Boston panhandlers proudly uphold the city's reputation for being as direct as possible--sometimes too direct and so direct that it merits a trip to jail. The Globe did a story on how the police have been dispersing the panhandlers and "squeegee men" at Mass Ave and Melnea Cass. But do they really have to take their squeegee supplies? The BPD took the stuff one guy used, along with a backpack and clothes, which seems......

--Two firefighters were stabbed last night at the Club Caravan in Revere. They were off duty at the time. [WBZ] --In Waltham yesterday, a youth football and baseball coach was arraigned on child pornography charges. He has pled not guilty and says that he was surfing child pornography websites in an attempt to catch pedophiles. [Boston Herald, AP/Boston Globe] --A BPD officer on a detail in Dorchester yesterday morning was a hero. He heard sounds......

--Police put out a BOLO ("Be on the lookout") for a recent immigrant from Haiti who speaks no English and who has been missing since Wednesday. His name is Roc Sanon, he is 43 years old, and his photo is to the left. [BPD News] --Early this morning in Jamaica Plain on Gayhead Street, a woman was stabbed eight times and sustained life-threatening injuries. The BPD report indicates that the victim knew her attacker and......

--A Level 3 sex offender who didn't register as an offender and left Massachsuetts was tracked down and arrested in Las Vegas. [Boston Globe] --In Fairhaven last night, a 30-year-old man was stabbed to death during a fight that broke out at a party at a VFW Post. [WCVB] --A 10-year-old boy was arrested on Thursday in Framingham for allegedly chasing a 12-year-old neighbor with a steak knife. [MetroWest Daily News] --The BPD arrested three......

The BPD Blotter recorded a spat between two neighbors that turned ugly last night on East Concord street when one neighbor accused the other of hooking. The hooking slur didn't make the neighbor happy, and the neighbor expressed umbrage with an unusual weapon: "The victim stated that he then approached his neighbor and told him that he needed to stop prostituting in his apartment. Per the victim, his neighbor “flipped out” and started to yell......

Today's Globe featured a story on the tremendous pull that police and fire unions have on city government. Roderick Fraser Jr. heads the fire department, but Local 718 Ed Kelly has his own ideas for the direction of the fire department. Mayor Menino's disputes with the fire department, particularly over the issue of drug testing after the Tai Ho Restaurant fire, which killed firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne, are notorious. It still isn't clear......

--A man allegedly shot himself, his wife and their Great Dane in Lawrence several days ago. They hadn't been seen by neighbors, and their bodies were found when police checked on them. Police say there was no record of past incidents at their home. [Lawrence Eagle Tribune] --A man was allegedly caught shoplifting last night at Lord & Taylor's. When confronted, he behaved as if he had a gun. He took off, but police......

--A 25-year-old man was shot to death while sitting in his car early this morning in Allston. An image of the shot-out window and info on WBZ indicates that whoever killed him walked to the rear passenger window and fired. [WBZ] --The alleged child rapist who escaped from police in New Bedford was sighted at a YMCA. [WBZ] --In Brighton early this morning, a 22-year-old fell off a second-story porch. His injuries were not life-threatening......

Ex-Herald crime writer Michele McPhee hasn't completely abandoned print journalism for the joys of radio--which include sharing the booth with media maven Mayor Menino. She has a lengthy (4000+ words) and well-sourced piece in the newest issue of Boston Magazine that brings perspective and insight to the much-chronicled troubles of the Boston Police Department. The force's legitimacy has been crippled by a string of recent scandals, some of which McPhee recounts. But she's also......

--A truck crashed into a house in Brockton early this morning. Five people were injured. Not to be jaded, but does either a truck or a car crash into a house every weekend? [WCVB] --Speaking of automobiles meeting other inanimate objects, a limo in a funeral procession went off Hyde Park Avenue and drove into a tree, injuring six people. [Boston Herald] --In Springfield, a 51-year-old man was stabbed to death. The cause? Allegedly he......

--Police Commissioner Ed Davis is considering testing BPD officers for steroid use because of fears of potential 'roid rage. [Boston Globe] --In Fitchburg last night, a man speeding away from the law in his car drove into an SUV, injuring a mother and her daughter. Luckily, their injuries were minor. [WCVB] All charges alleged until proven under law.......

A BPD officer has found himself on the wrong side of the law after a St. Patrick's Day trip to Savannah, Georgia. The crime of which he is accused is especially unsavory: "Joyce forced his way into the home of two women and held them against their will. He physically restrained the women and pulled them out of their home, but took nothing. Officers patrolling the festival apprehended Joyce after he fled the scene and......

--The BPD has put out a missing person alert for 73-year-old Maureen Talbot of Roxbury. Talbot is showing "early signs of dementia." [BPD News] --A follow-up to the scary machete attack near City Hall. BPD police commissioner Ed Davis says the alleged machete-wielding perps "are wannabes who call themselves MS-13 but are not connected to the bloodthirsty enterprise that has been the subject of an FBI probe." No response yet from MS-13's PR team on......

--In Hopkinton, 17 teenagers were arrested for a booze-fueled party. Yes, a "keeper of a disorderly house" charge was involved. [MetroWest Daily News] --As usual, the MetroWest Daily News is home to all odd crimes. While in protective custody in Framingham, a 82-year-old man allegedly set his own shirt on fire to keep warm. Police had missed a pack of matches the man was carrying before they put him in a cell, where he took......

--Two people were stabbed, one fatally, at the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Washington Street late yesterday afternoon. An unidentified man died, and an unidentified woman sustained life-threatening injuries. The two suspects then got on an MBTA bus. At rush hour. Traffic mayhem ensued. When a person allegedly commits a crime that leads to a traffic mess, they should not expect an easy escape. They were apprehended. [BPD News, Boston Globe] --An argument over......

--Five men were arrested for the stabbing death of Terrence Jacobs, 16, last May. Everyone arrested is from Dorchester, except one man from Brockton. [Boston Globe] --In a follow-up to the case in which a man stabbed his ex to death, stabbed another woman 8 times, bit a man, and then stabbed himself to death in New Bedford, Jane Doe Inc. notes that the incident marks the sixth domestic violence homicide in Massachusetts this year.......

--Two people were killed in a brutal murder-suicide in New Bedford yesterday. A man stabbed a woman with a steak knife before stabbing himself to death. The man also went after the woman's roommates, stabbing one and biting another. [Boston Globe] --Che Sosa, a convicted rapist who is notorious for attacking his own defense attorney in the courtroom with a knife, returned to court yesterday. This time, he was accompanied by well-armed and well-covered guards......

--Violent revelers turned a party for "Girls Gone Wild" at Aria on Tremont Street into a full-on fracas early this morning: "Two people were shot, a state trooper broke his arm and a Boston police officer was in a cruiser crash." A brawl involving 20 to 35 people swinging champagne bottles broke out, and then one armed man started firing into the crowd. [Boston Herald, BPD News] --Police are looking for a former student at......

--Some none-too-bright teens robbed a pizza delivery guy of his pie yesterday in Dorchester. After scoring their pizza, they took off, and the BPD had the easiest time ever finding them. For starters, they left footprints in the snow, and they dropped pizza crusts in their building. [BPD News] --A heroic mother in Dorchester contacted police after suspecting her 15-year-old was hiding a loaded weapon in her home. Police searching the home came up with......

--A brawler went crackers at 10 City Square in Charlestown--yes, that's Olives, owned by celebrity chef Todd English. This perp gave employees a hard time by "starting fights with several patrons and urinating in the bar area." People pee in public all the time, but at Olives? Did he not like the squab and chanterelle mushroom risotto with corn foam? Alleged disrespectful foodie urination wasn't enough for this guy, and he perp grew increasingly bold.......

--Someone shot a Brockton cab driver in the head yesterday morning. The shot caused the driver's foot to hit the gas, sending the car crashing into three other ones. The driver, Edward Conley, had been sent to the street where he died to fulfill a cab request. However, the motive is hazy. Conley still had money on his person, according to sources. All that is known about the subject is that he wore a gray......

--A 9-year-old was injured in a hit-and-run in Dorchester overnight. [WBZ] --The BPD put out an alert regarding a man who attempted to kidnap a girl in South Boston on Tuesday. The man attempted to get her into his car, but she ran away. He is described as "a white male, in his late 30’s, with black and gray hair, an oval face, a dime-sized mole under his right eye, long nose and deep voice."......

--Four people, among them three juveniles, have been arrested for the fatal shooting of a man in Cambridge at Windsor and Howard Friday night. The victim was 18-year-old Lucien Christalin, of Mattapan. A spokesperson for the Middlesex DA said "the victim and shooter knew each other." [Boston Herald, Cambridge Chronicle] --The BPD swept the Boston Common, aka Deval's Front Yard, and made 10 arrests. [BPD News] --Police nabbed a notorious sex offender at a motel......

--The BPD gathered together owners of establishments that sell liquor in response to the two incidents in which a creep offered women rides, took them to Charlestown, and sexually assaulted them. According to the BPD, both crimes "originated in the State Street area." At the meeting, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) gave advice to bar and club owners on how to stop these assaults before they start. [BPD News] --Early this morning, a......

--While the episode of a BPD officer holding up a Roslindale gas station is still fresh in our memory, two BPD officers are accused of breaking the law. One narcotics detective tested positive for steroids, and a domestic violence detective was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend. Did these two not get the memo? Don't become the bad guys. [Boston Globe] --Bostonist saw that Che Sosa, the man who stabbed his own attorney while on trial......

--Bostonist hasn't seen a "flagrant foul," or a sports-related blotter entry, in some time. The bad situation that was the Super Bowl loss just got worse for New England Patriots defensive back Willie Andrews, who was busted driving an unregistered car and having pot on him in Lowell. If it had happened to anyone one else, on any other day, no one would have cared. But the Herald points out that Andrews has a record.......

--A 35-year-old man was shot to death last night in Dorchester. [Boston Globe] --A 22-year-old woman whose brother was killed four months ago was "shot in the chest in broad daylight" yesterday afternoon near her home in Mattapan. Neighbors told the Globe similar incidents had happened there before. [Boston Herald, Boston Globe] --Two men were shot, one of them fatally, while sitting in a car in New Bedford on Sunday morning. [WHDH] --The BPD arrested......

--The police repeat that they don't want any post-Super Bowl shenanigans. [WBZ] --The BPD called in a SWAT team to round up an 18-year-old who was spotted on Fowler Street with a gun Friday afternoon. [BPD News] --Some home-robbers used a van with the words "Tiny's Flowers" emblazoned on the side to cover up their burglar bungling. Too bad for them that a victim pulled up to her house just as they were taking her......

--Cambridge was the scene of a violent attack on a homeless man. Early on January 29, the man was walking with his girlfriend in Central Square on Norfolk when three men attacked him, and one of them stabbed him in the back. [Cambridge Chronicle] --Although the incident happened in June, Dorchester is still reeling from an online video showing local Vietnamese American teens and young adults brutally beating a teenage boy and a teenage girl......

--A suspect was arrested in the shooting death of a man in a Lawrence restaurant last night. The suspect took a cab to the crime scene, committed the murder, and then took the same cab home, making it pretty easy for police to find him. [WCVB] --The BPD is asking women to be cautious after two women accepted rides and were eventually assaulted in Charlestown. Police feel the incidents are linked. [WHDH] --A man accused......