(August 2007) Mayor Dixon continues to champion new gun control programs. No surprise, in an election year she has neither the time nor desire to deploy a public safety program that might actually work. Instead, her latest idea is to build a gun offender registry a public list of people who were previously convicted of a gun crime. It would be yet another social experiment launched without a basis to believe it could improve public safety. What do we do with data once we have it? Why would a registry listing make it harder to commit new crimes? Why not list rapists, murderers or thieves? (Okay, the last one's easy: apparently rapists, murderers and thieves aren't social pariahs like gun owners.)
The same day Dixon announced details of her plans for a gun offender registry, we learn her city police evidence control unit lost evidence needed for the trial of accused criminals like rapists hence jeopardizing prosecution. What could we conclude from this? That she's more afraid of people who served their time after a gun infraction, than she is of present-day rapists freely walking the streets? That she's spoiled by having infinite free tax money to throw away on expensive social experiments? That she thinks police who lose evidence against rapists will be more competent in managing a public database that demagogues against gun ownership? Or maybe all of the above
[Don't trouble yourself over the lack of scientific basis for Dixon's registry. We're sure it won't be long before researchers at Johns Hopkins University, a private institution that is eager to keep receiving more tax money than do Maryland's public universities, issues a report in support of Dixon's bizarre notion made as instructed . Trust in a university's research is capped by the weakest program it tolerates, and the weak link at JHU its Center for Gun Policy and Research draws a question mark next to any scientific claim from JHU faculty. I'll see it when I know it is not a valid philosophy of science it is the slogan of intellectual whores who play for pay.]
While the registry is just a proposal, Dixon's administration already fixates on guns, guns, guns in allocating police resources via a computer program called GunStats, which ranks targets of prosecution by number of prior arrests for gun violations but not other crimes. Dixon says she reviews GunStats output and (apparently on the theory that emanations from a computer must be gospel) is shocked to discover so many people are on the streets after having been charged with a gun violation. (That is true. It isn't just gun charges, however. In Baltimore a huge number of people are on the streets after previous charges of any kind, a natural result of the city's catch and release policy for thugs. These numbers are more lopsided because of their discredited practice of allowing cops to jack up anyone they want via bogus arrests that are papered over after a night in jail. Where is their RapistStat program?)
To Mayor Dixon's people, deciding who to target is purely a numbers game, and once they decide on a target, they work back to construct a charge and prosecution. They ask: What crimes can we charge someone with now that we have decided they're a criminal?' But according to Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia Jessamy (as reported in the Sun) they're reaching inaccurate conclusions, because the GunStats data omit important case details. And police union president Lt. Paul Blair Jr. concluded, We have all of these stats'. We're talking ourselves to death. More meetings, more time wasted gathering data. It's not putting people in jail. (Not the right ones anyway.)
In July Baltimore City Councilmember Sharon Middleton promoted legislation that would bar the city from doing a background check on job applicants if they have a record of felony arrests without convictions. This comes at a time when officials demand that health records be included with all the rest of a prospective gun buyer's personal history for police consideration. Government raises the bar for honest citizens to exercise rights, at the same time it lowers the bar for employment in Baltimore city government. Baltimore clearly seeks the kind of employees whose record simply doesn't bear close scrutiny. Nobody should be surprised at the consequences if Baltimore hires them too.
Baltimore's primary election will be held September 11 th . The primary is the whole race, as any candidate who wins the Dem nod will sweep the November general. We sure wish we could tell you someone who is worth voting for .