Soccer Dad

Yes let's give him a promotion II

Yesterday's Urban Chronicles by Eric Siegel announces Baltimore has made strides during the O'Malley years

To be sure, any assessment of O'Malley's tenure must acknowledge that there remain too many homicides (more than one a day so far this year) and too many questions about police practices; too many poorly performing schools and too many school leaders tone-deaf to the public perception of their actions; too many neighborhoods that failed to be lifted by the rising tide of property values.

And some questions remain unanswered - for example, whether the publicly financed convention center hotel O'Malley pushed through will burnish the city's convention business or burden the city.

Still, by almost any objective measure, the city has improved under O'Malley's watch in a number of key areas, from homicides to health to housing prices - sometimes marginally, sometimes markedly. (See graphic). And where it has not improved in absolute terms, such as population growth, the rate of decline has slowed.

I'll grant that housing prices have gone up significantly. According the graphic (apparently not available on the internet, and only part of the column is up) the average home price has increased from $69,554 to $152,501. I would argue that this probably is somewhat independent of anything that O'Malley did. In Baltimore, the places that are nice - with private homes - are not the places where the crime is out of control.

But to boast about an increased graduation rate when school enrollment is down is wrongheaded. A loss of over 20000 in population in 6 years is nothing to crow about either.

Of the statistics presented that O'Malley can truly take credit for is the nearly 50% drop in the Gonorrhea rate. (Baltimore, no longer the STD capital of the United States; what an inspiring slogan.)

But let's take a look at the rest of what's in the paper today.

A 'broken system' scrutinized

When the future of Brandon Grimes was in the hands of Baltimore Circuit Judge M. Brooke Murdock nearly two years ago, he had two previous criminal convictions - both for nonviolent offenses - on his record. And the new charges before the judge were also for nonviolent offenses committed while he was on probation.

So Murdock - like other city judges routinely dealing with towering caseloads - accepted a guilty plea from Grimes for theft and multiple probation violations, giving him four concurrent six-month prison sentences.

(Blogger's Note: I was considered for a jury in Judge Murdock's courtroom in Nov 1995. She was quite entertaining as we waited. I'm guessing that the prosecutor and defense attorney were working on a plea deal that fell through. Eventually I was tossed during the peremptory challenges. At least they had a very enjoyable movie in the jury waiting area. She also achieved some notoriety for striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage.)

On the face of it her decision made some sense.

"These were all nonviolent offenses," Murdock said in an interview yesterday. "That was his whole record. There were no guns...."

The consequences though were terrible.

The efficacy of the city's criminal justice system is being scrutinized and criticized anew after Baltimore police charged Grimes, 21, on Tuesday in the killing of Detective Troy L. Chesley Sr.

Chesley, 34, a 13-year veteran who worked as a housing officer, was gunned down outside his girlfriend's home in Northwest Baltimore shortly after finishing his shift. Police officials expressed frustration that Grimes, who was shot in the attack and tracked down at a hospital, had been arrested about 17 times over the past three years, though he had only a few convictions.

Chesley's wife died a few years ago, so his two children are now orphans. And you have to ask yourself if the guy was arrested 17 times in such a short period wasn't it just a matter of time before he'd graduate to a move violent type of crime?

Then there's Man, 29, acquitted in killing of woman

A disc jockey accused of strangling his girlfriend was acquitted yesterday after a trial that stuck on the question of whether the woman committed suicide.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Paul E. Alpert, who decided the case, complained from the bench that the city police investigation was not thorough enough for him to be certain what happened to Anuradha Ramasamy.

And from the front page Shot down while helping a friend

Marcus McDowell was just 16 years old, a teenager who already had a high school diploma, a girlfriend with a "promise ring" and plans to start community college this year.

He was on his way home Monday evening when he left a store in the 5100 block of Harford Road and found three people trying to rob his friend, city police said. Marcus intervened. He was shot twice, dying less than an hour later.

"It was just Marcus being Marcus," said his mother, Darlene Belvin, 33. "If you're his friend, he would put his life out there to help you."

Marcus McDowell is an anomaly in a city where violent criminals kill each other just about every day.

He is a victim with no criminal record, a teenager heading home to dinner on a night that swallowed him up in the latest spate of homicides, at least 15 in the first 10 days of the year.

(emphases, mine)

On the face of it O'Malley may have made modest strides; but he inherited a dysfunctional criminal justice apparatus and didn't effect a substantial change.

Previously: Yes, let's give him a promotion.
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Blogdigger tags: Martin O'Malley, Crime, Baltimore City.