I agree with Ms. Cryder about Ms. Jessamy's incompetance but take issue with her blaming the judiciary for letting violent offenders on the street. She sidesteps the fact that many of the cases against these so called violent offenders were weak to begin with--the result of police acting too quickly to accuse a person on their "hit list". Apparently Ms. Cryder does not understand that the loitering statute is unconstitutional. I don't think the people in these neighbohoods--whether or not they are victims--like seeing all the young black men being harrassed and arrested by police. The judiciary has not gone far enough to prevent the illegal arrest of Baltimore's citizens. Judges that do not have a background in criminal law have a child-like trust in the states attorneys and too often acquiesce to their requests. They hardly ever challenge statements made by prosecutors. Even the good judges allow people to plead guilty to charges that are weak or in which the police violated the constitutional rights of the defendant. There is a complete disregard for justice in the "justice" system by both prosecutors and judges and, like Ms. Croyder, they justify such suspension of the Constitution in the name of fighting crime. Ms. Croyder fails to mention the hundreds of people behind bars on very low bails that cannot get out because of their lack of funds or the high bails placed on people charged in very weak cases, cases that depend on a singe unreliable witness. At bail reveiw hearings, a judge can be presented with evidence of a person's actual innocence and still refuse to lower the bail because "they are supposed to consider the facts as the state presents them." The problem is not a failure to prosecute or lenient judges. The real problem is the overzealous prosecution of the poor, the failure of prosecutors to demand good (and legal) investigations by police and a judiciary more afraid of seeing their name in the newspaper than of allowing a gross miscarriage of justice. Thank god for intelligent prosecutors willing to dismiss bad cases rather than coerce a person into pleading guilty to a lesser charge and thank god for judges who have the integrity to do the fair and just thing rather than the safe thing. My only wish is that sometime in my lifetime I will see people like Paige Croyder, Pat Jessamy and many of the City's judges be subject to the same treatment and decisions they impose on others.