Artist Concept

After recent reports of a massive shooting spree resulting in the death of two and wounding of 17 people on Sunday, and with 13 murders thus far this year and dozens of shootings, the Southeastern District of Baltimore is now to be renamed “The Terrordrome” and placed under the world’s most massive geodesic dome. The emergency plan also includes the razing and salting of the surrounding area in an effort to “Completely sterilize the zone for the next thousand years until such time as future generations of humans can cope with the area’s problems,” stated Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III in a press conference held today. “Nothing gets in or out of Terrordrome.”

The project, which will be using $496 billion in emergency funds diverted from Red Line plan, begins next Thursday. Residents of the area are encouraged to leave town immediately, lest the dome being airlifted in from Antarctica traps them forever.

It seems like it’s almost an annual tradition, some area of the city or other just seems to attract or flaunt danger and violence more than most others. Last year (or rather, 2007), it was Barclay. This year, it’s a big fat chunk of the Southeastern District. It is exceedingly dangerous this year, sporting six murders, two police shootings, and at least four nonfatal shootings (that I could dig up) in so much as three months.

(By comparison, Barclay held nine murders over the course of a whole year, but is a much smaller area.)

View Southeastern District Shootings and Murders in a larger map

Last month I posted on the fact that Baltimore’s murder rate in January was as low as it was since 1987. It’s great! And over the course of February, that trend has continued with 14 murders, roughly half the number of murders in 2007. Last month, officials were saying “THERE’S HARD WORK TO BE DONE NO TIME TO TAKE CREDIT BLAH BLAH” but this month, they’re definitely starting to take some credit.
This article details such credit taking due to ‘policy changes’ implemented by Dixon and so forth, but also makes the point that as crime drops in the city, it’s definitely on the rise pretty much everywhere else in the state of Maryland. Indeed, Smilin’ Martin has begun ‘cracking down’ on the recent development in crime in Annapolis – a city which totaled 8 murders last year, and in January of this year had nearly half that many. Plus, it’s not news at all that gang activities have been surging recently in Harford and Carroll counties, where the market is practically first come first serve – none of the stiff and violent competition featured in Baltimore. So cheer up everyone, the murders and violence aren’t gone, they’re just spread out!

Before I get around to posting non-CoS material, I thought I’d share with everyone some late-breaking, utterly disturbing news. A guy by the name of Shawn Lonsdale recently ‘commited suicide’ by feeding a tube from his car exhaust pipe into his apartment. He was found dead some time later.

Why is this disturbing? Because Shawn just so happens to live in Clearwater, FL and just so happens to be a prominent anti-scientologist who frequently filmed people and events related to the cult in Clearwater. He was even interviewed on the aforementioned Panorama program on the BBC back in April or so where a confrontation between himself and a PR head of scientology, Tommy Davis (son of Anne Archer) smeared him publicly for having been arrested for lewd conduct in the late 90s. Not surprising considering their propensity for smearing people who criticize them, but now the guy is dead and there are a lot of questions to be answered, primarily by toxicology reports and handwriting analysis of his apparent suicide note.

Whatever the outcome of the case, it is ridiculously miserable that someone who dedicated himself to fighting the invasive presence of scientology in his town is dead.

murders are down to pre-crack levels. 14 murders in January is still a hell of a lot, and this is great, but I can’t help but feel very paranoid about cooked statistics or gang efforts to hide bodies. Although as far as the statistics are concerned it’s usually the lesser violent crimes that go unreported or fudged, so who knows. The article offers some good insight into that sort of pondering.

On the “renewed sense of cooperation between city and state officials” when it comes to dealing with crime, O’Malley had this to say:

“It’s just a lot better now,” O’Malley said. “It almost seemed for the last four years if we were trying to improve public safety, it was somehow contradictory to other statewide political agendas, but now we’re all aligned with the reality that if the city becomes safer, it’s better for the whole state.”

What a fucking asshole. IT WAS NEVER MY FAULT I NEVER MADE A MISTAKE, EVER.

In other news, the crime map got a little busier over the past few days.