Save your life: stay out of Baltimore

Save your life: stay out of Baltimore

 

Baltimore City is mired in criminality both in and outside the government. Violence over the Memorial Day weekend hit record levels for this holiday. With nine dead and more than thirty shot, no one is safe on its sidewalks or streets. The month of May saw forty-three murders. Directly attributable to this uptick in violence is the Mayor’s approach to street ruffians and thugs. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake softer stance on crime, since the death of Freddie Gray, has generated this newest stream of violence. Arrests in some sections of the city are down more than 50 percent with crime hovering at record levels. Police have been denigrated to a point they fear for their lives. Those attempting to make arrests have found themselves besieged by neighborhood thugs surrounding their vehicles. Baltimore has descended into anarchy with the blessings of its progressive management. Descriptions of hoodlums openly carrying guns in certain sections of city have generated media attention. If there ever was a movie script to write it would be “Escape from Baltimore.”

 

Gang violence continues unabated throughout the cavernous streets and crevices of this city in decline. Police are reticent in Baltimore and around the country to move against the criminal element. Assassinations of our finest are on the rise. Scum have made open threats against police on social media and in confrontations on the streets. Police unions are seeing members leave for calmer circumstances outside the cities. Shallow government officials have generally sided with the thugs such as in Baltimore. After Freddie Grey’s untimely death Baltimore City’s Mayor and State’s Attorney pandered to the rioters. Police watched as the worst in society were given a free hand to loot, burn and victimize at their leisure. Presently crime is so bad all who come to Baltimore are at risk. As a resident of Maryland I have witnessed government officials at their worst. Vain, egocentric and misdirected these individuals lack the moral clarity and intellectual fire power to manage the domains to which they were elected. Baltimore’s mayor reflects the latter description. As long as she is in charge Baltimore’s future will be bleak. Perhaps in the next election cycle someone of worth will be elected. Stay tuned.

 

Mark Davis MD, author of Demons of Democracy. President of Davis Media and Writing Services. www.daviswritingservices.com. platomd@gmail.com

Showdown in the city that bleeds

Showdown in the city that bleeds

 

Baltimore has been a tinderbox for many years waiting for the right moment to combust. That moment came when Freddie Gray died. His horrific death came while he was in police custody. As a result of this senseless tragedy emotions of city residents could not be contained. Many took to the streets in peaceful protests. Unfortunately many more used this as an opportunity to loot, vandalize and pillage throughout the city. http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/us/baltimore-riots/index.html Baltimore police were overwhelmed with the level of hostility embedded in the crowds confronting them. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake assuaged the mobs by requesting the police stand back allowing looters to destroy private property. She later back tracked on this policy when interviewed by the media noting her statements were taken out of context. City Hall and the police have been at odds concerning policing techniques for years. The current mayor has brought this controversy to a new level. Mayor Blake’s soft stance on crime and her inadequate support for the police have contributed to the riots now taking place in Baltimore.

 

Over the last several days life in Baltimore has come to a near standstill. The media’s false assumption that Mr. Gray’s death is responsible for all the chaos now viewed nightly is naïve at best. Baltimore has had an epidemic of crime for decades. Though city officials and the left wing press attempt to hide Baltimore’s problems behind smiling faces the facts bear out it is one of the most dangerous cities in America. http://www.examiner.com/article/baltimore-unsafe-at-any-speed After many nights of violent protests Baltimore’s Mayor finally conceded she could not manage the rioting that touched her city. She requested Governor Larry Hogan to call up the National Guard. Governor Hogan immediately called the Guard into force wondering aloud why Mayor Blake waited until the city was immersed in chaos. Resources from other jurisdictions within and outside Maryland have also agreed to help in the effort to quell the rioting. These protectors of the public must ask themselves is the risk worth the effort.

 

Interviewed on the streets protesters provide various views why violence has erupted in their city. Some of their reasoning is amorphous and garbled.  Others note police have no respect for community members therefore the violence is necessary to shake them up. From this perspective looting is the prime objective not police brutality as their leaders have stated.                                                                                                Hostilities will not abate as along as the Mayor and City Council pander to those who commit crimes. Many believe agitators have come a distance to push their own agenda: which is complete disruption of city services. If that is the case they did not need to do much. Arrests have been kept to minimum to curry favor with the rioters. Mayor Blake needs to get her act together or Baltimore will become the Detroit of the East Coast.

 

Mark Davis MD, President of Davis Writing Services. Author of Demons of Democracy and Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Prescription for Disaster.

www.daviswritingservices.con platomd@gmail.com