Violent Crime

Rushing to implement a new, violent-crime task force even before planning for the unit is complete, Baltimore police officials last night sent a dozen extra patrol officers into the most crime-ridden areas of East and West Baltimore in an effort to reassure beleagured residents."

WASHINGTON -- The rates of homicide and firearm violence jumped upward in 2005, ending a decade of decline, according to a new U.S. Justice Department report that reinforces recent warnings by law enforcement officials. The National Crime Victimization Survey, released yesterday, found that nationwide, killings increased 4.8 percent, from 16,140 in 2004 to 16,910 last year. The biggest increases were reported in the Midwest and the South. Experts said these increases buttress reports from the FBI and many mayors and police chiefs that violent crime is beginning to rise after a long decline.

Martin O'Malley, who once had Baltimore fully in his windshield and not the rear-view mirror, called it a "rough patch." Nearly 200 homicides in the first eight months of 2007, putting Baltimore on a pace to record more than 300 killings for the first time since the bloody 1990s, and O'Malley plays this down as a "rough patch." No outrage. No fury. Not a drop of classic O'Malley sarcasm. No expression of impatience. Not a bit of disappointment in his successor for breaking from the smart and aggressive law enforcement strategies that his administration put in place and that appeared to reduce violent crime here.

WASHINGTON -- Bush administration officials are scrambling to demonstrate that they're addressing sharp jumps in violent crime in some cities, in an attempt to reclaim a traditionally Republican issue amid criticism from some Democrats, mayors and police chiefs. Senior Justice Department officials sought yesterday to highlight the administration's multipronged programs for combating growing gang violence and outbreaks of juvenile crime. The renewed emphasis comes as some experts, as well as politicians, cite federal cuts in city and state law enforcement funding as a possible contributor to spikes in murders, robberies and assaults in medium-sized cities.

Baltimore City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., the leading Democratic primary opponent of Mayor Sheila Dixon, called for an independent audit of crime statistics yesterday, arguing that the official numbers do not reflect actual crime. Sounding a refrain that has become familiar in Baltimore politics, Mitchell questioned the Dixon administration's position that overall violent crime is down, while murders and nonfatal shootings climb. Mitchell promised to request an audit from the U.S. Department of Justice today.

VIOLENT crime reached an unusually high level in Baltimore during the mid-1990s, then slowly began to decline. Still, more than 300 people were killed in Baltimore last year -- the ninth year in a row that's happened.The problem of violent crime here stands in sharp contrast to what is happening in many other big U.S. cities, most notably New York, where violent crime has been declining since 1990. For example, in the late '80s, there were about 2,000 homicides a year there; last year, there were fewer than 700.Experts have offered a variety of explanations for the drop in crime in New York, including the doubling of the state's prison population, changing demographics (fewer teen-agers)

Declaring that crime is bad for business, the incoming chairman of the Greater Baltimore Committee is to announce tonight that a major goal of the business group will be to halve the region's homicide rate by 2002.John Morton III, president of NationsBank Corp.'s Mid-Atlantic Banking Group, is to make the announcement when he is named GBC's chairman at the group's annual meeting.In Baltimore and the surrounding five counties, there were 356 homicide last year. In Baltimore City alone, there were 314 homicides last year and 312 in 1997, making it the fourth deadliest city in the country per capita, behind Gary, Ind., New Orleans and Washington.

Robberies in Howard County rose about 63 percent in the first half of this year, and police said yesterday that it will take time for the 4-month-old robbery unit to have an impact.The surge in robberies contributed to a 28.6 percent increase in violent crime in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year, according to new police statistics. Property crimes increased 2.8 percent.Some community leaders expressed concern, saying the county should be in line with the statewide trend of decreased crime.

FRANCIS Fukuyama likes to take on big issues, as he did with his first book, "The End of History and the Last Man," an analysis of the post-Cold War world published soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union.Mr. Fukuyama, a professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., has taken on an even more ambitious project in his latest book, "The Great Disruption," trying to explain why social order seems to be unraveling in the last half of this century -- and not just in the United States.

Victim's Voices: Silent No More is the theme of today's memorial service in New Windsor honoring the memory of Western Marylanders who lost their lives to violent crime.The 10th annual service also acknowledges the families whose lives have been dramatically changed by someone else's violent actions. The western region includes Carroll, Montgomery, Frederick, Washington, Allegany and Garrett counties.In a written statement for National Crime Victims' Rights Week, which began today, members of the Victim Witness unit of the Carroll County state's attorney's office said their goal is to help victims of violent crime express their needs, speak out and participate actively in their recovery.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration released the results of its survey of Baltimore residents Thursday and confirmed two things that should be fairly obvious to most people who live here. One, illegal drug use and violent crime are major concerns of city residents, as is the difficulty of finding good jobs. And two, Baltimore is a Balkanized place. Residents reported a curious disconnect between how they felt about their neighborhoods and how they felt about the city as a whole, particularly when it comes to crime.

Two men charged in the death of a bystander in Middle River during a drug deal gone bad were found guilty Tuesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court. A jury deliberated for more than four hours before finding that Warren J. Yates, 27, of Dundalk and Donald S. Kohler, 29, of Joppatowne were responsible for the death of Shirley Worcester, 58, who was hit by a stray bullet on Jan. 7 while standing in her driveway talking with relatives who had just returned from church. Prosecutor John Cox said that Kohler, in the act of buying marijuana from Yates in a house a block from Worcester's, had handed over what appeared to be $4,400 in cash, but was actually a roll of fake money with a $100 bill showing on the outside.

It's hardly surprising that residents of Southwest Baltimore are gratified by the new attention they're getting from police and municipal officials. Carrollton Ridge was the site of a shooting this summer that left a 5-year-old girl critically injured, and Mill Hill was the scene of a fatal shooting a few weeks later. Both communities have suffered from crime and neglect of basic services. So it's to be expected residents there might view the city's recent decision to flood the area with uniformed patrol officers, fire inspectors and sanitation and housing department workers as a sign things may finally be turning around.

It's difficult to find much mention of the city of Baltimore these days without reference to crime. There is open argument, in the pages of this newspaper and its online edition, on radio talk shows and in private conversation, about the relative danger of working in or visiting "Charm City." Is it really charming these days, or a place to be avoided because of random acts of violence that appear increasingly directed toward people in neighborhoods that once seemed safe? Everybody has an opinion, it seems - some based on personal experiences, some shaped by a need to reassure potential visitors that there's no need to avoid the place.

Following is a selection of comments from reader e-mails and Sun blogs about Baltimore crime and the city's ranking as the nation's most deadly in new FBI statistics. Police should worry about crime, not PR It's hard not feel a little snarky at [Police Commissioner Frederick H.] Bealefeld for having gone on such an aggressive campaign in recent weeks to spin the FBI crime statistics. For as much sympathy and respect one has to afford the beleaguered Baltimore Police Department, it's worthy of concern when the chief gives the impression that he's more concerned with PR than addressing the serious problems the city faces.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and House Speaker Michael E. Busch on Tuesday credited a year-old law enforcement partnership with a major drop in Annapolis crime, and said the initiative should be extended to other parts of the state. In the first year of the Capital City Safe Streets program, crime in Annapolis is down 32 percent, and violent crime - including homicide, rape and aggravated assault - is down 39 percent over the past year, officials said. In 2009, there has been one homicide in Annapolis, compared with six killings in the first six months of 2008.

It was 4 a.m. Thursday and Theresa Stoop - the special agent in charge of Baltimore's ATF division - was standing in M&T Bank Stadium with a microphone in hand, looking at about 340 agents and officers sitting in the seats before her. A core group of them, along with attorneys from the state and federal prosecutors' offices, had spent the past 17 months investigating dozens of suspected city gang members, considered a violent organization of Bloods, and...

With the unofficial beginning of summer here, crime in Baltimore so far this year is down in nearly every category, mirroring a national trend as most large cities defy predictions that crime will rise in a struggling economy. Total crime is down 9 percent, including an 11 percent drop in violent crime. Property crime, which rose last year for the first time in 15 years, is down 9 percent so far this year. And homicides, which for much of the year were up by a considerable margin, have largely stabilized in recent weeks.

Maryland Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason M. Weinstein has been tapped to serve as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's criminal division, a former colleague and close friend revealed on his blog Friday. The department confirmed the appointment. In breaking the news, Steve Levin, who recently left the U.S. attorney's office to go into private practice in Baltimore, listed Weinstein's accomplishments between personal asides (he has "two awesome kids, a great wife" and an "uncanny ability to quote the entire script of Trading Places and most episodes of Seinfeld," Levin wrote)

Baltimore police officials rejected the notion yesterday that a tightened budget drove a recent crime spike, telling City Council members that they saved millions from the department's overtime budget while achieving a 20-year low in homicides last year by spending more strategically and increasing the department's staffing. Deputy Commissioner Deborah Owens said at a council hearing that overtime spending dropped from $35 million in 2006 to $21 million last year, a period that saw homicides tumble from 276 to 234. One of the keys to those declines was that the department was no longer losing more officers than it recruited, Owens said, adding that the agency is fully staffed for the first time in years.