Pubdate: Tue, 17 Nov 2015
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2015 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/people/Kurt+Schmoke

BALTIMORE'S DEADLY YEAR

A discussion of police tactics and resources isn't enough; to stop 
the violence, leaders need to delve into root causes

At the end of April, Baltimore had recorded 73 homicides and was on 
pace to see 222 for the year - high by most communities' standards 
but about the same as the city had suffered in recent years.

Since then, police have reported 229 killings in 200 days, a 
breathtaking pace of carnage that suggests we could end 2015 with 
more than 350 homicides, a figure not seen since the worst days of 
the crack epidemic. Something changed after that cruel month of 
April, and it isn't changing back.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake issued a statement after the city 
recorded its 300th homicide of the year Saturday urging Baltimoreans 
to "come together as a community to fight this violence" and pledging 
to seek more federal help. But the city has been relying on more 
federal help for the last few months through the anti-violence "war 
room" that police set up this summer.

Whatever the successes this enhanced cooperation has yielded - an 
increase in guns pulled off the streets, a major drug bust in 
Brooklyn - it has not stemmed the pace of killings.

Police Commissioner Kevin Davis has said that the violence is not 
typically random but is related to the drug trade, with rivals 
apparently seeing a chance to settle scores.

Tell that to the family of Kendal Fenwick, the 24-year-old father 
killed in apparent retaliation for his attempt to build a fence that 
would keep drug dealers away from his young children.

Or the 9-year-old girl who was struck by a stray bullet in Waverly last month.

Or the friends of James Gaylord, the 71-year-old who was shot and 
killed while helping a woman on an errand to the MVA. Or a 
10-year-old boy shot in September in Walbrook. Or Clara Bea Canty, a 
93-year-old womanwhowas sitting onher front steps whenabullet grazed 
her head in August.

University of Baltimore President Kurt Schmoke. a former mayor, hit 
much closer to the mark Sunday in an appearance on WMAR's "Square 
Off" when he alluded to the distorting effects of the drug trade and 
the war against it. He spoke about the culture of gun violence and 
the lack of trust between the community and the police, but he also 
returned to an old idea of his that was mocked at the time but has 
since seemed more and more prescient: decriminalization of drugs. 
"It's a combination of things," he said of the strategies needed to 
stop the violence. "But at the heart of it, getting the profit out of 
drugs is important."

We're not ready to join him in advocating out-and-out legalization, 
certainly not without first watching what happens in other states 
that have experimented with state-sanctioned sales of marijuana, but 
we do applaud him for moving the conversation from a narrow 
discussion of police tactics to one about the deep socioeconomic 
fault lines in the community.

Any number of factors may have contributed to the deadly 200 days 
Baltimore has just experienced - tentativeness by police wary of 
public scrutiny and a flood of looted prescription drugs in the 
market after the riots being the most frequently cited - and it's 
possible that the passage of time and better community-oriented 
policing will get us back to the "normal" level of violence we were 
seeing before the Freddie Gray riots.

But it's past time for us to stop accepting what we have come to view 
as normal.

To his credit, Commissioner Davis alluded to this in a statement he 
issued Saturday night, in which he said, "The poverty, employment, 
education, drug addiction, health, housing and police-community 
relation variables that all demand a new normal begin and end with 
our capacity to stand united." He can address one of those variables, 
and there is no question that others stand ready to assist with the 
rest. The announcement Monday that local philanthropists working 
through the Baltimore Community Foundation had raised $6 million in 
new funding to expand Baltimore's Judy Centers, which provide early 
childhood education, health care and other support services for city 
families, is a testament to that. So is a new poll released by the 
Maryland Catholic Conference showing that 82 percent of Maryland 
voters are personally concerned about Baltimore's problems and that 
74 percent believe the state "should play an active role" in trying 
to solve them.

What's missing is a unifying leadership vision to channel that good 
will into action that will make a real and permanent difference for 
Baltimore. Sixteen years ago, when Mr. Schmoke decided to leave 
office, Baltimore voters faced a pivotal mayoral election won by 
Martin O'Malley on a promise to bring homicides down. With Ms. 
Rawlings-Blake's decision to step aside, voters face another crucial 
election, and this time, they need to demand more. Understanding and 
responding to the injustices and inequalities laid bare by Freddie 
Gray's death and its aftermath are Baltimore's central challenge of 
these times.

Voters need to judge the candidates to succeed Mayor Rawlings-Blake 
on their ability to meet it.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom