The web headline from WJZ-TV is beyond belief. “16 Shot 6 Killed in Weekend Violence” it reads. It goes on to point out that one man was found dead shot in the head on Interstate 95, which is significant I suppose, because it’s within the jurisdiction of the State and not the city. It happened within city limits though, and dead is dead.
Having returned to Maryland 6 years ago and having lived through and covered the gang wars in Los Angeles as a reporter in the 80’s and 90’s, I find the current crime problem in “Charm City” both terrible and fascinating. The question of course is what’s to be done about Baltimore, a city that appears to be broken from top to bottom? A city that can’t seem to find it’s way beyond the lawlessness that rules its streets.
Not only does it have a gang problem, it seems to lack the political will, the leadership, to do anything substantial about it.
It was a different place when I lived there in the early 80’s. William Donald Schaefer was Mayor. He was broadly condemned for having a “shadow government” but at the same time, everything worked. In other words, the city was kept clean. The garbage was picked up on time. Kids weren’t doing “donuts” in their cars in downtown intersections. You didn’t need a scorecard to know how many people had been shot over the weekend.
Schaefer, was known for having a short fuse. He’d get angry and walk out of a news conference if he didn’t like the questions. But “Willie-Don” Schaefer, got things done. In fairness, it needs to be pointed out that this was before the crack cocaine epidemic hit urban America in 1984/85. That said, it was clear to those of us who were around at the time that Mayor Schaefer, wouldn’t put up with any nonsense. Not in his city. For him it was personal.
Los Angeles, had all the same problems Baltimore is currently having and nothing seemed to make a difference until an unpopular Police Chief named Daryl Gates sent his cops out to do a “sweep.” The police knew who the bad guys were, and early one morning the LAPD, armed with warrants, went out and rounded them up and threw them in jail. And guess what? It worked. The shooting didn’t stop completely, but it dropped way off.
The gang sweep had worked but the ACLU went into near convulsions over alleged civil rights violations of the alleged gang members. The gang bangers mothers were on every tv station in town complaining that their dope-pusher kids were being treated unfairly. And so, the ACLU took the City of Los Angeles to court. I can’t remember how many cases there were or if city officials eventually thought the exercise had been worth it. But I do remember that initially, it worked.
Factoid: When the Los Angeles Riots broke out the city’s Mayor, Tom Bradley, and the city’s Police Chief, Daryl Gates, had not spoken to one-another for more than a year. Various sources claimed they hadn’t talked for two years. The AP put it at 13 months. This has nothing to do with Baltimore, except as an example of how dysfunctional a city can become.
“Jacking up” the known bad guys, also worked in Los Angeles. The cops knew who the gang members were and where they’d hang out, so when they saw a group out on the streets the police would slam them up against a wall and see what they were carrying. The results were two-fold as some of them were arrested and others were discouraged from hanging out on the streets. The ACLU went ballistic over that one too, again alleging civil rights violations. Eventually the LAPD had to stop.
Daryl Gates responded to the ACLU’s lawsuits by telling the city’s residents that if they didn’t like the police then the next time they had a problem they should call the ACLU. Gate’s popularity continued to plunge. By the time the L.A. riots broke out, weekly “Gates Must Go!” protests had been going on for months on the lawn in front of police headquarters.
The other day I read that Baltimore’s relatively new Police Commissioner, was doing a “sweep” for gang members. A quick check on Google indicates the city has been taking similar actions, doing “sweeps” as far back at 2013.
Like “The Wire,” there’s another new crime show on tv about Baltimore. This one is titled “We Own This City.” It’s about corruption within the Baltimore Police Department and it gives the city another black eye in the national media. This is happening at a time when some Marylanders, those who live out in the counties surrounding Baltimore, are afraid to drive into the city for an Orioles game. I know they are because they’ve told me so. It has also been reported in the local press. But everyone continues with their daily business, pretending the problem isn’t there as the body count continues to rise. Denial is one way to get through it. Denial, and maybe dodging bullets or just helplessly sitting there while your car is surrounded by “squeegee kids” at downtown intersections demanding payment for messing up your windshield.
Back in L.A. old friends tell me crime is on the rise again. Big time. Some have left the city. Others are talking about leaving. Daryl Gates is long gone. Dead and buried. Which really doesn’t matter. They hated him when he was alive.