Diamond Cab

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore City and Baltimore County. Baltimore City Northeastern District Arrests: Police went to a house in the 4200 block of Hamilton Ave. yesterday to investigate a burglar alarm. A man answered the door and told Officer Gregory Young that everything was OK. Young asked the man for identification. When the man returned with his ID, Young saw smoke coming from the doorway and, based on his experience as a drug enforcement officer, suspected it was burning marijuana.

Baltimore CityASSAULT/ROBBERY: Northern District -- Two men ran behind a 20-year-old Baltimore man walking Saturday night in the 600 block of E. 35th St., beat him with their fists, knocked him to the ground and took his $13 baseball cap.ARSON: Northern District -- Two men were being sought in the burning of a 1971 GMC bus, which was parked at Express Auctioneers in the 3600 block of Falls Road. Investigators said a flammable liquid was poured on the bus and ignited Saturday afternoon.ASSAULT/ATTEMPTED ROBBERY: Northern District -- A man fled after accosting a 44-year-old Baltimore woman in the 600 block of Venable Ave. and trying to take the purse she was carrying.

BALTIMORE CITY* ARMED ROBBERY: Central District -- A man used TC handgun to rob a 76-year-old man of $10 Friday morning as he walked in the 1800 block of Bolton St.* ARMED ROBBERY: Central District -- A man armed with a handgun robbed a 30-year-old woman of an undisclosed amount of cash yesterday morning in the 1900 block of N. Charles St.* AGGRAVATED ASSAULT: Central District -- Six to eight youths attacked a 13-year-old boy Friday afternoon in the 1600...

BALTIMORE CITY* ROBBERY: Northeastern District -- A resident of the 3000 block of Clifton Park Ave. was in the 5900 block of Moravia Park Drive Thursday when a man robbed her of $35.* ROBBERY: Southwestern District -- A driver for the Diamond cab company in the 3500 block of Ashburton St. was robbed of nearly $40 by a gunman in the 4600 block of Old Frederick Road Thursday.* BURGLARY: Southwestern District -- Someone entered a house in the 3800 block of Cranston Ave. through a rear kitchen door Wednesday or Thursday and stole six chairs, a TV, stereo equipment and a patio set, all valued at nearly $8,000.

In Baltimore CityThree-day convention devoted to Africa gets under way todayMore than 1,000 politicians, academics and others will launch a three-day convention devoted to Africa at the Baltimore Convention Center today.Trade, security and human rights will dominate seminars and speeches of the meeting organized by the National Summit on Africa, a Washington-based institute."We are trying to mobilize and energize an activist pool to be more supportive of Africa," said Leonard H. Robinson, National Summit director.

A 30-year-old Diamond cab driver was found locked in the trunk of his taxi today in the second such robbery-abduction in northwest Baltimore in two days.Police Agent Arlene Jenkins said cabbie David Lee Clack, 30, of the 1100 block of Woodyear St., was found unharmed at 11 a.m. in the 5500 block of Falls Road, just above Northern Parkway, where a merchant heard him banging on the inside of his trunk and yelling to be let out.Mr. Clack told police he picked up a passenger at 2 a.m. in the 3700 block of Park Heights Ave. Somewhere on Druid Lake Park Drive, police said, the passenger produced a chrome-plated handgun, robbed Mr. Clack of several hundred dollars, then forced him into the trunk of the cab.Police said the robber then apparently drove the cab and abandoned it in the 5500 block of Falls Road, where Mr. Clack was found nine hours later.

O. Felix Townsend, who drove the streets of Baltimore for more than 50 years as a taxicab owner-operator, died Tuesday of heart failure at Millennium Health and Rehabilitation Center in Glen Burnie. The former Severna Park resident was 92. Born in Horntown on Virginia's Eastern Shore, Mr. Townsend spent his boyhood in Stockton, Va., before moving to Baltimore in the 1920s. He received a diploma from the old Baltimore Business College and was a clerk at Baker, Watts & Co., an investment banking company then at Calvert and Redwood streets in downtown Baltimore.

Black leaders urge denial of Klu Klux Klan paradeBlack community leaders are hoping to persuade the Elkton Town Commission not to permit a Klu Klux Klan parade down Main Street on the April anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination."

Abraham "Smiley" Simpson knew the best spots to find a fare. He knew the right times to swing by the markets or shopping centers or bus stations. And the longtime Baltimore cabbie knew how to treat people "right nice" during the ride."