26 Injured, 9 Killed In Baltimore Shootings During Memorial Day Weekend

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Isn't it interesting that people are suddenly concerned now with the level of gun and gang violence in Baltimore and not with the general quality of life of the people who live there. None of these problems started overnight.

Given that one of the most critically acclaimed drama series ever made was about the city of Baltimore (The Wire, perhaps you've heard of it?) I'm not sure it should be news to anyone - you certainly dont need a riot before you take notice.

The last episode of that show aired in 2008...

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Isn't it interesting that people are suddenly concerned now with the level of gun and gang violence in Baltimore and not with the general quality of life of the people who live there. None of these problems started overnight.

Given that one of the most critically acclaimed drama series ever made was about the city of Baltimore (The Wire, perhaps you've heard of it?) I'm not sure it should be news to anyone - you certainly dont need a riot before you take notice.

The last episode of that show aired in 2008...

Val posted a nice article on the police and the city of Baltimore I think in this thread a few pages back. Problem is, the folks that want to talk about it here could care less and just want another reason to point the finger and say something derogatory about black people.

[Fan_Dancer 171]

Black lives matter, lol. They can massacre each other as far as I am concerned.

[Boiler 43,430]

US Democrat Martin O’Malley stepped into the presidential race – and immediately into controversy – as the former mayor of Baltimore announced his bid in a city still reeling from civil unrest over the death of a young black man in police custody and where murders have now spiked to a 15-year high.

Hillary Clinton’s new challenger for the White House intends to champion income inequality and talk up his achievements in Baltimore, where he was mayor for two terms from 2000 to 2006, and widely thought to be one of the sources of inspiration for Mayor Tommy Carcetti in The Wire TV series.

But he launches his campaign in a city blighted by large pockets of poverty and violence and wild disparities in the quality of schools and healthcare, which fed into the anger over police brutality and fanned the flames of unrest last month.

Police in Baltimore were investigating what appeared to be the 39th homicide in the city during May, and possibly the 40th, after a 19-year-old man was shot dead on 29 May and the body of a woman found under a motorway overpass. Recent unrest in Baltimore Recent unrest in Baltimore

The suspected murders marked the deadliest month in the troubled city for 15 years, while arrests in May have fallen by 56 per cent. Arrests plummeted in particular since Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake lifted the five-day curfew prompted by the disturbances that ignited when Freddie Gray, 25, died on 19 April from a spinal injury after he was arrested and driven in a police van.

Gray’s death sparked a backlash against police, who now appear to be demoralised and deterred from apprehending suspects. Murders in the city in May increased 40 per cent on May 2014 and non-fatal shootings, at 95, were up 60 per cent. The last time a calendar month was that deadly in Baltimore was November 1999, when 36 people were murdered.

“It’s absolutely tragic. It’s unsettling,” Jeffrey Ian Ross, a criminologist at the University of Baltimore, told The Independent on Sunday.

The unrest has taken police away from normal crime solving and prevention, including detecting illegal guns and patrolling neighbourhoods, according to Daniel Webster of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence.

“To do those activities, you need community support and co-operation. In some instances, officer motivation may be down. Some or all of these elements have been lacking following the Freddie Gray incident,” said Mr Webster.

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The Baltimore police union issued a statement last week saying rank and file officers feel “under siege”.

Criminals felt empowered after the unrest and were “taking advantage of the situation”, the statement said, adding that officers were now more scared of being arrested for “doing their jobs” than being shot on the job. Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts denies that his officers are holding back, but said that when they pull up in their patrol cars in western Baltimore, where Gray was apprehended, hostile residents surround them. One resident told the Associated Press: “Before, there was over-policing. Now there’s no police.”

It’s a far cry from the Baltimore that television viewers are used to in the gritty drama The Wire, where the streets are mean but the cops maintain a certain swagger.

[Fan_Dancer 171]

Sure. If a black teenager in Elizabeth, New Jersey breaks into a house to rob it and in doing so rapes and murders a mother and her two young children (true story) who would you blame? Clearly an unrelated black man in California. Makes perfect sense. As much as it makes sense to blame Jack Lemmon for Lee Harvey Oswald.

When, obviously, the white, heterosexual, Christian male is to blame, duhhh!

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Black lives matter, lol. They can massacre each other as far as I am concerned.

Pretty sure no one is concerned about your asinine comment, but thanks for sharing.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

When, obviously, the white, heterosexual, Christian male is to blame, duhhh!

The obvious point being that the individual who did the crime is to blame.