Who is Really Investing In Baltimore's Youth?

Juvenile Drug Trade "On the Rise" in Baltimore City

Once again, its clear that Baltimore's Drug traffickers are investing more in the youth Baltimore than anyone else.

“The number of juveniles in the felony drug distribution and possession of narcotics is alarming,” said James Green, director of special projects for Baltimore City police. “It is a huge indicator to other acts of crime and violence.”

Last month, Baltimore City police arrested 133 juveniles on charges of either distribution of illegal drugs or possession of drugs with intent to distribute. Suspects ages 12, 13 and 14 were arrested on distribution of cocaine charges. A 13-year-old and two 14-year-olds were arrested on distribution of heroin charges.

Why are these teens getting involved with selling drugs? Its OBVIOUS that they have no choice:

“These kids are often facilitating a violent drug organization at the request of adults who use young kids so they can escape ... prosecution,” Burns said.

See, its all at the request of adults. All the adults have to do is "request" that their kids stay home from school (its always difficult to convince a 13 year old to stay home from school) and then "request" that they go out and make oodles of non-taxable income.

Of course, Director of Special projects for the Baltimore City Police has come up with an innovative solution that is sure to have the situation under control in the next few weeks:

The best tool for suppressing the juvenile drug trade and its related problems is keeping youth in school, Green said.

Wonderful. Send the teens back to school, where they know they are appreciated and adequately funded.

Baltimore to Outlaw Paintball, BB, and Pellet Guns

This seems like a useless bill, but lets examine why City Councilwoman Helen Holton thinks this ban is necessary:

Holton said she is concerned with two recent shootings in which police officers shot residents who were pointing toy guns at the officers.

“The sophistication of toy guns have reached such epidemic proportions that you can’t differentiate between what is a toy and what can do harm,” said Holton, D-8th District. “Officers should not have to make a split-second decision: Is it real or is it fake?”

My question is, how is this ban going to make that sort of situation easier to deal with. Certainly the ban isn't actually going to stop these types of situations from occuring. If anything, this ban will give the officers greater incentive to shoot and ask questions later. They could argue that no matter what weapon the suspect was holding, it looked dangerous, and under the new ban, illegal as well.

It also give Baltimore Police another distraction to look out for and another tool with which they can punish otherwise law abiding citizens. Paintball and target shooting are not unpopular in the area, and if someone in the city is set on getting ahold of a realistic weapon, all they need do after the ban is drive a few miles to the surrounding counties.

Of course, the strongest argument against this bill is that it will only impede law abiding citizens from using these weapons in the city. People who are taken to robbing stores with BB guns will continue to do so. In case it isn't obvious, criminals don't care about the law. If they are willing to commit robbery, they are willing to use an illegal pellet gun to do it.

Furthermore, getting a legal permit for a gun in the city is no easy task. I am sure that some residents of the city have purchased these "realistic looking toys" in the in the interest of personal protection. Should this bill pass, I expect that more innocent folks will end up being arrested than dangerous criminals.

I would much rather have the City Council focus on how they can empower police officers to catch more robbers. Instead, the City Council appears to be legislating to create a city where all crimes are committed with REAL HANDGUNS.

At least Baltimore's Finest will finally be able to shoot a suspect who is holding a weapon without having to debate whether it is legal/deadly or not.

UPDATE: An editorial in the Examiner agrees with me. They point out a few things:

Giving police the power to arrest any citizen they see on the street with paint, pellet or BB gun also will result in nothing but increased street strife and more weapons concealment...

Laws attempting to prevent firearms crime have almost a century of failure to their credit now. If gun control doesn’t work on real guns, what makes anyone think it will work on toys?

I would argue that most people on the city council have not reached the same conclusion about gun control, correct or not.

The most important point is this:

The City Council would better serve public safety by tackling structural reforms — like finding a way to better align police arrests with charges.

With about 20 percent of the 100,000 arrested each year released from Central Booking without charges and another 24 percent who see their charges dropped in court, police are wasting time rounding up the wrong people. Asking them to enforce a toy gun ban will only drain more time from removing violent felons from Baltimore’s streets.

Demeaning to Women

George W. Bush knows how to pick the right man for the job. When he wanted to start a ground war and a national occupation, he made sure to hire a man to craft a policy that resulted in one of the most botched occupation jobs in history. When he needed someone to watch over the Federal Emergency Management Agency and make sure that in the case of a national disaster, the nation was coordinated and prepared, he hired a man whose previous job had been cleaning up Arabian horse shit.

So when it came time to hire a man (and believe me, MEN know a whole hell of a lot about women's birth control) to do the following:

"...oversee $283 million in annual family-planning grants that, according to HHS, are 'designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them, with priority given to low income persons.'"

George W. Bush knew exactly who to go to.

He hired the man who recently said this about contraception (his new BREAD AND BUTTER mind you):

"--the crass commercialization and distribution of birth control is demeaning to women, degrading of human sexuality and adverse to human health and happiness"

Indeed, Eric Keroack, the man being paid by your tax dollars to be in charge of the office of family planning is openly hostile to doing his job. The only way to take this hiring practice to next extreme is for Bush to somehow get a Marxist hired to be the head of the Federal Reserve.

City Council may Cap Parking Ticket Late Fees

Capping the $16 a month late fee sounds good to me, though it may be too late to affect my several overdue parking tickets.

There are a few plans in the works.

This is the best one, from Councilman Jack Young:

Young's bill originally capped the penalties at three times the face value of the ticket, a cap that was initially opposed by the both the city finance department and the police department. The finance department argued that parking scofflaws were primarily not city residents, and that limiting the fines would be a disincentive for violators to pay.

However, I seriously doubt the city would give up such a large amount of revenue, so most likely the cap won't really be a cap at all, but simply a reduction of the amount of the monthly late fee.

As Councilman Robert Curran notes:

Curran said a compromise was necessary to get backing from the finance department, though he still thinks the monthly late penalty is too high. "I would have liked to have reduced the penalty rate from $16 a month to $12. I think $16 is usury," he said.

So what is $12, usury-lite? If the city is serious about this, they should go with Young's plan or at least include something to eventually stop the fees from piling up. Often, parking tickets stuffed under windshield wipers in Fells Point end up in the Bay, victims of the high wind. The same can be said for cars parked anywhere in the city. Either way, the late fees are out of control, and I know firsthand. Lets hope Councilman Young's bill makes it into law.

In the News

Kujanblog, in association with Google news search (not really), brings you interesting news from around the state.

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Somewhat discouraging article in the WAPO about Charles Dutton and his support for Mike Steele. Dutton, the actor and Baltimore native recorded a radio ad for Steele, but is dismayed by the reports of homeless men from Philadelphia being paid to distribute misleading (to say the least) campaign literature.

Dutton then goes on to make some completely unsupportable claims about Ben Cardin and Martin O'Malley. Apparently, all Dutton wanted out of Steele was a Senator who would return the calls of his Black constituents. But, but, but... what about passing legislation that will make America a better place for working folks and for folks in poverty? Nah, just phone calls.

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In case you didn't know already, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum have been offering free admission since October 1st. Guess what has happened since then?

Museum attendance is up more than 200%.

My girlfriend and I dropped into the BMA a few weeks ago and it was totally worth the 10 minute walk from my Charles Village apartment. I might try to make it to the Walters this weekend.

The Baltimore Museum of Art
The Walters Art Museum

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On the medical front in Maryland, the Maryland Health Care Commission is working on a plan for the assembly that would require all Marylanders to buy health insurance. A similar bill passed in Massachusetts. It would require employers to pay the lions share of health plan costs for their employees, and the kicker is that the employee has the choice when it comes to coverage, not the employer, as it always has been.

Towards the end of the article, I noticed this awesome piece of news:

A $1 per pack increase in the state cigarette tax is being pushed by the Maryland Citizens Health Initiative to raise an estimated $200 million a year to expand Medicaid to more adults and to subsidize small businesses that can't afford to pay for health insurance for their employees. The Maryland Hospital Association considers expanded health insurance coverage its top priority.

As a smoker I actually see this as a good thing. First, it creates revenue that Maryland desperately needs after 4 years of Ehrlich. Secondly, and most importantly, if state and city governments are serious about ending tobacco use (I don't even think it should be on the radar) the best method is increasing the tax on it. Bans in bars do nothing but hurt business and force me to smoke outside. Raising taxes is the key. I wouldn't buy a pack of cigarettes if it cost $9, but I will probably still buy them at $5.15, which will be about the price of a pack of Camel lights after the proposed tax increase.

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And finally, my main man for 2008, John Edwards, visited Maryland, bring with him his message of honesty and economic populism:

But it was his focus on honesty that seemed to resonate most strongly with several in the crowd, many of whom waited in line after his speech to have their books signed.

"Most politicians follow a package that sells, and I'm tired of being lied to," said Jan Chapman. "He's genuine and I don't think he can be bought by special interests. That's very rare."

Indeed it is.

See ya' in the comments.

A No-Brainer for O'Malley - Re-establish the Moratorium on the Death Penalty

We should hope that after January, we won't be reading stories like this about our fellow Marylanders.

Kirk Bloodsworth spent nine years in prison, including two years on death row, after he was wrongly convicted of the 1984 killing of a 9-year-old girl. He was scheduled to speak Tuesday at Goucher College in Towson at an event sponsored by Maryland Citizens Against State Executions.

"I just want to tell people what it was like for me and how easy it can happen," Bloodsworth said Monday in a telephone interview. "If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody."

I can't really think of an easier decision for Governor elect O'Malley than to re-establish the moratorium on the death penalty in Maryland. Glendening set the precedent, effectively stopping the death penalty from being carried out in Maryland. This move however, was not one aimed at attacking the morality of the death penalty itself (an argument that I personally think holds some water), but instead that was based on a University of Maryland study of the way the death penalty was applied in Maryland. For a slightly dated, but in depth look at the study, go here.

But will O'Malley do it? Things look good, in my opinion. O'Malley has come out against the death penalty personally:

O'Malley, who is Catholic, has said he personally opposes capital punishment, but spokesmen for his campaign have said he will enforce the laws of the state, including the application of the death penalty. Calls Monday to O'Malley's staff for further comment were not immediately returned.

When O'Malley signed on in 2000 to a newspaper advertisement taken out by former Mayor Kurt Schmoke and the late lawmaker Howard Rawlings asking for a moratorium, he talked about the issue.

"I am not in favor of the death penalty. I don't think as people in a civilized society we can support capital punishment. You don't promote respect for life by making us participate in the death penalty," he said at the time.

Of course, Governor elect O'Malley's personal views on the issue should not really be involved here. Unless a new study comes out refuting the findings at Maryland, as a Democrat I feel like O'Malley's hands are tied. He must re-establish the moratorium on the death penalty if he is truly interested in reversing the damage done to our state by the Ehrlich/Steele administration.

If somehow, O'Malley still needs a kick in the pants, the assembly is ready to deliver it:

Maryland lawmakers have regularly submitted measures to repeal the death penalty law. Democratic Delegate Maggie McIntosh of Baltimore, who has supported a repeal, said she expected it would be introduced again. "I'm sure I'll be a co-sponsor," she said.

Lets hope someone delivers on this issue. Re-establishing the moratorium would be a positive, if not symbolic, way of reforming the ailing criminal justice system in Maryland.

A few things

First, if you have commented on my blog, I only recently found out. I guess I couldn't see any comments until I upgraded to blogger beta. Well, thanks for the comments and sorry if it appeared that I was not paying attention.

I really just want to post this great editorial by Senator Jim Webb.

Will the "Conservative" Democrats cave in the face of Republican Terrorism?

Once again the Republican terrorists have reared their ugly heads. When, oh when will our patriotic "conservative" Democrats see the light. They are so constricted by those damn liberals that they can't see the forest from the trees.

Another Republican has committed an act of terror.

This cannot go unanswered by our new "Conservative" Democrats. It is time to stop listening to the liberals who cautioned that we should not attack a "belief system" and instead focus on terrorism as "a law enforcement problem". The time for mincing words is over and the time to attack this Freedom hating ideology is now.

Republicans hate our freedom. They hate our troops. They want to dismantle our "Conservative" Democracy and set up a society based on their radical beliefs. They want to replace our national anthem and pledge of allegiance with prayers to their God. Republican's have infiltrated our congress and voted against our troops repeatedly. They voted against effective body armor and against increasing troop benefits. Republicans also terrorized our "Conservative" Democrats while they were in the minority to stop them from passing the recommendations of the 9-11 commission.

It is time to institute some necessary measures to combat the Republican Terrorists.

First, lets stop fooling ourselves. The majority of domestic terrorism in the past few years in America has come from Republicans, so IT ONLY MAKES SENSE to start targeting them at airports, traffic stops, and at the border. Of course, MOST REPUBLICANS are probably not terrorists (we think...) but who really knows. We need to protect AMERICANS first, REPUBLICANS later, so I think our choices are clear.

Next time, I will discuss possible ways of spotting a Republican. Its easy to mix them up with libertarians and Democrats from Connecticut, but i am sure our Law Enforcement is up to the task.