Marcus sasser

1 Arts & Entertainment Book by former Baltimore City Paper reporters inspired "I Got A Monster," an Amazon documentary on the city's corrupt Gun Trace Task Force. Michael O'Connell , Patch Staff Posted | Updated Reply BALTIMORE, MD — One of the biggest police scandals in U.S. history is the subject of a new documentary currently streaming on Amazon Prime and AppleTV. “I Got a Monster” examines the true-life story of the Baltimore City Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force. “It was one of the most elite squads and most successful squads in the Baltimore City Police that was bringing in huge numbers of arrests, specifically for guns,” said Baynard Woods, a former reporter for the Baltimore City Paper. In March 2017, all eight members of the gun task force were federally indicted on charges designed to bring down gangsters, including racketeering, conspiracy and extortion. The tactics the squad employed involved … [Read more...] about ‘I Got A Monster’ Documentary Details Baltimore’s Corrupt Police Squad

0 Crime & Safety One of the Baltimore officers involved a federal corruption probe pleaded not guilty. He was convicted and sentenced to prison. Elizabeth Janney , Patch Staff Posted | Updated Reply BALTIMORE, MD — A former Baltimore detective was sentenced to federal prison time. He was the second officer from the Baltimore Police Department to be sentenced Thursday in a case that brought to light a corrupt contingent within the eighth largest municipal police department in the U.S. Former Detective Marcus Roosevelt Taylor, 30, of Glen Burnie, entered a plea of not guilty in the federal racketeering case. He was sentenced hours after the highest ranking officer in the racketeering conspiracy was ordered to serve federal prison time. Seven members of the 3,100-member Baltimore Police Department were indicted in the federal racketeering case. Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, who headed up the gun trace task force, was sentenced … [Read more...] about Baltimore Detective Pleads Not Guilty, Gets 18 Years In Prison

1 Crime & Safety Baltimore Police Sgt. Wayne Jenkins will spend a quarter-century in prison, a federal judge ruled. Elizabeth Janney , Patch Staff Posted | Updated Reply BALTIMORE, MD – The highest ranking of the Baltimore police officers who conspired to rob citizens was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. A judge in Baltimore announced the sentence Thursday in U.S. District Court. Sgt. Wayne Earl Jenkins, 37, of Middle River, headed a special gun trace task force that has since been disbanded. Its aim was to take guns off the street but instead, authorities discovered several of its members had been abusing their power to falsify reports, steal from citizens and commit other crimes. Jenkins was the highest ranking of seven officers from the Baltimore Police Department who entered guilty pleas for their roles in a racketeering conspiracy. He pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy; one … [Read more...] about Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force Leader Sentenced To Federal Prison

0 Crime & Safety Baltimore has spent $22.2 million to settle nearly 40 cases involving the rogue law enforcement unit. Megan VerHelst , Patch Staff Posted | Updated Reply BALTIMORE, MD — The city of Baltimore will pay $6 million to the family of a man killed during a 2010 police chase involving Gun Trace Task Force officers, according to an Associated Press report. Baltimore has spent $22.2 million to settle nearly 40 cases involving the rogue law enforcement unit created to get illegal guns off the streets. Instead, members robbed drug dealers, planted narcotics and firearms on innocent people, and assaulted random civilians. More than a dozen officers have been convicted in the scandal since 2017. At least five other cases are pending in various stages of litigation, and hundreds of cases that hinged on their testimony were later dropped. "This is what happened when we didn't have the oversight, when … [Read more...] about Baltimore To Pay $6M Settlement Related To Gun Trace Task Force

New York remains the popular and commercial center of jazz, but other cities are increasingly dictating its development . Young musicians in places like Philadelphia and Chicago — where systems for intergenerational exchange still thrive outside academia — are marrying established regional patois with a broad base of influences from across the black musical canon, and around the globe. That’s borne out particularly in Los Angeles, where the saxophonist Kamasi Washington has led the charge onto the national scene. He has famously collaborated with Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg, but two years ago, when he released a lauded triple-album, “The Epic,” he threw back the curtain on a crop of young jazz-trained musicians that hail from his hometown. The album featured a string section, a 20-person choir and a loose collective calling itself the West Coast Get Down. This winter, four members of that crew released solo albums of their own — most of them recorded in the same … [Read more...] about Los Angeles’s Thriving Jazz Scene Produces Four New Albums