New FBI statistics: Baltimore No. 5 in murder rate (Mayo: city hall, employment)

[debold4215]

Let me point out some of the other issues that contribute to violent crime in Baltimore. Baltimore City police solve less than 50% of the homicides in Baltimore. And from the statistics in 2014 it looks like they are going to solve far less than that this year. Also there is a law in Maryland that states that criminals only have to serve half of their sentence before being considered for release. The national average is 75%. And the State's Attorneys' Office is not pursing hate crimes. So what we have are fewer arrests, shorter periods of confinement and fewer convictions. My question is : Are the residents in Baltimore safe and is the legal system doing the job of protecting us ?

[dogpark]

Originally Posted by debold4215

Let me point out some of the other issues that contribute to violent crime in Baltimore. Baltimore City police solve less than 50% of the homicides in Baltimore. And from the statistics in 2014 it looks like they are going to solve far less than that this year. Also there is a law in Maryland that states that criminals only have to serve half of their sentence before being considered for release. The national average is 75%. And the State's Attorneys' Office is not pursing hate crimes. So what we have are fewer arrests, shorter periods of confinement and fewer convictions. My question is : Are the residents in Baltimore safe and is the legal system doing the job of protecting us ?

I bet that if you are willing to look at the details of the unsolved murders, you would find that witnesses are lacking and that this is because there is a culture that will not cooperate wtih police to solve crimes. This has been going on for a long time. On one hand it shows a lack of trust in the police by the community (there are good reasons for this); on the other hand it shows that members of this community are either too intimidated to stand up against crime or don't care enough to. These are crimes that are either drug or poverty related.

The SA here in Baltimore sucks. Jessamy was terrible, Bernstein couldn't live up to his goals, I wonder what Mosby will bring? Baltimroe judges seem very lenient, in an already lenient state. O'Malley's abolition of the death penalty hurts prosecutors by taking away their leverage to get defendants to plead out. The justice system here is not resourced enough to prosecute every case, so a lot has to be plead down or put on stet etc.

Lastly, juries in Baltimore are very distrustful of the police and it is hard to get convictions.

All that said, if you are not poor, not involved in the drug trade and have street smarts (good in any urban setting), Baltimore is no more dangerous that any other American city.

When Fred Bealefield was commissioner in Baltimore, he focused on getting violent repeat offenders off the street. Decriminalization of drugs will go a long way towards freeing up the police from fighting the unwinable War on Drugs and going back to actually policing.

Patrol in Baltimore has been understaffed for years. Patrol car policing enables officers to handle more calls over a broader area, but foot patrol/beat allows them to know their posts much better. But somehow either the funds aren't there or the will is not there at the patrol level to make that happen.

[B.K.]

The City pays lip service only to its residents. As mentioned, those that really need help often don't get what they truly need-what they get are handouts, cheap short term giveaways that look good at election time and keep city government officials in office-what a large portion of the populace is either too ignorant, uncaring or desperate to notice is that this same pattern/program repeats itself endlessly, and they remain mired where they have been: stuck in poverty, ignorance and despair. Doesn't take much insight to see where such situations and mindsets lead.
I don't believe the crime problem in Baltimore is due to a shortage of police-we have one of the highest cops to citizenry ratios in the country. I do believe it has a lot to do with the long-term, ongoing lack of trust of cops by much of the population. Much of that lack of trust may be richly deserved, as my encounters with police almost invariably display that officers' regard for average citizens ranges from disdain at least, to hostility, contempt and hatred at worst. Another reason for lack of trust and cooperation stems from the fact that non-black officers seem over-represented on the BPD. Unfortunately, it seems that fewer blacks than whites actually apply for these jobs, and many of those that do are unable to meet the most basic pre-employment and testing requirements. Another failing of the dreadful Baltimore City Public Schools, perhaps?
Further, as mentioned, the judicial system here does not appear to have any vested interest, or even basic concern, in curtailing crime. Little effort is made to actually find criminals, except in high-profile cases, thus prosecution rates are abysmally low. If the perp is actually brought in, everything is reduced to lesser charges (thus negating mandatory minimums), and plead out. After which very lenient judges dole out very short sentences, and violent criminals are back on the streets quickly.
So what's to be done?
Top Down: We vote our elected officials into office because they are supposed to represent us, our interests, values and concerns. Further, we trust that they know better than we how to get our goals accomplished. If leaders aren't doing this, get rid of them! All of them from Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches.
Bottom Up: What I call the "Baltimore Mindset" must end. We should not encourage and even reward teen pregnancy; births out of wedlock; absentee fathers; the welfare state; the glorification of violence, thuggery, and "pimping"; the virtues of the drug "game"; the under the table "hustles"; the whole attitude that says, "because I feel I'm down I'm entitled to take whatever they won't give me." We cannot continue to support these concepts all in the name of a wholly dysfunctional "culture" shared by a large portion of the "Baltimore Community."

[dogpark]

I bet SRB is feeling uncomfortable that Brown lost the election as she was looking to move up out of being mayor.

BK - I think your Top Down scenario is a lot easier than the Bottom Up scenario. Changing the culture of poverty is very, very hard, especially given the availability of jobs here.

[chariega]

Originally Posted by dogpark

I bet SRB is feeling uncomfortable that Brown lost the election as she was looking to move up out of being mayor.

BK - I think your Top Down scenario is a lot easier than the Bottom Up scenario. Changing the culture of poverty is very, very hard, especially given the availability of jobs here.

Never thought about that. Maybe the gov election will bring some other much needed changes to the city/state.

[BMoreJuice]

We need to clean slate the city office.. Keep Mosby and trash the rest. Its about time the news reported Baltimore in the top five. Article after article had ridiculous cities no one ever heard of being ' more dangerous ' than Baltimore. The more that junk gets published, the less efforts are made to restore Baltimore since we will believe its working.

The cities murder rate is tragic but for us, its really non essential. What is more important to tackle is robberies, burglaries, assaults, ect. This prevents growth in the city.. This is why the county is white and our taxes are insane. Who wants to overpay to live in an area thats unsafe to walk to your car? The other option, pay 4x the value to live in Northern Baltimore.. Which still has the same issues. Read the bulletins of Roland Park, robberies every week.

Im tired that my campus... ON Campus averages two ARMED robberies a week! Not around campus, but literally in the middle. Im tired of certain streets leading to my residence being targets for robberies weekly. Never in my life have i seen this amount of bs and i have traveled in my life.

Although I am intelligent enough that i simply cannot entirely put the blame of government. But i want brand new everything, harsher laws and better treatment in the black community. I been fortunate, but im not going to work hard just to have some 18 year old kid rob me at knife point for some new Jordans.

[UKWildcat1981]

Baltimore has a lot of same issues other cities do like Philly, Chicago, Detroit does not enough affordable housing for low income individuals so they end up turning to crime like sending drugs to make money and drug dealing leads to violent crime like murder.. happens in almost every US city, Baltimore is a little worse than most US Cities with inner city crime but a lot of other cities like Chicago and Detroit have it just as bad

[B.K.]

Originally Posted by dogpark

I bet SRB is feeling uncomfortable that Brown lost the election as she was looking to move up out of being mayor.

BK - I think your Top Down scenario is a lot easier than the Bottom Up scenario. Changing the culture of poverty is very, very hard, especially given the availability of jobs here.

dogpark, I agree. The Bottom Up scenario is a more difficult problem to rectify. Generational poverty and lack of opportunity for employment are persistent problems. However, some of the problem can be addressed by the Top Down scenario.
All economic models take in to account that there will always be a segment of society that will be poor. By improving the quality of leadership, we can help to insure that politicians will create an atmosphere where there is a smaller portion of the population that remains in poverty. The keys are education and attracting, promoting, improving, and even creating an atmosphere that will encourage opportunities to be made available.
That does not sound like the climate in Maryland, even less like that in Baltimore. The city and state have a reputation for being unfriendly towards business, especially to new businesses and those from out of state. Instead of attracting people to our area, the leadership seems to be working against the creation new and private sector businesses, thus denying opportunity to local residents. I get especially angry when I hear people say, "Oh, that new company will mostly be employing white collar workers, and will not be providing many jobs to locals, who may not be skilled in that field." All business requires ancillary businesses to support them. Some of those businesses will provide opportunity for low-skill/entry level workers in a huge variety of fields-food service, security, construction, cleaning, and on and on. Workers who stay in these fields can advance and make a decent living at it. The increase in population increases the tax base (and, hopefully, lowers the tax rate). Any opportunity is better than no opportunity, nothing succeeds like success.
Education will require a lot more work. I really think the Public Schools system in Baltimore is broken beyond repair, as it currently exists. It needs to be dismantled, re-thought, rebuilt, and have its leadership and administration taken over by an outside entity. City schools officials have proven time and again that they are either unwilling, incapable of, or incompetent to run a viable school system.Time and again we hear that while Maryland has some of the best schools in the Country, Baltimore has some of the very worst. And it's certainly not for lack of spending, rather it's for a lack of leadership and oversight. Having turned out decades' worth of functionally illiterate graduates does nothing but close the doors of opportunity, extend poverty, and add further burdens to the taxpayer.

[Sunflowery]

Baltimore needs better politicians. All Rawlings-Blake cares about is impressing tourists.

Also, a lot of Baltimoreans should be required to get checked out mentally.

[choccity]

Originally Posted by Jermaine88

Think about it. Connect the dots.
You know use that "b-more" education.

YOU CAN DO IT.

I am not from 'b-more' where you from? I won't be ignorant to you, I don't need to. My education works for me, what about yours?