The Baltimore Sun is poring through 7,000 communiques from Baltimore city leadership surrounding the events of the Baltimore riots.
What the emails initially show is an inept structure of municipal leadership ill-prepared to deal with the crisis that surrounded them. In addition, their fear of self-preservation -amid a politically incorrect toxic fire of civil unrest- is evident in their stumbling, incompetent reaction to the chaos.
Everyone is in charge of something, and no-one in charge of everything.
(Via The Baltimore Sun) […] William M. Johnson, the city’s transportation director, called the confusion among city leaders “unacceptable.”
“This issue needs to be corrected unless I am the only person who finds this unacceptable,” he wrote at 3:14 p.m. to various top mayoral aides. “Local news stations are reporting on what is happening, downtown buildings are closing early, and when the City looks to the Administration for leadership and answers, we don’t know or we are the last to provide any guidance due to this protocol.”
[…] Johnson’s email followed a series of communications among city officials, expressing concern that violence would break out on the day of Gray’s funeral.
Drew Vetter, Baltimore police’s government affairs director, sent an email to elected officials at 10:13 p.m. Sunday, saying that some students “intend to ‘walk out’ after first period and/or around 3pm tomorrow and head Downtown. BPD will be closely monitoring the situation and officers will be deployed accordingly. Thank you.”
By the next day, some city officials were already talking about a riot potentially breaking out at Mondawmin Mall.
[…] More than 60 buildings caught fire during the rioting. More than 200 people were arrested during the worst of the rioting and more than 400 buildings were damaged.
[…] “Good morning,” Rawlings-Blake wrote. “I spoke to the general manager of Mondawmin mall yesterday. She says that she has not been contacted by the police department yet to get the videotapes that they have from the parking lot and from various stores of the looters. Now that the dust has settled a little bit I want to make sure that we are working on that this week. Thanks.”
Batts responds, writing, “On it.”
He follows up again, telling Rawlings-Blake and others, “Our next steps [SIC] to identify looters and rock throwers. Tasked Kevin Davis with that yesterday. We are on it Mayor.”
Batts was fired on July 8 and the mayor named Davis as interim police commissioner. (read more)
