DarkStar Spouts Off

DAMN!!!!

This means Rudy has a strong chance of winning:

Crime-fighting beats privacy in public places: Americans, by nearly a 3-to-1 margin, support the increased use of surveillance cameras — a measure decried by some civil libertarians, but credited in London with helping to catch a variety of perpetrators since the early 1990s.

So, you looked into Pootie Poot's soul...

Israel is looking into reports that Russia plans to sell 250 advanced long-range Sukhoi-30 fighter jets to Iran in an unprecedented billion-dollar deal.

According to reports, in addition to the fighter jets, Teheran also plans to purchase a number of aerial fuel tankers that are compatible with the Sukhoi and capable of extending its range by thousands of kilometers. Defense officials said the Sukhoi sale would grant Iran long-range offensive capabilities.

Government officials voiced concern over the reports. They said Russia could be trying to compete with the United States, which announced over the weekend a billion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

Damn, I had to read this before bed, right?

Black "Anti-Intellectualism"

It is claimed that the Black community has a "strong" problem with so-called "anti-intellectualism". I'm going to provide links to two articles and then ask you to answer a question.

Future of D.C. School Vouchers Worries Parents

Tesha Legore, a single mother whose daughter, Jadaica Godfrey, 8, attends St. Gabriel School in Northwest with a voucher, said she wanted to see D.C. public schools improved.

"But I'm not going to wait on them to get [the school system] together," said Ms. Legore, 30. "I want the best for my daughter. From when Jadaica was born, I knew I wanted her education to be solid, but from an income basis, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford it."

Jadaica is vivacious. On a recent afternoon, she bounced around the cheerful house, decorated mostly in pink, that she shares with her mother and grandmother in Northeast. She's bright, her mother says, and in public school, she breezed through without any problems.

Only after Jadaica switched to private school did her mother realize she had problems in reading and math. Jadaica's teacher called Ms. Legore to tell her what her daughter needed to work on at home, she said. Now she works with Jadaica to make sure she has a solid foundation in the essentials.

"I think this school has been very beneficial," she said.

Gregory M. Cork, president and chief executive officer of the Washington Scholarship Fund, said vouchers are part of a larger effort to reform D.C. education.

"We support better D.C. public schools and better charter schools," said Mr. Cork, whose children attend public schools in Northwest. "What parents need are options. The fact that whether kids deserve an option has become a political football is just regrettable."

And then this one (Hat tip P6):

Parents Still Seek The Elusive 'Right' School

No one knows exactly how many students are still without a school, but indicators show that the annual last-ditch scramble for a seat at a school of choice is in high gear:

•  Some 28,217 students remain on waiting lists to get into Los Angeles Unified School District's prized magnet schools, which are special programs established to promote integration.

•  Popular charter schools — free, public schools run independently of the school district — are mostly oversubscribed: The Inner City Education Foundation, which operates the View Park charter schools, pegs its waiting list at more than 5,000.

•  The season for admission into popular private schools is long past, but parents are hoping to find an opening, perhaps at a school looking for a particular demographic to round out its student body.

So how does a parent get into this predicament? Some simply waited too long. Others have diligently researched and visited schools, applied on time but lost admission lotteries or discovered they lack sufficient "priority points" to gain admittance into magnet schools. Some have refused to give up on a private school slot.

By law, every child is ensured a spot in a public school. But for this mass of families, the neighborhood school typically is not the preferred choice.

The Los Angeles school district's magnet office tries to help. So does its open enrollment office. A call to a school — public or private — can uncover unexpected openings; informal parent networks also accumulate information. Parents often find that the local public school is better than first presumed, or has a special and worthy program within the larger campus that they can settle on.

Then there are parents who lie to get into a school, which can backfire if a school investigates.

"It was really difficult when my daughter didn't get a sibling permit" for an in-demand Westside school, said Kerry Allen. "Because I know families who used false addresses."

Other parents have worn out shoe leather, spent evenings poring over test scores and attended lotteries.

...

But the summer search transcends Anglo angst. Minority parents also are looking for options.

There is a waiting list of more than 300 minority students who have signed up to be bused to the Westside or west San Fernando Valley. And, charter schools that have opened in working-class, black or Latino neighborhoods have been flooded with applications.

"We have a whole lot of issues in the African American community: What we face with young males — the gang issues," said Joanne Driver-Jordan, a respiratory therapist who lives in the Hyde Park area. "But education is a high priority in the list of priorities — not wanting your child to go to a school that is racially divided, where one race hates the other. And your child is trying to do academics in that setting?"

If "anti-intellectualism" is strong in the Black community, how do you resolve the actions of the parents in these articles and the fact that both articles indicate a "back log" for the options available?

There is more to it than "acting white."

Comments R Us: Adapt or Die

From a comment I made on the P6 blog:

Younger people are going to have a different view of the world which they will inherit. They will, hopefully, learn from their elders and try approaches that are different to achieve "better" results.

I've written on the AFROAM-L list that in today's world, there are many causes where Black groups should align with non-Black groups. An example would be the repeal of Rockefeller laws.

The world view of Harold Ford, Jr SHOULD be different than that of Harold Ford, Sr. The tactics used by Jesse Jackson, Jr MUST be different than the tactics used by Jesse Jackson, Sr. If not, then they are a waste.

Adapt or die.

This Is Just Silly

Cities sue gangs in bid to stop violence

FORT WORTH, Texas - Fed up with deadly drive-by shootings, incessant drug dealing and graffiti, cities nationwide are trying a different tactic to combat gangs: They're suing them.

Fort Worth and San Francisco are among the latest to file lawsuits against gang members, asking courts for injunctions barring them from hanging out together on street corners, in cars or anywhere else in certain areas.

The injunctions are aimed at disrupting gang activity before it can escalate. They also give police legal reasons to stop and question gang members, who often are found with drugs or weapons, authorities said. In some cases, they don't allow gang members to even talk to people passing in cars or to carry spray paint.

"It is another tool," said Kevin Rousseau, a Tarrant County assistant prosecutor in Fort Worth, which recently filed its first civil injunction against a gang. "This is more of a proactive approach."

Sure. Sue them. THAT will get them to stop banging!

NOT!

Spouting Off On: Sports

Barry Bonds

Barry Bonds is going to eclipse the record of Hank Aaron. Aaron has done the right thing by saying he didn't want to attend because it is a no win situation for Bonds and himself. Aaron is still displaying class. Bonds, on the other hand, is an ass, but so what. Steroids or not, he has to have the hand and eye coordination to hit the ball. And when the same scorn is shown to Mark McGuire or especially Jason Giambi(!) that is being shown to Barry Bonds, then I'll take the criticism more seriously.

Athletes Acting Up

I have heard of a few professional athletes, one getting "his shine" now, who have had accusations of domestic abuse levied at them, but they are appreciated by the fans. Bob Daley, the drunken golf pro, is not shown scorn. Pete Rose bet on baseball and many people still think he belongs in the hall of fame. We have an NBA referee who may have shaved points on games he bet on using Mafia bookies. The Tour de France, again, has people kicked out because of doping. And I guess I shouldn't dare mention the doping going on in high school. Let's allow the population to believe Jack, Johnny, and Jill are just gifted, not using supplements that can have long term negative affects on them. And let's ignore the long standing shenanigans of college athletes: cheating, taking money they aren't supposed to take, abuse, etc. After all, the big colleges need their programs to bring in alumni money.

Tony Gwynn

The stats.
The Wiki entry.

Final Comment

Athletes are humans, who are increasingly being given "special privileges" at young ages when someone or some people realize they have a gift. As such, many of these people are developing social habits that are outside of the norm. It's fine to admire them for their ability in their sports, but making them "role models" is a dangerous thing.

Spouting Off: Where Is Poverty Required?

This is really in draft form. But since I said I was going to write about it, I may as well put it out there.

Many companies are using the information technology and help desk resources of companies in India because of the claims of lower costs the off shore IT and help desk service providers. But as more companies have been using the resources in India, something funny has been happening: the pay scale for the workers has been quickly rising. The workers are in demand and the companies are now fighting for their services. I mentioned these market forces at work here.

When I lived in Montgomery County, I had to take my trash to the dump or hire a refuse service. I chose the lowest cost company. At one point, the company's workers went on strike and my garbage wasn't collected. I complained to the supervisor and he told me what was happening. I remember telling him that I was sorry to hear about the labor troubles, but that was his trouble, not mine. Now they were making it my trouble and if they didn't get my trash the next day, I would find another company. They didn't collect the trash so I found another company. They cost about $5 / month more. They either paid their workers a little more or they were more efficient elsewhere, but I didn't care.

In both cases, capitalistic market forces are at work. In the first, the employees are in the driver's seat because their services are valued. In the second case, the consumer is in the driver's seat because although the service is valued, there is a maximum cost that the consumer will allow. In the first case, as long as the price of the off shore services are perceived to be major cost savers, the employees pay will rise until the off shore service prices are no longer perceived to be cost saving. Then the pay will fall some and level off. [ BTW, I tend to think that the pay of garbage men should rival, if not exceed, the pay of doctors. Policemen and firemen should be paid on par with doctors as well. Policemen work to keep a civil society. Firemen defend the lives and property of those who are victims of fires, accidents, and other dangerous situations. Garbage men help protect society from disease by picking up the garbage. ]

No where is "poverty required" in this example capitalistic model. In the clothing sweat shop model of capitalism, employers do take advantage of their employees. The employers need low skilled labor to do the job. They do not place a high value on their workers. However, there is a vast supply of people who are willing to do sweat shop labor. Meanwhile, in the end, the buyers of goods consider the value of lower priced goods to be paramount over sweat shop labor, or they don't care at all. But in this case, it is the end consumer who can control what happens. If the end consumer cared about what was happening and refused to buy sweat shop goods, things would change because the sweat shop companies would either go out of business for lack of orders or they would change their policies to stay in business. So, in this sense, poverty is controlled by the consumer. The consumer wants cheap goods. The suppliers are willing to provide cheap goods, but to do so, they have to use cheap labor OR use "labor saving" devices that cuts down on the need for manual labor.

So, if poverty exists, SOME of the blame can be laid at the feet of consumers, but I don't think the blame could be placed on the economic model of capitalism.

Spouting Off On: "News" Media Backlash

Fox News arose because of a perceived liberal bias of news presented ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN. The perceived conservative bias of Fox News helped bring about Air America. With the presidential "debates" being held on CNN and YouTube, the shift in "news" presentation is now official and set in stone.

There will be another news presentation shift and it will happen much faster than the shift from print to television media. It will be much faster from the current shifting of news presentation from television media to Internet media, even though the television news presentation will not go away. The next shift is going to be a shift that targets the "left" vs. "right" presentation. What form it will be, be it ABC, NBC, or CBS making wholesale changes, or the Internet being home to podcast type news downloads or a major news website or blog or something in someone's mind right now, I don't know, but the "big 5" are ticking off too many people for there not to be another shift, and soon.

Conversations With "First Responders" I Know

I borrowed my friend's truck to get a toddler bed for DS 2.0 that was purchased off of Craig's List.

When I went to pick up my friend's truck, he was on a call so I waited around for him to return.

While I was waiting, a police man came into the firehouse and asked another fireman on duty about a person who claimed he was set to start the fireman academy.

It turns out the police warrant squad was monitoring a location when a private ambulance came up to the front door of a house. People came out of the back of the ambulance and went into the house. The warrant squad stopped the ambulance and went into the house. The person the were looking for had run out of the back.

The person the police officer asked about was driving the ambulance. It turns out he was using it as a private taxi while he was on duty to take people around. If I understand the conversation correctly, some
of those people had outstanding warrants and may have been gang members.

The fireman on duty said, "See! We told people YEARS ago that the gangs were setting up shop but no one wanted to listen to us! Now!?!?!?!!!!...."

What he said was simple: fireman, as well as policemen, are the first responders to things so they see what is going on. And I know they try to warn politicians and policemen of things that are happening but
many times people don't listen.

For example, some number of years ago, a batch of uncut heroin hit the streets. The firemen were running all over town on overdose calls. The ambulances go out first. If they aren't available, the pumper trucks go out, and if they aren't available, the hook and ladder trucks go out.

My friend called me during this time and asked if I knew anyone who did heroin, because if I did, there was some bad sh*t on the streets and it's going to kill people. About 3 days later, there was an east coast
alert about the heroin. When I talked to my friend about it, he was mad because he said it shouldn't have taken that long for the notice to come out. Not long after he first told me what was happening, they were fielding calls from NY, Philly, Camden, and other east coast city police departments, fire departments, and hospitals saying some bad heroin is coming down I-95, the look of it, and how to treat the overdose victims. My friend told me that one woman walked her friend, who was overdosing, to the firehouse. They shot the person up with adrenalin. Meanwhile, she showed them the heroin and it was very close to black. She didn't take it because she was a long time user and knew it was uncut.

The police officer also talked the politics of the upcoming Baltimore election and mentioned the FOP is not supporting the current mayor of Baltimore. I asked him if the recently fired police chief was a scape goat and he basically said he was and that Shelia Dixon, the current mayor, had no choice. She wasn't really running the show, ex-mayor and now governor, Martin O'Malley is really running the show.

My friend came and I got his truck.

He was still on duty when I gave the truck back to him. We talked for about 1 1/2 hours about stuff, including the madness going on in Baltimore with thugs shooting mostly other thugs and a few witnesses who "snitch."

A set of cops rolled past with sirens blaring.

"Yo, Ed! These people out here have lost their f'ing MINDS man!"

It was then I noticed the blinking blue lights of the police surveillance cameras. I looked around and saw a few down the block. The one closest to me was in the wrong location. That corner has never been a problem because it is a major intersection of 3 streets.

More later... Maybe...

Pimp In The Pulpit?

[ 7/11/2007 ]

Is there a pimp in the pulpit?

I repeat, is there a pimp in the pulpit (another link for the details)?

Jamal Bryant, the pastor of Empowerment Temple, fathered a child out of wedlock. The same pastor, who bragged in an article about having 2 Bentleys, is trying to fight the mother of his daughter who is requesting an increase in child support payments.

There is more but I can't verify the rest so, given what can befall me for getting it wrong, I won't say right now.

[ 7/25/2007 Update ]

I spoke with a member of Empowerment Temple. Bryant admitted to fathering a child by a woman who is not his wife. By this I mean he admitted he cheated on his wife and fathered a child.

There is a pimp in the pulpit!

Out Of Proportion

Wow.

Boys swat girls on the butt.

A teacher's aide sees it and takes them to the office. The police are called and the kids are locked up for 5 days, charged with felony sex offenses.

Just. Unbelievable.

And if found guilty, they face YEARS in jail and force the registration of the boys as sex offenders.

This is the loss of common sense and the loss of justice.

Coming Up

Coming up:

• Why capitalism doesn't need poverty but socialism and communism do
• Conversation I had with my boy, a first responder, and a cop
• Sports related -- Michael Vick, Barry Bonds, dog fighting, and the dirty ref
• Jamal Bryant confirmation: PIMP IN THE PULPIT

Ya'll come back now! Yah hear!

Silly Me

Silly me, when I was saying I didn't like the BET show "Hot Ghetto Mess," I said it was because they kept saying they were putting a mirror up to Black America, ie ALL of Black America. Just because Ray Ray thinks being dressed well is wearing a green dominant plaid zoot suit with green gaters, doesn't mean all of Black America thinks the same. So, now I've heard they have changed the name and people are happy?

Huh?

And the new name is, "WE Have To Do Better"?

BET can kiss my Black ass!

Summer of Murders

This is the summer of murders of mostly Black teenage and young men by other Black teenage and young men. If the madness is to stop, or at least slow down, immediately the following has to happen:

• If you are caught with an unregistered gun, you get locked up with no bail until the hearing.
• If you are found guilty for committing a crime with a gun, registered or not, and it is not a case of self defense, you will be sentenced to 15 years with no parole. You do all of the time.
• If you are found guilty of witness intimidation, you will be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years with no parole. You do all of the time.
• If you are found guilty of killing a witness, you get life with no parole.

That is for the short term and this has to happen at the local level, not the federal level as Project Exile.

You Ain't The Only One

Dr. Spence writes:

(as an aside, why has my traffic relatively blown up off of the Jamal Bryant Empowerment Temple stuff? all i did was point folks to the site….interesting.)

Me too.

Jason Whitlock Off The Deep End

Jason Whitlock is entering putz territory.

Think about this: a person grows up in a poor/depraved/"ghetto" environment, why does anyone think a ton of money is going to change that person's mindset? That's not street cred, it's not knowing any other way.

Next, but most important, dog fighting is bigger than "ghetto" or "hip hop" culture. It goes beyond it and started way before it.

Black Male College Explorers Program

The Black Male College Explorers Program

The Black Male College Explorers Program is an At-Risk prevention/ intervention program designed specifically to prevent black males from dropping out of high school, facilitate their admission to college and significantly increase their chances of earning a college degree.

High schools are asked to identify “At-Risk” black males in grades 7th-11th. A team of school and community leaders are required to provide supportive services for the student during the regular year. FAMU provides five (5) weeks of highly concentrated developmental experiences designed specifically for black males during the summer. An appropriate number of black male college and high school teachers are hired to teach subjects that include English, Mathematics, General Science, Art, African American Studies and Computer Sciences. Personal Development activities are provided through weekly seminars, workshops and motivational trips.

Turning Tide

More reports of a turning tide:

Fed up with being part of a group that cuts off a person’s face with piano wire to teach others a lesson, dozens of low-level members of al-Qaeda in Iraq are daring to become informants for the US military in a hostile Baghdad neighbourhood.

The ground-breaking move in Doura is part of a wider trend that has started in other al-Qaeda hotspots across the country and in which Sunni insurgent groups and tribal sheikhs have stood together with the coalition against the extremist movement.

“They are turning. We are talking to people who we believe have worked for al-Qaeda in Iraq and want to reconcile and have peace,” said Colonel Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, which oversees the area.

This is good news.

NBA Referee Doing Dirt

This is major in the world of sports!

The NBA acknowledged Friday the FBI is investigating referee Tim Donaghy for allegedly betting on games, including ones in which he officiated.

According to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, authorities are examining whether Donaghy made calls to affect the point spread in games on which he or associates had wagered over the past two seasons.

Donaghy is perhaps best-known previously as one of the referees in a 2004 game at Detroit that ended with Indiana Pacers players fighting with Pistons fans, one of the biggest black marks in league history.

This could top it.

I have a cousin who likes to joke that "they" would never let certain teams get too far because it is bad for the NBA, financially.

I was in Philly this weekend and the local news coverage was all over this. One channel stated Donaghy was disliked by players and other referees and that the NBA had previously questioned him about his gambling. If the latter is true, once the NBA found out about his gambling habit, he should not have been allowed to work another game.

Co-Sign

I co-sign this piece by P6. [ Update ] It's ptcruiser who, has posting rights, who wrote the entry.

Whitlock asserted that the legal troubles of Michael Vick and "Pac Man" Jones are clear signs that African Americans need to address what hip-hop culture is doing to our community. Huh? Can somebody, somewhere tell me why Michael Vick's indictment on charges related to dog-fighting and "Pac Man" Jones' apparent proclivity for frequenting strip clubs and getting into beefs with the cops are problems that we, the African American community, need to address? When did Vick's and Jones' troubles become synonymous with either hip-hop culture or the black community?

I saw that segment last night but didn't have time to blog about it. But I did have time during a lunch break errand to respond on talk radio and say the same damn thing. My exact words were, "I'll condemn the actions of Vick, not because he's Black and I'm Black, I'll condemn those actions because they are barbaric!"

Apropos of Nothing

Apropos of nothing, in other words, just mental randomness...

• The wife and I are hooked on home renovation, "home flipping", home buying, home selling cable shows.
• "DS 2.0" is into the terrible twos. He's VERY active in general. Today I come home and there is classical music playing. I go into the kitchen and he's looking at me and then I see my wife with "a look" that tells me everything. The classical music is playing to calm DS 2.0 down, but it didn't work.
• If you remember politicians are amoral, at best, then you don't have to write clap trap like this. (Hat tip Booker Rising).
• This is sweet. Unfortunately, I need something like this.
• 2500+ square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, open floor plan, kitchen island, finished basement with decent storage, decent sized back yard, "super bath" in the master bedroom, 2 car garage, good school system (although we would not use it) walk in closet, family oriented community.
• New kitchen floor, new kitchen hardware, new dining room lighting, new carpet, de-clutter, power wash siding and patio, paint the entire house (UGGGG....), add more "curb appeal"...
• We went to a celebration of the addition of baby into the waiting arms of friends, and it was nice. It's been too long since we last saw them.
• After attending celebration, we went to the development where I used to live. It looks like it's now primarily Black and Latino.
• One Realtor we are working with is "Middle Eastern." A few of her selling clients are also "Middle Eastern." I'm just saying, dollar circulation.

Georgia Institute of Technology Most Black Engineers

This is interesting:

ATLANTA (July 16, 2007) — The Georgia Institute of Technology is the top overall producer of African-American engineers in the United States, according to Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

For the 2005-2006 academic year, Georgia Tech was ranked No. 1 in undergraduate degrees in engineering awarded to African-American students with 120 degrees, up from 117 during the 2004-2005 academic year.

Other top five degree producers at the undergraduate level include North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina State University at Raleigh, Southern University and A&M College and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. magazine’s annual college rankings report.

GaTech, NC A&T, NC State, Raleigh, Southern A&M, and FAMU. Three HBCUs.

Check the rest of this out:

Georgia Tech was also the No. 1 producer of African-American doctoral graduates in engineering with 11 graduates, up from 4 the previous academic year.

Other top five producers of African-American doctoral engineering graduates include Morgan State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Florida and North Carolina A&T State University.

Georgia Tech was No. 2 in engineering master’s degrees awarded to African-American students with 28 degrees, down slightly from 29 during the previous academic year when Tech held the top spot.

The top spot for master’s degrees awarded to African-American engineering students is now held by North Carolina A&T State University, a historically black university. Other top five producers include Southern Methodist University, University of Florida and University of Michigan.

Interesting...

Dumb

I often wondered (not really) why people could not leave the weed alone for a few years when they have multi-million dollar contracts. I guess now I have to ask why they can't leave dog fights alone.

(CBS/AP) Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges related to illegal dog fighting.

Vick and three others were charged with violating federal laws against competitive dog fighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.

Vick and the other defendants — Purnell A. Peace, Quanis L. Phillips and Tony Taylor — were involved in an ongoing animal fighting venture based out of Vick's home in Smithfield, Va., from early 2001 to April 2007, according to a statement released by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Vick faces $350,000 in fines and six years in prison if convicted of the charges.

Michael Vick is a dumb ass. His brother, more so. They show lack of home training.

[ UPDATE ]

Media is turning this into OJ, 2

iPhone == DOS?

This is funny!

The Wi-Fi connection on Apple's recently released iPhone seems to be the source of a big headache for network administrators at Duke University.

The built-in 802.11b/g adapters on several iPhones periodically flood sections of the Durham, N.C., school's pervasive wireless LAN with MAC address requests, temporarily knocking out anywhere from a dozen to 30 wireless access points at a time. Campus network staff are talking with Cisco, the main WLAN provider, and have opened a help desk ticket with Apple. But so far, the precise cause of the problem remains unknown.

"Because of the time of year for us, it's not a severe problem," says Kevin Miller, assistant director, communications infrastructure, with Duke's Office of Information Technology. "But from late August through May, our wireless net is critical. My concern is how many students will be coming back in August with iPhones? It's a pretty big annoyance, right now, with 20 to 30 access points signaling they're down, and then coming back up a few minutes later. But in late August, this would be devastating."

That's because the misbehaving iPhones flood the access points with up to 18,000 address requests per second, nearly 10Mbps of bandwidth, and monopolizing the AP's airtime.

More at the link.

Society Crumbles Because Of Injustice

I got into a "debate" with Michael Cobb Bowen concerning the misapplication of justice, with one point being being policing. This is what I found today in The Baltimore Sun. There is more, specifically a quote I didn't provide, but I have to research conviction rates first before I comment on it.

Paul M. Blair Jr., president of the police union who was a lieutenant in the Western District in 1993, said residents are more distrustful of police than they were a decade ago or more.

That is due, in part, to the aggressive arrest policy for quality-of-life infractions under the O'Malley administration, he said.

Many residents have had negative experiences with police, making them less willing to cooperate with police officers, he said. That view was echoed by several detectives in different units in the department.

"You put all that together and then you're here in 2007 with another climbing homicide rate," Blair said.

More later...

I Know This Statistic

I know one of the dead people named in this article.

I told my daughter that although there is a bond with the person who is now dead, if you see him in the street, speak and keep moving because I didn't want her to get caught up in the mess that he was involved in. Today she gave me a call telling me what happened. He is survived by both parents, siblings, 3 young children, nieces, nephews, cousins and, unfortunately, a strong object lesson.