Cops and Bloggers Part II: The Dagger Double-Teams Ed Norris on WHFS

UPDATE: Did you listen in? Tell us what you thought about Cindy and Mark’s appearance on The Ed Norris Show!

Back by popular demand, The Dagger will venture into the WHFS 105.7 FreeFM studios Friday, April 18 for its second appearance on the Ed Norris Show.

This time around, exactly three months from our last appearance on the the Ed Norris Show, it will be Cindy and Mark representing The Dagger as part of the panel for the popular Friday news Roundtable discussion.

The Roundtable segment, which features former Baltimore City top cop, Maryland State Police Commissioner and convicted felon Ed Norris and super-producer Maynard rehashing the hottest stories of the week with Cindy and Mark of The Dagger, will air from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the show’s new afternoon drive-time radio slot. Continue reading Cops and Bloggers Part II: The Dagger Double-Teams Ed Norris on WHFS

The Commissioner of Talk-Radio: Ed Norris

Ed Norris, the former police commissioner of Baltimore, is angry. Seated, leaning forward with his elbows resting on the console of Baltimore’s 105.7 FM WHFS studio, he’s listening to callers to his mid-day talk-radio show. The big story this scalding August day is the fire bombing of the house of a woman in Waverly after she called the police to report drug dealers loitering by her porch. A caller is venting, incensed by the lawlessness. Leaning forward, closer to the microphone, Norris says, “I hear you buddy. Thanks for the call.”

Norris pauses a moment. The dead air trails off abruptly as Norris inflates his lungs and shouts, “I sound like a lunatic but 200 people killed already this year, witness’s fire bombed. What’s going on here? People just say, ‘Well, that’s Baltimore.’ It’s outrageous. People need to get fired up, refuse to accept it, hold the mayor and the leadership of the city accountable. It’s like the people who run this state get away with murder and nobody cares. I care and I know some people care but it sometimes feels like most of the city’s residents just accept it. I’ll tell you what I’d do if I were still running things. The whole force on overtime, nobody selling drugs would be able to breathe today. And if one of ‘em pulls a gun on a cop and gets shot, oh well, that’s just too damn bad. I don’t want to hear the mother bitching about the police. What’s your kid doing with a pistol?” As Norris unloads, his right hand chops the air and his temples pulsate like a belly dancer beneath his headphones. Continue reading The Commissioner of Talk-Radio: Ed Norris

Cops and Bloggers: The Dagger meets The Commish (POST-SHOW UPDATE)

UPDATE: Five hours ago I was sitting behind a microphone in a CBS Radio studio in Baltimore and now I’m sitting in front of a computer in my house in Jarrettsville. Having had sufficient time to process my morning radio segment on the Ed Norris Show on WHFS 105.7 FreeFM, here is how it all really went down.

First off, I got tons of support from friends and faithful Dagger readers. Here is a sampling of some of the emails pulled from The Dagger’s inbox, pre-show:

Email Guy: “I WANT TO MEET ED NORRIS…I HAVE FOLLOWED HIM SINCE HIS NYC DAYS..CAN YOU HOOK ME UP NEXT TIME YOU GO???”

Email Gal: “Did I read this correct? Are you going on the Ed Norris show?
Are you tripping? Psyche!”

Thanks for the inspiration and encouragement everybody.

Now on to the show. Continue reading Cops and Bloggers: The Dagger meets The Commish (POST-SHOW UPDATE)

Press 1 for Intolerance

One of the greatest moments of my career as a local newspaper reporter came a few days after Maryland District 7 Delegates Pat McDonough and Rick Impallaria got into a scuffle with a pro-immigration activist in an Annapolis hallway.

I was sitting at a Board of Education meeting and in a break between presentations, listening in on a hushed recounting of the incident. The board’s liaison to the state legislature was filling the school system’s second in command (a congenial guy named Ray Brown, who’s since taken another job) on details too grisly for print.

I leaned over and said, “You know the best part – when the guy pushed Pat McDonough…” and I held my hands up to show how a toupee might have been slipped halfway off (when we said we’d publish rumors, this is what we meant…Pat could very well be working with just a weird head of hair). Continue reading Press 1 for Intolerance