The Other McCain

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‘Building a Deeply Inclusive Culture’

Posted on | September 30, 2023 | 2 Comments

This year, Forbes named 26-year-old Pava Lapere to its prestigious “30 Under 30” business leaders. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, LaPere co-founded a successful startup company, EcoMap Technologies, based in Baltimore. Lapere was recently praised by her colleagues:

“Pava was not only the visionary force behind EcoMap but was also a deeply compassionate and dedicated leader. Her untiring commitment to our company, to Baltimore, to amplifying the critical work of ecosystems across the country, and to building a deeply inclusive culture as a leader, friend, and partner set a standard . . .”

Perhaps you noticed the past tense verb, “was.” Because, did I mention — I’m pretty sure I did — that Lapere based her company in Baltimore, where the crime rate is worse than Chicago?

26-Year-Old Tech CEO Dead
Of Blunt Force Trauma —
Police Investigating Homicide

The cause of death was blunt force trauma and also, as it turned out, the kind of “inclusive culture” that makes Baltimore so dangerous.

The 26-year-old tech executive whose body was found on the rooftop of her Baltimore apartment building Monday died of strangulation and blunt force trauma, court documents say.
Pava LaPere was killed Friday [Sept. 22], but authorities didn’t discover her body for at least three days, according to a statement of charges filed in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City obtained by CNN affiliate WJZ. Her body was found near a brick and a pair of red shoes believed to be LaPere’s, the documents say. The medical examiner’s office determined LaPere suffered trauma to the head, face and body, the documents say.
But even before the CEO was killed, the man suspected of killing her was being tracked by investigators because police believed he was responsible for a rape, arson and attempted murder days earlier, officials said.
The stunning revelations came hours after the suspect, Jason Dean Billingsley, was arrested Wednesday night — ending a frantic manhunt for the convicted sex offender who had a 30-year sentence but was released from prison last year. . . .
Baltimore police believe Billingsley is responsible for an arson, rape and attempted murder that happened September 19 in the 800 block of Edmondson Avenue — about a mile from where LaPere’s body was found days later.
Billingsley is accused of raping and attacking a woman before setting her and her boyfriend on fire, according to a statement of charges document filed in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City and obtained by CNN affiliate WJZ.
“All indications are that this was not a random act of violence,” Baltimore Acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley said. “We have information to believe that the victims … were targeted by the suspect — that the suspect knew the victims and he went into that location for a criminal reason.”
Investigators started looking for Billingsley, police said.
Police believe three days after the September 19 crimes, LaPere was killed.
“It seems like she was probably murdered on Friday night, and she wasn’t recovered until they reported her missing … on Monday,” Worley said.
Authorities found her body Monday at an apartment building in the 300 block of West Franklin Street. Police said they don’t know of any connection between Billingsley and LaPere, the beloved CEO of EcoMap Technologies.
Billingsley was seen on video following LaPere on the street as she approached the building where she lived and worked, law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told CNN.
The video shows the suspect following LaPere from a distance, but LaPere does not appear to be aware of his presence, according to the sources.
After LaPere entered the lobby where her company offices are located, she appeared to see Billingsley at the front door looking as though he had difficulty getting into the building — as if he had forgotten his keys, the sources said.
LaPere then opened the door for him, and security cameras in the lobby recorded them in conversation, according to the sources.
As LaPere walked toward the elevator, those security cameras show Billingsley following her.
The statement of charges said LaPere and Billingsley were seen on surveillance video getting into the elevator together.
LaPere was killed on the roof, the sources said, and Billingsley is recorded leaving the building about 40 minutes after following her into the elevator.
Billingsley is also seen on video leaving the stairwell of the building and entering the lobby, “scrambling for an exit,” according to the statement of charges. He was seen wiping his hand on his shorts before exiting the building, the court documents say.

So he was acting “as if he had forgotten his keys,” which convinced Johns Hopkins University graduate Pava Lapere to let the convicted sex offender — a fugitive suspect wanted on charges of rape, arson and attempted murder — into her building. Because it’s about a “building a deeply inclusive culture,” see? Virtue-signalling can get you killed.

Slain Baltimore tech CEO wanted
to disrupt industry’s ‘boys network’
Members of Baltimore’s tech scene say
Pava LaPere was committed to social justice.

“She wanted to disrupt the tech industry’s reigning power structure of white men and make way for more women and other people from disadvantaged groups. . . . She studied computer science for three years before switching her major to sociology because, she said, she wanted to use entrepreneurship to solve inequalities in society. . . . EcoMap has committed to a ’50/50%’ goal of employing a staff that is half women and half people of color.” And of course, she was a BLM supporter.

Standing against “systemic racism” is all fine and good, I suppose, up until the moment you die from blunt force trauma because a convicted sex offender, who was sentenced to 30 years, gets out of prison early under a “criminal justice reform” law that gave him “good time” credits:

Police said Billingsley was previously arrested in 2013, 2011, and 2009, and accused of multiple crimes, including sex offense, second-degree assault, and robbery charges.
Records reviewed by Insider show that Billingsley was sentenced in 2015 to 30 years in prison with 16 years suspended after he pleaded guilty to a first-degree sex offense. He is listed on the Maryland sex offender registry as a “tier 3” offender — the most serious classification — and those records show he was released from prison on October 5, 2022.
Bates said that Billingsley had a “violent crime” conviction in 2011 that included a charge of attempted rape and said Billingsley was paroled in October 2022. . . .
However, The Baltimore Banner reported that Maryland Parole Commission Chair David Blumberg said that Billingsley was actually denied parole and instead released on what was described as good-time credits.
A Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services spokesperson told The New York Times that Billingsley was not paroled but released “on mandatory supervision as required by statute.”

The Daily Mail interviewed the victim of Jason Billingsley’s 2013 crime, and you can read her account and decide for yourself if a mere nine years behind bars was sufficient in that case. Liberals have spent years proclaiming that America has a “mass incarceration” problem, demanding that we “defund the police” and stop putting criminals behind bars. Maryland being a Democrat-controlled state (Joe Biden got 65% of the vote in Maryland, including 87% in Baltimore), these kinds of “criminal justice” reforms have been avidly pursued. For example, employers in Maryland are not allowed “to inquire into an applicant’s criminal history” under the state’s so-called “ban-the-box” law.

Here’s the real kicker, though: After Billingsley committed rape, arson and attempted murder on Sept. 19 — three days before Pava Lapere was killed — police immediately identified him as the suspect, but didn’t warn the public that this violent felon was at large, because “this was not a random act of violence . . . the suspect knew the victims.” It was not until after Lapere’s murder that police determined Billingsley “had committed an act that seemed to be random,” which justified going public with the identity of the suspect. Does that make sense?

Think about “social justice,” and then think about Baltimore.

Do you have any idea how many convicted felons, suspects wanted for violent crimes, are at large in Baltimore? It’s not a small number. So if Baltimore police went public, issuing BOLO (“be on the lookout”) alerts every time they identified a suspect in a case, the local TV news would be running mug shots 24/7. And such publicity probably would not help encourage “building an inclusive culture,” IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!



 

Category: Crime, Maryland

Comments

2 Responses to “‘Building a Deeply Inclusive Culture’”

  1. Update From the Dept. of Ironic Crime : The Other McCain
    October 5th, 2023 @ 7:30 am

    […] Saturday we shared the tale of a young woman who made the fatal choice of Baltimore as an ideal place for “building a deeply inclusive culture.… […]

  2. Daily Broadside | "A Man Reaps What He Sows" Applies to Woke Ideology - Dave Olsson
    October 6th, 2023 @ 6:01 am

    […] alleged assailant into the building because he pretended to be fumbling for his keys according to this report, which […]