Showing posts with label Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Show all posts

Sunday, August 2, 2015

[VIDEO] Baltimore killings soar to a level unseen in 43 years

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?'"

Saturday, July 11, 2015

[VIDEO] Baltimore's Next Police Chief Faces Demoralized Department

Baltimore's next police commissioner will have a daunting to-do list: quell a surge in homicides, rebuild trust between officers and the public, win the confidence of a demoralized and alienated department, and keep the peace when the explosive Freddie Gray case comes to trial.
"It's the toughest job in the United States at the moment," said Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and a former New York City police officer.
Commissioner Anthony Batts was fired by the mayor on Wednesday, less than three months after riots erupted over Gray's death from a spinal injury the 25-year-old black man suffered while being bounced around the back of a moving police van. Six officers are awaiting trial in October on charges ranging up to murder.
"You have a confluence of factors: You have an ongoing criminal case that's traumatic for everybody. You have the specter of riots. For the police union and officers, they're alienated, and the concern is that the cops will be further alienated," O'Donnell said. "You need a chief who can, first and foremost, drive everyone toward common ground."
In dismissing Batts, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said his approach was too divisive and his presence too damaging.
Just hours before his firing, in a sign that the 2,800-officer department's rank-and-file had lost confidence in Batts, the police union issued a report blasting his response to the looting, arson and vandalism that broke out April 27. The report said Batts discouraged officers from wearing protective gear and told them not to engage with rioters. Roughly 200 officers were injured during the unrest.
"The officers characterized the Baltimore Police Department's leadership during the riots as unprepared, politically motivated and uncaring and confusing," said Gene Ryan, president of the police union.
Batts' standing was further damaged by soaring bloodshed in the city in the weeks after the riots.
In May, Baltimore saw its biggest surge in homicides in four decades, while arrests dropped by half compared with the same period a year earlier. The city's homicide total so far this year is 156, a 48 percent increase from the same time last year. And shootings have climbed 86 percent.
Community members have accused police of not doing their jobs in the wake of the Gray arrests. Batts and the police union denied that officers were shirking their duties but acknowledged that police are angry, frustrated and fearful in the wake of the Gray case of being second-guessed and prosecuted.
Peter Moskos, also with John Jay College and a former Baltimore police officer, said the Gray case led police officers to question whether the department had their backs.
"The harm from the Freddie Gray death is it had a chilling effect: Cops were saying, 'That could have been me,'" he said. But he said getting rid of Batts was "a step toward getting things on track."
"Batts was a leader without a following," Moskos said. "If none of the rank and file thinks you're competent, it's as good as being incompetent."
Batts' deputy, Kevin Davis, will serve as interim commissioner until the mayor appoints a permanent replacement. Davis said his first order of business was appointing someone to focus on riot response. Davis added that he would like to remain in the position permanently.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Baltimore Mayor Who Watched Her City Erupt Is Now 'America's Mayor'



Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake at a news conference at City Hall, on May 1, 2015 in Baltimore. (AP File Photo)

(CNSNews.com) - Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, criticized for giving people too much space to protest during the recent rioting in her city, has an additional job: On Monday, she was sworn in as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a group that influences national urban policy.

"She's been elected by her peers," said USCM CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran. "It's one of the highest honors you can have as a mayor. For one year, she's America's mayor. It's a very powerful position."

As conference president, Rawlings-Blake, a Democrat, will set the organization's agenda, appoint committee and task force chairs and serve as the national spokesperson for the one-year term that runs through June 2016. 

"At a time when women, and African-American women especially, still face many challenges, the honor of being a female president of this organization and the first African-American female president is not lost on me," Rawlings-Blake said in her inaugural speech.

She talked about the problems in her own city, including the rioting and looting that erupted two months ago after a black man, Freddie Gray, died in police custody:

"I can't tell you the heartbreak, seeing my city descend into that type of violence and unrest," Rawlings-Blake said. "To see the pain of the Gray family at the loss of their loved one, as well as the outrage of the community. To see some destroy their neighborhoods. To see others throw bricks and rocks at our first responders. To see businesses looted. To see the |National Guard  marching down the streets with automatic assault rifles. To see anyone harmed throughout that vey long two weeks.

"I  pray that  you and your cities never have to go  through it.  But  prayer won't be enough...Don't think it can't happen in any of your cities," she told her fellow mayors.


Via: CNS News

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