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Baltimore Residents Blame Record-High Murder Rate On Lower Police Presence

For the third year in a row, Baltimore, Md., has had more than 300 murders, reaching a new record of murders per number of residents in 2017.

Some residents attribute the high murder rate to relaxed police patrols in the city following high-profile cases of police brutality. Officers have backed off in neighborhoods, like the one where Freddie Gray was arrested.

The Rev. Kinji Scott, a pastor in Baltimore who's held positions in local city government, says the opposite needs to happen.

"We wanted the police there," Scott says. "We wanted them engaged in the community. We didn't want them beating the hell out of us, we didn't want that."

He's among activists who are calling for police reform to reduce the violence in Baltimore and several other high-crime cities across the U.S. that he says haven't seen change. That change begins with a conversation between the communities directly involved, Scott says.

"We need the front line police officers and we need the heart of the black community to step to the forefront of this discussion," he says. "And that's when we're going to see a decrease in crime."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

When you think about young people who are out here facing these economic challenges and are homeless and living places that are uncertain, and you're a parent — you're scared. Not just for yourself really, but for your children.

The average age of a homicidal victim in Baltimore City right now is 31 years old. We had a young man who attended one of the prime high schools, [Baltimore Polytechnic Institute], Jonathan Tobash, and he was 19 years old, he was a Morgan State student. And he was killed on his way to the store. That's the state of Baltimore right now.

On whether the community wanted police to back off after the death of Freddie Gray

No. That represented our progressives, our activists, our liberal journalists, our politicians, but it did not represent the overall community. Because we know for a fact that around the time Freddie Gray was killed, we start to see homicides increase. We had five homicides in that neighborhood while we were protesting.

What I wanted to see happen was that people would be able to trust the relationship with our police department so that they would feel more comfortable. We'd have conversations with the police about crime in their neighborhood because they would feel safer. So we wanted the police there. We wanted them engaged in the community. We didn't want them beating the hell out of us, we didn't want that.

On whether the high murder rate is unique to Baltimore

It's not. I lost my brother in St. Louis in 2004; just lost my cousin in Chicago. No it's not unique, and that's the horrible thing.

On whether Ferguson, the killing of Michael Brown, and the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement has brought change

The primary thrust nationwide is what President Obama wanted to do: focus on building relationships with police departments and major cities where there had been a history of conflict. That hasn't happened. We don't see that. I don't know a city — Baltimore for certain — we've not seen any changes in those relationships. What we have seen is that the police has distanced themselves, and the community has distanced themselves even further. So the divide has really intensified, it hasn't decreased.

And of course we want to delineate the whole culture of bad policing that exists — nobody denies that — but as a result of this, we don't see the level of policing we need in our community to keep the crime down in our cities that we are seeing bleed to death.

On whether he's optimistic for 2018

I am not. Because I look at the conclusion of 2017, these same cities — St. Louis, Baltimore, New Orleans and Chicago — these same black cities are still bleeding to death and we're still burying young men in these cities.

I'm a preacher, I want to be hopeful, but not as it stands, no. Not until we really have a real conversation with our front line officers in the heart of our black communities that does not involve our people who are "leaders."

We need the front line police officers and we need the heart of the black community to step to the forefront of this discussion. And that's when we're going to see a decrease in crime.

as soon as you answer my question as to why you blatantly ignored cops planting evidence, then i'll give you a well, thought out response to your article.

Thread title says "residents" but only quotes a known Conservative pastor who has been blaming the liberals in the city for the past 6 months? lol

The claim that police were going around gunning down unarmed black men was not your claim. It was Swish's. I should have done a better job of clarifying that.

You make some good points about policing and profiling and such. I agree that it's hard for people who haven't been harassed to understand how that feels.

There's a trade off between things. The reality is that some neighborhoods have more crime than others, and that's where police attention tends to be focused.

Here's what I've been able to piece together based on a variety of data I've looked at: Many cities (often under pressure from BLM, the Justice Department, the ACLU, etc.) have indeed changed their tactics to a more hands off, less proactive type of policing with far less discretionary stops. All the good stuff we talk about.

And now that more recent crime data has become available, what you notice is that once those changes are made, there is an immediate and significant increase in murders and other violent crime. This is true for Chicago and several other major cities where the local police department was pressured to change its tactics. There were about 300 more murders in Chicago in 2016 than in 2015, for example. Well the changes to that department were made right around the end of 2015/start of 2016... go figure.

and you're still just as tone death as ever.

happy new year. clearly nothing changed.

The problem isn't "proactive policing" whatever nonsense pretense that is. No one is going to trust Baltimore police when the Police Department doesn't even look after their own. If Cops won't serve and protect their own, then who will they protect and serve?

Baltimore officer was killed with his own gun, police say

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/22/us/baltimore-police-officer-shot-with-own-gun/index.html

I've been sitting on that story now for a few months, wondering which #bluelivesmatter poster would talk about this first. Of course, none did. Is it surprising that Chicago and Baltimore, where crime rates are the horrible, have the most police corruption? Not really.

Is it surprising? Not really-- I have to agree to that extent.

The deeper question is whether it's crime and corruption directly affecting each other, or there is some other factor that predisposes an area to both high crime and high levels of corruption.

Like many things in life, the outcome is not based off of a singular event. No matter how much you want it to be.

Hey Swish, good to see you again!

A reasonable question would go something like this: is avoiding the occasional bad encounter with police worth a significant increase in homicides and other violent crimes? It's an honest question, and one that many cities have had to deal with. The "Ferguson Effect" could just as easily be called the "Baltimore Effect", "Chicago Effect", etc.

Chicago has driven blacks south since the 1950's.

This isn't anything new. It's the most segregated metropolitan area in America.

It's long been used as a racial wedge for that reason.

There's no secret that when Trump says "Chicago" he means "black".

Care to post a racial breakdown of crime in Chicago? If that is not possible, how about one map showing demographics of the city and another showing the homicides.

I just think that before you go and make assumptions about what somebody means so you can label them a racist, we should at least get the facts straight. Is that fair?

Why are you trying to get a map and crime stats? Are you trying to point out that racism is a good thing by showing the effects of racism?

There's no secret that when Trump says "Chicago" he means "black".

3. To your point, it can be used by people who have committed the thoughtcrime of noticing that all majority-black areas of significant population have high crime rates.

Crime is tied to poverty and a lack of education, not race.

The correlation between the percentage of black population of an area and violent crime is something absurd like .80-.90 (depending on how things are tracked). It is one of the strongest correlations ever found in the social sciences and quite a bit stronger than the correlation between poverty and crime, education and crime, etc. In fact, the demographics angle is stronger than all of those combined.

If you're going to list moronic reasons, you might as well mention that Trump has a failing property right next to the Loop.

Come on, Haus. You can't be this stupid. I'd expect something like this from 40 or Diam. But not someone who thinks that they are educated. Poor show.

The 'educated' response to this is that it all comes down to poverty, and the typical reason given for this is that there is a fairly strong correlation between poverty rate and crime. However, in doing so, they ignore the significantly stronger correlation between demographics and crime.

The correlation between poverty rate and violent crime is actually pretty weak among non-blacks. There are plenty of poor white, asian, and hispanic majority neighborhoods that have low crime.

I'm sorry you've been lied to about this over the years but all I can do is show you the truth. Whether you follow up on it or reject it out of hand is up to you.

ok. maybe i'm the only one seeing this, but right now you just blatantly implied that blacks are somehow inherently racist for no other reason than ethnicity.