| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Fred Stone" |
| Date: |
19 May 2007 05:23:19 AM |
| Object: |
It's a quagmire, call for timetables to withdraw |
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070517/ap_on_re_us/lockdown_zones_1
BALTIMORE - A city council leader, alarmed by Baltimore's rising
homicide rate, wants to give the mayor the power to put troubled
neighborhoods under virtual lockdown.
"Desperate measures are needed when we're in desperate situations," City
Council Vice President Robert W. Curran told The (Baltimore) Sun. He
said he would introduce the legislation next week.
Under Curran's plan, the mayor could declare "public safety act zones,"
which would allow police to close liquor stores and bars, limit the
number of people on city sidewalks, and halt traffic during two-week
intervals.
Police would be encouraged to aggressively stop and frisk individuals in
those zones to search for weapons and drugs.
Baltimore has tallied 108 homicides already this year, compared to 98
over the same period last year. Police and prosecutors also say they are
facing a "stop snitching" culture that discourages victims and witnesses
from cooperating with investigators trying to get criminals off the
streets.
Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr., a mayoral hopeful, said Curran's
idea was an interesting concept but it raised questions about civil
liberties.
"We have to make sure we're not declaring martial law," he said.
Mayor Sheila Dixon had a lukewarm response after meeting with Curran on
Wednesday, but she said she might support the idea with some changes.
"We're already currently in those communities. We're bringing the
resources and services to the communities," Dixon said. "I want him to
build on what we're attempting to do."
Curran said he modeled his plan after an approach advocated by
Philadelphia mayoral candidate Michael Nutter, who won the Democratic
nomination Tuesday. Nutter has called for declarations of a "state of
emergency" in high-crime neighborhoods, where police would conduct
aggressive stop-and-frisk searches and impose curfews.
Curran, who also sponsored Baltimore's recently passed smoking ban, said
he expects opposition.
"Some of the critics of the smoking ban were telling me, 'If you want to
save lives in Baltimore, do something about the murder rate, do
something about the gun violence,'" he said. "I'm trying to stop the
murders, to reduce the mortality rate from gun violence in this town."
--
Fred Stone
aa# 1369
"The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic
organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its
enemies."
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
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| User: "DanielSan" |
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| Title: Re: It's a quagmire, call for timetables to withdraw |
19 May 2007 03:44:02 PM |
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Fred Stone wrote:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070517/ap_on_re_us/lockdown_zones_1
BALTIMORE - A city council leader, alarmed by Baltimore's rising
homicide rate, wants to give the mayor
So, Fred. Iraq is the 51st state?
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