Reactionaries Attack Gift Card Program

Jesse Walker | January 14, 2009

I was traveling when the mayor of my sometimes-home city was indicted, but better a late post than no post at all:

A Maryland grand jury on Friday indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon on 12 criminal counts, including theft and perjury, for alleged official misconduct beginning when she was a councilwoman.

A number of the charges relate to gifts that prosecutors say Ms. Dixon received from developers, including her former boyfriend, Ronald Lipscomb, and didn't properly disclose....In addition, the Maryland prosecutor's office charged that for four years Ms. Dixon misused holiday gift cards that were intended to be distributed to needy families. Prosecutors say she gave them to members of her staff and used them to buy herself electronics and clothing.

Kudos to Doug Donovan of the Baltimore Sun -- well, formerly of the Sun -- for doing the initial heavy lifting on this story. Bonus for Wire enthusiasts: Dixon is widely believed to be the model for Nerese Campbell, the sleazy council president in the show's fictionalized Baltimore. Program creator David Simon denies that the character "is" Dixon; take that as you will.

Comments

Warty|1.14.09 @ 11:32AM|#

A man's gotta have a code.

Oh, indeed.

Warty|1.14.09 @ 11:38AM|#

And fuck you, Baltimore, for forcing me to root for the Steelers. I hope you sink into the ocean.

|1.14.09 @ 11:38AM|#

Make mine morse

|1.14.09 @ 11:42AM|#

Did DC sent its crazee northeast sometime around the millenium, or what?

tarran|1.14.09 @ 11:45AM|#

joe,

When I was attending U of Md circa 1990, the crazy was already in Baltimore...

Scary place.

Taktix®|1.14.09 @ 11:58AM|#

Hey Warty,

Come now, you'll find in time that rooting for the Steelers is a natural thing. Assuming you follow one of those crappy Ohio teams, it's best for yuor mental health to simply admit to yourself that the Steelers are the fnest team in the NFL.

After all, admitting it is the first step...

|1.14.09 @ 12:00PM|#

Baltimore was a shithole when I was there, same time as tarran.

Warty|1.14.09 @ 12:21PM|#

Of course the Steelers are a fine team, Taktix. It's mostly their fanbase that I hate (though it would suit me just fine if Hines Ward and Ben Roethlisberger got AIDS), and especially the bandwagoning Ohio part of their fanbase. I spent too many years in Yinzerville, surrounded by dago-staches, Confederate Flags, and mullets, to have anything but loathing for anything related to that foul backwater.

No, thank you, I will stick with my nihilism and my Browns fandom. The two go together like sodomy and Crisco.

|1.14.09 @ 12:21PM|#

There's really no reason to call tarran that.

TallDave|1.14.09 @ 12:42PM|#

I can WAIT to see how many indictments come out of Obama's stimporkulus bill.

TallDave|1.14.09 @ 12:43PM|#

cant*

Kolohe|1.14.09 @ 1:03PM|#

Say what you will on the merits of the Terrible Towel, at least it's an ethos.

|1.14.09 @ 1:34PM|#

The best character on that show is Omar, by far.

Anyone else notice how his trenchcoat is all old-west style? Like they took a classic western outlaw/hero character and translated it into a modern urban gang setting.

|1.14.09 @ 1:43PM|#

There's really no reason to call tarran that.

But he is!

Jesse Walker|1.14.09 @ 1:58PM|#

The best character on that show is Omar, by far.

For me it's a close call between Omar and Frank Sobotka.

Warty|1.14.09 @ 2:04PM|#

I like Bubbles and Kima best myself.

Kolohe|1.14.09 @ 2:24PM|#

Main Charcter: Stringer Bell. Supporting Character: Prop Joe. Recurring Character: Brother Mouzone

|1.14.09 @ 2:39PM|#

In your face, Baltimore!

Public pension funds and political corruption all in one place.

|1.14.09 @ 3:57PM|#

Ain't no crazee like the Detroit crazee
Cuz the Detroit crazee don't stop.

|1.14.09 @ 4:30PM|#

I give the Dixons a lifetime pass because of my classmate Juan.

Rob|1.15.09 @ 1:38PM|#

Jesse,

You're right that most people in Baltimore think Campbell is based on Dixon (for obvious reasons) but Simon's denial wouldn't be impossible to believe.

After all we've got another post-Wire, black female, highly ambitious and most likely corrupt (I'm specifically thinking about Rawlings-Blake's time running the Board of Estimates) city council president right now. So it's not like it's a stretch to say that in Baltimore, a black women running city council who is corrupt and manipulative isn't based on any one person.

Btw, has your wife survived at the Sun Jesse?

|1.15.09 @ 3:00PM|#

I dunno what show you re talking about but they did the same thing while I was in foster care. The gifts given to foster kids are most like from cards filled out by the foster parents actual children(angel tree, toys for tots)and not the foster child. Also foster children get about 350 every 3 months for clothes. I never had my own undies but my foster mother was very well dressed.

Government corrupts nearly everything it touches.

Oh and my foster mother was the head of the foster care review board.