June 2, 2008 · 3 Comments

The other day I was poking around The Sound Garden, an independent new/used music/video store with a location in Baltimore. Sometimes I’ll come across an album that I just have to buy because of the album cover, and this trip was no exception. I ended up purchasing this used CD just because of the cover:

See, on first glance while scanning through the stacks of CDs, I originally thought it was this one by The Who:

But on closer inspection, you’ll notice that’s not Big Ben, that’s the Bromo-Seltzer tower here in Baltimore. Clever mimicking!

 February 12, 2008 · No Comments

The legality of skateboarding in the Inner Harbor aside, conduct like that from an officer of the law is reprehensible. So is punching teenagers in the jaw and assaulting passers-by while off-duty. Three incidents. Three news stories about police misconduct, excessive force and assault. In two days!

Remarkably, not even a year ago (May 4, 2007), Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon proclaimed that the Baltimore City Police Department had “a 41 percent drop in excessive force complaints and a 29 percent drop in discourtesy complaints” in the first four months of 2007. It seems hard to believe when confronted with incidents like these.

And of these three events, the only incident resolved thus far resulted in a one-year’s probation for the officer in question. Internal-affairs investigations are all well and good, but still, shouldn’t the police be held to a higher standard?