The ATF released a version of this photo taken during the April 27 riots. The guy (“repeatedly captured in photographs and other images on the day of the rioting”) was later identified as Donta Betts: He confessed to creating the explosion to ward off the cops “so people could finish … stealing whatever they was…
Read more
Stephen Morgan, my grad-school colleague, released his Baltimore report (co-authored with Joel Pally) that looks at crime and arrests pre- and post-riot. [The Harvard sociology cohort of 1995 always turned to Morgan as the quant guy when we needed help with stats class, which was often. So rather than blame my own limitations and laziness,…
Read more
An email from a Chicago Police Officer (emphasis added by me): I wanted to go through our new “investigatory stop report (ISR)” training before I replied. By now you realize we have an extremely long form to fill out every time we do a street stop. The form is ridiculous and redundant but fortunately the…
Read more
To paraphrase Tip O’Neill, “All policing is local.” But that doesn’t mean that something in one town can’t have an effect on policing nationwide. And a trend can be large and worrisome — and national — without being universal. That’s why they call it a trend. I don’t know what’s going on everywhere (or even…
Read more
Usually I focus on the Eastern District, because that is where I policed. But I was looking at stats for the Western District, where Freddie Gray died. Homicides in the Western went from a long-time record low (but still shamefully high) 21 in 2014 to a record high 66 in 2015. Holy mackerel, that’s a…
Read more
According toMaryland Governor Hogan, C.O.R.E. stands for Creating Opportunities for Renewal and Enterprise. “We should be able to make tremendous progress over the next for year,” said the mayor. What’s the cause for celebration? Demolition. Forgive me if I hold my applause till something is built. Now don’t get me wrong, tearing these buildings down…
Read more
The homicide board downtown. I have to admit, when I first walked by it, I had to do a double take, thinking, “it really does exist!” That’s a lot of red. From Justin Fenton’s five part series on a homicide investigation.
Group reading names of Balto homicide victims. 344 in 2015. Group ask " why aren't more people here?" pic.twitter.com/wOt5U0Hfvj — Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) January 1, 2016
Justin Fenton on solving homicides in the Sun: A couple of decades ago — the last time the city saw so much killing — Baltimore’s homicide unit closed more than 70 percent of its cases. Veterans talk of returning to the office from a crime scene to find a fistful of tips waiting for them.…
Read more
I’m totally stealing this from the Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Preparing For Hurricane Joaquin By Adding Second Layer Of Plywood To Shuttered Small Businesses Camden Yards Concessions To Stop Selling Crack After Seventh Inning Baltimore Residents Urged To Stay Indoors Until Social Progress Naturally Takes Its Course Over Next Century Final Police Report: Only 20,000 Killed…
Read more