I love Baltimore. I do. I hope my book makes Baltimore a better place to live and police. But one of my fears is that my book will just contribute to Baltimore’s image problem. I wish I could write a book that talks about the good food and good people and good neighborhoods of Charm…
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The Sun has an excellent interactive graphic that can display all the year’s homicide victims. You can select for different variables, so it’s fun to play with (if you’re a nerdy academic). One of the depressing things about homicide is the racial breakdown. Breaking violent crime down by race doesn’t get much press, probably because…
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The Sun reportsthat the American Brewery is getting money for development. This building is gorgeous, in the Eastern District, and in complete disrepair. $35 million to convert the five-story former brewery into office space for a nonprofit social service. It’s good their going for office space rather than residential. The Eastern District is littered with…
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A student of mine went down to Baltimore and took some pictures of the Eastern. I don’t get there much anymore, even when I go to Baltimore. I don’t know anybody who lives there. In most ways, the Eastern looks like it hasn’t changed at all. In one big way, it’s changing a lot: the…
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For all the press police-involved shootings get in New York City, there are a lot more shootings in Baltimore if you take the difference in population into account (almost an equal number if you don’t). Baltimore shootings don’t get much press because the city isn’t a media center and Al Sharpton doesn’t live there. Instead,…
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The New York Times has an article by Al Baker, “Handcuffing the Wounded: Tactic Hits a Nerve.” I read that article with interest. Police don’t have the option to nothandcuff a suspect. I always thought that officers should have some (limited) discretion to not handcuff suspects. For instance, you’re patrolling, minding your own business, and…
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#1) 1900 Block of E Eager. 1906 E Eager is the third house (with awning) from Mr. George’s corner laundromat. Two short blocks North of Johns Hopkins Hospital, this corner (Wolfe and Eager) is one of the “hottest” (but hardly the only) drug corners in the neighborhood, heroin and crack are sold around the clock,…
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So Michael Vic apologized for dog fighting. I don’t believe him. He likes dog fighting. He’s not the only one. There’s lots of dog fighting in the Eastern District. That’s just the way it is. Many cops I worked with were very upset at animal mistreatment. One time I answered a call for a pit…
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Some of the blight of the Eastern RIP graffiti: You can’t outrun a mural. Pig on pig. Ladies… After a cutting. After being cut. It could have been me… but it wasn’t! (I blurred their faces)