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THIS WEEK ON THE CAMPAIGN.......
WE NEED YOU ON ELECTION DAY-Volunteer|, http://bit.ly/bqOKoZ . Volunteers are still needed to work election day (Sept. 14, 2010). If you have a student who needs Volunteer Community Services Hours , volunteering to work for the campaign is a way for those students to gain those hours. Please fill out the form on-line or call headquarters with your name and availability.
Get out the vote! Early voting starts continues on Monday, Sept. 6, 2010.
This election, the first choice you'll make is which day to vote. For the 2010 elections, you can vote in person before election day. Remaining Early Voting Dates: Monday, September 6, 2010 - Thursday, September 9, 2010, Hours: 10:00am - 8:00pm. Please visit www.elections.state.md.us/voting/early_voting.html to find a voting center in your area.
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Get your Jessamy sign @ headquarters Mon-Fri, 10am-8pm, 5109 York Road.
AM Wave Schedule to occur from 7:00 am-8:00 am every day at the below locations. Wavers needed to join Mrs. Jessamy. Contact Warren at 443-500-2683 or send me an email with any questions.
Monday, September 6, 2010 Gynns Falls & Auchentroly
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 Hilton St. & Old Frederick Road
Wednesday, September 8,2010 Cold Spring Lane & Alameda
Thursday, September 9, 2010 Cold Spring Lane & Greenspring
Friday, September 10, 2010 Reisterstown Road & Northern Parkway
Donate Today | http://bit.ly/d1lw44 , Every $ counts to support the campaign. Please donate on-line.
University of Baltimore Candidates Forum
Candidates' Forum: Baltimore City State's Attorney
September 7, 2010
Time: 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Location: School of Law Moot Court Room
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=133690013342329
Scott Peterson, spokesman for Sheila Dixon, 2009-2010 (I.V. File Photo/Stephen Janis)
CHALLENGE TO BALTIMORE MEDIA —
TELL BOTH SIDES OF THE STORY
Fear and death sell…. It’s a cottage industry
with an economy that… never stops.
By Scott L. Peterson
Last week Stephen Janis wrote an Investigative Voice editorial entitled, “Stop Saying Crime is Down.” As a spokesperson for the former mayor of Baltimore, I was one of those individuals who would often go on the record noting that “crime is down” or that a particular crime was an “isolated incident.”
Although I no longer work for or with the City of Baltimore, I want to explain why stating “crime is down” is valid and argue the need for city and state officials to continue to address and promote the general decrease in crime over the past decade.
And for the media to start showing crime is down.
Additionally, it is ridiculous to assume that crime can or should be discussed without referencing the overall crime statistics. This is equivalent to talking about the economy without referring to the stock market, the value of the dollar, unemployment rates or the GDP (gross domestic product). For good and bad, crime data are needed for strategic allocation of resources and should be routinely a part of the public discourse from city officials and in the press.
When a horrible crime story breaks, such as the recent tragedies of Stephen Pitcairn or Milton Hill, the media goes into frenzied coverage. The Pitcairn and Hill outrage of this summer is the terrible shooting of 5-year-old Raven Wyatt and Inner Harbor violence of last summer. Fear and death sell and, in Baltimore, it’s a cottage industry with an economy that unfortunately never stops.
GOOD PROGRESS HAS BEEN MADE
So what are officials to do? First and foremost, show sympathy to the victim’s family and friends. Then demonstrate outrage over the fact that this keeps on happening, leading to adjustments in policing procedures and/or attempts to translate citizen outrage into more vigilant community law-enforcement engagement. And finally, amongst a barrage of bad news and the constant reinforcement of the negative violent narrative, Baltimore officials have every right and duty to remind the public that good progress has been and is currently being made and that the city is safer than it has been in the past.
However, the purpose of declaring “crime is down” is not for political gain, campaigning, or even posturing. City officials are savvy enough to know that the media isn’t going to write about crime going down as they are portraying communities struck by fear, disbelief, and sadness. So city as well as state and federal officials try to note this progress in speeches, quotes and sound bytes. The police department and the citizens themselves have worked hard to decrease the city’s crime rate and they deserve the credit and recognition for these successes during the darkest of hours.
However, even when times aren’t bad, it’s still nearly impossible for the Baltimore media to write or produce a story about progress. Case in point: At the end of last August, I reviewed the numbers showing that 2009 was one of the safest summers (June-July-August) in recent history and attempted to get any media entity to do a story on the success. As you can imagine, not one news organization in Baltimore would tell that story.
EMPOWER THEM TO MAKE CHANGES
I wanted that story published so the residents of Baltimore could see something that would empower them to continue to make positive changes. More than the mayor or the police, it’s the residents themselves that make this progress and when they don’t see or read that crime rates are improving, how are they ever going to have faith that they actually are? In a media environment inundated with bad news, I wouldn’t have been doing my job had I not attempted to show real statistical progress in the city.
This is exactly what police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi routinely attempts as well and has every right to do so. With one of the toughest high-profile jobs in the city, the media often criticizes Mr. Guglielmi over access, decisions, and even his quotes. But how often have reporters reflected on the fact that Guglielmi has helped make the Baltimore Police Department more transparent than it ever has been through the use of Twitter and online access to police scanners?
As Mr. Janis has declared an end to city officials’ declaration that “crime is down,” I ask in a fair exchange to him and the rest of the Baltimore media to ignore those same numbers when or if “crime ever goes back up.”
But somehow, I don’t think I — or more specifically, they — could “sell” that deal.
Editor’s Note: Scott L. Peterson served as press spokesman for former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon from early 2009 until she left office in February.
Jessamy’s Response to Bernstein’s Statement about the Recent Murder of Stephen Pitcairn
In his haste to politically exploit the recent tragedy in Charles Village, Gregg Bernstein did not pause to get his facts correct. His press statement claimed that the April case against John Wagner was dismissed after “nothing was done to speak with him (the victim) or ascertain ways to obtain his testimony.”
Bernstein’s statement is absolutely false. The records, which members of the press have inspected, show that the prosecutors pleaded with the apparent victim to testify and that he adamantly refused to cooperate.
The best evidence that the prosecutors were left with was a grainy video that did not show the faces of the victim or the assailants. If the case had been brought to trial, Gregg Bernstein or any other criminal defense lawyer would have made a mockery of the case.
This April case almost certainly involved witness intimidation. It is Patricia Jessamy who fought in Annapolis year after year for strong witness intimidation legislation. A law much weaker than what Jessamy proposed was eventually passed. Stronger legislation advocated by Jessamy was repeatedly blocked by a legislative committee chaired by and dominated by criminal defense lawyers like Mr. Bernstein.
Two former prosecutors say crime stats fair game for prosecutors
Posted by Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Crime Beat
July 19, 2010
Two former prosecutors say crime statistics are fair game for State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy to tout as she fights for re-election.
As Jessamy is criticized by her Democratic primary challenger over conviction rates, her campaign posted crime statistics on her campaign website showing a 59 percent drop in the most serious crimes in Baltimore since 1995, her first year in office. Political operative Larry Gibson, a veteran of the Schmoke administrations, sent the statistics out to reporters over the weekend.
Jessamy has maintained that conviction rates are a poor way to gauge her office's effectiveness. But conversely, can she take credit for the city's crime declines?
Lynne M. Abraham, who served as Philadelphia's District Attorney from 1991 to 2010, said there's nothing wrong with citing crime numbers.
"When police and prosecutors are working together effectively and as a result, crime appears to be going down, that is generally conceded as a good sign," Abraham said. "I don't think conviction rates tell the tale."
Abraham, who did not seek re-election last year, took heat over dropped cases too - the Philadelphia Inquirer found that nearly two-thirds of all defendants accused of violent crimes walked free of all charges - but she said her critics failed to take into account the complexity of many cases. "Prosecutors can sometimes go through hoops to get a conviction and the judges won't convict, or witnesses won't show up - not at the fault of any prosecutor," she said.
Abraham said she knows Jessamy well and has been impressed with her community outreach. "She's easily accessible, does community outreach, has effective programs and addresses issues not only from a prosecution viewpoint but a prevention viewpoints," she said. "I'm extremely impressed with her ability."
Jessamy's former boss and supporter Stuart O. Simms said it's not fair for only police or the mayor to boast of crime declines.
"The fact that crime declined may not be solely the exclusive province of the police commissioner or mayor or governor," Simms said. "The fact that there has been a crime reduction, to my understanding, is a positive for the community. One of the things the public is going to look at is what has happened over a multi-year period."
Simms said Jessamy has been "responsive to the community and its neighborhoods, understands the impact of violence on victims," worked with federal prosecutors - particularly on gun cases - "has taken on the somewhat controversial issue of reforming the conspiracy laws in order to go after gangs, and has been consistently hard on child abuse as well as firearms."
"When you look at the totality ... I think you've got a good composite of someone who's been an effective leader and prosecutor," Simms said.
Abraham said if Jessamy simply wanted a better conviction rate, she could plea bargain most cases on lesser charges (something critics say Jessamy's office does far too often). "We're there to get justice. We bring the cases, the jury makes the decision. Let the chips fall where they may," Abraham said.
Meanwhile, challenger Gregg Bernstein, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, released a list of "Lawyers for Bernstein," a group co-chaired by defense attorneys Warren Brown and Steve Levin. Levin said Jessamy too often takes credit for others' accomplishments and passes the buck when things go wrong.
“The State’s Attorney’s Office should be a credible deterrent to crime in its own right and should not take credit for cases that federal prosecutors bring. The State’s Attorney should be held accountable for her failure to convict violent offenders -- instead of passing blame to other agencies, when the blame for her ineffectiveness rests solely with her leadership.”
Posted by Justin Fenton at 6:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
The Numbers Game (Pt. 1)
by Sean Yoes, AFRO Newspaper Baltimore City
Originally published July 22, 2010
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley began his political ascendancy during the 1990s by challenging the crime numbers of the Baltimore City Police Department when he was one of three councilmen in the old Third District of Baltimore City.
O’Malley argued the department’s crime statistics, specifically homicides and shootings, just didn’t add up and the burgeoning politician parlayed his persistence into a reputation for toughness on crime and eventually a path to City Hall.
Now, Baltimore State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy hopes crime statistics during her tenure will help her beat back a vigorous challenge by defense attorney Gregg Bernstein for the office she has occupied since 1995.
Jessamy’s website for re-election features crime statistics by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Maryland State Police from 1995 to 2009 with the heading, “Working together we have made a difference.” The current State’s Attorney argues Uniform Crime Report (UCR) numbers for Baltimore issued by the FBI and state police are down 59 percent overall from 1995 to 2009.
UCR crimes include murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, breaking and entering, larceny theft and motor vehicle theft. Jessamy’s website claims total offenses in Baltimore have decreased from 96,243 in 1995 to 39,286 in 2009.
According to the statistics, the most significant decrease during that period has been the number of rapes in Baltimore, down 80 percent from 684 in 1995 to 154 in 2009.
Baltimore’s rape numbers have been an ongoing source of controversy since it was reported last month the number of “unfounded” or unreported rapes in the city is three times the national average.
The rape numbers and Baltimore’s incarceration rate – tops among big cities – could play a part in the debate over who should run the state’s attorney’s office for the next four years. Also a major factor in the discussion is the notorious “zero tolerance” policing policy connected to the city’s decision to settle a lawsuit for so-called illegal arrests.
Jessamy hasn’t faced a significant opponent since 2002 when former Baltimore City Councilwoman and attorney Lisa Joi Stancil and veteran defense attorney Anton J.S. Keating aggressively challenged her.
This time around Jessamy has again picked up the support of several powerful allies including former State’s Attorney and Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Congressman Elijah Cummings and the man who was the architect of Schmoke’s victories for state’s attorney and mayor, University of Maryland Law professor Larry Gibson.
Gibson, one of the most effective and respected political strategists in Maryland earned an international reputation for winning elections when he helped guide Helen Johnson Sirleaf to victory in Liberia in Nov. 2005, which made her the first woman in history to become president of an African nation.
“I have had almost no involvement in local politics since Kurt Schmoke left office in 1999. Most of my recent political organizing has been in Africa. But I intended to help Pat Jessamy be re-elected,” he said in an e-mail a few days ago.
Gibson told me he is not working with Jessamy’s campaign in an official capacity, but characterizes himself as a supporter of the current state’s attorney. “She has done a very good job under difficult circumstances,” Gibson said. “What I like about her are her energy, her can do attitude, and her constant search for new ideas and approaches. So many elected officials, after a few years in office, get complacent and just ride along. Jessamy seems to be constantly pressing the legislature to pass a new law or creating a new task force or partnering with some other agency to fight crime. I am sure not everything works, but she does not stop trying. Therefore, she should get some credit for good results.”
Gibson also takes issue with the credibility of Jessamy’s opponent, Gregg Bernstein.
“Bernstein keeps saying that Baltimore City has the lowest conviction rate for violent crime in the state. He knows that there are not any reports that compare the conviction rates of the Maryland subdivisions,” Gibson argued.
“He admitted to the City Paper on 7-14-10 that, ‘he does not know how well other jurisdictions fared prosecuting violent crime.’ Yet, he continues to repeat on his website that Baltimore has the lowest conviction rate,” Gibson added.
“So, I guess that what has brought me out of retirement is that the last thing that Baltimore needs is a dishonest prosecutor.”
