…Police are struggling to stop violence in West Baltimore, where officers have been routinely surrounded by dozens of people, video cameras and hostility while doing basic police work since the death of Freddie Gray, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said Wednesday. (link)…
BALTIMORE – Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called the city’s recent spike in violence “disheartening” Thursday as police work to address a dramatic increase in homicides and nonfatal shootings.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” the mayor told reporters at a news conference. “It is disheartening, but I am still resolved to continue to reduce violent crime in our city.”
Rawlings-Blake said the city’s faced spikes in crimes in the past and police have been able to successfully reverse them. She said she’s “confident” police do so will again.
The city’s had 98 homicides so far this year, which is 42 percent higher than over the same period in 2014. Nonfatal shootings are up more than 70 percent with at least 19 people shot on Tuesday and Wednesday. (link with video)
Police Chief Batts says they’ve lost control of West Baltimore:
Police are struggling to stop violence in West Baltimore, where officers have been routinely surrounded by dozens of people, video cameras and hostility while doing basic police work since the death of Freddie Gray, Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said Wednesday.
The Western District, the site of Gray’s arrest and the epicenter of the protests and rioting that followed his death, has seen the majority of the city’s recent shootings and homicides, which are coming faster than they have in eight years.
[…] “Officers tell me and their supervisors, any time they pull up to respond to a call, they have 30 to 50 people surrounding them,” Batts said. “We have to send in multiple units just to do basic police work, which says we have to work on community engagement.” (read more)
The area where the crime has skyrocketed the most is the district represented by State Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s husband, Nick Mosby.
Go figure:
Hence the urgent call for the White House meeting we discussed yesterday.