Montgomery County police responded to a report of a commercial burglary at the Shoppes of Bethesda early Tuesday morning, March 21, 2023. The burglary was reported in the 4900 block of Hampden Lane. A source reports that the Pedego electric bike shop was broken into. Officers arriving at the scene found evidence of forced entry.
14 comments:
Such a shame. The owners are great.
I bet there's no fewer than 5 cameras catching that! Let's see what our police can do.
"Officers arriving at the scene found evidence of forced entry."
Did they take the time to dust for fingerprints or in the process they muddled any evidence?
That is a powerfully loaded question, @4:44. What leads you to say such things? Have you examples to support such claims, or is it simply whole-cloth innuendo, plucked from thin air? Does MCPD not ordinarily collect evidence? Do they, as a matter of routine, compromise evidence they do gather? Surely, you can point to examples backing up your inflammatory, derogatory suggestions.
8:28, Are you aware of any progress on apprehending other recent perpetrators of both violent and non violent crimes in our area?
Any jurisdiction that emulates DC's inept policy of leaving their blue lights on, on their 'stealthy ' light bars effectively warning criminals to their presence, deserves constant and deep scrutiny.
At 8:28 AM. It is based on actual and factual experience dealing with MCPD.
@5:01, to quote the ‘net, “Details or it didn’t happen.” Your reply amounts to nothing more than “because I said so.” A Google search reveals no reporting of MCPD being accused of the behavior you allege. If you have been subject to the incompetence you claim, you have a moral obligation to report it to the Council and to local media, the better to stop such a problem from metastasizing to any future crime victims in the county. Your keeping all details private is indicative of either someone who cares not a whit about anyone other than himself, or else someone who is a fantasist and has drawn from the ether a serious accusation without providing a scintilla of supporting evidence. In either event, you are bathed in a singularly unflattering light.
@1:22 An interesting, if flawed, logic you employ. Because you have not read of apprehensions in other crimes, it necessarily follows that MCPD has compromised their collection of evidence.
The blue “cruise lights” remain illuminated on marked cruisers both to better allow citizens who need police to spot a cop more quickly AND to act as a low-cost crime deterrent. Many are the crime-related comments in Roberts’s blog who decry the lack of more police in the area, yet here you are denouncing a method police use that announces to [at least *some*] possible would be thugs, vandals, or crooks that “Hello, the cops are here. Think again about commuting that crime.” Which is it you want? More visible police protection or less? I am sure you are aware if the plain clothes detective teams that operate in each of the county’s six districts. SAT, the Special Assignment Teams, work as a unit and hit the streets at night, driving around and looking for situations that may lead to crimes. They also set up in areas and surveil situations in anticipation of encountering criminals red-handed. It’s a bit like fishing, going to areas you think will be productive, but never being able to guarantee results.
Oh, one other thing: I believe the lit cruise lights idea was imported to DC in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, after MPD’s then-chief saw it being used by police in Israel, a country that knows a thing or two about the most effective law enforcement practices.
I've been to Israel numerous times, and the street crime there is a 'different animal' altogether. It's not so much petty or armed crime, car jacking, and the like. It's delicate to explain and remain PC, but let's just say that DC's Police Chief Ramsey either just didn't 'get it,' or was being a bit disingenuous.
The stated reason he 'imported' this ineffective procedure was to show the publication the Police were 'doing their job.' Ironically it protects them from having to do their job. Moving crime away, to another time and sector is simply not good Police Work.
Dear @1:22,
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
Nowhere in my comments do I say the goal or reality of police use of cruise lights is to "Mov[e] crime away, to another time and sector". But since you raise the issue, I do subscribe to the idea that preventing a crime's occurrence is not a bad thing. It seems NYPD agrees with my approach rather than yours, judging from their embrace of cruise lights illuminating their fleet of patrol cars, a.k.a. RMPs --radio motor patrols. Theirs is the largest police force in America, but they employ (deploy?) the blue cruise lights on all their cruisers. Perhaps you should give them a call to let them know they're doing it wrong, that you disapprove of their "not good Police Work."
Is crime deterrence not a legitimate function of law enforcement? Are police only to respond after the fact, once crimes have taken place? Surely, making would-be criminals think twice about the possibility of being arrested --which thought may more frequently occur if would-be crooks see blue lights navigating streets and avenues--is beneficial to the community. It is true, those crooks may just delay their bad acts or find another precinct in which to carry them out. It is also true they may think, "Upon reflection, five years in jail for a stolen scooter isn't worth it to me." I imagine the deterrent effect is modest-to-minimal among more seasoned, professional criminals. However, as I wrote above, I also suspect the blue lights are effective in making "[at least *some*] possible would be thugs, vandals, or crooks" think better of their plans and walk away altogether from their proposed capers. Is it a bad thing to have waved off some law-breakers?
I earlier mentioned SAT teams, the plain-clothes cops whose job is to lie in wait, hoping to catch red-handed the people committing crimes. I also mentioned how difficult it is for them to know *which* block in a commercial or a residential area will be targeted by bad guys on any given night. Some nights they win and arrest people, some nights they go home empty-handed. But, beyond their ability to catch bad guys in flagrante, I suggest there is a deterrent effect in the knowledge that unseen cops may be watching, even when no blue lights are visible. No, it's not so powerful an effect that crime has vanished. But *possibly, perhaps, maybe* it contributes in some small way to preventing a few crimes that might otherwise occur. Admittedly, there's no way to measure such an effect -- "Excuse me, did you not commit a crime today because (A) you worried someone on the street might actually be a cop, (B) because you saw blue cruise lights, or (C) because you are not a bad person?"-- but should we really reject any tools available because they are not ideal or perfect? The lawn mower with peeling paint, the cell phone with the scratched screen work despites their flaws. I posit cruise lights, whatever their flaws, also accomplish their design.
Unless you suggest police be stationed on literally every block in a community, there is no way for law enforcement to have enough personnel available to capture in-the-act crooks, which your comments suggest is the only method of policing you find acceptable, since you disallow law enforcement's preventing crime by either delaying or relocating its occurrence. Crime has been present since the first hunter/gathers roamed the Earth. It has yet to be eradicated, which suggests it is eternally being moved "away, to another time and sector." The job of law enforcement is to investigate and arrest those who have committed crimes AND to prevent crimes from occurring. PDs around the world have found cruise lights contribute to that latter, despite your disapproval.
Displacing crime isn't reducing crime, wake up to that fact. 10:31. No amount of words change that. The perps just go away from blue lights.just ever deeper into the suburbs. Will it be too far when they go 'door to door"? Trick or treat will be year 'round?
Help me understand. Why did this post elicit so many words that I didn't read? Folks get robbed everyday. Please don't post your manifesto here.
Is this a Comment post or a Creative Writing blog?
It's creative when you're trying to defend ineffective, kneejerk, lazy policy.
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