Well! What did they expect when they undermined their police??
BALTIMORE – Baltimore reached a grim
milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the
death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the
city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.
Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.
With their deaths, this year's homicides reached 189, far outpacing
the 119 killings by July's end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared
to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July's total was the
worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to
The Baltimore Sun.
The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city's violence
prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner,
Anthony Batts, on July 8.
"Too many continue to die on our streets," Rawlings-Blake said then.
"Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent
events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership,
distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against
crime."
But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.
Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.
But while the city's police are closing cases— Davis announced
arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is
outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the "clearance rate" is at
36.6 percent, far lower than the department's mid-40s average.
Crime experts and residents of Baltimore's most dangerous
neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police;
generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for
young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs,
bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during
the riot.
Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in
the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused
$9 million in property damage in the city.
Perched on a friend's stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew "mostly
all" of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an
18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills
are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.
"The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they're eating Percocet
like candy and they're not thinking about consequences. They have no
discipline, they have no respect — they think this is a game. How many
can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West
side?"
The tally of 42 homicides in May included Gray, who died in April
after his neck was broken in police custody. The July tally likewise
includes a previous death — a baby whose death in June was ruled a
homicide in July.
Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore
division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said May's homicide
spike was probably related to the stolen prescription drugs, a supply
that is likely exhausted by now. But the drug trade is inherently
violent, and turf wars tend to prompt retaliatory killings.
"You can't attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a
good number" of them are, he said. "You could say it's retaliation from
drug trafficking, it's retaliation from gangs moving in from other
territories. But there have been drug markets in Baltimore for years."
Across West Baltimore, residents complain that drug addiction and
crime are part of a cycle that begins with despair among children who
lack educational and recreational opportunities, and extends when people
can't find work.
"We need jobs! We need jobs!" a man riding around on a bicycle
shouted to anyone who'd listen after four people were shot, three of
them fatally, on a street corner in July.
More community engagement, progressive policing policies and
opportunities for young people in poverty could help, community activist
Munir Bahar said.
"People are focusing on enforcement, not preventing violence. Police
enforce a code, a law. Our job as the community is to prevent the
violence, and we've failed," said Bahar, who leads the annual 300 Men
March against violence in West Baltimore.
"We need anti-violence organizations, we need mentorship programs, we
need a long-term solution. But we also need immediate relief," Bahar
added. "When we're in something so deep, we have to stop it before you
can analyze what the root is."
Strained relationships between police and the public also play a
role, according to Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice.
Arrests plummeted and violence soared after six officers were
indicted in Gray's death. Residents accused police of abandoning their
posts for fear of facing criminal charges for making arrests, and said
emboldened criminals were settling scores with little risk of being
caught.
The department denied these claims, and police cars have been evident
patrolling West Baltimore's central thoroughfares recently.
But O'Donnell said the perception of lawlessness is just as powerful than the reality.
"We have a national issue where the police feel they are the Public
Enemy No. 1," he said, making some officers stand down and criminals
become more brazen.
"There's a rhythm to the streets," he added. "And when people get
away with gun violence, it has a long-term emboldening effect. And the
good people in the neighborhood think, 'Who has the upper hand?'"
