area

  November 20, 2008

  With every meeting and every statement from Baltimore police, we learn new and conflicting information about a series of rapes in Mount Vernon.

• Circumstances in case of Harris suspect are symptomatic of the system

  November 19, 2008

  Glance at Charles Y. McGaney's rap sheet, and you wonder why he wasn't in jail when police say he and two others shot and killed former City Councilman Kenneth N. Harris Sr. outside a Northeast Baltimore jazz club.

• Now off-duty officers can't nip rowdiness in the bud

  November 16, 2008

  Here's the scene across the street from the Mad River Bar & Grille on Baltimore's South Charles Street:

• A mother escapes the streets, the daughter dies in them

  November 14, 2008

  The mother was a heroin addict and a prostitute.

• A tale of two friends, one killing and a 4-year sentence

  November 13, 2008

  The formalities of the court were over, decorum maintained.

• Making Baltimore's mean streets just a little meaner

  November 12, 2008

  Lots of things get shot in Baltimore.

• National inspiration must reach city war zones

  November 9, 2008

  A 27-year-old man shot on Dolfield Avenue, hit several times by bullets fired from a .45-caliber pistol. A 23-year-old man shot in the head on Barclay Street.

• Tiny suburb considers private policing

  November 7, 2008

  The village of Oakside is a suburb within a suburb within a suburb - a pinprick of a development lost in the sprawl of Owings Mills, well past the mall and the familiar big-box stores, backed against an environmental preserve that prevents building any farther west.

• The mysterious death of Annie McCann

  November 6, 2008

  The mother tightened her grip on the little girl's hand, pulling her out of the sputtering rain and away from the three green trash bins outside the Perkins Homes public housing complex.

• Pastor is robbed of his car, and the chase begins

  November 5, 2008

  The Rev. James W. Smith has spent his life "chasing after God."

• Tally of city killings depends on who's counting

  November 2, 2008

  Counting the dead should be a straightforward task.

• Neighbors take action as 'Mischief Night' pranks turn ugly

  October 31, 2008

  At first, the pranks were annoying but harmless. Kids moved outdoor furniture and trash cans from one porch to another. They flattened car tires by opening the valves.

• Police process might work, but it creates a stir

  October 30, 2008

  The members of the Eastern District police community relations council meet on the last Tuesday of every month, and they had developed a routine. Many people arrived early, sat down with an officer and quietly talked about drug dealing near their homes. It's not a good idea to air such complaints in public.

• Trick-or-treaters must heed the sign of the pumpkin

  October 29, 2008

  Fear the pumpkin.

• Lessons on crime — from the students

  October 26, 2008

  You know it isn't an ordinary high school classroom when the sign on the front door welcomes:

• The other side of the Belair-Edison struggle

  October 24, 2008

  A community leader and a church pastor in a tiny section of Northeast Baltimore's Belair-Edison known as the "Four by Four" are convinced they know who is responsible for crime on their streets.

• Club's neighbors looking for a little neighborliness

  October 23, 2008

  There have been meetings. Lots and lots of meetings. With the liquor board, City Council members, state delegates and the police.

• Notes on a trash bin serve as sad, but unneeded, reminder

  October 22, 2008

  "Dear baby, I'm sorry what your mother did to you."

• Working to put 'community' back in policing

  October 19, 2008

  Newly promoted to police lieutenant, Melvin Russell returned to East Baltimore in the spring of last year and thought he still owned the streets he had left for undercover drug work a decade earlier.

• Crime close to home is what public remembers

  October 17, 2008

  With all my work to provide a different and smarter take on crime, readers want only one thing: "They just want to know how many break-ins are on my block."

• Newcomers to neighborhood should polish up their behavior

  October 16, 2008

  I intended to end yesterday's column on the frustrations of homeowners in Belair-Edison trying to rid their streets of drug dealers with a telling comment from the past president of the homeowners' association.

• One man's difficult campaign to clean up Belair-Edison

  October 15, 2008

  Anthony Dawson has a list.

• 'Bottle club' at center of violence at Belvedere

  October 14, 2008

  The Belvedere in historic Mount Vernon boasts a 40-foot-long mahogany bar where the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, the Duke of Windsor and Clark Gable sidled up for a drink.

• Witness to a crime may be told it never happened

  October 12, 2008

  Residents hear gunshots. It stands to reason they want to know what happened.

• Taking the measure of homicides, shootings, robberies

  October 10, 2008

  There are many ways to measure crime, and all are open to dispute and manipulation.

• Keeping people in the dark about crime in their area

  October 9, 2008

  I've come to the conclusion that there isn't a single piece of data more sought after and more controlled than a crime statistic.

• 2 men, 1 woman, and another promising life wasted

  October 8, 2008

  It's a simple and sad story. Girl dates boy. Girl leaves boy for another boy. First boy confronts second boy and ends up dead.

• Sometimes, crime awareness is a members-only privilege

  October 5, 2008

  There are 957 households in North Baltimore's Homeland neighborhood. Residents in 914 of them have joined the Homeland Association by paying a roughly $200 annual fee, giving them the right to vote, receive a newsletter and get e-mail alerts about crime.

• The picture begins to blur

  October 3, 2008

  Here is a recent item from The Baltimore Sun's Police Blotter describing a shooting in Northwest Baltimore:

• You think it was a crime, but do the police?

  September 21, 2008

  If a crime occurs and a police officer doesn't write a report about it, did the crime really happen?

• How do you help those who won't help themselves?

  September 19, 2008

  This is not how you want a judge to begin your court hearing:

• Indoor smoking ban leads to an outdoor problem

  September 17, 2008

  Smoking bans imposed by the city and private businesses have no doubt made dining, drinking and working inside bars and offices more pleasant.

• Follow that stolen bike, from Virginia to Baltimore and back

  September 14, 2008

  Baltimore is a blue-collar, drug and shooting kind of town. So I'll forgive you if you haven't heard of the Case of the Stolen Bicycle.

• Shopowner's lawsuit may test the city's padlock law

  September 12, 2008

  The Linden Bar and Liquors on West North Avenue and Jimmy's Carryout on East Hoffman Street are similar in many ways.

• Grim statistics come to life on east side's Boone Street

  September 11, 2008

  Detectives define a shooting as an unsuccessful homicide.

• The latest anti-crime weapon: direct marketing

  September 10, 2008

  There are 670,497 vehicles registered in Baltimore County. Of those, 78,714 are for Honda models of all shapes, sizes and years. If you are a registered owner of one of them, the police might be interested in talking with you.

• Fear of crime means even a postcard view has a last call

  September 7, 2008

  The new signs are up in Federal Hill Park, flanking entrances to the historic lookout once favored by generals and their armies and more recently by boyfriends and girlfriends who come for the views of the glimmering harbor and the bright lights of the city skyline.