Although commonly said a picture is worth a thousand words, the following a one- year time line written in five hundred and thirty-one words paints a vivid picture of Baltimore.  Baltimore, a city, proudly known for its American’s firsts.  First Roman Catholic cathedral (1821). First railroad (1827).  First shot tower (1828).  First dental college (1840).  First Ouija board (1892).  First rubber gloves used in surgery (1894).  Even the first permanent building topped with a revolving restaurant (Holiday Inn, 1964).  BUT!  There’s another first that one hears much less about.  Baltimore was the first U.S. city to pass a residential segregation ordinance (1911) referred to as “Baltimore Apartheid Style.”  Despite the Fair Housing Act of 1968, discrimination is perpetuated even today through an interlocking set of individual actions, institutional practices, and governmental policies. (“American Apartheid” by  Douglas S. Massey and Nancy Denton.)  Segregation is both a consequence and a cause of black poverty.  It does not take a rocket scientist to conclude that poverty can be a breeding ground for violent crime. The dynamics are repetitive throughout major cities all across America.

Time line  August 22, 2016 – August 03, 2017

August 22, 2016, After a high-ranking official in the Baltimore police union with a history of making controversial statements — and getting disciplined for it, I entered the blog https://bookmystorysite.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/baltimore-my-baltimore/  Once again this official landed in hot water after referring to protesters of a Maryland Fraternal Order of Police conference in Baltimore August 14, 2016, as “thugs.” On his official department email account, he further stated: “On the bright side maybe they will stop killing each other while they are protesting us.” A generalized statement that one could conclude that he meant the demonstrators were all black and were all of the criminal persuasion. Of course, they were not, and if I called it a racist statement, there would come push back.

January 12, 2017, The Baltimore Sun reports on Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s consent decree statement. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/doj-report/bal-loretta-lynch-statements-doj-consent-decree-20170112-story.html This prompted “Take 2” of my blog “Baltimore My Baltimore,” seeing the consent decree as a positive step to an ever growing problem.

March 2017, seven Baltimore police officers were indicted for federal racketeering, crimes ranging from filing false overtime claims while recreating at casinos or committing crimes like robbing a driver during a traffic stop.

April 7, 2017, the City of Baltimore and the Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a Consent Decree. https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/925056/download which is a court enforceable agreement to resolve DOJ’s findings that it believed the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) had engaged in a pattern and practice of conduct that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and certain provisions of federal statutory law.

April 8, 2017, I wrote a blog titled “Waving the Proverbial Red Flag,” https://bookmystorydomain.blog/2017/04/08/waving-the-proverbial-red-flag/ trying to start a civil conversation on a not so settle trend, a perfect storm. A prevailing atmosphere which began with the Residential Segregation Ordinances of 1911-1913.

April 17, 2017, CNN reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday that consent decrees between the federal government and local police departments on reforming police activities could lower police morale. Here again, was an individual’s actions/opinion with governmental policies perpetuating hyper-segregation. Adding flint to an already bulging power keg.

August 03, 2017 CNN reports: Baltimore police body camera videos show “multiple officers working together to manufacture evidence,” according to the public defender’s office, the second such instance of alleged misconduct caught on tape in recent weeks.

Trust between the policing authority and the community is now the biggest issue the city of Baltimore faces.  As Baltimore disintegrates due to violence, it is worth looking at how different the city is from its home state of Maryland. The differences are in many cases tremendous, and they point to the meager income, high unemployment, low home ownership and the high percentage of blacks and African Americans living in an apartheid mindsets compared to the state of Maryland. Going back to a fact and not a sociologist theory — poverty is the breeding grown for violent crime.  A no win situation.

Judgmental outsiders must dig deep into their souls while asking themselves: Are all demonstrators against police brutality thugs? Are all policeman void of being corrupt and heartlessly brutal? Finally, what role does the White House play in its continued display of brashness?

Henry Lee Faulkner

“Guidance Against the Odds” ©2016

bookmystory.net/NEWS-OR-REVIEW.html