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1 - Common Sense
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Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
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BALTIMORE (AP) — Antoinette Perrine has barricaded her front door since her brother was killed three weeks ago on a basketball court near her home in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore.She already has iron bars outside her windows and added metal slabs on the inside to deflect the gunfire.“I’m afraid to go outside,” said Perrine, 47. “It’s so bad, people are afraid to let their kids outside. People wake up with shots through their windows.
Police used to sit on every corner, on the top of the block. These days? They’re nowhere.”
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said last week his officers “are not holding back” from policing tough neighborhoods, but they are encountering dangerous hostility in the Western District.
“Our officers tell me that when officers pull up, they have 30 to 50 people surrounding them at any time,” Batts said.
At a City Council meeting Wednesday, Batts said officers have expressed concern they could be arrested for making mistakes.“What is happening, there is a lot of levels of confusion in the police organization. There are people who have pain, there are people who are hurt, there are people who are frustrated, there are people who are angry,” Batts said. “There are people, and they’ve said this to me, `If I get out of my car and make a stop for a reasonable suspicion that leads to probable cause but I make a mistake on it, will I be arrested?’ They pull up to a scene and another officer has done something that they don’t know, it may be illegal, will they be arrested for it? Those are things they are asking.”
Last edited by Common Sense (5/28/2015 9:05 am)
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” former vice president Biden said during a campaign event in Texas on Monday. "All men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.”
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
Common Sense wrote:
At a City Council meeting Wednesday, Batts said officers have expressed concern they could be arrested for making mistakes.”
So, breaking a petty criminal's neck during a routine transport is a "mistake"?
That's inventive.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
So, the increase in murders in Baltimore is the fault of people who want accountability in the Freddie Gray death.
That about it?
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- The Man
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
So, the increase in murders in Baltimore is the fault of people who want accountability in the Freddie Gray death.
That about it?
We don't know how or why Freddie Gray was killed yet. We know he suffered a broken neck, but no one knows the circumstances, except for the people in the vehicle with him. I'm letting that case play out until I can even formulate an opinion on it. I will say that I give the benefit of the doubt to the police in that situation over a guy with a rap sheet the size of a phone book. Going in, it certainly doesn't look good for them though.
That said, I don't think the murders in Baltimore are the fault of people seeking justice. The murder rate in Baltimore has always been high, it's just that no one cares about people killing people in Baltimore, they only care if a cop kills a black person in Baltimore. The cop will have hell to pay whether he is justified in the killing or not. People riot over police killing a black person in a city like Baltimore, whether the police killing that person was the right thing to do or not, they don't wait for the facts before they riot and the media killing them in public. I think that definitely has an impact on police not wanting to have a presence in neighborhoods like that. I could be wrong, but I know if I was a cop, I would stay away as much as I could.
Last edited by The Man (5/28/2015 5:09 pm)
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
I aggree with you. However, some people seem to be connecting the dots in a narrative that suggests that crime in Baltimore is increasing because the police have been paralyzed by some great injustice. And I just can't go there.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- tennyson
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
So, the increase in murders in Baltimore is the fault of people who want accountability in the Freddie Gray death.
That about it?
We don't know how or why Freddie Gray was killed yet. We know he suffered a broken neck, but no one knows the circumstances, except for the people in the vehicle with him. I'm letting that case play out until I can even formulate an opinion on it. I will say that I give the benefit of the doubt to the police in that situation over a guy with a rap sheet the size of a phone book. Going in, it certainly doesn't look good for them though.
That said, I don't think the murders in Baltimore are the fault of people seeking justice. The murder rate in Baltimore has always been high, it's just that no one cares about people killing people in Baltimore, they only care if a cop kills a black person in Baltimore. The cop will have hell to pay whether he is justified in the killing or not. People riot over police killing a black person in a city like Baltimore, whether the police killing that person was the right thing to do or not, they don't wait for the facts before they riot and the media killing them in public. I think that definitely has an impact on police not wanting to have a presence in neighborhoods like that. I could be wrong, but I know if I was a cop, I would stay away as much as I could.
I agree with most of what you have said. I DO believe that people care, but NOT enough care the same way. They need to show the same indignity to what is happening right in their own neighborhood(s). Get the good people out in the streets and take the same stance as we saw against what they saw as an injustice with Freddie.
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
I see police departments all over the country being found to have enormous problem with their treatment of minorities. I don't think that enough people care about that.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- Marinero
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
In my opinion that is a gross and unfounded overstatement. The problem is the press piranhas who hold a feeding frenzy over a justified shooting like Michael Brown while ignoring the rampant crime in the communities.
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
In my opinion that is a gross and unfounded overstatement. The problem is the press piranhas who hold a feeding frenzy over a justified shooting like Michael Brown while ignoring the rampant crime in the communities.
Actually, there have been quite recent, very damning, reports coming out of investigations about the activities of some police in Chicago, Cleveland, NY, and Ferguson, just to name a few. And of course there is the debacle in Baltimore,,,,
The press is always a popular target. But, to say that it's a creation of the press is contradicted by the facts at hand.
We live in a time in which decent and otherwise sensible people are surrendering too easily to the hectoring of morons or extremists.
- tennyson
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Re: Baltimore Residents Fearful Amid Rash Of Homicides
I certainly do not have a problem with crackdowns on police where it is justified.
I DO however have a problem with a community and organizers that appear to care more about one type of violence and killings than another.
We will all have to wait and see what comes out of the investigation into the death of Freddie Gray. I hold no preconceived judgement one way or another, but hope the evidence will clearly show what happened. I will say, however, that given the video evidence that surfaced thus far that it appeared that the police involved with Mr Gray actually seemed to be in all instances handling him as well as would be expected when someone is being put under arrest. What is the most serious charge is that no one offered to get any medical opionon/assistance. Given how he was handled, I can see why officers in seeing the same thing are hesitant to get involved which is really sad that they might feel a need to hold back. It is rather sad all around IMHO.
"Do not confuse motion and progress, A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress"