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For the third time in about a month, body-camera video showing “questionable activity” by Baltimore police officers has prompted state prosecutors to dismiss or postpone dozens of criminal cases, the Baltimore City state’s attorney’s office said in a statement this week. The state attorney’s office did not describe what was captured in this latest video. But it said the footage was brought to the attention of the office by the Baltimore Police Department on Aug. 2 and “was self-reported as a re-enactment of the seizure of evidence.” State attorneys referred the matter to the Police Department’s internal affairs division. T.J....

A former US secret service agent has pleaded guilty to stealing over $800,000 worth of bitcoin during an investigation into online drug marketplace Silk Road. Shaun Bridges, 33, appeared in federal court in San Francisco and admitted to money laundering and obstruction of justice. Silk Road operated for more than two years until it was shut down in October 2013 having generated more than $214m in sales of drugs and other illicit goods using bitcoin, prosecutors said. Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s creator, who authorities say used the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, was sentenced to life in prison after a federal...

Leftist vandals in Baltimore, Maryland, smashed a 225-year-old “racist” monument to discoverer of the new world Christopher Columbus with a sledge hammer in the wee hours of Monday morning, posting a two minute video of themselves in the act to YouTube. As reported by local news site Baltimore Brew, the masked vandal’s video and the signs they left beside the destroyed monument were laden with the same Marxist and college “critical race theory” jargon employed recently against supposedly “offensive” memorials to Confederate war dead and military heroes. An unseen narrator of the video speaks over footage of a be-hoodied man...

Last night, activists in Baltimore took a sledgehammer to the oldest Christopher Columbus monument in the US. Then they uploaded this vide

A monument in Baltimore to Christopher Columbus was vandalized overnight. Baltimore Police said they were looking into the incident. A video posted to YouTube shows a man striking the base of the monument near Herring Run Park repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Another person holds a sign that reads: “Racism, tear it down.” Another sign is taped to the monument reading: “The future is racial and economic justice.”

Confederate monuments were torn down down in Baltimore overnight just days after white nationalists led a deadly protest over the planned removal of a statue in Virginia. Work crews used heavy machinery to haul the divisive monuments away in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Four Confederate statues were swiftly removed in Baltimore during the early hours of Wednesday morning, days after violence erupted over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va. due to the removal of another Confederate monument there. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered a contingent of local police officers to remove the statues early Wednesday after the City Council voted on Monday for them to be removed, the New York Times reported. By 3:30 a.m., three of the city's four monuments had been removed. They included the Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson Monument, a double equestrian statue of the Confederate generals...

It appears Baltimore's Confederate four monuments are coming down faster than previously thought. Baltimore's mayor and City Council members differed over how to remove the city's four Confederate monuments, but crews were seen early Wednesday removing statues. About a dozen city crews and private contractors were seen in Wyman Park, removing the Lee and Jackson Monument. Crews started getting ready around midnight Tuesday. By 3 a.m., a crane hoisted the monument from its pedestal. By 3:45 a.m., the monument was transferred to a flatbed truck.

Baltimore City Council has voted to remove four Confederate monuments in the city. The move follows protesters pulling down a Confederate memorial in Durham, North Carolina after a deadly weekend of protests over another statue in Charlottesville, Virginia. The council still has to decide whether to destroy the monuments or move them to a museum because of their historical significance. We still emphatically do not want these to be placed on public display anywhere,” council member Brandon Scott told WMAR. Scott, who introduced the resolution calling for the destruction of the monuments said, “we should melt them down and use...

The city of Baltimore took down some Confederate statues on Wednesday morning. Similar statues have divided opinion throughout the country, with those supporting their retention stating that they mark US civil war history. Those against say they are racist symbols that celebrate slavery.

BALTIMORE - Contractors in Baltimore have removed several of the city's Confederate statues overnight. The Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson monument in Wyman Park Dell was removed early Wednesday morning. The Confederate Women's Monument on West University Parkway was removed overnight as was the Roger Taney Monument from Mount Vernon Place. Taney was a Supreme Court justice who ruled African-Americans could not be considered citizens of the U.S. It is unclear if and when the city’s remaining Confederate statue - the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Mount Royal Avenue - is scheduled for removal. A commission appointed by...

A man wanted in the murder of a mother of eight who was killed after reporting her son was bullied turned himself in on Sunday, Baltimore police said. Darius Neal, 18, had been named the department’s latest “Public Enemy No. 1” on Saturday. Police said he turned himself in once he learned of the warrant for his arrest. Neal was wanted in the June 12 death of Charmaine Wilson, a 37-year-old mother of eight who was shot to death in a home in the 1700 block of Gertrude St. She had reported people were bullying her son over a bike...

Colin Kaepernick and Nessa arrive on the red carpet at the TIME 100 Gala at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, on April 26 in New York City. Aug. 12 (UPI) -- He played in the city for the better part of a decade and Bart Scott says Baltimore would also be the "right place" for Colin Kaepernick. "To a certain extent, with what is going on in Baltimore right now with the police officers, and the body camera scandal that is going on in Baltimore ... in light of what happened with Freddie Gray in...

Gov. Larry Hogan plans to hold a meeting this month with representatives of Baltimore judges, prosecutors and politicians to discuss why more violent offenders aren’t being held in jail longer. The governor called it “outrageous” that 60 percent of gun offenders convicted in Baltimore have more than half their sentences suspended — a frequent complaint of the police department. In 2016, 245 people convicted in gun cases in Baltimore were sentenced to less than a year in jail, according to data on convictions shared by police. That’s 43 percent of all cases. Defendants in 33 cases were sentenced to no...

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh announced a violent crime plan and appointed a new criminal justice director Wednesday, just days after the city failed to go 72 hours without a murder in the "nobody kill anybody" weekend campaign. ... Her policy plan addresses three areas she believes are the root cause of violent crime: poorly trained police, poor drug policy, and an under-educated populace. [Snip] Pugh’s plan also addresses a criminal justice reform topic that has enjoyed wide bipartisan support across the country, which is lowering sentences for drug crimes. Her plan calls for increased investment in drug treatment programs and...

Sade Alvarez-Gibson, 15, raps into a studio microphone in a makeshift booth made of blankets, while Oladele Kiambu, 17, records: “Keeping my mind focused / I’m controlling my reality / My grind’s an everyday thing / It’s something that I do casually,” she raps. Just feet away, Kamal Muhammad — wearing headphones and a face full of determination — sits in front of a computer monitor, rhythmically tapping on a keyboard, eliciting sounds of a synth and a drum kick. “This is my first time making a beat,” the 12-year-old said proudly. All three are hoping to break into the...

Erricka Bridgeford received a standing ovation from the congregation at Kingdom Life Church Sunday. Bridgeford, a special guest at the church in West Baltimore, and others had called for a 72-hour halt to the violence that has claimed the lives of more than 200 people in Baltimore so far this year — the fastest pace of violence in modern Baltimore history through July. Groups took the message to the streets, hosting dozens of events, staying out all night and offering food and services. The ceasefire was to end at midnight. Despite their efforts, four people were shot, two of them...

Baltimore activists' attempt for a murder-free weekend proved to be too much to ask of the city, with at least three people shot, two of them killed, in less than 72 hours since guns were ordered to be put down.  Activist Erricka Bridgeford promoted the campaign as a "Baltimore ceasefire" and "Nobody kill anybody" weekend that began on Friday and ends Sunday night, garnering the support of thousands on social media since May. The city made it through Friday with no shootings reported, drawing hope from participants the campaign might see some success. But by Saturday, two men -- ages...

Baltimore is now averaging more than a murder a day, so a group of activists urged Baltimore residents to rally together for a ceasefire. This message encourages shooters to put down their guns for three days.This anti-violence effort began at midnight on Thursday with residents desperately hoping to prove peace is possible. Unfortunately, Baltimore Police have reported they’re investigating two homicides and one shooting since the ceasefire began.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — During a social media campaign to derail HBO’s planned modern-day Southern slavery drama, one Twitter user’s posts about the history of the Maryland flag got a lot of attention. “What a lot of people don’t know is that the Maryland flag is half confederate,” @benjancewicz wrote, using the hashtag #NoConfederate. And, he’s kind of right. Yes, even though Maryland was a Union state, the flag — which is featured on the state’s license plate and is a popular adornment for clothing and accessories — does contain some Confederate symbolism. The flag’s older history is tied to George...