Criminals

Who doesn't love a tree? Apparently, criminals. Researchers have found that leafier places in Baltimore tend to have lower crime rates than those with few or no trees. A new study looking across Baltimore City and Baltimore County has found that with few exceptions, the frequency of crimes reported in a particular block or neighborhood goes down as the tree cover gets thicker. Just a 10 percent increase in leaf canopy was associated with a 12 percent drop in crime, it concluded. The study, published online in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, supports arguments by advocates that environmental factors, and not just more police, can fight crime.

Who doesn't love a tree? Apparently, criminals. Researchers have found that leafier places in Baltimore tend to have lower crime rates than those with few or no trees. A new study looking across Baltimore City and Baltimore County has found that with few exceptions, the frequency of crimes reported in a particular block or neighborhood goes down as the tree cover gets thicker. Just a 10 percent increase in leaf canopy was associated with a 12 percent drop in crime, it concluded. The study, published online in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning, supports arguments by advocates that environmental factors, and not just more police, can fight crime.

Imagine trying to defend a client accused of killing someone who comes to court with the word "murder" tattooed across his neck. Or trying to convince a jury that the suspect is really a good guy even though his best friend knows him only as "Bloody Batman." With gangs gaining strength in Baltimore, nicknames are gaining popularity on the street, and more often than not it's a nickname rather than a real name by which many are known. And law enforcement authorities, especially the feds, don't hesitate to use the monikers.

It is always tempting to ignore the bluster and bombast emanating from the vicinity of Patrick L. McDonough, the Baltimore County delegate and radio talk show host who considers himself a man of the people but mostly is a self-promoting bomb-thrower. His is a career built on angry sound bites and finger-pointing, particularly at minority groups, while his actual legislative accomplishments in Annapolis can be contained in a thimble - with room to spare. But his latest bloviation demands attention - if only because ignoring it might suggest it was excusable (which it was not)

It seems like every time I watch the news or read the newspaper Baltimore City has reported homicides all the time. This city is no longer a safe city to live in. Most homicides are due to robbery. What is this city coming to? I think our mayor needs to fix it. Milton Hill, 70, was the eighth homicide victim last week. Having eight homicides in one week really shows how dangerous Baltimore City is. Most of the homicides were people who did no wrong and were just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I just read Rosalind Ellis' recent letter regarding the expansion of Beans and Bread ("Neighbors right to worry about Beans and Bread," Nov. 2). It is obvious to me that Ms. Ellis does not personally know anyone who is homeless or out of a job and on the verge of homelessness. She states the "many who came to Our Daily Bread were drug abusers, shoplifters and aggressive panhandlers" and that the "filthy tent city housed criminals who broke into cars and shoplifted throughout the area.

The talk of possibly eliminating the death penalty in the state of Maryland shows that justice is simply a joke and once again the criminals will be emboldened to rape, maim and kill knowing they get to spend the rest of their lives not having to worry about being executed for the horrors of the crimes they committed ( "Death penalty moratorium leaves survivors, convicts in limbo," Feb. 13). Families of victims will get no closure as well as no justice knowing this sad fact. A life snuffed out and taxpayers having to foot the bill for the criminals who may live 20 to 60 years in prison is simply too much to bear!

I am befuddled and confused about the the responses to Police Commissioner Federick H. Bealefeld III's referring to criminal as "idiots" and "morons." What is the problem with being honest? What would you have him call the people who commit crimes, use guns and destroy property and lives? "Idiot" and "moron" are not racially inflamatory words, nor are they politically incorrect. They are the descriptive adjectives one uses when you are fed up with ridiculous behaviors. Rest assured that if one of Bealefeld's detractors was the victim of a crime, the perpetrators would not be called "idiots and morons" but rather something much more obscene.

A few months ago Harford County posted a two page spread in the Baltimore Sun asking for the public's help in locating dead-beat parents. My hat goes off to Harford County for realizing that the job of locating these dead-beats was just too great for them to handle and for asking the general public for their assistance. When will Baltimore City realize they need help rounding up the most wanted criminals on our streets? When will Baltimore City put faces to the names of our most violent offenders and post them in The Sun?

TOMI HIERS, who serves in the Ehrlich administration with a half-mile title - executive assistant to the deputy secretary for operations, Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services - believes the Republican governor of Maryland means to do what no Democrat in recent memory was able to do: turn criminals into productive citizens, give a guy a second chance. The administration wants to stop wasting taxpayer money - $24,000 per year per inmate - on a revolving door. "We are trying to change the culture of corrections," Hiers says.

George Warren "Moose" Mix Sr., a well-known Towson attorney whose legal expertise included administrative, criminal and family law, died May 4 of heart failure at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The 30-year Lutherville resident was 74. "I knew Warren when I was a prosecutor and later as a defense attorney, and he was often in three jurisdictions during a single day. He was a stand-up, honest and hardworking guy when it came to his clients. He'd fight for his people," said Gov. Martin J. O'Malley.

I applaud Sen. Ben Cardin's efforts to end racial profiling: Nothing is more divisive than to bring an "us against them" mentality into law enforcement ("Candidates make final push before Tuesday," April 2). What could be more demoralizing and dehumanizing than being judged by the color of your skin or the clothes you wear? Racial profiling, by definition, is incompatible with the guarantee of equal protection under the law contained in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Yet, many of the same people who claim to be strict constructionists with regard to the Constitution are in favor of denigrating one of its most basic tenets.

Maryland Terrapins men's basketball player Pe'Shon Howard was arrested early Sunday and given a criminal citation for disorderly conduct, a university police spokesman confirmed. A campus officer was flagged down for a fight at the Shanghai Café in the 7400 block of Baltimore Avenue in College Park at about 2:25 a.m., according to Capt. Marc Limansky. Inside, people were holding one man back, and police took him outside and sat him down. Limansky said Howard, 21, was shouting at the man and taunting him and was told to stop.

It was unusual enough when Baltimore housing officials had to get a search warrant to gain entry to a Canton rowhouse where they believed illegal renovations were occurring. But the owner's son had barred inspectors, and neighbors were complaining of work that was noisy, substantial and ongoing. Then inspectors went inside and were shocked to find that the three-story home in the 2100 block of Cambridge Street had been gutted. Not only had the owner's son failed to pull required building permits, the city alleged in a lawsuit, but the work was so shoddy that the house had to be condemned.

Baltimore's top cop on Tuesday warned against "race-baiting" amid rising tensions across the nation, citing the Trayvon Martin case and cautioning that a video generating outrage on the Internet of a tourist being beaten and stripped in downtown Baltimore doesn't appear to depict a hate crime. Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III, appearing on WBAL's C4 program, said the attack on a 31-year-old Arlington, Va. Caucasian man appears to be nothing beyond "drunken opportunistic criminality.

The Maryland ACLU called on the state Wednesday to release information that it says will help determine whether people on Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold's alleged "enemies list" were the subject of illegal searches by county police on the state's criminal history database. The state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union said it has asked the Maryland State Police and the Maryland public safety department for information about who accessed the statewide database.

I am amazed that you call into question the use of pepper spray by a law enforcement officer at Chesapeake High School ("How much force is too much?" Dec. 16). You state that "school officials should reconsider whether the same rules that apply to criminals on the street should apply to students in the school hallway. " I would argue that a student who refuses to obey a direct police verbal command and then proceeds to physically assault the officer is no different from any criminal on the street.

The article in the Baltimore Sun of April 5 ("Disorder in the court") criticized six judges for misconduct. About a quarter of the story (which took up half a page with a photo of Judge Darrell Russell) had to do with Judge Russell's performing a marriage between an woman and a man who had been accused of abusing her. The offenses of these six judges seem to me to be pretty small beer. In a story of March 20 ("Police say man woke up to a gun in his face"), the contrast between The Sun's treatment of these six judges and the unnamed judge (or judges)

Anne Arundel County Police Chief Col. James E. Teare Sr. appeared Monday night before the County Council but declined to answer questions under oath about allegations of misconduct by County Executive John R. Leopold, citing the ongoing criminal investigation. Teare was placed under oath and answered general questions from council members about himself and Police Department rules but told the council he had testified twice before the grand jury investigating Leopold and could not publicly repeat that testimony.