Retired Baltimore City Homicide Detective Stephen Tabeling, co-author of the newly published memoir You Can’t Stop Murder, says Baltimore City police are unprepared to handle a sniper attack like the one that occurred on Good Friday in April 1976.

Now 84, Tabeling decries lack of proper training
by Baltimore Police Department;  officers have
inadequate understanding of U.S. Constitution

‘UNGER DECISION’ COULD FREE HUNDREDS
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
The Baltimore City Police lieutenant in command at the scene of the “Good Friday Shooting” of 1976, in which six patrol officers and a detective were shot by a teenage sniper from his third-floor window in West Baltimore, says that if a similar situation were to occur today, “city police are not prepared for it.

“We couldn’t contain the carnage any better today than we did 37 years ago,” he declared.

Retired Homicide Detective Stephen Tabeling, who has been a police officer for more than six decades and is a harsh critic of the lack of proper training regarding arrest procedure and the obtaining of proper warrants by the BPD, believes that with today’s high-powered weaponry — that did not exist on the street in 1976 when 18-year-old John Earl Williams shot a total of seven city cops, one fatally, using an arsenal that could have outfitted an army unit — the carnage that occurred near the corner of Lombard and Carey Streets would be far worse today than on that Good Friday 37 years ago.

Last week, Tabeling, who is now 84, met with one of Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s senior aides to discuss ways to improve policing in the city.

“I’m very disturbed at the direction that law enforcement in Baltimore, and other U.S. cities as well, has been taking,” he told Voice of Baltimore.

“Police officers don’t know the Constitution and aren’t being trained to make arrests that will hold up in court,” he said.

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Why do so many people move from multi-level homes into apartments & condos to avoid stairs, opt to ride elevators and escalators to go up even a single flight, then spend hours at health clubs & gyms using StairMaster machines?

MANY FOLKS MOVE TO CONDO WITHOUT STAIRS,
THEN EXERCISE ON STAIRMASTER  IN THE GYM
WHILE RIDING ELEVATORS EVERYPLACE ELSE

Members drive to the club, then park their car
as close to door as possible, to avoid walking

MEMBERSHIP AS MOTIVATION TO EXERCISE
 
By David Maril
 
Many physical fitness clubs crack me up.

Don’t get me wrong: With so many Americans overweight and health coverage providers starting to reward people who stay in shape, fitness centers serve an important function.

No matter what your workout level, goals, and routines, there are plenty of fitness club options and choices for people of all ages at a wide range of prices.

And for much of my life, no matter where I lived, I always had a membership at one place or another.

It often seemed to me, however, that health clubs frequently seem to bring out some of the more quirky and contradictory sides of human behavior.

Start with the parking lots.

Why is it that so many fitness club members coming in for a strenuous regimen park as close to the door as possible to save a few steps? It’s as if physical fitness starts when they enter the building and ends when they leave.

Is there a reason why so many staff members at health and fitness clubs, with their natty official club-workout costumes and high-priced sneakers, are continually stepping outdoors for a smoke? That’s the ultimate example of not practicing what you preach.

Why do so many people leave their multi-level homes and move into apartments and condos to cut down on stairs and then spend hours each week at a club using StairMaster machines? Most of these individuals will always choose to use an elevator to go up a single flight of stairs.

Oftentimes the fitness club you belong to transforms into something else.

One fitness center I belonged to years ago went from being locally owned to joining a posh chain that switched the emphasis from conditioning, to socializing in a fancy lounge.

With higher fees for corporate and affluent clientele, the new management did its best to drive most of us holdover members out, who were protected by our frozen, original rates.

It was fascinating to observe how a new social structure evolved: There was one group of the new, high profile members who seemed to receive special treatment.

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Stephen Tabeling’s ‘Book of Cop’ memoir, You Can’t Stop Mur- der, was co-written by WBFF Fox45-TV Producer Stephen Janis and published by Baltimore True Crime, in association with Voice of Baltimore as editor. The ‘Good Friday Shooting’ perpetrated by then-18-year-old John Earl Williams is chronicled in the book.

John Earl Williams fired from 3rd floor window
at Lombard and Carey Sts. in West Baltimore,
killing one police officer,  wounding 6 others

CHRONICLED IN YOU CAN’T STOP MURDER
 
UPDATE (Sunday, Nov. 3):  The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office, which had erro- neously told Voice of Baltimore’s media partner WBFF Fox45-TV late Thursday that John Earl Williams was ineligible for either a new trial or release under the Unger decision, reversed its denial Saturday, acknowledging that the ‘Good Friday Shooter’ is in fact eligible to cut a deal and be released into the community or be retried for murder.
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
The teenage sniper who shot seven cops — killing one — from his third floor window in a West Baltimore row home in 1976 has had his conviction overturned and will likely be getting a new trial.

Four days after a lone gunman shot and killed a Baltimore City councilman and wounded two others in a botched attempt to kill then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer, John Earl Williams recorded an audio tape, telephoned the Baltimore Police Department, told a dispatcher what he was about to do, and then began shooting the city’s finest near his home at the corner of Lombard and Carey Streets.

Known as The Good Friday Shooter, his rampage took place on April 16, 1976. Now well into his fifties, Williams, 18, was trying to impress a young girlfriend who had just dumped him.

The event is chronicled in a new book by the now-retired detective who covered both cases, co-published by Baltimore True Crime in association with Voice of Baltimore and co-written by WBFF Fox45-TV Investigative Producer Stephen Janis, entitled You Can’t Stop Murder.

The detective is former Baltimore City Police Lieutenant Stephen Tabeling, 84, who led the Homicide Division then and has been involved in training cops ever since.

Williams was convicted and sent to prison for life plus 90 years, but because of a Maryland Court of Appeals decision last year that in cases tried before 1980, judges gave juries bad instructions, he will more than likely be retried for his crime.

Known as the “Unger decision,” the high court’s ruling came in the case of Merle Unger Jr., who was sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a Hagerstown police officer who interrupted a holdup he was committing in 1975.

The judge in Unger’s trial told jurors that his instructions about the law were “merely advisory,” thereby allowing the jury to disregard the defendant’s rights, the Court of Appeals ruled in May 2012.

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NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS — For Friday Nov. 1

[Scroll down for full week’s compendia]
 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY — IN BRIEF
 
A Voice of Baltimore compendium, local and beyond.   Your weekday morning look  (with links)  at late-breaking news, current events, and what will be talked about wherever you may go on Friday:

Stephen Tabeling’s “Book of Cop” memoir, You Can’t Stop Murder, was co-written by WBFF Fox45-TV Investigative Producer Stephen Janis, edited by Voice of Balti- more, and published in Sept. by Baltimore True Crime, in association with VoB.

John Earl Williams shot seven Baltimore City police officers, killing one, from his third-floor window in West Baltimore on Good Friday 1976. His conviction was overturned last year by the Unger decision, in which the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that in cases tried before 1980, judges gave juries bad instructions.

More than 200 convicted felons could therefore be released or retried, Williams being one of them. At least 25 in Baltimore City and a similar number throughout the state have already been set free.

Williams’ case is chronicled in a book co-published by Voice of Baltimore, titled You Can’t Stop Murder.

Read More at:  Voice of Baltimore

•  DESPITE LOSSES, BALTIMORE WON’T SELL CONVENTION CENTER HILTON

City officials ruled out selling the money-losing Hilton Hotel despite analysts’ portrayal Thursday of a bleak next decade.

Read More at:  Baltimore Sun |
Maryland Daily Record

•  NAVAL ACADEMY ASSAULT LAWSUIT DISMISSED

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Naval Academy midshipman who sought the removal of the school’s superintendent from a sexual assault case involving three classmates she has accused of raping her.

Read More at:  NBC News

•  OBAMA ADVISERS DISS BIDEN, CLINTON

In a new book, the President’s staff members tell of an attempt to dump Vice President Joe Biden from the 2012 ticket and replace him with Hillary Clinton, whose husband few in the administration — including Obama — seemed to like.

Read More at:  Washington Post

•  BOND STREET SOCIAL’S EXECUTIVE CHEF TO OPEN CAFE IN LAKE FALLS VILLAGE

Read more »

Retired Baltimore City Homicide Detective Stephen Tabeling, co-author of the newly published Book of Cop memoir You Can’t Stop Murder, will tell his story 8 p.m. Monday night at Stoop Storytelling at Center Stage.

Six additional storytellers tell their tales
at annual Center Stage event Mon. at 8

SERIES BEGAN AT CREATIVE ALLIANCE
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
Stoop Storytelling premieres its eighth season Monday night at Center Stage with at least one octogenarian on the stoop — former Baltimore City homicide detective and current police consultant Stephen Tabeling, 84, who has been on a month-long local book tour promoting his Book of Cop memoir, You Can’t Stop Murder.

Co-written by WBFF Fox45-TV Investigative Producer Stephen Janis and published by Baltimore True Crime in association with Voice of Baltimore, the book forms the basis for Lieutenant Tabeling’s Center Stage performance.

Along with Janis, former Baltimore City Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld 3rd preceded Tabeling as a Stoop Storyteller earlier this year.

Inspired by the telling of stories on Baltimore stoops, Stoop Storytelling began in 2006 at the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown — which is a co-sponsoring partner of the event — and moved to Center Stage in 2008.

Seven storytellers get seven minutes each to tell “true, personal tales” on a shared theme. In addition, three audience members are chosen to share their own impromptu three-minute stories.

The series is an homage to the Porchlight Storytelling Series in San Francisco that was founded in 2002, and features open-mic spoken-word performances by “regular people,” for a total of 10 storytellers at every event.

Porchlight, a Storytelling Series “was an inspiration for our series” in Baltimore, co-founding producer Laura Wexler told Voice of Baltimore in a telephone interview at week’s end.

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