Crime Wave

Residents of crime-plagued neighborhoods around the Baltimore metropolitan region would welcome the "crime wave" that some New Windsor residents believe has swept over this Carroll town.Teen-agers riding bikes on sidewalks, using disrespectful language and hanging around may be annoying to some of the older town residents, but their activities are not criminal. Forming a town police force, as a minority of residents advocate, will not do anything to improve youthful behavior. A policeman cannot arrest a teen-ager for talking back to adults, for standing on a street corner or riding a bike on the wrong side of the street.

The proposed 33-unit Single Room Occupancy apartment facility for the county's homeless in North Laurel is not the answer for Howard County. This portion of Laurel has undergone a gradual revitalization over the years, including new businesses and homes peppering the once-questionable area. My family had plans to purchase a property in this area; however, now that Mr. Ulman has decided to place a Single Room Occupancy facility in what would be our new neighborhood, we no longer feel safe moving there.

Police in Northwest Baltimore have arrested three men who they say are to blame for a summer crime wave in which more than 70 houses have been burglarized and seven pizza delivery men robbed.Police said the crimes are not related.One man was caught Monday afternoon when the owner of a house in the 5200 block of Belvieu Ave. came home and confronted another man, said Sgt. James Rood, who heads the Northwestern Police District's Major Crime Unit.After interviewing the suspect, Rood said, his investigators, Officers Chris Wade and Anthony Lansey, charged the man with 40 counts of burglary.

Harold Harvard thought things had improved in his Southwest Baltimore neighborhood since a stray bullet wounded a 5-year-old girl last summer. But after three fatal shootings Sunday just steps from his home — part of a barrage of bullets that left eight dead and three injured across the city over the holiday weekend — he's declared that serenity short-lived. "I'm scared," the 43-year-old said bluntly on Monday, standing outside his Ramsay Street home where a police cruiser had been idling all morning and a few American flags hung limply in the heat.

SOUTH AFRICA HAS always been an extremely violent society. Under apartheid rule, most of that violence, though, was contained in black townships.In Johannesburg's Soweto, it was not unusual to count 20 or more murders and untold rapes and assaults in a single weekend. No one really knew the exact numbers because few of the non-fatal crimes were investigated or reported to police.During the three years since the end of apartheid, crime has spilled over into the formerly white areas. Car hijackings are now so common that Johannesburg's traffic chief says it is perfectly acceptable for motorists to run red lights if they feel stopping would make them vulnerable to hijackers.

MEXICO CITY -- Minerva Guadalupe Ramirez was getting into her car after a quick stop in a posh suburb here when a gunman stuck a pistol to her head. He stole the 19-year-old woman's cash, purse and jewelry, then commandeered her 1993 Ford Topaz.He sped off, never noticing that her son, Tomas, was inside. The 8-month-old child and the car are still missing.On the same morning, three men robbed the Mexican Red Cross Hospital on the city's northwest side. They burst in and fatally shot Jeronimo Rivera, a policeman who had been assigned to guard the charity hospital after a burglary.

The following editorial appeared in another edition of The Sun last week:Carroll County* Residents of crime-plagued neighborhoods around the Baltimore metropolitan region would welcome the "crime wave" that some New Windsor residents believe has swept over this Carroll town.Teen-agers riding bikes on sidewalks, using disrespectful language and hanging around may be annoying to some of the older town residents, but their activities are not criminal. Forming a town police force, as a minority of residents advocate, will not do anything to improve youthful behavior.

Five murders in the first three months of the year was cause for alarm in Annapolis, prompting a cry for help from city leaders and assistance from state and federal officials. The killings followed a year in which the quaint, historic town had a record eight homicides, and in a city of 30,000, the effect on the public was akin to a tsunami. But after a renewed focus on troublesome areas, more street patrols and a reliance on crime-mapping, the crime wave has slowed to a ripple. Citizens spoke out and government responded - that's the measure of a city in sync with itself.

This morning's wisdom begins with The Great Crime Wave of Deer Isle, Maine, a small New England community we visited last week to withdraw from the relentless pressures of big-city existence.We shall never in this lifetime make such a mistake again.The Great Crime Wave of Deer Isle was frightening to behold, and reported in all its sordid detail on the front page of the local newspaper. Journalism isn't always pretty, so brace yourself: Someone stole 20 pounds of butter from the Deer Isle grocery store.

The proposed 33-unit Single Room Occupancy apartment facility for the county's homeless in North Laurel is not the answer for Howard County. This portion of Laurel has undergone a gradual revitalization over the years, including new businesses and homes peppering the once-questionable area. My family had plans to purchase a property in this area; however, now that Mr. Ulman has decided to place a Single Room Occupancy facility in what would be our new neighborhood, we no longer feel safe moving there.

Five murders in the first three months of the year was cause for alarm in Annapolis, prompting a cry for help from city leaders and assistance from state and federal officials. The killings followed a year in which the quaint, historic town had a record eight homicides, and in a city of 30,000, the effect on the public was akin to a tsunami. But after a renewed focus on troublesome areas, more street patrols and a reliance on crime-mapping, the crime wave has slowed to a ripple. Citizens spoke out and government responded - that's the measure of a city in sync with itself.

Baltimore police have charged a Gwynn Oak man with raping and killing a 15-year-old girl, raping and killing a prostitute, and raping and nearly killing another, according to police and court records obtained by The Sun. The victims were among the victims of a series of killings and a dozen assaults in 2003 and 2004 that sparked concern among sex workers that they were being targeted. City police said at the time that they didn't think most of the killings were linked. But with more killings in recent months, the Police Department has formed a small task force to investigate unsolved killings of women in the past 10 years.

A Howard County circuit judge sentenced a Columbia man yesterday to more than 30 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a 25-day wave of home invasions and robberies, and an assault on a woman whom he choked until she lost consciousness in December 2006. In October, Ronnie Gordon Smith Jr., 40, pleaded guilty in Howard County Circuit Court in Ellicott City to two counts of first-degree burglary and one count each of robbery, first-degree assault and armed robbery. Assistant State's Attorney James Dietrich recommended 65 years for the four break-ins, but Judge Diane O. Leasure sentenced Smith to 33 years.

Shortage of drugs isn't the reason for city's recent violence Thank you for the editorial stressing the need for appropriate treatment options for criminal drug addicts in Baltimore ("Spike in city killings linked to drug famine," Nov. 11). However, the premise in the title, that the recent rise in homicides is because of a scarcity of illegal drugs, is only very weakly supported. It doesn't make sense that all illegal drugs in the country were consumed in the few weeks between Sept. 11 and early October, which The Sun has identified as the beginning of our violent crime wave ("City police to redeploy officers," Nov. 7)

Two Baltimore teen-agers were arrested early yesterday and charged in a 10-day armed robbery rampage through several city neighborhoods that culminated in the shooting of a Canton businessman Sunday, Baltimore police said. Duane M. Johnson Jr. of Hemlock Avenue and Leonard Ball Jr. of Abbotson Street, both 17, were apprehended in their homes at dawn, police said. A third teen-age male was also taken into custody for questioning yesterday, but was released hours later because there was not enough evidence to charge him, police said.

Maryland authorities are investigating a group of cross-dressing thieves who allegedly stole credit cards and checkbooks around the state and who may be part of a criminal network organized like sororities. Instead of mob-style families, they are associated with "houses," investigators said. "You've got the House of Khan, the House of Ebony, the House of Revlon," said one federal agent, naming some of the organizations operating on the East Coast. Not all the members - mostly men who dress as women - are believed to be involved in the credit card fraud.

Truck driver Larry Davis says he no longer slumbers peacefully in his gray Kenworth cab during breaks on cross-country runs. He worries so much about prowlers and hijackers that he carries a handgun."

THE BALTIMORE chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of You People -- excuse me, Colored People (I haven't got all the Ross Perot virus out of my system yet) met last night to discuss its executive director's call for the use of the National Guard and the State Police to fight crime in the inner city.I didn't go. I think it's too late for half measures. What we really need to do is send in the Marines.I've been advocating this for some time in editorial board meetings, to no avail.

HAVANA -- In the annals of crime in revolutionary Cuba, the assault on a government armored van in daylight in December was a botched but spectacular act of boldness."

Police in Northwest Baltimore have arrested three men who they say are to blame for a summer crime wave in which more than 70 houses have been burglarized and seven pizza delivery men robbed.Police said the crimes are not related.One man was caught Monday afternoon when the owner of a house in the 5200 block of Belvieu Ave. came home and confronted another man, said Sgt. James Rood, who heads the Northwestern Police District's Major Crime Unit.After interviewing the suspect, Rood said, his investigators, Officers Chris Wade and Anthony Lansey, charged the man with 40 counts of burglary.