This is one of the hundreds of reasons I left Balto in 2000 for the far safer confines of Appalachian VA. It is a lot quieter here too. I got tired of waking up at 2 am or later to the sound of gunfire between the Nigerians and the Jamaicans across Harford Rd. Please dig deeper into these things. Perhaps one day someone up there will grow a pair and start mopping up these people. Then Baltimore will be a safe place to visit again.

Posted 1.28.2009 12:30 AM

Sassi, a staunch Libertarian who has run for Congress--Some "libertarian" if he can't even mind his own fuckin' business....

Posted 1.28.2009 2:14 PM

Dear Count,

My neighborhood and the safety of the people who live in it is indeed my fuckin' business.

Not sure what part of the Libertarian platform is giving you the idea that I have to let my neighborhood be taken over by thugs.

Fornicate thyself, and promptly.

Posted 1.28.2009 2:42 PM

Congratulations to Mr. Sassi and all of the unnamed people around the city who try to make a difference in this city. Until people wake up and realize that the city government, the police, and even the community groups aren't going to solve this city's problems -- it's individuals -- we're doomed. Each of us have a responsibility to take a stand in some way, to take Baltimore back from the criminals. If you're not willing to help -- to be part of the solution -- then get the hell out of our way.

Posted 1.29.2009 12:27 AM

Sebastian: Great picture :)

There's nothing that criminals fear more than an armed citizen who's willing and able to defend himself.

Posted 1.29.2009 9:13 AM

Thanks! Frequently people say "hey, you're still going to jail if you pick a fight with someone despite your permit". Well, duh. I've been doing this for years...if I was looking to pick a fight, I'd have found it. I'm merely a guy who walks down the street and reports what I see to the authorities. I get labeled with the "v-word" quite a bit, but the reality is I'm doing no such thing. I'm just a guy who doesn't think I should have to be an easy victim for someone who wants to corner me.

Posted 1.29.2009 11:03 AM

Seriously, Sebastian, I say this without sarcasm: you're like, my hero. I admire your courage and determination. Keep fighting the good fight.

Posted 1.29.2009 11:27 AM

SS: You may well be living up to the Libertarian Party platform....However, that has nothing to do with real libertarianism. Thanks for reminding me to always use a lower-case "l" when I use this particular l-word to characterize my own views.

Posted 1.29.2009 12:13 PM

"I'm merely a guy who walks down the street and reports what I see to the authorities."--Sebastian Sassi

"Gene was informer to the bone. He probably pulled out dirty lists of people--his hands were always dirty--and read them off to the law. You could see him bustling into Black and Tan headquarters during the Irish Troubles, in a dirty gray toga turning in Christians, giving information to the Gestapo, the GPU, sitting in a cafeteria talking to a narcotics agent."--William Burroughs

Sound like anyone? (Aside from the fact that Sassi looks very clean-cut rather than "dirty", of course.)

Posted 1.29.2009 12:35 PM

Personal to Ed Ericson: thanx for running this piece. It presents a broader picture than usual of Baltimore's drug-prohibition problem (often mischaracterized as a "drug problem") and is the kind of thing I was hoping the CP would do. Of course, different readers may draw divergent conclusions, as the exchanges above demonstrate.

Posted 1.29.2009 12:43 PM

If the Count had actually read up on me, he'd know I generally find the War on Drugs to be futile, unwinnable, and counter productive on the macro level. However, at the local level I also see nothing in the small L or capital L sense of the libertarian creed that suggests I need to tolerate some of its side effects on my block.

In other words, there's nothing counter to little "L" libertarianism in saying you don't want thugs shooting people, abusing people, intimidating people, throwing trash everywhere, and generally shitting up your neighborhood. My right to throw a punch stops at your chin, as we libertarians are fond of pointing out--and their right to be thugs stops at my neighborhood. If they could behave without shitting things up for everyone else, I wouldn't care who sold what or ingested what. They can't, and so they gotta go.

So please, save your childish, sophomoric idealoguery for somebody who's another like you, hiding behind an anonymous keyboard, instead of being a real person out there in very real form making our city better. You'd have to be a bloomin idiot to buy any of the crap you're selling. Pookie and DeyDey on the corner aren't counterculture heroes, they're not the stuff of novels, and they'd be the first to tell you go fuck yourself when you tried to share your dimestore novel and corncob pipe reflections on the War on (Some) Drugs. They want legalization about as much as they want calculus lessons.

Posted 1.29.2009 2:30 PM

FACED.

Posted 1.29.2009 2:38 PM

Ah, changing our focus now, are we, Sebastian? I didn't know material was available about you for me to "read up on." Are you spending as much time & energy promoting an end to drug prohibition as you are patrolling Pigtown?

Incidentally, I wonder why half the responses to my posts attack me for anonymity, while the other half have someone sneering at me, "I know who you are." "Idealoguery" is a nice coinage though, we may have to add it to the English language.

Posted 1.29.2009 2:49 PM

How is pointing out that you're A) misinformed and B) making yourself look like a jackass shifting the focus? The point is I'm taking a downtrodden neighborhood and making it livable, and you're shitting on that, and trying to cloak your nonsensical rambling in a poorly considered moralistic position that tries to make me out to be the bad guy here.

Glad you like the play on words; since literary license apparently escapes you, let's get down to brass tacks instead: if all you have to contribute to this story is your pedantic misreading of what libertarianism is all about, please...post here as often as possible. We need more useful idiots to shed light on the issues Ed is bringing to light, and pretty sure you're taking the cake so far for leading that charge. If you really think I'm the bad guy here or doing anything indefensible, please, by all means...keep typing.

Posted 1.29.2009 2:58 PM

OK, ya got a few Drug War foot soldiers locked up, so they could be replaced immediately by others. Real helpful there, Thomas Paine!

Posted 1.29.2009 3:13 PM

Count, what in the world is your deal today? Please explain specifically why you don't like or respect that he is trying to make his neighborhood better.

I don't understand, please let us know. You can't possibly think that it's better to roll over and let your own street go to pot. You can't possibly enjoy being afraid. And don't think that this is all just about drugs - what about johns and prostitutes, robberies and burglaries, etc.? (While people love to try to link everything with drugs, I'm sure we could all agree that eradicating every illegal substance in Baltimore wouldn't make our city crime-free.)

Unless you're writing from some corner of Cecil County or somewhere where you have no idea what people can have to deal with down here in Baltimore - I'd care to hear why you find Sebastian's fearless valiancy so detestable.

Posted 1.29.2009 3:32 PM

Count Doucher:

Maybe since you have such a hard-on for corner boys you should invite them come set up shop in your neighborhood. While you're at it you could encourage some pimps to move their business in your direction as well.

Posted 1.29.2009 3:36 PM

"OK, ya got a few Drug War foot soldiers locked up, so they could be replaced immediately by others. Real helpful there, Thomas Paine!"

The point is they're not being replaced. None of the local idiots owns a poppy field or a cocoa farm. They're selling stepped on crap that they get from other drug territories in the city and bring here. Well...the people that supply the packages are getting tired of their packages getting pinched. So they're not sending them down here any more. My buddy who works western district has told me on numerous occasions that he's arrested people new to the western...and when he confronts them on why they're there, they say Pigtown has been shut down.

"I'd care to hear why you find Sebastian's fearless valiancy so detestable."

I've found that whenever you try to do something positive in this city, inevitably shallow, mindless, serial Internet trolls will come out of the woodwork to sling mud at you. Most people like this usually are cowards who wouldn't have the balls to do what I do, and resent anyone doing something more positive with their lives than they are.

You can fix a neighborhood. You shouldn't have to live in fear while you do. Federal Hill, Canton, Patterson Park, Butchers Hill, etc all had to go through this process, and so are we.

Posted 1.29.2009 3:46 PM

That should read "people looking to buy drugs and are new faces in the Western"...what I was getting at is that my buddy has arrested people looking to cop dope who say they're looking up in the Western now because their usual haunts down here in Pigtown are getting to be harder find dope in...and what is sold here is crappy.

I don't think the drug war on the macro level is winnable. I do think on the micro level you can mitigate its effects and make areas like Pigtown livable again.

Posted 1.29.2009 3:56 PM

Oh, you're shifting the "drug problem" around! My hero! "None of the local idiots owns a poppy field or a cocoa farm." I believe you mean "coca", though who knows, if the gov't decided to prohibit hot chocolate, maybe a new "drug problem" could be created that way. I don't like the idea of them selling "stepped on crap", I think the stuff should be sold legally in retail stores. The quality would improve & the price would plummet. And you might be able to put yr. gun away.

Anyway what's to stop smarter, better-connected drug dealers from moving in with better product now that you've (allegedly) driven away the small fry?

Posted 1.29.2009 4:07 PM

Yawn...my neighborhood is my responsibility. I never said I was eliminating the drug trade, but apparently you're down to ticky tack fouls on typos and strawmen arguments. If people in the Western took care of their neighborhoods, they too could enjoy what we're having in Pigtown. If it doesn't impress you that we're doing something remarkable and turning a neighborhood around...then don't bother reading Ed's article and move on to the sports page or something else. Some of us actually care about where we live. If everyone took as good care of their 'hoods as we do of our little corner of the city, the "drug problem" would look a lot different. While I share your belief in decriminalization, I am at a loss to understand your derogatory take on somebody turning their neighborhood around. It smacks of a do nothing loser who can't stand to see someone doing something he himself can't do.

As for my gun, a true libertarian believes in the right of the individual to protect himself. Since we're talking about who's the libertarian here...

What's to stop them? Why haven't they moved back into Fed Hill? Canton? Mt. Vernon?

They won't go where they can't operate without the community making it difficult for them. Alleged my ass, call up BPD Ops for the SD and ask them about what we're doing in Pigtown and what I've accomplished. After they're finished laughing at you, they'll set ya straight. We're getting it done here. What positive contribution have you made today?

Posted 1.29.2009 5:14 PM

Of course you have a right to own a gun. I support that all the way. Anyway I don't think I want to "enjoy" what you're "having in Pigtown". Yeah, the kids "just need direction." & are you giving them that? No, all you have to offer is a call to your "buddies" on the force & a 6-month bid for the kid that makes his aunt hate you. (Rightly.) Just don't move to Mount Vernon is all I ask, you scare me far more than drug dealers & hookers do.

Posted 1.30.2009 10:00 AM

Then you're obviously an idiot. I haven't fed anyone's addiction, shot anyone, or endangered anyone. All I've done is make this a nicer place to live (I noticed you didn't bother to post even one thing you do to make Baltimore better). If you like them better than me, why don't you go live in the Western? Why are you hanging out in a yuppie enclave like Mt. Vernon?

I guess it's an easier place to be a cowardly anonymous Internet troll.

It's not my job to give them direction, I'm not their parents (though I do work with neighborhood kids frequently...bet you don't have time in your busy Internet troll schedule to do so, eh?). Auntie has no right to hate me, she should hate herself for not making Junior behave in such a fashion that the BPD has to intervene.

I wouldn't put my real name on the dumb shit you're typing either. But please keep it up, the contrast between your attitude and mine is telling.

Posted 1.30.2009 10:22 AM

It's funny how you don't call out people who AGREE with you on being "anonymous", isn't it SS? I will not take the bait & ID myself on this site. (Half the people reading this could tell you my name anyway.) I guess all the street crime I hear about/witness daily up here is a hallucination. You keep talking about how you're making Pigtown better, I'm still waiting for specifics. OK, the quality of the dope is a little lower...they'll just have to steal more to buy more product. I loathe Neighborhood Watch type crap, always have & always will.

Posted 1.30.2009 12:33 PM

Plus, what's so bad about heroin anyway? Doesn't it bother you that you're making the addicts suffer? Heartless wretch....& remember, the careers of the cops you love so much depend on continued "drug problem areas"....

Posted 1.30.2009 3:39 PM

The obvious difference being they're not behaving like idiot trolls, casting aspersions and slinging mud from the dubious safety of the keyboard warrior's position. It's quite another thing to be a smarmy jerk while hiding behind a pseudonym.

Specifics?

Housing prices have risen, putting money in the pockets of people who invest here. Violent crime has dropped substantially, as has petty crime. Narcotics trafficking and its effects are dramatically lessened.

What is crap about people watching after their neighborhood? My guess is you were out looking to score a little dope yourself one night and got snagged by a BPD guy who gave you a hard time and made you spend a night in CBIF with some of the thugs you seem to sympathize with, and the unpleasant experience has left you bitter. We'll add that to the list of questions from other people you've refused to answer: once again, why exactly is it that you'd resent someone for doing the overwhelmingly positive thing I've done for this neighborhood? You were asked that 24 hours ago and still haven't gotten around to addressing it, in true troll form (dodge pointed questions you don't like while slinging mud).

People who actually live here are ecstatic to see me doing what I do--they'd tell you to do the same thing I suggested you do in my first post.

Posted 1.30.2009 4:58 PM

Umm..is the same Sebastain Sassi who ran for Congress but couldn't bother to get his paperwork in on time?

According to Sassi's own Libertarian Party bio, he has "singlehandedly" driven out all the drug dealers in Pigtown. So, there's no more crime there.

Posted 1.30.2009 5:17 PM

Oh goody, Guy Cabot of Fort Washington decided to stop by and use his usual canard. Nice try parroting Matt's name. Never mind that I demonstrated that I had indeed filed the paperwork on time, and the BOE admitted they didn't know why my name wasn't on the ballot. After all, if I hadn't filed the paperwork on time my name wouldn't have been on the sample ballot, but in fact it was. Let's see...doesn't have his facts straight, can't spell my name right...having a bad night I see, eh Jadegold, er, I mean Guy?

What a stupid comment...since there are other kinds of crime besides drug dealing. It's amazing how juvenile trolls can be.

Posted 1.30.2009 9:17 PM

Tsk....First you attack me for being petty for pointing out your "typo" of "cocoa" for "coca", now you're ticked off at this guy because he mistyped your name. You seem to be obsessed with wanting to know MY name. Why? Out for a little vengeance? You're correct, drug prohibition makes me extremely "bitter." I don't like snitches, registration requirements for alleged "sex offenders", or "gun control." I find your "I'm John Wayne ridin' in to clean up the neighborhood" paradigm as revolting as the glamorization of Thug Life. In a free, capitalist society, Pookie & Deydey would be working at the neighborhood opium den & they would be better off, like the rest of us. Your lock-'em-up approach does not help lead us to greater freedom & only makes things worse. I bet Frank Klein (whom I know slightly) was laughing when he took that photo of you....

Posted 1.31.2009 5:59 PM

"Tsk....First you attack me for being petty for pointing out your "typo" of "cocoa" for "coca", now you're ticked off at this guy because he mistyped your name."

A name that's spelled in the very post he's responding to like two inches up his screen. You and Guy would get along just fine, you're both infamous serial trolls. Ed Erickson, who I know slightly now as well, told me you're a real pain in the ass and that you're a long time troll on links to his stories, and it didn't sound like he'd mind too much if you'd quit shitting up the comments sections.

"You seem to be obsessed with wanting to know MY name. Why? Out for a little vengeance?"

Actually, I really could care less. I just think it's humorous that you think you're doing anything worth avenging. I'm just pointing out that A) the author the column we're discussing thinks you're a douchebag, B) so do I, and C) I put my name and my ass on the line while you cast juvenile aspersions anonymously. Doesn't say much for your spine (or lack thereof).

If you have an issue with drug prohibition, well, join the club. That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with trying to alleviate its worst effects while the war continues. It doesn't follow from not liking the War on (Some) Drugs that I need tolerate thugs shitting up my neighborhood. I think the WOD should end; in the meantime, while it is still going on, there's nothing wrong with not wanting what some of the people who are participating in said war do to happen in your backyard.

In other words...your contention that I'm part of the problem in the WOD doesn't hold water. Not even a drop.

"I find your "I'm John Wayne ridin' in to clean up the neighborhood" paradigm "

That characterization only exists in your sick little world. In reality, I'm just a guy who A) wants to enjoy a nice neighborhood and B) believes in defending himself from people want to kill me because of A). If you find somebody trying to do something positive (for a city so desperately in need of it) revolting, that tells us a little something about just what a sad little person you are.

And you're quit possibly the biggest idiot in the world if you think Pookie and DeyDey would be working the potshop or the smackstand. If it were decriminalized and sold in stores, working there would be a REAL JOB that would pay the same shitty wages that working at a coffee shop or CVS pays. They'd have to show up on time and have a boss. In short...they'd tell you to go fuck yourself long before you could get them to show up for that job.

You seem to admire Pookie quite a bit...how about you go live with him in the Western? Eh?

I can't single-handledly undo the evils of the WOD. While it is going on, I can make my neighborhood pretty nice. You seem to not realize the obvious--my issue isn't with the drugs, it's with thug culture and the things it entails. You'd think that'd be obvious enough. I guess we need to keep this at kindergarten speed, eh?

The picture was staged to Frank's liking. If he found it humorous...so fuckin what? Am I supposed to be insulted? Pretty weak sauce that you had to go there, but maybe Ed can do his next piece on what sad little troll you are (but that wouldn't be news to anyone).

Posted 2.1.2009 9:25 PM

Ed (whose last name you misspelled up there, if we're keeping track) likes me enough to publish my letters (real letters) on a regular basis. (Ooh! Identity hint, Sherlock!) I suspect he doesn't mind readers showing interest on the comments site. (Why have such a feature if you don't want feedback?) Pookie & co. aren't making great $ as street dealers. As you yourself imply in the article, they're just getting by. (Others, such as the authors of the book FREAKONOMICS, have shown this in more detail.) I bet they'd be happy to do what they're doing now, in a safe & legal setting. (And if not, others could fill the void. Bars never seem to have a problem finding servers for that other drug.) So go ahead & ruin people's lives by getting them locked up for violating laws you yourself think should not exist, I'll die happy, knowing I did whatever I could to promote freedom.

Posted 2.2.2009 1:03 PM

Tosser you are getting your sorry ass handed to you. Keep up the entertainment. Good job Sebastian on actually doing something to improve your 'hood. Baltimore is like crabs in a pot.... and it is about time we all started doing something to change that culture.

Posted 2.2.2009 1:14 PM

Incidentally, among the comments I've made while "shitting up the comments section" are "Fine article" ("Commanding Silence"), "Fine article" ("Exiles on Main St."), and "Thanks for running this piece" ("Shadow Players", the very piece under discussion here, if you'll scroll up). I also pointed out a statistical error in a graph used in the "Outnumbered" cover story, which Gardner corrected a week later. Maybe CP should have an ombudsman, until they get one, I'll do my part, calling 'em like I see 'em.

Posted 2.2.2009 1:46 PM

Incidentally, these continued suggestions that I "move to the Western District" are bringing back none-too-fond memories of the 1980s, when, objecting to Reagan's belligerent foreign policies, I was asked "Why'n'tcha move to RUSSIA?" Apparently some things never change....

Posted 2.2.2009 3:11 PM

My guess is you were out looking to score a little dope yourself one night and got snagged by a BPD guy --Incorrect. & that's all I have to say. For now anyway.

Posted 2.2.2009 4:08 PM

"Ed (whose last name you misspelled up there, if we're keeping track) likes me enough to publish my letters (real letters) on a regular basis."

Ed publishing your letters (and last I talked to him, that's not his job anymore, and generally was left to others according to him) doesn't mean much about how much he appreciates your input (seeing as he told me to my face he thinks you're a troll). Much as I want you to keep typing, he probably agrees with me: you're a useful idiot. Somebody tries to do something positive for Baltimore and you sling mud at them. Yeah, you're a real hero and he loves ya (rolls eyes).

"I suspect he doesn't mind readers showing interest on the comments site."

You're not showing interest, you're anonymously disparaging people who want to make our city better. Hint: Ed isn't alone in thinking your comments aren't adding much useful information or discourse here. What possible useful contribution do you think you're making? You've made an incredibly specious argument about the War on (Some) Drugs (the idiotic notion that because I'm against it, I should let thugs do whatever they like in my backyard) and you've offered a ridiculous misreading of what it means to be a libertarian. Other than being a useful idiot (demolishing your stupid WOD opposition equals letting Pookie do whatever he wants article was the perfect vehicle to show that your apparent admiration for them demonstrates that you're either a total hypocrite or don't really believe the shit you're selling here, and thusly that Glenn and I are doing the right thing) I can't really see what you think you're accomplishing.

"Pookie & co. aren't making great $ as street dealers. As you yourself imply in the article, they're just getting by."

Nope, they're not...but they could and would make even less working at CVS or the headshop. That's not a very controversial point; what's more, the real appeal for them is the THUG CULTURE (the thing I have the problem with, not the drugs themselves you oblivious twit). Working at your local opium den would be working for the DA MAN and they wouldn't do it. If narcotics were legalized and regulated, they'd be no more likely to work there then they would at the gas station or coffee shop (jobs they could get now if they wanted...they don't fucking want them...duh).

"So go ahead & ruin people's lives by getting them locked up for violating laws you yourself think should not exist"

Their lives are ruined because they grew up in ruinous socioeconomic conditions and don't value education, hard work, the value of other people's lives, and they do value thug culture. I'm not ruining their lives, THEY ARE (and their worthless parents, whose only qualifications seem to be the ability to put an egg and a sperm in the same area). Once again, the question you keep dodging (this must be the fourth time you've been asked by me or someone else: why should my opposition to the WOD mean Pookie and DeyDey get to do whatever they please and act like thugs in my backyard? Why should I have to tolerate them intimidating law abiding people, murdering each other, vandalizing public property, and trashing my community simply because I disagree with a govt's misguided policy?

Your silence on this point is deafening.

How am I promoting freedom by enabling and ignoring the destruction of what should be a prized neighborhood? What you're missing about freedom is again that your right to throw a punch stops at my chin--Pookie and DeyDey destroy the freedom of others and we're not promoting liberty by ignoring that. They remove economic opportunity by shitting up neighborhoods and prevent people from enjoying the basic freedom of feeling safe where you live. They deny people safe passage in public spaces, a basic freedom we should all enjoy.

As for where you live, you're simply a hypocrite--you live in a safe, gentrified neighborhood but make Pookie and DeyDey out to be freedom fighters. You wouldn't want them operating in your backyard, hence the reference to why you wouldn't want to live in the Western. If you really think ignoring them is promoting freedom, why are you letting them operate in your alley? You could save a lot of money if you moved to Edmondson Village and enjoy the "freedom" that having them around entails.

Posted 2.2.2009 5:59 PM

"doesn't mean much about how much he appreciates your input"...should have finished "as they also print letters from that idiot Larnell Butler--simply getting a letter published doesn't mean anybody likes ya". The point being...your pinhead rants getting published isn't necessarily a sign that you're making useful contributions. They sometimes publish outrageous crap to remind us how outrageous the authors of said crap really are.

Posted 2.2.2009 6:10 PM

You may not be keeping up w/non-Pigtown news, Sebastian. A guy was killed outside the Belvedere recently, around the corner from where I live. A rapist was, maybe still is,terrorizing the neighborhood. The local laundromat was shut down for months because druggies were breaking open the coin boxes. I've been mugged (they got nothing because I had nothing) & had money ripped off out of my wallet that I stupidly left on the counter of a Mt. V cafe for 5 minutes. Petty thievery (employees ripping off others) is also rampant where I work (also in Mt. V). Not exactly crime-free, I'd say. Because I'm not adopting YOUR favored solution--call the other thugs, the ones in blue!--does not mean I don't care. As for Ed Ericson, to my knowledge I've never met him. In my limited dealings with him I have always found him very cordial. I doubt he disagrees with EVERY letter I've written since a number of them, including the most recent, praised CP. Before that one, which was published very recently (another clue, Philip Marlowe!) came out he called me so I assumed he was still in charge of the letters column. If he hates me or my views he has contact info & can tell me that anytime he wishes. I suspect he was putting you on to some extent. Anyway, 5'10" is pretty big for a "troll." & leave Larnell out of this. If enough people who hate prohibition could get together & put our petty differences aside THEN we could get this shit turned around. If I'm wasting my life trying to make that happen, fine, I'm wasting it.

Posted 2.2.2009 7:07 PM

"You may not be keeping up w/non-Pigtown news, Sebastian. A guy was killed outside the Belvedere recently, around the corner from where I live."

You're not keeping up with reality. Mt. Vernon isn't known as a drug haven, and I rather doubt P+D are slinging dope in your alley. Baltimore's a violent town, which is why people other than community activists should be afforded the means of self defense. MD's draconian gun laws (frankly a much bigger threat to freedom than the War on Some Drugs) are largely to thank for the victim creation zone that Baltimore is.

"Not exactly crime-free, I'd say."

I'd agree. I was simply pointing out that you don't live anywhere near a neighborhood where drug dealers and thug culture has been allowed to prevail. You're shifting the goal posts--my beef is with thug culture and narcotics traffickers who shit up the area. Please, spare us the bullshit, for the love of all that's holy in Jessica Biel's underpants please stop it. It's a little late for you to pretend that Mt. Vernon is da hood because you were dumb enough to leave your wallet on the counter in the city.

Just admit it--you don't live where drug culture and thug culture is predominate. You live in an area of the city replete with $600K monster rowhomes and gentrified upper class folk. You have museums, high end restaurants, and one of the safest places to live inside of this otherwise dangerous city. Somebody living in the same neighborhood as the Walters and all those lovely restaurants and shops pontificating about how Pookie and DeyDey are really the victims and that I'm a bad person because I object to thug culture in a troubled neighborhood is the height of callousness.

You think you're protecting liberty by being that guy? Seriously. You need help. Lots of it.

I rather doubt he hates you, I don't think Ed hates anyone to be honest. He's a pretty mellow dude. But he does think you're a serial troll and that you probably don't actually believe half the shit you type (like most people reading this column, he pretty much figures at this point you're just getting kicks being a childish contrarian-wannabe). I don't even hate you, and figure it's pretty narcissistic of you to think you're worthy of that emotion. Pity, possibly. But yeah, Ed and I agree that you're just slinging mud because you're an impotent geek who can't stand that somebody like me isn't afraid and is getting some good press for turning the city around (and showing you that despite the WOD being a total kludge...there can still be a silver lining to be found).

No sense leaving Larnell out of this. She's every bit as full of shit as you are, and as a white world-centric heterosexual of pan-European and Native American descent, I sincerely hope you guys get coffee, get all gooey talking about what a jerk I am, and quit wasting bandwidth with your ill-considered nonsense about how it's all DA MAN's fault. Go party together and spare the rest of us your feeble minded effete psychobabble.

I'd be more than happy to join forces with anyone who recognizes that what we're doing today on the whole is NOT FUCKING WORKING and scream it from the mountaintops (I've been doing it constantly, but apparently you haven't been keeping up). If this legitimately is your first introduction to who I am, you can be forgiven for not knowing much of my politics, but the reality is I'm not unsympathetic to the notion that the WOD is fucked. The problem is without bothering to clarify, you launched into me with a poorly thought out, illogical diatribe that seemed to suggest I was on the wrong side of the issue and that I necessarily must surrender my own backyard because the govt is wrong.

Yet again you fail to address that point because you can't. Pookie and DeyDey aren't heroes, they are victims of their own poor decisions and their own parents as any good libertarian will tell you, and the fact that you don't want them operating in your backyard as evidenced simply by your zip code is proof enough that you need to check your fire, NOT ME.

The only person needing to apologize and put petty shit aside is you. I'm one of the good guys. I'd be happy to put that to a poll.

Posted 2.2.2009 10:59 PM

The only person needing to apologize and put petty shit aside is you. I'm one of the good guys. I'd be happy to put that to a poll. --Or we could make an avant-garde theater piece out of this exchange, & at the end you could point your gun at me & say "Shaddap" like the gangster in the Bugs Bunny cartoon. Then I could say "Of course I'll shut up! I always shut up when I'm told to shut up! I would never refuse to shut up when asked to shut up!" and you could point the gun at me & say "Shaddap shuttin' up!" The Strand Theatre could put it on, Bret McCabe could review it & a great time would be had by all, except maybe the audience.

As for Ed thinking (according to you) I don't believe what I post on here, I suppose I should point out that I DO BELIEVE IN WHAT I POST ON HERE. Funny how ya know what "most people reading this" think! Got ESP? (It's one of my favorite Miles Davis albums too!)

So go ahead & keep working with fuckin' crooked cops who get their kicks out of locking up a 7-year-old boy, & who snagged 2 random Northern District thugs for the killing of K. Harris because they were too dumb to realize DNA testing would prove they FUCKED UP. I'll try to avoid the fuzz, the corner boys, Calvert St. trannies & you too. You'll get an apology from me in Hell, or SoWeBo, as the case may be.

Posted 2.3.2009 10:02 AM

Finally (uh...maybe), the objections I raised to earlier articles were largely based on the fact that they were too "micro", focusing on some individual crook or other rather than looking at the scene from a broader angle. The article above struck me as an attempt (whether inspired by my bitching or not, I have no idea) to rectify that situation. So you may partly owe your moment in the media spotlight to ME, duckie! I wish Deydey was here, God knows I could use something after all this....

Posted 2.3.2009 10:10 AM

"As for Ed thinking (according to you) I don't believe what I post on here, I suppose I should point out that I DO BELIEVE IN WHAT I POST ON HERE."

I'm not sure what's more sad, that you actually believe allowing drug and thug culture to keep shitting up our city is the way to show that the WOD is bad and that I should turn a blind eye to thuggery, or if you're simply being a troll. I'm gonna say the former to be honest--if you really do believe that I'm part of the problem and not the solution, you're more detached from reality than I even imagined.

This city isn't going to get better until we quit coddling thug culture. Period. (Speaking of deafening silence, that racist idiot Larnell will acknowledge that right around the time I get to drive for Ferrari at Monaco--for a "libertarian", your apparent affinity for her is at the very least suspicious.) Nobody's going to bring economic opportunity to neighborhoods like Pigtown until Pookie and DeyDey quit scaring investors, law abiding citizens, and people who simply want to walk down the street without having to worry about their behavior. Your argument ultimately boils down to the ludicrous proposition that we should turn a blind eye to the very people who are profiteering from the destruction of our community (and your ignorance of and refusal to address the fact that there's nothing inherent in my position that means I can't accept the failure of the WOD in the larger sense keeps underscoring just how little moral clarity you possess). Sorry, that doesn't pass a sniff test for anyone with even a room temp IQ.

"Funny how ya know what "most people reading this" think! Got ESP? (It's one of my favorite Miles Davis albums too!)"

You hardly need telepathic powers to recognize that very few people in this city seem to think the answer is letting thug culture continue to prevail. You fewer powers still to grasp that people around here seem to uniformly recognize not only your lack of moral clarity, but ultimately the intellectual bankruptcy of your thughugging nonsense. You're NOT showing the way forward. You're actually attacking progress.

"So go ahead & keep working with fuckin' crooked cops"

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and say CASE CLOSED on the point about your real issue being with BPD and a bad experience you had. You keep coming back to that sort of thing--and given your general level of intellectual mendacity, I'm figuring you're simply fibbing about that not being your motivation.

What cops am I working with are crooked? Or are you just slinging spaghetti on the wall hoping something will stick? Keep up the unsubstantiated assertions like that.

The guys I work with in BPD are honest folk who give a shit about the law abiding, every day citizen. I can point to what they're doing to make Baltimore better. Can't say the same for you.

As for the idea that I have you to thank for Ed shining a light on the pervasiveness of the underground economy...while you're seeking help, get some for those delusions of grandeur. The story was here a long time before you stumbled upon it like a drunk guy teetering in an alley.

Posted 2.3.2009 11:06 AM

I got no "affinity" for Larnell. Never said I did. All I had to say about her, is I got nothin' to say about her. I have never had a "bad experience" with BPD. My relations with them have always been cordial. However, I have read about their behavior in newspapers & it's often sleazy. I do not trust them or other police & decided a long time ago I would never call them unless absolutely necessary. I said Ed MIGHT have been influenced by comments I made to write the story. He still gets credit for writing it. (Of course.) I'm not trying to be a constructive critic, just pointing out the trouble, like HL Mencken & my other heroes. Incidentally, I just looked you up online & I object to those people making fun of your hairstyle. THEN AGAIN anyone who gets as much flak over his hair as I do, probably would object to that....I have nothing more to say about this. I'm shutting up. Y'know I always shut up when I'm told to shut up...But we went over that already. I do wonder, though, why you bother responding at such length to someone you think is worthless. Guilt??? OK you get the last word UNLESS you make a FACTUAL insinuation about me (such as that I've been arrested in Baltimore) which is untrue. THEN I will set the record straight.

Posted 2.3.2009 11:37 AM

OK, libertarian pissing-match aside, let me make two points:

First, can we all agree to never never never never ever use the non-word "mentee" again? Classically, a telemachus would learn under a mentor; let's try "protege" or some other actual English word in the future, hokay?

Second, if we simply legalized it, regulated the sales and purity like we do with alcohol, and taxed it, not only would we save a fortune in futile policing efforts, but we would earn a fortune in tax revenues. Property crimes would diminish as junkies needed less money for their fixes each day and with some of the savings we could fund treatment and public health programs to minimize any impact legalization might have. (Which would be minimal to begin with, because obviously the fact that drugs are illegal is not stopping anyone inclined to use them.)

Solve the State's financial problems and the city's crime problem in one fell swoop! Legalize everything and stop our useless, expensive efforts at saving people from themselves.

Posted 2.3.2009 12:31 PM

Yeah, that's all I was tryin' to say. (I hate "mentee" as well.) I know I said I'd stop posting here, but when I wrote that I was protected by an ancient Jewish tradition, because I had my fingers crossed

Posted 2.3.2009 12:37 PM

Count Tousser tousses his own salad.

Posted 2.3.2009 3:07 PM

"Mentee" actually is a word, boys, though admittedly inelegant. Trouble is, there's nothing better for the spot in which I used it. Protege is good but the word presupposes a deeper and longer-term relationship than described here, plus a certain status or prominence achieved by the mentor. Also, it's French.

Thanks for the kind words, those who dispensed them. We at CP try to get things right. We'll keep at it.

I am, still, the CP letters wrangler. I write stories in my spare time after handling the letter-typing and city council-watching duties. I am a slower-than-average typist.

A favor, please? Kindly refrain from attributing to me thoughts, opinions and attitudes I've not specifically expressed. For the record, I'm not a hater, generally am mellow, do consider Count Tousser to be trollish--but hold this opinion without any malice toward him. I consider even my own opinions about the thoughts expressed in letters-to-the-editor and on this board to be as irrelevant as they are fleeting.

That said, thanks for sending them, and for reading.

Posted 2.3.2009 9:00 PM

Fair enough.

Posted 2.4.2009 12:04 AM

Ed, you should check out this book I read where the author points out all the Norman French-derived words Orwell used in his famous essay "Politics and the English Language" (y'know, the one where he said "Never use a foreign word instead of its English equivalent.") It's called UM UM UM I can't think of the title, the Net has destroyed my brain. Someone from the EPFL could probably find it for you.

--CT

Posted 2.4.2009 10:46 AM

PS I consider the Net a different, lower form of communication than a hard-copy paper. Say something stupid on here & soon it's gone (I mean, it's not really gone but it might as well be). The letters column is different. I try to make sure I agree with most of what I'm saying in a letter intended for publication, provided those voices in my head line up right.

Posted 2.4.2009 11:36 AM

Hi... i got this article from Catherine Austin Fitts blog, Solari.com. She is an economist etc. and she 'followed the money' to unravel the mysteries of Big money. So anyhow, i was inspired to do some amateur sleuthing of my own. For one thing, I wondered why at Catholic School we had this Baltimore catechism... I mean where did the name come from, so i did some research on the web, and some amazing stories pop out about Lincoln, Charles Chiniquy, General Thomas Harris, a lost book written by Lew Wallace, Jesuits etc etc. If half of this is true then indeed Baltimore was a very dark place 150 years ago, and i assume that it has had 150 years to fester. Woried about saving your cities? Save yourself ! My bottom line- My agenda is simply this- false religions days are numbered. watchtower.org

Posted 2.6.2009 9:05 AM

It's bad enough Jehovah’s Witnesses feel a need to trespass on my private property and disturb my peace, now they feel a need to send their goons to the CP website to spend their propagada.

Why can't they find a new Jim Jones, start a village somwhere and celebrate by drinking some Kool-aid togeather. I know it would make me feel better. STAY OFF MY LAWN!

Posted 2.6.2009 9:30 AM

@Charles and everyone ...I am not an official spokesperson for Jehovah's witnesses, nor was I sent by anyone.

Posted 2.6.2009 10:41 PM