Thirty-four-year-old Melvin Gilbert of Baltimore was sentenced Wednesday to five consecutive life terms plus 40 years. Thirty-six-year-old James Dinkins was sentenced to four consecutive life terms plus 40 years.

The two were convicted June 11 of the 2006 murder of John Dowery, the witness.

Gilbert and Dinkins were also convicted in the murder of Shannon Jemmison. Dinkins was also convicted of the murder of Michael Bryant, and Dowery’s injury in a shooting in 2005.

Prosecutors say they committed the murders to protect their Baltimore drug gang, known as “Special,” and to retaliate against and intimidate potential witnesses.

Mayor Sheila Dixon, left, and City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. [Photo: www.SheilaDixon.com]

“Centralizing all camera monitoring in one location is good for fighting crime and saving money,” Dixon said. According to the city government, having all the monitors in one place, instead of the four that had watched far fewer cameras, will save Baltimore at least $500,000 next year.

“Whether it’s a street robbery, a corner drug transaction or going after bad guys with guns, Baltimore’s camera system is the front-line tool in the city’s fight against crime,” Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said. “With more than 480 cameras throughout the city, the BPD is using this technology to expand our reach and proactively fight crime.”

According to studies cited by the city, systems like Baltimore’s are more effective when monitored by trained staff members in a central location. The city says that so far this year, Citiwatch has played a role in more than 900 arrests, including 68 for violent crimes. The program also has been used in homicide investigations.

For more about the police department’s efforts to assure the public that it’s safe to attend events like the Fourth of July fireworks show at the Inner Harbor and others around downtown this summer, see Melody Simmons’ latest story for Exhibit A.

That may be an improbable scenario as the annual Inner Harbor freedom fest approaches, yet the event has police and politicians pondering how to ease fears over public safety after months of high-profile attacks downtown.

“We are trying to reassure the public that downtown is safe – and right now, they do not believe that,” said police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. “It is all about perception, and people have to feel safe. Perception is a very tough thing to deal with.”

Crime figures released by the city may show a 9 percent decrease over last year, but that has done little to calm the jitters downtown.

This spring, city crimes included:
● Five attacks reported in Federal Hill.
● A knife attack at the Inner Harbor in April.
● An assault on an off-duty police officer from New Jersey and his girlfriend.
● A nanny walking a child was attacked in mid-afternoon June 1; thugs rifled through the stroller, with the baby inside, to take an iPod.
● A venture capital firm, New Enterprises Associates, announced in early June that it’s moving its midtown headquarters to Timonium, mainly because of concerns about crime.

In a mid-May interview at police headquarters, Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said the rise in gang involvement in the city has made law enforcement during the summer months, when young people are out of school and jobs are scarce, a challenge.

“One of the things that I bring to the table the best that no one else can is strict enforcement,” Bealefeld said. “No one else has the authority to go out and arrest these guys and confront them in the street the way we do, and it’s our responsibility.”

That stance was put to the test downtown this spring.

For weeks, police presence at the city’s main tourist attraction, Harbor Place, was intensified by 50 officers at Bealefeld’s order. The increased manpower seemed to quell incidents there, but downtown crime remains a topic of local blogs and radio talk shows. Guglielmi said that has rattled public perceptions.

And now comes Independence Day.

This Saturday, as in decades past, the Inner Harbor will be the city’s focal point for the annual celebration. Thousands are expected to descend on the waterfront for revelry and fireworks that begin after sundown, around 9:15 p.m.

“We will be out on horses, on foot and in the Command Center” at the Inner Harbor, Guglielmi said. “And Fox Trot [the department’s helicopter] will be in the air. You can expect to see a heavy presence of uniformed and undercover officers, including the commissioner himself.”

A couple of miles north, in the Mt. Vernon-Belvedere community, concerned residents and business owners say a recent spate of crime has been abated by increased patrols.

“I think things have calmed down,” said Jason Curtis, president of the Mt. Vernon-Belvedere Association, which sponsored a public meeting in mid-June after attacks near a night club at the historic Belvedere Hotel. “We have been concerned about the randomness of these violent attacks. Even though they haven’t happened in the last couple of weeks, it is still on our radar screen.”

The association has contributed $1,000 toward a reward for the arrest of assailants in attacks in the community, which have been occurring since October. In addition, the Charles Village Benefits District has donated Segways to transport a Citizens on Patrol group through the streets of midtown.

“Hopefully and collectively, we can all get together and find the best way to get this situation under control,” Curtis said. “Baltimore is not unlike any other big city in the U.S. You have to be vigilant, aware and alert.”

Representatives of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore, a nonprofit corporation on Charles Street in center city devoted to promoting city life, formed a safety coalition 10 years ago. The coalition connects security officers from several downtown properties who meet to share information and discuss crime trends, said Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership.

“Every day, there are on average 160,000 people downtown,” Fowler said. “And the normal experience is a safe experience downtown.”

Bealefeld said it’s all rooted in responsibility.

A bank of 480 surveillance cameras perched above streets in most of the city’s communities is helping. In addition, police officers are enforcing the weeknight street curfew for everyone under age 18. Young people found on the street after midnight are taken to a holding room at Baltimore City School headquarters on North Avenue for their parents to pick up. Many parents never show up, Guglielmi said; those youngsters are driven home by officers after 3 a.m.

“One of the key issues, and it’s in line with community policing and is not hugs and balloon animals, is really about accountability,” Bealefeld said. “This gang situation in Baltimore is very real and we stand on the cusp of going one way or the other. We have an opportunity in Baltimore that few other cities have. L.A. is now generations into their gang problem. You have grandparents [there] who were Bloods and Crips. And entire families whose lives are sewn into gangs and gang violence. We don’t have that in Baltimore, so we have to firewall off the next generation from this as creatively as we can.”

That’s the order this holiday weekend, Guglielmi said.

“People have to feel safe and we’re open to working with everybody to do this,” he said. “This is a community issue that Baltimore needs to rally around.”

Melody Simmons is a freelance writer based in Baltimore.

Uniontown police say the bandits struck about 12:45 a.m. Monday at a Sunoco A Plus store.

Police say the thieves dropped a bag of chips at the scene which will be analyzed for fingerprints and other evidence.

Police have no suspects, but say all three were wearing dark hooded sweatshirts.

David Wiggins petitioned Tuesday for Dixon’s removal, arguing in court papers that she “holds power unlawfully” because she was sworn in by Gov. Martin O’Malley, not the city’s clerk of the court.

Wiggins, a paralegal and drug rehabilitation counselor, also wants a Baltimore judge to install him as the interim mayor.

City Solicitor George Nilson says Wiggins is legally incorrect.

The state’s constitution says that the mayor must be sworn into office by the Circuit Court clerk or his deputy. But Nilson says the same document allows a governor to give the oath.

Hundreds of school administrators and onsite law enforcement officers are gathering this week for the National Association of School Resource Officers conference in Baltimore, where the theme is “anti-bullying.”

Monday’s keynote speaker, Officer Darryl Hunter of the Baltimore County Police, told fellow officers that bullying awareness is a step in the right direction. Failure to stop bullying can ruin the learning atmosphere or, in some cases, end in tragedy, he said.

“The primary function of your brain is to make sure that you are safe,” he said. “Whenever there is a threat, the learning function of the brain takes a back seat.”

One strategy for addressing schoolhouse bullying, Hunter said, was developing an adequate way to record and track bullying on campuses.

The conference’s theme was prompted by recent tragedies involving students who were bullied.

In April, two 11-year-old boys hanged themselves in separate cases in their bedroom closets, a week apart from one another. The boys, one of whom was from Georgia and the other from Massachusetts, complained of homophobic and physical threats made by students at their schools.

School resource officers are considered to be key players in the preventing and resolving bullying incidents in schools.

Dr. Dorothy Espelage, professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said school resource officers develop an invaluable connection to troubled students and their families.

“If the SRO is well-trained, they have an opportunity to connect with students in ways teachers can’t,” she said. “That level of respect happens in positive school climates, where the officer is someone the students trust and don’t fear.”

A 2008 study conducted by Espelage and several colleagues found that high school students who reported being bullied, specifically homophobic teasing, were more likely to report experiencing depression and thoughts of suicide.

With the stakes so high, Espelage said she hoped an association like NASRO would urge its members to seek child development training.

“We can’t just be putting out fires,” she said. “Where we are effective is where we get all the stake holders involved.”

Twenty-five states currently have had anti-bullying laws on the books since 2001, Hunter said, with another 12 having enacted legislation to include cyber-bullying.

Yvonne Boughter of Lebanon, Pa. says the EMS team failed to come to their aid for several hours in the 2006 incident.

The suit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

In the suit, Boughter says she, her husband and their two daughters fell ill on June 27, 2006, when they were staying at the Days Inn Hotel. She says she called 911 from her cell phone at 9:43 a.m. and told the dispatcher her family had been ill all night. She then fell unconscious, awoke about 2 p.m. and called 911 again.

The EMS team arrived about 2:02 p.m.

Judge Philip Caroom issued the ruling Monday allowing media at the trial asking that they not publish the names of the 14-year-old boy charged in the death of Christopher Jones and witnesses who are juveniles.

The ruling comes after Caroom learned of death threats against the teen charged as a juvenile with manslaughter and related counts. The teen will remain in custody until his trial this fall.

Sixteen-year-old Javel George faces the same charges in Jones’ death, but is being prosecuted as an adult.

In closing the courtroom to the public, Caroom says he’s balancing the public’s right to know with safety and the teen’s rehabilitation.

The fire caused about $50,000 in damage to the Go-Getters rehabilitation center in Salisbury over the weekend. Officials say gasoline had been poured throughout the building and the building had been ransacked.

Deputy state fire marshal Joseph Zurolo says Edward Sterner is charged with second-degree arson, second- and fourth-degree burglary counts, two counts of felony vandalism, malicious burning and felony theft.

Zurolo says investigators got a tip that Sterner might be involved in the arson and was heading to the bus station to leave town. He says people at the station alerted officials when he showed up at there.

The club near Los Angeles International Airport had 18 holes when it was built in 1965.

But it lost three of them in 1993 when a major road was expanded.

Golfers have been reduced to playing 15 holes, reusing some to complete a game.

Efforts to restore the holes failed over the years, but on Monday the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners approved a 10-year lease with Westchester Golf Partners to restore the holes using vacant airport-owned land.

Golf Partners will invest about $2 million.

The plan to use the airport property still needs approval by the Los Angeles City Council and federal officials.