One Month Later, How Do People In Baltimore Feel About The Police?

You've probably seen this video circulating around of Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake refusing to answer a question about the drop in arrests, but rise in violence in her city. If you haven't yet – check it out –

But while the mayor is refusing to support the police force in her city, a lot of people in Baltimore are paying the price for the overwhelming anti-police sentiment that engulfed Baltimore in the aftermath of Freddie Gray's death (and State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's antics probably haven't helped things, either).

According to this, people in Baltimore are afraid to leave their homes because of the upswing in violence –

Arrests were already declining before Freddie Gray died on April 19 of injuries he suffered in police custody, but they dropped sharply thereafter, as his death unleashed protests, riots, the criminal indictment of six officers and a full-on civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that has officers working under close scrutiny.

 

“I’m afraid to go outside,” said Antoinette Perrine, whose brother was shot down three weeks ago on a basketball court near her home in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. Ever since, she has barricaded her door and added metal slabs inside her windows to deflect gunfire.

 

“It’s so bad, people are afraid to let their kids outside,” Perrine said. “People wake up with shots through their windows. Police used to sit on every corner, on the top of the block. These days? They’re nowhere.”

 

West Baltimore residents worry they’ve been abandoned by the officers they once accused of harassing them, leaving some neighborhoods like the Wild West without a lawman around.

 

“Before it was over-policing. Now there’s no police,” said Donnail “Dreads” Lee, 34, who lives in the Gilmor Homes, the public housing complex where Gray, 25, was chased down. “People feel as though they can do things and get away with it. I see people walking with guns almost every single day, because they know the police aren’t pulling them up like they used to.”

Pretty rich from a bunch of people who, a month ago, were yelling that the police were nothing but a bunch of dirty rotten thugs who had it out for black people and their communities. 

The police commissioner says that they haven't let up on the police force – not by a long shot. From the article –

But Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said his officers “are not holding back,” despite encountering dangerous hostility in the Western District.

 

“Our officers tell me that when officers pull up, they have 30 to 50 people surrounding them at any time,” Batts said.

 

Batts provided more details at a City Council meeting Wednesday night, saying officers now fear getting arrested for making mistakes.

 

“What is happening, there is a lot of levels of confusion in the police organization. There are people who have pain, there are people who are hurt, there are people who are frustrated, there are people who are angry,” Batts said. “There are people, and they’ve said this to me, `If I get out of my car and make a stop for a reasonable suspicion that leads to probable cause but I make a mistake on it, will I be arrested?’ They pull up to a scene and another officer has done something that they don’t know, it may be illegal, will they be arrested for it? Those are things they are asking.”

So basically, they've got police officers scared of accidentally doing something in the course of doing their jobs that could be construed as illegal and make things worse for law enforcement nationwide, yet there are hundreds of criminals wandering the streets of Baltimore who don't give a crap about if what they're doing it illegal or not. It's not like they're going to face justice for the violence and murder they're committing. And even if they do, just call Marilyn Mosby to bring charges against the police officers who are trying to keep the peace in the streets.

Welcome to liberal bizarro land, everyone! You won't enjoy your stay.