Is Baltimore Really Getting Safer?

Over the past week or so, the city of Baltimore has resembled a war zone with roughly 40 separate shootings taking place. It's quite amazing to me that this kind of thing still goes on in a "civilized" society. We can point the fingers and try to come up with the reasons why, but it doesn't change the fact that people continue to bleed on the streets of Baltimore almost daily.

I find it almost laughable when I see city "leaders" get in front of the TV cameras and attempt to feed us a line  of bullshit about how violent crime is down. During a recent community walk through east Baltimore, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told us that "violence is slowing down and we continue to make progress". She can't possibly be serious. Can she?

Washington DC, once called the "Murder Capital of the US", has reported 40 murders so far this year. By comparison, with roughly the same population, Baltimore's murder total is 117. So, Baltimore has almost three times as many murder victims as the "murder capital of the US". But we're being told that the violence is "slowing down"? And take New York City, which has a population of roughly 8.3 million people. Although NYC's population is over ten times greater than Baltimore's, it's murder rate is only slightly higher at 154. Kind of put things in perspective, doesn't it?

To be fair, Baltimore's "leaders" will sometimes acknowledge that there is indeed a major crime crime. But it's often followed by a bunch of lame excuses or even worse, a political agenda. I've heard some of these folks get up on their soapboxes and tell us that "gun violence" is the problem. Wow, what a f*cking revelation! Of course, this is usually followed up by a call to get guns off the street. And then the politicians will pass sweeping gun control laws to prevent people like you and me from protecting ourselves from that very same gun violence. Of course, the same assholes that pass these laws are often accompanied by their own armed security people. Kind of funny how that works.

I have driven through parts of Baltimore at various times of the day and I can tell you firsthand that is not a safe place. I used to think that the tourist areas, like the Inner Harbor, were off limits to the criminal element. But those places have proven to have their own issues over recent years. I started to walk through the Inner Harbor area after a concert at Pier Six a couple of years ago. I wound up turning around as I approached what looked like a group of young gang members. There is no way this should ever happen in the "bread and butter" district of a major city.

And just last year, a young tourist was robbed and knocked unconscious by a group of young thugs right in front of one of the downtown courthouses near City Hall. As the victim lay on the ground, the group robbed him off his wallet, car keys and i-Pod. If that wasn't bad enough, they further humiliated him by stripping him of his clothes, recording it and then posting the video online. That should really make people want to come to "Charm City", huh? The police commissioner quickly dismissed any allegations of a "hate crime" even though the victim was white and all of the attackers happened to be black. He then went on to candy-coat this brutality by describing it as "drunken, opportunistic criminality". With idiotic comments like that, is there any wonder why crime is out of control in Baltimore?

kw