The biased headline of this article suggests that all Baltimore police are "bad guys," whereas the article goes on to explain that the bad guys in question were a small rogue unit that was in fact identified and brought up on charges.
To be sure, any police who commit crimes should and must be prosecuted.
However, it is important to note that in an article this past March 12 the NYT and others acknowledged that the extraordinarily high murder rate in Baltimore is partly due to the current reluctance of regular police units (as opposed to the rogue group) to risk censure or prosecution for doing their jobs.
44
@Mon Ray
extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. when the chief of police for a city is guilty of federal offenses, it isn't hard to believe that the rest of the police force is a load of bad apples. you want to state that all Baltimore police aren't bad guys. that's an extraordinary claim that you must prove.
11
@Mon Ray
What of the police who aid and cover up the leading bad actors? What of the police who silence the substantiated rumors of bad action in their midst.
What of the wall of silence and impeding investigations into police assaulting and murdering citizens?
What of those officers who accept a modest gratuity to turn a blind eye?
What proportion of a police force is "bad" and by whose definition?
The number quickly swells close to 100%.
7
@Bruce
And the leadership that conspires to do all these things, thereby encouraging it in the lower ranks.
2
The problem in Baltimore is that 2-3% of the city’s population take up 50% of the police resources leaving little for other neighborhoods. My wife owns a flower shop in downtown Baltimore for 5 years now and I have NEVER seen a Baltimore City policeman patrolling her neighborhood on foot. Not once. We were confronted one afternoon by three men who we saw peeing on the corner of our building in broad daylight. My wife shook her head and one of them started cussing and threatening to kill her. We called BALTIMORE 911 and the police didn’t bother to show up. The men just calmly kept walking down the street knowing they would never get confronted by Baltimore’s absentee police force.
5
I lived in NY during the 1990s when the murders in NY went from very high (2000 a year) to around 400. It seemed the tactics of William Bratton who was the police commissioner at the time had much to do with that. I remember walking home and seeing uniformed offices standing at almost every corner, looking in both directions. I remember the grafiti being painted over. I heard that turnstyle jumpers were being questioned about other crimes they knew about in exchange for leniency on their arrest, which led to the closing of open murder cases. Other cities have been able to fix this; why can't Baltimore heal itself?
70
@Robert Herman, M.D.
Because there is only one Bill Bratton and he is retired. Sadly he did not mentor many underneath himself as some brilliant leaders do. He was a brilliant leader in Boston, then in New York, then Los Angeles, then another stint in New York. Great results in all those places points to one thing--a once in a lifetime leader.
23
Two generations of NYPD cops have passed through the Police Academy post Compstat. They’ve spread out through the ranks and across American law enforcement since Bratton implemented Broken Windows Policing. The talent is out there.
5
@Robert Herman, M.D. Of course now we have hizzoner De Blasio rolling back all of this progress. Grafiti is back, turnstyle jumping is practically de rigueur and of course murders are up! I am just going to come out and say it. My next vote for mayor will be Republican! Enough is enough!
15
I have lived in Baltimore City for almost 30 years and work in a school in the heart of the projects of East Baltimore near Hopkins Hospital. The gun violence is perpetrated by mostly drug dealers enforcing their street code or by hoodlums using guns to settle beefs. Many families rely on illegal activities to survive and adhere to a “no snitching” culture that perpetrates the entire situation. The school system made progress for a few years (graduation rate up, suspensions down, restorative practices introduced) but the leaders who implemented these improvements moved on unfortunately. City government is bereft of leadership, of innovative approaches...the list goes on and on. Where does the responsibility lie? It certainly isn’t just corrupt cops. There is plenty of blame to go around while people die.
100
@Sportsfan-
This is, of course, the scenario behind David Simon’s superb non-fiction true crime genre book “Homicide, A Year On the Killing Streets”, later expanded into a five season HBO series, “The Wire”. The book was published in 1991 — almost thirty years ago, “The Wire” aired between 2002-2008. A synopsis of both:
A corrupt, dysfunctional police department in an old, blighted, East Coast port city fights a losing battle against violent street gangs that deal dope in “The Projects” — public housing — are “in The Game”.
Thirty years on, it’s “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.”
2
@Sportsfan: You claim "it certainly isn't just corrupt cops," and cite gangs as another cause.
Corrupt cops are at the ROOT of the problem because they undermine confidence in the police. When citizens know the police can't be trusted, then criminals learn to bribe the police.
Here are verifiable reports from highly reputable new sources, about Baltimore's police "culture" of planting guns near people whom they wanted to blame:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/us/keith-gladstone-baltimore-police.html
- https://abcnews.go.com/US/baltimore-officers-planted-gun-man-deliberately-running-indictment/story?id=61498790
- https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/baltimore-police-carried-bb-guns-plant-unarmed-suspects-shooting-victims-corruption-maurice-ward-a8189731.html
- https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-gun-trace-task-force-gttf-testimony-highlights-20180126-story.html
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/their-job-was-to-take-guns-off-baltimore-streets-they-admitted-stealing-drugs-and-cash-instead/2018/01/30/336eed26-029a-11e8-9d31-d72cf78dbeee_story.html
- https://www.dailywire.com/news/26655/horrifying-ex-cop-testifies-baltimore-police-emily-zanotti
THIS WAS SHOCKING AND DISGUSTING TO READ -- that police officers intentionally DROVE OVER a person, and then planted a gun near the body.
THIS OCCURRED IN BALTIMORE!
The officer was Indicted -- i.e. found Guilty!
(because other police officers testified against him)
5
Cops who plant evidence are criminals; agreed. However, I must comment on this howler:
"The police say they follow crime and the reason they don’t have gun units in white neighborhoods is because there are no guns in white neighborhoods. Perhaps the reverse is true. There are no guns in those neighborhoods because the city is not waging war on them."
No one carries a gun out of fear of police -- there are few surer ways to die than to attempt to use a gun against police.
Whatever is or is not the right solution, there really is a much higher presence of violent criminals in the neighborhoods where this squad operates, and it does no one any good to pretend otherwise.
2
This column could have addressed the problem in a more balanced manner. While the problems it describes are real, it paints all police as bad, giving only passing mention to those who do answer calls and try to protect the public.
1
Yet another locale where a complete bulldozing and subsequent return to marshland makes the most sense for the most people.
3
Waging war on a city’s police force is not helpful to solving a city’s problem with crime. The HBO series “The Wire” showed the problem of crime in Baltimore much better: poverty exacerbated by the drug culture. The police have problems, but they are not the primary ones to blame.
4
I don’t think the article is asking for a war on the police. It’s asking local government to attack the root causes of crime, to improve schools and decrease joblessness.
2
Baltimore's murder clearance rate is not much worse than average and better than many cities with lower murder rates. If I could find that in a 2-minute Google search, so could the op-ed writers.
5
@Observer of the Zeitgeist - Read it again. It ain’t all about the murder clearance rate. Police corruption, suspension of civil rights, racism, etc., are the featured factors here.
The Wire all over again nearly 20 years later!
I have no doubt that bad policing contributes to the violence in Baltimore but let’s not forget that at end of the day the gang members who are killing people are human beings possessed of their own free will and the power to choose between right and wrong. In other words, the people primarily responsible for the murders are the murderers themselves, not the police.
9
@Nobody:
That would be true if the police arrested gang members.
When the police take bribes to let go of drug gang members they caught, or when the police themselves sell drugs they've confiscated -- that is a very different and much more serious situation.
Police enable crimes, including murder, when they release known criminals or suspects. They are culpable -- not solely -- in the extreme violence in that city.
Learn more on this -- Baltimore's police were caught doing each of these (and worse).
6
Baltimore. Imagine a city at the sharp end of race based conflicts since the early 19th century. The Underground Railroad and the slave hunters both in abundance before the Civil War. Racist white supremacists running the city for a century after that. Generations of citizens indoctrinated with racist stereotypes towards everyone with who they ever experienced any disagreements. Children raised to fear and mistrust everyone.
Are the police harboring death squads? Probably not but it fits with the narrative in the community that can never justify police actions to be anything but repression and unjustified. The people in that city are angry at police investigating crimes because they feel mistrusted. They are angry at police for not identifying and arresting perpetrators of crime. The police probably feel hated, because they are.
1
I tried to follow the logic in this article and then realized there wasn't any.
15
Most certainly this is not in anyway a gun problem. it must the bullets! Right????
2
@Denis E Coughlin Well, the problem couldn't be the people. Could it?
6
It was all laid out in the Wire. Plenty of problems, no solutions. Prefer an article like the one on gangs in Honduras. Reporters need to be embedded in the community for a real portrayal of what is going on with real witnesses on the streets, the cops and people in the neighborhoods. Where are the interviews? Not just this happened and that happened.
1
The problem is far from being only of Baltimore. City police hire mercenary gunslingers who shoot first and think later, and are poorly trained in hand-to-hand combat, use of firearms, and self-control.
Specific neighborhoods of both DC and Baltimore have exponentially more murders than others, and are in dire need of *increased* policing. But community members and the media call it 'harassment'.
Until the communities come to grips with the epidemic of black on black crime the murders will continue. This is a much greater threat to black people than racial incidents. Where is BLM when we need it?
14
Ferguson effect Exhibit #1.
8
The jump-out tactics stopped in Baltimore after the Grey riots. The bad guys know it. QED, murders are sky high.
9
"Meanwhile, in the city’s predominantly white neighborhoods, hard-charging “proactive” squads are generally absent ... because there are no guns in white neighborhoods. Perhaps the reverse is true. There are no guns in those neighborhoods because the city is not waging war on them."
Or perhaps police don;t intervene in white neighborhoods because there is less crime and fewer murders? It is amazing that the two reporters don;t't identify the actual causes of violence in poor Baltimore neighborhoods - early pregnancy, single parent families, lack of parenting, early exposure to violence, resistance to education, joblessness, and drugs. There is only so much that even the best intentioned police force can do facing a community that hates them. The reason the murders are not solved is because the community fails to report the murderers...even as everyone knows who they are. Instead they blame the police.
If you failed to identify the root problem you will never solve it. Ask Mullah Nassruddin.
19
Not just in Baltimore. Problem is everywhere.
This is so moronic as to be laughable. Are Woods and Soderberg really that dense? The campaign is taking place where the "illegal" guns are..."illegal" being the operative term. Those wealthy white gun owners that they are so obviously disappointed in not being affect own their guns LEGALLY. And furthermore, don't use them to murder others.
This is the type of "reporting" that is absolutely destroying the reputation and credibility of the mainstream leftwing media. Absolutely destroying it.
After wailing and wailing and wailing about "doing something about gun violence", this program actually addresses real sources of gun violence. And what does the media do? Complain about the targets. Well...the targets are exactly the ones who are in illegal possession of the weapons and are using them to murder people. Unreal.
23
Contrary to the preferred ideological narrative of the Times, the real problem with Baltimore is not overzealous policing. Rather it's the opposite: police, feeling under attack following the Freddie Gray riots, are largely ignoring crime and choosing to sit in their cruisers and ride out their shifts.
Pro Publica - hardly a conservative publication - covered this in depth. And guess what - to nobody's surprise, they found that when the police don't feel they have the support of the city's leadership, they are just fine with collecting a paycheck and not risking their lives trying to put their fingers in the dike. Social justice checkoffs like this article are just one more reason for this, for which the end point is the demise of Baltimore. https://www.propublica.org/article/the-tragedy-of-baltimore
17
" in the city’s predominantly white neighborhoods, hard-charging “proactive” squads are generally absent.."
Could it be (oh, blasphemy) that there is less crime in those neighborhoods and thus less need to mitigate gun possession?
15
@Kai There is less crime and since most residents are not felons, they own their guns legally. And for some reason, legal gun owners are not committing murders.
4
As the authors have conclusively established that Baltimore's problem is a corrupt and racist police department waging war on the law abiding citizens of their city, the solution seems self evident. Disband the police department in its entirety and leave the abused and peaceful citizenry alone.
19
@John C. I hereby second and agree with your analysis.
This article is absolute garbage (particularly the headline), and I say this as a liberal. An article published just a few months ago in the same paper suggests that the causes of Baltimore's current crime surge is far more nuanced then this piece purports. The NYT's obsession with all costs reporting on Baltimore is getting under my skin.
20
Everyone chill out and read a Healthy Holly book.
3
Everyone, please google "baltimore police corruption history" and "Gun Trace Task Force Baltimore." Because you don't seem to understand how corrupt our police department actually is.
15
@Vee Bee I think the annoyance is the article attempts to make it racial. Black Mayor, Black Police Chief, Majority black police force, majority black/minority command structure (54% of Officers are black), majority black city council, majority black voters...Yet somehow its still racism that's the motivating factor. Its old. People need to start admitting part of the problem might just be the community itself.
20
I've lived in Baltimore for 50 years, and obviously the problems in Baltimore are much larger than the BPD. But as the writers say, the policing strategies and tactics aren't helping. Many operate as an occupying force, especially in the "black butterfly," and as a result, get little to no cooperation from the citizens. They aren't trusted because of their brutality, from casual to criminally intentional, and their corruption. It's a mess, and there are legitimate calls to disband the department. Not all of the police are bad, of course, and we have recently appointed a new Police Commissioner, Michael Harrison, who had an impressive track record in New Orleans and has shown good instincts. But he has an immense job rebuilding the citizen's trust in a department that has resisted reform, in a city with rampant political corruption and drug related violence. As ludicrous as it may sound, many citizens don't see much difference between the good guys from the bad guys. We're not going to police ourselves out of our problems, they're too big. And the police aren't going to be the part of the solution they need to be until they fix themselves.
5
@Pat
If the neighborhood knows who commit crimes, refuses to cooperate with the authorities and then complains about the high rates of unsolved murders - who is to blame? The police, really?
Shouldn't there be accountability on both sides?
16
@Kai Ideally, yes, but police corruption can make you think twice. For instance, it is commonly accepted that major drug dealers have paid informers within the police department. Would you trust the police with your testimony in those circumstances? it's dangerous enough testifying against a drug dealer in the first place. Look at the story of Detective Suiter, it's a perfect example of why everyone doubts the BPD, and he was one of their own. It's a hall of mirrors.
4
@Pat
You can also look at Rachael Rollins, the Suffolk District DA. She announced that among the 15 categories of crimes no longer to be prosecuted are drug possession, drug dealing, trespassing, breaking and entering, destruction of property, shoplifting and resisting arrest. What incentive do people have to obey the laws with prosecutors like Ms. Rollins?
2
"The police say they follow crime and the reason they don’t have gun units in white neighborhoods is because there are no guns in white neighborhoods. Perhaps the reverse is true. There are no guns in those neighborhoods because the city is not waging war on them."
This is breathtakingly delusional. That paragraph is the Flat Earther logic of criminology. It's quite a trick that the authors wrote so many words about violence in Baltimore and managed to avoid mentioning gang violence which accounts for lion's share of it. By reading this one could easily come to the conclusion that the police are the source of most of the problems in Baltimore. If people wish to believe such things because of bad people like Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, then nothing will change. Spending more money on schools is putting the cart before the horse. People are afraid to function normally in these neighborhoods. They can't do business or go to school without becoming a victim. If we are truly trying to say that it's the police inflicting this on these neighborhoods then I dare say we've already failed at fixing this problem.
17
Not policing white neighborhoods because there are no guns there is equally delusional. All races commit crimes, not just people of color.
I live in a predominantly black community which has a very low crime rate? Why? Because we have a high percentage of high income professionals and the perks that come with money. I’m sick of people acting as if black equals crime. It does not. Look at poor White communities with high rates of unemployment, high rates of illegal drug use and substandard schools and tell me what the crime rate is there.
2
These undercover cops are a real problem imho. They all fit a certain profile…beefed-up tough guys looking for a fight…very similar to ‘bounty hunter’ types looking for their next adrenaline rush.
Why just the other day in Manhattan, I observed an obviously mentally-ill man, being pinned down onto the ground by police. (Witnesses told me that indeed, the man had been behaving badly towards passerby, and that when the cops arrived, he made a motion as if he were going to attack them…) Regardless, among the uniformed police, one other guy stood out…an undercover cop (he had the ubiquitous chain around his neck, from which hung his badge). Of all the police onsite, about 9 of them in the end, the undercover cop was the most smug and ‘tough guy’, often with a grin on his face, as if the whole sad scenario were one big joke.
Even as a middle-aged white female, I really don’t trust or like many cops/undercover cops. I can’t even imagine being ‘suspected’ of something, and having to be on the receiving end of these guys.
We have given far, far too much power to police in the US.
7
I love this article because it puts US policing in the appropriate terms: as an act of war against the population. Over 4050 people have been shot and killed by US police since 2015.
It isn't an insult to officers. Rather, it is simple acknowledgement of the institutional character of policy, which is often racist and biased against the poor.
Our justice system is a war machine, that's part of the reason we are first-world outcasts.
4
@Milo The issue is that American police kill about 100x more people than German, French or English police.
3
@Milo How profoundly ridiculous to call U.S. policing an act of war. Go to a country where that is true and you will see the folly of such a statement. The war is perpetrated by armed criminals fighting with each other and yes, sometimes the police shoot them. By your logic, firefighters are "enemies of natural processes."
9
@rdb1957
What does your reply add or contest?
police officers are the bad guys, with guns?
sorry, but statistically, the number of citizens killed by other citizens far far outweighs death by cop in Baltimore.
Sorry, but minority/POC death by other minorities, far far outweighs the number of minorities killed by cops.
sorry but your moral compass is broken. Yes, the Task Force is imperfect, but the headline and tone is massively truly misleading. Yes, the many flaws of the task force are awful and it is worthy to call attention to it.
yes, even in Baltimore the vast majority of death by cop are by folks either resisting arrest, armed, or both.
the bad guys are not (usually, generally, stastistically) the police officers. Bad apples exist, for sure. but let's not paint all of one group of people as bad, whether white, black or blue. Unique individuals all over.
20
A pretty disturbing article with a heavy political component that is blaming crime on the police. What are they actually suggesting. Don't look for illegal guns? Let the criminals do as they please? How far more left do you want the Baltimore political establishment to actually get? The people that are blaming Clinton, Biden for criminal justice bills in the 80's forget that most cities in America resembled Baltimore during that. The crime rates started to drop precipitously after tough sentencing rules were established and the police forces were empowered to go into the crime ridden neighborhoods. Velvet glove treatment of criminals and the demonization of the police begets you Baltimore and Chicago.
19
In the white neighborhoods there are no guns because the city is not waging war on them? Really? Perhaps there are guns in these areas, illegal certainly, as they are in black communities, but is it possible the citizens who reside there are possessing them for their own defense and not for criminal purposes? The default position is alive and well, blame the guns, police and lack of educational opportunities. But not the community that continues to live on drugs, welfare, and a lack of responsibility for bringing more children into this dystopia to perpetuate the dysfunction.
13
The authors' specious suggestion that the police ignore equivalent gun crime in white neighborhoods because...they do not say....is just silly.
Every shooting, murder and use of a firearm in Baltimore is immediately scrutinized and mapped. The police effort goes where the guns are and where violent gun crimes occur. The color of a neighborhood's residents means nothing in terms of enforcement strategies. What issues of color may mean to individual officers is another matter.
The quality of the city executive branch, city council, circuit court and state's attorney--all which leave much to be desired-- and whether the police are well led at either the city or department levels, and are as effective and constitutionally aware as they need to be are indeed serious issues. However, having worked in law enforcement in Baltimore at the federal level for 27 years, I can guarantee the "reverse" suggested is absolutely not true.
Moreover, even in high gun-violence neighborhoods, criminals do not carry guns to defend themselves from the police. Such a suggestion is so absurd that it begs objectivity and motives of the authors. The societal and law enforcement issues that exist in Baltimore are real, very serious and incredibly frustrating, but the discussion as to their ultimate resolution is not served by such sensationalist claims as made by the authors.
I won't be buying their book.
Jack Purcell, Baltimore
27
@Jackbook As much as I think the US' system of 'policing' as a whole is abhorrent, I also agree with you that the suggestion that many inner-city folk have guns to protect themselves from bad cops, is laughable.
6
I think that the BC police force should be dissolved. Force everyone to reapply and rehire the few good apples into a reconstituted force, with requirement that all police live in the City.
That said, the disfunction in Baltimore is off the charts. Declare martial law, give everyone one week to turn in illegal firearms, then begin a building by building search. Install cameras on every street corner
Might be nice too if some Silicon Valley outfit would open a branch in the city proper. State could provide free coding and other training; supermarkets open a few stores there. Bulldoze the vacant buildings, put up clean, modern apts. Think Marshall Plan for Rust Belt Cities. Oh, Maryland, my Maryland.
1
@LMT You wrote, "...Think Marshall Plan for Rust Belt Cities..." I LOVE IT! What an excellent idea. Corporations investing in the city like you said plus the removal of abandoned structures and building housing are also superb ideas. Let's hope like-minded people in the corporate world move forward with this.
1
@LMT "Bulldoze the vacant buildings, put up clean, modern apts."
...then wait for gentrification to drive out the poor, and the soon-to-be-poor.
Only the rich get to enjoy life, remember?
2
NYT is way off the mark here. The whole piece is about targeting criminals carrying illegal firearms and it not reducing crime, but the authors completely fail to look at the rest of the justice system. It is insane how many violent hardened criminals Baltimore judges let out with a slap of the wrist. Police routinely lockup criminals with dozens of arrests, yet because of 'progressive' judges and policies, criminals are let out and have no repercussions for their crime. If I recall correctly from a piece by the Baltimore Sun, the average person who was killed in Baltimore had been arrested 8 times and the average murderer caught over at least 5 times. One famous case was Johns Hopkins worker Zach Sowers, who was curbed stomped to death by a gang of criminals. Less than 10 years go buy and criminals inolved in the murder were let out. Guess what he did after being let out? Commit more crime. Baltimore is truly insane and I'm glad I no longer live there. Progressive and Democrat policies make it nearly impossible to arrest anyone, and even when people are arrested, liberal Democrat judges constantly let out violent one man crime waves back out on the streets in no time. Baltimore is a completely failed city with nosebleed taxes for high crime, corrupt politicians, and terrible schools. I really am sick and tired of progressives and media outlets blaming the police for everything. Maybe Baltimore's residents should take the lion's share of the blame for killing?
36
@John Stanley We also need to consider our 'correctional' system. So long as some folks will eventually be released from prison, and back into our neighborhoods, what are we doing to best ensure they don't revert to a life of crime? Answer: Nothing.
Whether someone was in prison for simply having personal drugs on their person. Whether someone did something dumb as a teen...got in with the wrong crowd...and has been a model prisoner...or whether someone has shown a history of violence... no matter the crime, when we re-release ex-cons into our neighborhoods, we can't be surprised when they commit more crimes, if we've provided no job counseling, no skills-based training, no mental health support, when they have no savings, when no one wants to hire them, when no landlord wants to rent to them, etc. ...why on earth are we expecting a different outcome?
It is in our own self-interest to provide ex-cons with as many tools as possible, to be productive contributing members of society. Folks can say all they want that 'it ain't fair for ex-cons to get this support and that', but then, we see the consequences when they do not.
3
Again. The NYTimes goes right to the race issue. Cops are bad. Minority neighborhoods are full of so many wonderful people that are responsible for nothing and continue to shoot and kill each other. The only thing I like about this article is that it is smearing Baltimore. Instead of the regular smear of Chicago that has some people thinking we have roams of police gangs shooting people all over the city.
29
@Deni "Minority neighborhoods are full of so many wonderful people that are responsible for nothing and continue to shoot and kill each other."
I know you were being sarcastic...
I guess Corporate America and big banks are also full of wonderful people that are responsible for nothing and continue to rob the American private citizen. ;-)
1
@Lisa Relevance?
5
Another article blaming the fire engine for the fire!
38
@Robert M. Koretsky Please leave the Fire Department out of this mess. Lt. Peter B. retired FDNY
1
NYT is way off the mark here. The whole piece is about targeting criminals carrying illegal firearms and it not reducing crime, but the authors completely fail to look at the rest of the justice system. It is insane how many violent hardened criminals Baltimore judges let out with a slap of the wrist. Police routinely lockup criminals with dozens of arrests, yet because of 'progressive' judges and policies, criminals are let out and have no repercussions for their crime. If I recall correctly from a piece by the Baltimore Sun, the average person who was killed in Baltimore had been arrested 8 times and the average murderer caught over at least 5 times. One famous case was Johns Hopkins worker Zach Sowers, who was curbed stomped to death by a gang of criminals. Less than 10 years go buy and criminals inolved in the murder were let out. Guess what he did after being let out? Commit more crime. Baltimore is truly insane and I'm glad I no longer live there. Progressive and Democrat policies make it nearly impossible to arrest anyone, and even when people are arrested, liberal Democrat judges constantly let out violent one man crime waves back out on the streets in no time. Baltimore is a completely failed city with nosebleed taxes for high crime, corrupt politicians, and terrible schools. I really am sick and tired of progressives and media outlets blaming the police for everything. Maybe Baltimore's residents should take the lion's share of the blame for killing?
9
While growing up and attending school in Baltimore as a teen, I can't remember myself or any of my friends not having jobs all who wanted or needed one. The youths in Baltimore today have very limited opportunities for employment as there are as many adults as teens working in fast food and other service sectors that at one time relied heavily on student populations working those jobs. The teens are idle and they realize that no one cares. Many parents are over worked and unavailable.
As for the police and their problems, it's even worse than what's depicted in this article. I can't begin to tell you how corrupt the BCPD is. The fish rots from the head is all I can say.
3
@Lady4Real, interesting perspective.
how many killed by BC police last year?
how many killed by other citizens last
6
@Lady4Real
I have clients in Baltimore ... they can't find workers ... entry level jobs with potential.
Every city has contractors begging for workers -- the become good jobs.
Jobs are out there
2
Maybe you've been stuck in the war for so long because people are asking the wrong questions. I mean do you really think one more article blaming the Baltimore police is going to solve anything? It is and always has been just a lazy analysis of an extremely complex situation.
The authors don't even attempt to identify the problems. Ok, so people are shooting each other. But why? Gang issues? Lack of opportunity? Poor values? Bad schooling? I mean, the gun task force may have been a bad idea, but its not even close to being the most important issue facing the community.
Its also puzzling that it ignores the leadership issues that have plagued Baltimore for years. When you evaluate an institution, you must look at the leadership. Convenient to leave out the string of corrupt mayors including the one that JUST resigned over corruption charges.
Lastly, why did the article not address the shortfall of officers or even try to look at the string of difficulties in attempting to police the city in any effective manner?
12
This article suggests that black people in Baltimore are keeping guns for fear of the cops, which is dangerously nonsensical. The chances of being shot by a cop are vanishingly small compared to the mound of dead and maimed that criminals pile up. They have guns for two reasons: to commit crimes, or to defend themselves from crimes. However, the democrats who have run Baltimore for decades do not consider self-defense to be a right, so all must be frisked and all guns taken away.
In the meantime, the white community is left alone because they are neither shooting nor being shot. Turns out the cops are actually focusing their efforts on where the problem is.
31
@KM
You have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to what makes people in Baltimore afraid.
Yes, it's true there is no acknowledgement of the Castle Doctrine in Baltimore (I'm saying Baltimore and not the entire state of MD for a reason).
The police are a large part of the crime problem, huge part.
4
@Lady4Real
And yet, you do not live here.
6
This is absurd on multiple levels. There may have been redlining in Baltimore's past but many of the areas that are dangerous now used to be white or integrated. "...redlining..." did not change them. Crime did.
19
In Iraq, our brief on the laws of war ended with emphasis on the fact that "you're authorized to use deadly force in any situation where you feel threatened." Each vehicle received a drop weapon later that afternoon.
When I came home, it was totally obvious that the de facto legal standards for police were indistinguishable from those of our illegal war overseas.
Since 2015, police in the US have shot and killed over 4050 people. The war is not just in Baltimore.
6
Black Lives Matter.
And yet, this article is atrocious. Calling the entire law enforcement as "bad guys with guns" is the epitome of "dividing the community" without actually proposing a workable solution to the high crime rate and a high murder rate that plagues Baltimore even before the draconian policing.
19
Remember- All Lives Matter. Regardless of your color. Every life matters. We need to stop with the Identity Politics or the Left will never win another election..
17
@Balu I would posit that the police criminal element are the progenitors of a lot of murders and violent crime in Baltimore and that is why their clearance rate is so abysmal.
Some lives matter more than others. Watch your privilege. Pay attention.
1
Baltimore is like South Central. Read Ghettoside about the gang culture, guns and murder in LA. Many facts, figures and studies. If the police don’t (won’t?) do their jobs than the local community will take matters into their own hands. We need more policing, not less but the police have to be trustworthy and we need stability at the top. 5 police chiefs since 2015?
3
@BL mayors, police chiefs, superintendents. Anyone who enters the political landscape of Baltimore quickly finds that nothing can be done due to entrenched interests. You either bow to corruption or leave..... Police Chiefs tend to leave when they're made ineffective. They don't want it to taint their careers.
2
@BL The rank and file are criminals, not all, but too many, far too many. They fuel the crime themselves and it's no secret. The Baltimore City Police occupy neighborhoods and play God in deciding who they are going to falsely accuse of crimes and possession and then make the evidence fit their stated facts. It needs to be disbanded.
1
Time for David Simon to create a new season of "The Wire"
6
@NF
"Tru dat!"
It was one of the best TV series - EVER!
2
At least one. Bring Hopkins into it, too.
Marlo is with Hollywood Homicide and partnered with Bosch.
The gall it takes to write an article like this is pretty incredible. At best, its naive and disingenuous, and at worst, it not only refuses to identify the actual problem but purposefully contributes to the rotting away of public trust and respect between individuals and institutions in Baltimore (if there is any left).
Do you expect to solve anything when you provide contradictory statements, misleading facts, and a clear political bias? Do you expect to solve this problem with no solution, and a clear refusal to even talk about the actual problem? What world are you living in?
33
How is calling police officers bad guys in anyone's best interest?
Yeah, these people that put on a uniform and go out every day and night to make a living facing real consequences are the enemy. Ridiculous.
I have no problem with the authors commenting on technique, strategy, specific cases where some cop violated policy, but to straight up label the Baltimore PD as a criminal organization is beyond legitimate journalism and is nothing more than a garbage hate peace against "the man."
My question the authors is, what would you do if you were the Police Chief and in charge? What is your strategy? You think you're going to fire all the cops and start over?
I submit that this article is part of the problem. I appreciate that change comes from many directions and incremental small actions but I fail to see how labeling the police as bad guys is helpful to anyone.
22
@Stan Only the truth is that the Baltimore Police Department is a criminal organization. Don't hate the messenger, you might learn some true facts to bypass your inherent bias that a police department can't be all bad.
@Lady4Real To suggest that a whole police department is bad is sort of the same thing as saying a whole anything is bad. Insert anything you like . Generalization, not helpful.
2
I personally know a young man who is now one of "Baltimore's Finest" police officers.
This kid, when younger, was known for his violent and angry outbursts. I cannot imagine such a person as a controlled police officer. More than likely, he is a bully who craves the power to "make others do" whatever he wants. I fear if he will rape women at gunpoint, just because he can.
We need to have complete psychological screenings of those who enter certain professions, and periodically re-check them.
5
As a Democrat, I can only shake my head when I read articles like this. With dumb progressives like these, Trump is well on his way to term #2. Let's take a look at some of the highlights.
"When progressives call for gun control in a city where many of the guns are already illegal, they are calling either for tougher penalties or for more squads like the task force." Uh ok, so we should go hard on the people trying to legally get guns but as soon as they break the law, we should be cool with it? This is the same type of backward logic as progressive DA's who will downcharge illegal immigrants so they aren't deported. Progressives truly have more respect for criminals than for people who actually follow our laws.
Then we have this gem, "There are no guns in those (white) neighborhoods because the city is not waging war on them." Huh? Maybe those neighborhoods don't need to have police waging war on them because they don't have an epidemic of violent gang members shooting people.
Or how about this one, "They (the police) often planted guns if they didn’t find any, we discovered over the course of dozens of interviews with arrestees." Hmm... so you know this to be true because some gang members claimed it was true? And I'm sure they wouldn't have ANY motive whatsoever to lie? Talk about some hard-hitting journalism, there Opie! You sure are breaking this one wide open!
I'll bet that these two nutters live well out in the suburbs of Baltimore...
31
@JP The only true gang in Baltimore is the police department. Baltimore is not gang central or anywhere near a town where gangs are organized and prevalent. That's the first lie right there, that there is a heavy gang predominance in Baltimore--nothing could be further from the truth.
1
@Lady4Real No gangs in Baltimore?! Seriously? What?!?!
5
Blame everyone but the criminals.
How predictable.
22
Read this article, assess the claims made by these authors and, perhaps, you'll gain an understanding of the depth of many of our social ills.
According to the authors there have been over 100 homicides in Baltimore thus far in 2019. Indiscriminate killings. In their effort to patrol the areas where many or most of these crimes are being committed the authors advance the absurd argument that the city is "waging war on its own citizens". The notion, posited by these authors, that there are no or fewer guns in white neighborhoods because the city is not waging war in those neighborhoods tells you all you need to know.
This article is embarrassing. I read the NYT, less enthusiastically by the day in large part due to writing like this.
28
@kiln Move your family into Baltimore City and find out how corrupt the police department are for yourself. Until you do that, don't superimpose your vision of what's real on top of what people have observed on the ground with their own eyes and proper research.
Of course there are bad apples in every bunch. But the police in Baltimore and other places where crime by minorities against minorities are rampant are being placed in impossible situations by the public which demands that they stop all of the crime but without ever stopping to question anyone, let alone arrest anyone, who turns out to be innocent. A title claiming broadly that "the police officers are the bad guys with guns" is outrageous. I know you guys have a book to sell but come on.
14
A headline calling the police "Bad guys with guns?" How dare, and I mean how DARE these authors besmirch the many upstanding law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line daily for strangers, many of whom actively hate them. Are there corrupt cops? Yes, of course there are just as there are corrupt anything but to throw the good in with the bad like this is deplorable and really detracts from any legitimate work the authors may have done. For shame. Change the headline.
13
As I understand opinion pieces, they are written with some social or political purpose. This piece appears to meet that criteria, but why does the opinion appear in the Times rather than a local Baltimore publication?
4
Wow. Really interesting comments. People clearly think that the people of Baltimore deserve the blame and that finger pointing is not going to be tolerated here.
What people miss is that Baltimore didn't suddenly become a place where murder is part of the fabric. It isn't by accident, either. Baltimore is the product of some of the most calculated racial housing policies ever created. Policy decisions made over the last 110 years have created a city that is sharply segregated by economics and race.
Our city budget makes things worse. For every dollar we spend on "public safety" we spend only .51 on schools and only .01 on substance abuse issues. Our schools are largely run by heroes, but they are falling apart and vastly underfunded. Maryland has ring-fenced the problems of race, poverty, and addiction into the city, and then turned its back. Maryland is a southern slave state at heart. Get over it--we are not as blue as you would like think.
I don't want to blame our police. They have been tasked with maintaining an unjust system. They are pawns themselves. It's the policy structure more than anything.
And as for blaming Democrats, the fact is that the Maryland GOP hasn't run a solid candidate in Baltimore in generations. They have no solutions and thus bring nothing to the marketplace of ideas. I'd love to vote for a solid Republican candidate. Why doesn't the party provide one?
12
@ForzaMinardi - Do you think a "solid republican candidate" would ever be elected in Baltimore? It seems highly unlikely.
1
The authors' suggestion that the high number of guns in Baltimore is due to a war being waged by police on the community has no basis in fact. Guns and gun violence are a product of poverty, drug crimes, gang activity, and the proliferation of hatred. The authors then seem to suggest that police are breaking down doors and violating 2nd Ammendment rights by taking lawfully owned firearms from black Baltimore citizens. If this is the case the article should offer some evidence. There are no doubt some valid problems with policing in Baltimore, but this piece lacks objectivity and comes across as an irresponsible endorsement that people with illegal guns be left alone to perpetrate more gun violence.
19
@Northern Sole The article might rhetorically comment on how the gun control preferences might be formed in black communities but if it were speaking to the violation of rights, which it is directly, it is much more concerned with 4th amendment violations than 2nd. What are you even talking about, Mr Putin?
I find articles like this one usually more harmful than helpful.
I keep asking myself, what's the point?
What's the underlying motivation?
15
A terrible article. It offers no program or solution except more teachers and after school programs and higher wages (as if Baltimore government can do anything about this). It proposes no way to improve policing, except maybe doing less. Sounds like total helplessness to me.
Surely Baltimore can do better. It needs to start with better leaders who are not anti-police.
23
"more than 100,000 arrests in a single year"
That means arrest of 1/6th of the entire city population every year.
Wherever the line is, that crosses it, between governing a place with consent of the governed, and hostile occupation of a place resisting.
4
Cops respond to leadership, good leadership and bad. They are like soldiers in that, where good sergeants make the difference between good units and bad.
This has been demonstrated, on a large scale and under intense pressure. One example was in North Africa during WW2. The Italian Army was utterly useless. Then Rommel was able to reform it. His reform was of sergeants and junior officers, just sending home vast numbers. The results improved dramatically, even against the best of the British Army attacks under their best commander with the greatest imbalance of resources.
Police are like that. If an officer is abusing his position, his sergeant knows it. Other officers know it, and the sergeant most of all knows exactly what is going on.
So what do they do about it? Too often, they are the ringleaders of the abuses.
5
Let me ask a simple question. If in a city of 600,000 with possibly 100,000-500,000 guns, the police have a hugely successful month collecting 100 guns, have they accomplished anything worth mentioning? Has the ill will and fear created been worth the success rate? Isn't the answer obvious?
6
This is an absurd piece, totally absurd, downright insulting for the police, with a very clear agenda, and in conflict with facts.
The very first sentence says that the homicides are sky-high and the problem is in the excessive policing ??
Of course, the problem is not and cannot be with the residents who are all peaceful, loving, and hard-working neighbors unduly harassed by the police for no reason whatsoever.
97
@ss
Apparently you blocked out all the important aspects of this article. Try reading it with your mind open.
The point of the article is that with police focussed on collecting guns and arresting black people, the black community is at least as afraid of them as of non-police criminals. Now read again.
9
@ss:
We again see conservative readers who do not try to comprehend what they've read. This article does not even contain the phrase "excessive policing". Yet you attempt to "answer" that phrase, as if it were real.
The article talks about targeted aggressive policing, primarily in disadvantaged/poor/Black neighborhoods.
Please read before you comment. And please know the city you are attempting to talk about. Boston is not Baltimore. Baltimore has had serious police abuses for many years, which are well documented.
This article attempts to put into context and explain what "bad policing" looks like. It is not saying all police officers are bad, or that the Baltimore police forces does nothing good. They are saying they must change their approach, especially in Black/disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Please be careful in reading. Correct comprehension is essential to solving intractable problems.
6
@IN Why do you say "Conservative readers?" How do you know that all those calling out this ridiculous, book-hyping, slander piece for what it is are conservatives? You undercut your point of suggesting that people read carefully by using a blanket oversimplification. Correct comprehension is mutually exclusive with blanket generalizations. Another example of the "If you disagree you must be stupid" line of reasoning so prevalent today.
11
" in the same neighborhoods that have been segregated and gutted by a century of racist redlining."
Baltimore is run by Democrats - it has been run by Democrats for decades.
Baltimore = DNC Utopia
52
Police in plainclothes and blue are among the bad guys with guns in Chicago.
Black lives don't matter to current white Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his incompetent and unqualified black Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson.
1
Throughout history, in the ranks of American police forces one could find too many individuals that seemed to have endep up as cops because of random events in their lives. Had those random events been different, they would have ended up as criminals.
3
@IJK You are basing this statement on what data? Your opinion? Your opinion is meaningless. Let's see some numbers.
2
This article is so anti-police biased. For instance, it talks about the low homicide solve rates (38-50%), leaving the uniformed reader to believe the police are just incompetent. There is no mention of the dominant no-snitching culture that makes arrests and convictions so difficult. Later, it talks about over-policing in one breath and low response times in the next. So are the police doing too much or not doing enough?
25
@Jeff The answer is, both. The community is underserved because cops don't respond, or don't respond promptly, to calls for help, and overpoliced because special units keep harassing anyone in the neighborhood who might be carrying a gun without probable cause. as required by our state and federal constitutions. Anyone with a lick of common sense should be able to see that those two situations are not mutually exclusive.
Anyone who lived in New York during the Giuliani years knows how this feels. Police resources were concentrated in areas with records of violence, and cops implemented a stop and frisk policy that was completely illegal - but did get results. Homicides went down, but the harassment of innocents sparked so much protest that the policy had to be abandoned. Unlike Baltimore, however, the result of ending the Giuliani policy was not a big surge in homicides - which shows there are other ways of dealing with the problem.
Jeff, do you think citizens have to choose between safety and their civil rights? Either they have to accept police harassment or dangerous streets? New York has shown this isn't so. Why can't Baltimore?
8
@Jeff
Just reread the article. It answers your second question very clearly.
People go to a “house party”, a couple are shot to death. While kids play basket ball, one is fatally shot by stray bullet. A bodega owner is too slow for a robber’s taste and is murdered. A baby, asleep in her bed, is stuck the head by a bullet coming through her bedroom wall.
In what bizzaro world is this the fault of policing ? Urban culture worships toughness & violence. Paradoxically, it is “shocked” when it turns inward. The moral compass of these neighborhood is upended.
Crimes are not solved because residents protect the thugs among them. They are protected because crime is viewed as a legitimate occupational choice.
Criminal behavior is so common that time in prison is viewed as a rite of passage. Unbalanced prison attendance is not due to unequal justice. It is due to disproportionate violence and crime.
72
@Bongo
I think the article is saying that the specter of criminality is assumed from the start on the premise of neighborhood. It seems like you are saying: rightfully so.
But that still leaves the question of what makes a criminal. Zip code? Your perception of cultural norms? But how would you define those cultural lines?
If they're black put em in the back! That sound about right to you? That seems to be what you're saying. Please educate me if I'm wrong.
6
@Bongo: Many faults in your "thinking".
You claim "Urban culture worships toughness & violence." So, does this include the East Side & much of Manhattan, which are extremely urban? Or does your term "urban" imply "non-white" culture? In any case, you are wrong. I know more African American/Black families who don't own guns and despise every kind of toughness & violence, than racist white supremacists and "flyover country" gun-toting yahoos who DO love toughness & violence. If you don't see this, go to parts of Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Oklahoma, Alabama, West Virginia.... all places that open thinkers believe "worship toughness & violence."
The reason why "flyover country" adores its guns is because they're afraid of getting shot (by the greater white population), and so they've become more "tough" and violent than "coastal" states, where we believe in the rule of law and so rely on police to stop criminals.
Then your comment contains this magnum opus: "crime is viewed as a legitimate occupational choice." You'll then need to also agree that the bozos and white supremacists at trump's rallies view shootings and lynchings as legitimate forms of entertainment. We see them on TV loudly agreeing at donnie trump's incitement, to shoot anyone they hate.
The article presents valid claims that police are ineffective, misguided, and even corrupt in how they "police" disadvantaged locales in America. This most likely is rampant in the wild untamed nether-regions of America.
4
@Bongo
I wonder what you think "urban culture" means. I guess it's a deceptive and pejorative code for poor urban black living conditions.
1
There is conservative and liberal thinking in this as in all things. Conservative thinking is focused not on the reduction of crime but on punishment, and conservative thinking has been running this country for 40 years. So in the face of the normal reaction of human beings to being attacked by the police, the police are the only people we hear from and they frame their actions of course as justified, justified by their conservative mindset of punishment at all costs. This leads to the logical goal that police should lock up all the people in the neighborhoods they are patrolling. This would give them the high numbers they crave and the result of no crime in areas with no population left. They must "destroy the village to save it" and there are no facts that can talk them out of it.
The alternative forgotten and long denied mindset is to acknowledge that crime comes from economic deprivation and racial discrimination and work on reducing the conservative disfunction that creates them and crime in the first place. This is the mindset that has always worked but it comes with a liberal point of view that is politically untenable. It is a political stance that denies power to the greedy and reduces the stolen profits of the legalized criminals in high places. This is the fact based, "reality based" approach that is not allowed in any fascist society. And the problem of course is that we are a fascist society. Fix that and fix everything.
15
@Bobotheclown
Conservative thinking? The city has been run by democrats for decades. And after the issues in 2015, it was put under a microscope by the Obama administration and can be said to have used even more liberal policies. Has that worked?
Racial discrimination? The city is largely african american with most of the leadership being african american as well (many of which have been corrupt by the way, which was conveniently left out of the article).
You cannot solve anything if you don't even identify the problem in the first place. The citizens of Baltimore are running out of people to blame here. Nothing will change until the citizens themselves decide to change their own behavior and stand up to the crime in their cities. A good place to start would be to elect a Mayor that is actually a decent human.
10
“Perhaps the reverse is true. There are no guns in those neighborhoods because the city is not waging war on them.”
Are there any bad guys with guns in Baltimore who are not police officers? Credibility is essential to rhetoric. This piece can’t bear to acknowledge there is a problem beyond police tactics. In fact, apparently, in the magical thinking of these writers, people are only armed to protect themselves from the police.
That is where you lost any credibility I would give your piece. “It’s not the critic who counts...” Give me an article by someone who is bold enough to propose a solution.
45
@A Thinker, Not a Chanter.
When you call a duck a duck, it is not invalidated by refraining to add that a goose is a goose.
Police have shot and killed more than 4050 people in the US since 2015. What other terrorist group can match those numbers?
1
It's telling that the worse a community behaves, the worse the behavior of its law enforcement officers. I wonder whether any government agency could survive in that environment. Judging from Baltimore's politicians, I'd say they cannot.
10
I don't know enough about this task force to comment on it. And yes, of course the root causes of violence need to be addressed. But, as far as I see it, the current level of violence is a root cause of violence. When you have a whole bunch of people who grow-up in a world of violence, violence becomes an option to those people. I imagine if many of the readers of this article had grown-up surrounded by gang-violence (in a world where friends and family members were in gangs) joining a gang would be a real option. For this reason, the police do need to do a better job of stopping crime, so children don't grow-up surrounded by violence.
One thing this article fails to mention is that the Baltimore police dept. is short 500 officers--a glaring omission. A recent article on the NYT also linked the rise of violence in the post Freddie Gray era to police not being allowed to use some more aggressive tactics.
In other words, the spike in violence over the last several years has coincided with a decrease in policing, not an increase--going against the authors' central assumption.
Other cities have cut down on violence with increased policing--I don't know why Baltimore would be any different.
Of course, none of this even mentions Baltimore's corrupt leadership over the last decade which has undoubtedly been part of the problem.
30
Excellent, important reportage. Baltimore is a beautiful, but very troubled city. Despite prestigious institutions such as Johns Hopkins, the Walters Art Museum, the Maryland Science Center, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and a treasure of neighborhoods, it has some of the worst challenges of urban blight. Its schools struggle with under-funding, high transiency, adult drug addiction, and impoverished families.
Any plan to reduce crime must include reopening the schools after hours for extended child care, technical job training, and adult education. Baltimore should employ seniors, ex-military, and retirees to staff classes, lead recreational activities, and transform its schools into valued community centers. Recent high school grads could become paid interns, with job placement in the greater region a priority.
Poverty must no longer be considered a moral failure- not in a town where many of the eligible unemployed are "returning citizens," former cons with very little hope for decent jobs.
Perhaps there is hope, if we can harness the energy of the Green New Deal: Find/create jobs for the eligible, train citizens in renewable energy, redirect funds from prisons to communities, encourage talent and reward hard work inside Baltimore.
14
@Mickey M
Have you considered moving into the city, paying city taxes and contributing in other ways? That is the way to start.
1
When I tell people I live in Baltimore, I get a variety of reactions - predominantly incredulity. I'll continue to defend this city - but the ineptitude of the city government and police force is embarrassing and shameful. It's hard to defend a city that struggles to govern itself.
42
@Margaret T
And what of the obligation of the citizens to uphold the law and decent community values? Citizens have obligations too.
52
@AACNY
Doesn’t the article say that guns were planted in some cases? The police were also selling drugs which increased the likelihood of more crime
11
@Robert M The article tried to pass off the planting of guns as a confirmed fact but in reality it was merely a claim made by those who had already been arrested (who had a clear motive to lie) with no external corroboration. Furthermore, the offending officers were fired and jailed and their previous arrests were vacated.
9
What is the root cause of shooting toddlers?
25
@Talbot
Let me take a stab at this one. If gunfire is random and prolific, the cops will respond to all perpetrators with increased suspicion and heightened skittishness. Not excusing this, but explaining how they are, literally, operating in a war zone.
How many innocent bystanders have been paralyzed or killed by the random gun fire of criminals? Citizens do not walk outside without worrying about this. It's not just the cops who are on heightened alert 24/7.
13
Whenever the US prohibits something, it’s usually first prohibited among the poor, the non-white, the vulnerable.
Just look at the racist sham that is the war on drugs. It’s never the kingpin dealers who go to jail. This is America; the dealers founded the place. The real criminals, the prime menaces of the public, will never see justice. The same would be true for any kind of gun control, and demonstrably has been so far in our history. White supremacists, men, religious fanatics and the police will keep their guns while black people, women, queer folks, and anyone who can’t buy justice for themselves will find themselves victim of yet another facet of our deeply flawed system of law and disorder.
There is no form of gun control in the US that would truly take guns away from the “bad guys” because the real bad guys, well, they run the place, and they would inevitably be tasked with enforcing the program. Instead, we should work on building forms of community self-defense, so that one day we might defeat the violence at the heart of American capitalism.
3
"Meanwhile, in the city’s predominantly white neighborhoods, hard-charging “proactive” squads are generally absent and officers actually respond to service calls. The police say they follow crime and the reason they don’t have gun units in white neighborhoods is because there are no guns in white neighborhoods.
Perhaps the reverse is true. There are no guns in those neighborhoods because the city is not waging war on them."
That's the reason, no doubt! Finally somebody has figured out why white neighborhoods have fewer gangs and less crime!
22
@areader
Stop-and-frisk was considered a "War on African-Americans" too. Meanwhile, former NYC Mayor Giuliani explained how many AA residents implored him to implement something that got the guns off their streets. They were literally frighted to walk outside. And they welcomed stop-and-frisk. The understood where the problem was.
20
You simply can't trust cops to make policy. Serve and Protect is euphemism for Stick, Gun, and Racism.
1
Of course, the murder rate is the fault of bad cops....If only there were more teachers and after-school programs, or if wages were higher.....
Stop. One can recognize that there are dirty cops while at the same time recognizing that the gun culture in Baltimore is the root cause of the astronomical murder rate, not a lack of public resources....
58
@Wondering
Gun culture? I doubt this is about a bunch of pro 2nd Amendment target shooters and collectors gone wrong. This is about entrenched groups of violent criminals, probably many or most of which are already convicted felons, unable to legally possess firearms.
12
@Wondering, It's not the gun culture, since whites in Baltimore have guns yet don't use them.
4
Baltimore city doesn’t have any plain clothes units and haven’t since the gun trace task force was indicted. So you need to do more research. I believe what you are referring to is called Modified Uniform. Which is still visibly identifies as police. The modified uniform units DO police in “white” neighborhoods as you call them. However in a city that is 78% African American I would argue that there is no such thing as a “white” neighborhood. Considering there aren’t enough white people to being with. As to the obvious racial profiling that you are inferring the police are engaged in the police department is 48% African American and the city government is predominantly African American. So unless you are suggesting that blacks are targeting their own kind I fail to where this supposed “racial profiling” is coming from.
In fact this entire article reads like it was written by someone who has never set foot in Baltimore. In short. You really need to do more research.
80
Yes, there are white neighborhoods in Baltimore: Roland Park, Guilford, Homeland, Hampden, Remington, Bolton Hill, Mt. Washington, Fells Point, Canton, Federal Hill, and more. And yes, police task forces are not beating down doors in those neighborhoods. Those task force units are not rouge units, but part of a systemically corrupt Police Department.
7
One of the authors was a writer at Baltimore’s City Paper. So yes, they have set foot in and are very familiar with Baltimore.
11
@Matt It's not "blacks" "targeting their own kind," it's "blues" targeting "citizens." Once that blue uniform is donned, whatever their skin color they go on war footing in Baltimore vs. the poor, who are black in Baltimore, like so many other places. Several postings here in this thread say that the problem is not the police but the "citizens." Who are overwhelmingly black and poor. What's the solution, in the eyes of the critics of this excellent article? Kill them all? The only real solution is to get rid of the root cause of crime and violence and drug addiction, namely poverty and joblessness, which renders the drug trade and all the violence that comes with it the best way to survive for all too many people in Baltimore--and elsewhere. Legalizing drugs might help a bit, but even that is no solution as long as much of the urban nonwhite population are jobless social outcasts in America.
6