Baltimore City Policing. Should We Laugh or Should We Cry? (neighborhoods, to buy)

[B.H81]

The state of affairs in Baltimore is quite sad. citizens really need to take the rampant corruption in the city seriously. Residents are paying high taxes and receiving nothing in return. The schools are pumping out illiterate, unskilled, and unsocialized children. The upper class looks the other way because their kids go to Gilman and Bryn Mawr, and believe they are unaffected. Their concern is staying safe in their little city pockets. Politicians cater to these people and promise to be "tough on crime", which really means pressuring police to have high arrest statistics to make it look like they are doing something. If in the mean time hordes of innocent poor people (of all colors) are beaten, intimidated, and arrested in the process no one cares. If innocent people without the means to move are trapped in neighborhoods that are terrorized by violent criminals, no one cares.

The city needs to take a serious look in the mirror and repent. We are one sick community. To get ourselves out of this we are going to have to love our neighbor. We are going to have to stop tolerating the rights of the poor being violated. We are also going to have to professionalize our police force, so that officers have the skills and support necessary to legitimately fight crime. There are many good officers trapped in a nightmare where they are pressured to look the other way while citizens are being violated.

Enough is enough, it's time for us to get civilized and become a better Baltimore. There is not much time left to get it together. Decades of allowing these problems to fester are now about to explode in everyone's face.

[B.H81]

great article on the drug war for anyone interested http://m.charlestoncitypaper.com/cha...nt?oid=4097562

[LSone]

Originally Posted by dogpark

Keep in mind that that we cannot arrest our way out of social problems - drug addiction, poverty, broken homes. The US already incarcerates more than any other country - how's that working for us?

Well cops are complaining that the criminals are being let out way too early, like a "revolving door". Don't compare us to other countries, we have more diversities and more violent crimes as compared to RICH European and Asian countries. While crap countries in S. America, Middle East, Asia, Africa, etc... they facking torture and kill people in prison and post that **** on YouTube. So yeah, people in dirt poor countries don't dare mess with the PoPo there. Even in Japan....Chuck Zito said that he'd never want to do jailtime in Japan, ever again. And he was a Hell's Angel member who found that doing years in American prison, enjoyable, compared to a few months in a Japanese one.

Frankly, I'd end the War on Drugs - its a failure, even many cops think so - just look at their group LEAP. The best recent success in Baltimore crime reduction was Bealefield under Dixon focusing on violent repeat offenders.

Crack can cause INSTANT ADDICTION...from just ONE use. How the hell can this be good to legalize it? But there are plenty of drugs, drug dealers and addicts in Bmore right now. And cops, before the Riot, couldn't do much about it when they were trying...but now, the cops are mostly hands-off and letting the good citizens of Bmore police themselves. This is pretty close to what you want, isn't it?

[LSone]

Originally Posted by Hamish Forbes

I agree. Ending this nonsense would help places like Baltimore City greatly, at least in the long run.

It's kind of like that right now.....Cops aren't really hassling the drug dealers, so basically the war on drugs in Bmore is pretty nonexistent. The Good Citizens of Bmore just needs to dodge a few bullets here and then whenever the Homies are sorting out their territorial differences.

[bmoregrimey]

Originally Posted by LSone

It's kind of like that right now.....Cops aren't really hassling the drug dealers, so basically the war on drugs in Bmore is pretty nonexistent. The Good Citizens of Bmore just needs to dodge a few bullets here and then whenever the Homies are sorting out their territorial differences.

The war on drugs should also coincide with legalization this will end employment for many of the drug dealers. The mayor recently stated she wanted to institute 24 hr drug treatment centers....she is very late to the game and this idea was suggested many yrs ago when univ of md was handing out clean needles. Yes legalization and drug treatment should go hand in hand to try to curb the death spiral that is drugs for the community's sake. Of course there is the real structural problem of jobs and there are simple not enough jobs to go around. There are not enough jobs to employee all the people in the drug game or behind bars...does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve the jobs problem. Thats thousands of people and i gurantee there arent thousands of jobs available in this city no matter the skill level.

[LSone]

Originally Posted by bmoregrimey

The war on drugs should also coincide with legalization this will end employment for many of the drug dealers.

Yes legalization and drug treatment should go hand in hand to try to curb the death spiral that is drugs for the community's sake.

I've never taken any drugs before, not even smoked pot. But I heard that crack can cause instant addiction with just ONE use....and heroin injected is much, much worse. I know that most drugs causes your brain to release dopamine and you feel instant euphoria. This sounds pretty damn great. Who would not want to try it out, should it all become legal. Small time millionaires have lost everything and turned homeless due to their crack addiction. You'd think that they're smart enough to go to rehab after the first $100,000 cash, blown. Hell, you're going to create so many more addicts and it takes a hell of a long time, money & effort to rehab them, especially after they keep relapsing.....over and over. And this former millionaire was someone who did well for himself once, through hard work...imagine some bozo who's on welfare and lives in destitute all his life.

So basically, after most to all of the drug dealers loses their jobs, this would give them more incentives to get high everyday and commit more crimes in order to support their habit. Unless you think that they can somehow get their act together and somehow make it college or something. Most don't even know that it's "you are" and not "you is".

[Hamish Forbes]

The story of original sin and the forbidden fruit . . .

[dogpark]

Originally Posted by LSone

I've never taken any drugs before, not even smoked pot. But I heard that crack can cause instant addiction with just ONE use....and heroin injected is much, much worse. I know that most drugs causes your brain to release dopamine and you feel instant euphoria. This sounds pretty damn great. Who would not want to try it out, should it all become legal. Small time millionaires have lost everything and turned homeless due to their crack addiction. You'd think that they're smart enough to go to rehab after the first $100,000 cash, blown. Hell, you're going to create so many more addicts and it takes a hell of a long time, money & effort to rehab them, especially after they keep relapsing.....over and over. And this former millionaire was someone who did well for himself once, through hard work...imagine some bozo who's on welfare and lives in destitute all his life.

So basically, after most to all of the drug dealers loses their jobs, this would give them more incentives to get high everyday and commit more crimes in order to support their habit. Unless you think that they can somehow get their act together and somehow make it college or something. Most don't even know that it's "you are" and not "you is".

Personally I don't want anyone to use harmful drugs; that said its proven that prohibition does not work. Addiction should be treated as a health issue. Ending prohibition takes the violent crime out of it. Then we need to figure out some way to employ people because they have to have something to do or crime will proliferate anyway. Basically there needs to be a way to help desperate people (for the cynic in you - if only to minimize their negative impact on the non-desperate). In some ways, whether we like or choose it or not, we are our brothers' keeper. This is not a liberal or conservative or a christian or insert religion here thing - its a human thing, ya dig?

[dogpark]

Originally Posted by bmoregrimey

The war on drugs should also coincide with legalization this will end employment for many of the drug dealers. The mayor recently stated she wanted to institute 24 hr drug treatment centers....she is very late to the game and this idea was suggested many yrs ago when univ of md was handing out clean needles. Yes legalization and drug treatment should go hand in hand to try to curb the death spiral that is drugs for the community's sake. Of course there is the real structural problem of jobs and there are simple not enough jobs to go around. There are not enough jobs to employee all the people in the drug game or behind bars...does anyone have any suggestions on how to solve the jobs problem. Thats thousands of people and i gurantee there arent thousands of jobs available in this city no matter the skill level.

SRB is late to every game; Schmoke was on this in the 1990s - Harm Reduction.

I wish the feds would stop fighting decriminalization/legalization. We should be helping people, not hurting them - the War on Drugs hurts them. We lock them up over drugs, but don't offer much in the form mental health care or job training, both things that would impact the addiction rates and violence rates too.

What kind of world do we want to live in?

[LSone]

Originally Posted by dogpark

Personally I don't want anyone to use harmful drugs; that said its proven that prohibition does not work.

It doesn't work PERFECTLY, but it works. Prohibitions is the best we have. Heroin is not the same as alcohol. It's rare to be instantly addicted to booze with just ONE try. You will create a tidal wave of new addicts who will rob and kill for money to support their habit...also, many productive people will become addicts and lose everything.

Addiction should be treated as a health issue. Ending prohibition takes the violent crime out of it.

No it wouldn't. It would just create more addicts to commit more crime, despite drugs being much cheaper. There still exist illegal pot sales in states that has legalized it as it's still easier for druggies to buy illegally. You will create more health problems by the exponential increase in addicts. And it takes a hell of a lot longer and more resources spent, to rehab an addict, compared to creating one with just ONE try of heroine or crack.

Then we need to figure out some way to employ people because they have to have something to do or crime will proliferate anyway.

You can't just magically create jobs when there's no demand. You want to be like Obama and probably Bmore.....who spend $250,000 in Taxpayer's money to create some dumb, govt' job that pays $50,000 and then brags about it?

And what can former drug addicts, drug dealers, and assassins do? Maybe the Druglords have skills and smarts, but the rest are dumb as rocks. They ain't going to community college and get a degree in Accounting.

Basically there needs to be a way to help desperate people (for the cynic in you - if only to minimize their negative impact on the non-desperate). In some ways, whether we like or choose it or not, we are our brothers' keeper. This is not a liberal or conservative or a christian or insert religion here thing - its a human thing, ya dig?

And it's just a BS fantasy. The drug trade is apart of Bmore's economy. Without illegal drugs, no crazy Koreans nor Arabs would risk their lives to set up some sh.t grocery store there to make under-the-table cash money. It will really turn into Mad Max III there. If you want to help them, then bring in WHITE people to fix Bmore. This is just the damn truth right there, and I'm not even White....not even a little. Corruption and incompetence is much worse than just corruption alone.