Baltimore killings soar to a level unseen in 43 years

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.
Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.

With their deaths, this year's homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July's end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July's total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.
The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city's violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8.

"Too many continue to die on our streets," Rawlings-Blake said then. "Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime."

But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.
Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.

But while the city's police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the "clearance rate" is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department's mid-40s average.

Crime experts and residents of Baltimore's most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.

Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused $9 million in property damage in the city.

Perched on a friend's stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew "mostly all" of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an 18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.
"The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they're eating Percocet like candy and they're not thinking about consequences. They have no discipline, they have no respect — they think this is a game. How many can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West side?"

The tally of 42 homicides in May included Gray, who died in April after his neck was broken in police custody. The July tally likewise includes a previous death — a baby whose death in June was ruled a homicide in July.

Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said May's homicide spike was probably related to the stolen prescription drugs, a supply that is likely exhausted by now. But the drug trade is inherently violent, and turf wars tend to prompt retaliatory killings.

"You can't attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a good number" of them are, he said. "You could say it's retaliation from drug trafficking, it's retaliation from gangs moving in from other territories.

Welcome to Barack Obama's America.

and competition among dealers of illegal drugs

Bingo!

They still have a few more hours to break the record for most in a month.

Not surprising, for a community that's
turned into a trash city.

so they rioted, looted the drug stores of 300K pills, sold / consumed the pills.. then started killing each other.

And its the fault of who?

The death of a career criminal in police custody spawned the deaths of several young men and women and set the city of baltimore back probably a decade.

I see that the feds denied the appeal for disaster aid. That means the state is on the hook for the damages.

Thanks.

the death of MANY UNARMED citizens spawned ACTION

that action led to lighter police participation and more crime

it also lead to more accountability of police officers ,, to not just enforce the law , but attempt to KEEP THE PEACE,,


wars rarely comes without casualty,,,may they rest in peace

The action of looting and stealing narcotics is not justified by what happened to Gray.

That had to do with the Mayor and her decision to let people destroy if they wanted to destroy.

These murders have nothing to do with any war that started over any of the deaths. They are a direct result of the inaction taken by police during the riots as ordered by the mayor.

Its odd to see someone ok with teens being murdered as long as it furthers the cause even though the murderers don't give 2 ***** about Gray..

It is bizarre logic to me..

Cop don't want to take any chances, either way they get screwed or sued
There is hope though, maybe the thugs will kill each other off.

no, crime is not justified as a means of protest

no, the mayor didnt say people could destroy if they wanted to

yes, the murders have as much to do with a reaction to a 'career criminals death' as it did with the furor over a long line of unarmed citizens deaths or with the police choice to stop doing their jobs


Im not 'ok' with teens being murdered, any more than I am ok with soldiers being murdered,, but I do understand the reality of what happens when humans begin quibbling over 'territory'(which is what war usually is),

the battle to end slavery involved the INACTION of many , and INACTION lead to more bloodshed than there had to be,, but it still was an ENDS that gave some purpose and context to it,,,

just as police inaction now allows these murders to go on more than there has to be,, but still will have an ends that will give it purpose and context

Slavery?
So the police are damned if they do and damned if they don't?

War...

Stating that anything remotely close to what these thugs did ( and continue to do) as "war" is disrespecting those who actually fought and continue to fight REAL WARS

And if you chose to look at it as war then call it what it is... a black on black war

Because they are murdering their own.. for drugs or profit

damned if they DO continue killing unarmed citizens
and damned if they DONT do their job protecting the citizens,,

yes

Please stop trying to justify stupidity with, "oh, they're black".

Skin colour doesn't excuse criminal behaviour by ANYONE.

I read the following paragraph, several times, and slowly, just to make sure I was right. Taken from the article is this cut and paste. It cites the reasons why the streets are running in blood. Read it yourself, slowly....

"Crime experts and residents of Baltimore's most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot."

1)Mistrust of the police...Hmmmm. Ok. I understand why black men are suspicious of cops. However WHO do you think is going to make the problem go away? Groups of vigilantes? Black Panthers? Nation of Islam bow tie salesmen? The National Guard? Time for people to be collecting some of that Crime Stoppers money snitching out the gang bangers!
2) General 'anger and hopelessness' over lack of opportunities. Yeah because not EVERYONE can work at a burned out CVS, destroyed cheque cashing shop or demolished family owned liquor store. Don't wanna take a 2 hour bus ride to work? How about not burning to the ground places that might actually EMPLOY YOU.
3)Competition among drug dealers? Again see point 1. CALL THE COPS WHEN YOU SEE PEOPLE DEALING DRUGS. Get the thugs off your street. AMAZING HOW THE LACK OF MURDERS tends to make the neighborhood a nicer place to live.

Now, also notice what DIDN'T GET BLAMED.......

1) WHITE PEOPLE...Yeah, there are white cops, but there are a lot of black cops in Baltimore as well. No one called out George Bush, or the KKK, or the 'vast right wing conspiracy'. Is black Baltimore taking ownership for its behavior and not trying to pass the buck?
2) GUNS...Holy crap on a cracker. You have the most violent month in 40+ years, a horrendous number of shootings year to date, and NO ONE thinks to mention the criminal use of guns as a problem????? Why the **** are people ALWAYS screaming about gun control when white people are doing the shooting? Apparently when it's black gun crime, the guns are not even listed as a contributing factor???
3) BLACK POLITICIANS...Yeah. The mayor has played musical chairs with her senior police staff, but I don't see the population blaming her policies, asking where the Obama money is, how come BLACK LEADERS have let the BLACK PEOPLE down?

The media and our "leaders" will blame anything but policy for the failures of our society.

It's not "black or white", it's bad policy controlling our society

Just like cigs may cause cancer, the number of smokers who actually get cancer from smoking is miniscule compared to the number who smoke.

By these stats and logic we may as well blame cars for traffic deaths and men for birth defects. After all, they are both contributing factors in the totals no matter how small a part they play in the rational

11 hours- FoxNews

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/01/baltimore-killings-soar-to-level-unseen-in-43-years/

when did unarmed citizens become 'oh theyre black'

it continues astounding me how those who bring up race in everything are the ones accusing others of playing a race card whenever they can,,,,,,smh

it wasnt about white people, true
its about cops and how black people are perceived by americans,, whatever race or occupation

just so happens because cops hold the power of life and death at their fingertips,,,their perception often leading to deaths,,,,makes it frustrating for those most often deemed 'threats' who can justifiably then be killed,,,