A Baltimore Welcome
Even the talented screenwriters from "The Wire" could not have scripted the intense welcome I received upon arrival in Baltimore on Sunday evening. Just 15 minutes after stepping off the train at Penn Station I was standing behind the yellow crime scene tape after a shooting on the 400 block of N.Milton Avenue, in the east of the city.
The male victim had been shot in the stomach but survived, receiving only a contact wound. The police officers who responded to the call found the man bleeding in the street but said there was no suspect, motive or weapon.
We were the only reporters at the scene. When we arrived the street was cordoned off and officers were in the process of looking for the gun, searching under car wheel arches and other likely hiding places. But their search was fruitless. And they appeared to know it.
One of the cops joked with another that he would take him and the rest of his team out to dinner at a restaurant of their choosing if they found the weapon that night. There was a catch, though. The detective made it clear that the officer needed to find THE gun used in the shooting, not just A gun.
To outsiders, the shooting would appear to add to Baltimore’s reputation as a city blighted by gun crime. While it would be churlish to deny the city has a problem, I am told that last night’s incident, which took place in the McElderry Park area, was the first in that neighbourhood in more than a month. The last fatal shooting there was back on May 30 when 35-year-old Douglas Winston was murdered.
The lack of recent gunfire in the area could be down to the fact that the police have launched an increased presence in recent weeks. The community also seems to be keen to address the problems. On the corner of the block where Sunday’s shooting took place was a sign which showed the chalk outline of a dead body and the slogan “Enough is Enough”.
Over the coming days I am planning on meeting with various community groups who are attempting to tackle the problem caused by the city’s gangs. It is heartening to know that people are willing to give up their time to try and correct the problem, or at the very least that they care and recognise that it is a problem, but I know that these people are in the minority. Others, sadly, have no such inclinations and I am keen to find out why.
Comments
Welcome to Baltimore! Hope you are here long enough to see some baseball next summer.
Posted by: Pat | November 2, 2009 5:11 PM
Welcome to Baltimore. Forget about baseball, watch football.
Posted by: Kathryn | November 2, 2009 5:35 PM
Yeah, I guess u never seen crime sceen in UK ....We are proud of crime ridden city..it reminds me of Gorky Park, I feel right at home.
Posted by: V Putin | November 2, 2009 6:52 PM
Sir: I welcome you to experience Season 4 of The Wire in my City Schools classroom. I work in an "alternative program" where it is a school of last resort for the dropouts and expelled youth of Baltimore City. Cheers!
Posted by: City Teacher | November 2, 2009 8:23 PM
Baltimore City is a ghetto. Move to Howard County or Montgomery County if you want to save yourself. Everyone in Baltimore is waiting to jack your car and rob your home so stay away from the hood if you can
Posted by: Ray | November 2, 2009 8:25 PM
Interestingly enough, I'm sure you're aware that the "talented creator" of the The Wire is a former Sun reporter who once worked the crime beat much like Justin Fenton.
Posted by: Hafiz | November 2, 2009 9:18 PM
Here's some ideas, few new: enforce the court's warrants with a special police task force, punish violent recidivists with long jail sentences, abolish parole for violent crimes and gun crimes, institute gun buy backs, put teams of beat cops in every neighborhood, hold the police to high ethical standards by funding wellinternal affairs units with separate reporting hierarchies and punishing police corruption.
Don't get caught up in the nonsensical debate about whether minor drug crimes should be ignored. They already are. Spend a day in the city's criminal courts and you will likely see that few resources are being spent locking up harmless pot smokers. That debate might be worth having in the suburbs but in the city the problems are bigger than that.
You want to know why some people have checked out? The problems seem intractable and a culture of vengeance is directed against community members who cooperate with police. Who can blame people for not risking their lives and the lives of their families in service to an apparently hopeless cause?
I'm holding out hope though, we just need fresh ideas, czar like power in a bright justice mind (please no one who is already in the police department or city government) and the seed of some general public momentum. Of course, I am also holding out hope that the Orioles might win the AL East pennant sometime in the next decade, so I'm probably the fool...
Posted by: Fred | November 2, 2009 9:42 PM
For us who grew up in Baltimore and call it home, it seems you have come here more to reinforce the impressions that you have gleaned from watching TV than to practice journalism. The Baltimore Sun really has no need for an ethnocentric Brit essentially writing crime blotter.
The readers of the Sun live and breathe Baltimore, so when an outsider comes in and insinuates that the Baltimore Police department shouldn't carry guns because they shoot more people than the London police, it being that the London police don't carry guns, it is downright frustrating. Our policemen and women put their lives on the line every day. Law enforcement in Baltimore is not a TV show, it is real life. If you are 'keen' to report on murders in this manner, it would be better if you did it in your own city, apparently you are missing a lot of prime-time, exclusive action...
Man Killed in Halloween Hat Row - A man was beaten to death by a gang after he confronted a thief who stole his girlfriend's Halloween hat. - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8338280.stm
Boy killed footballer by mistake - A 14-year-old boy has admitted killing a promising young footballer by accidentally stabbing him in the neck during a row in east London. - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8338089.stm
Diplomatic Row after Rapist Flees - The escape of a rapist being processed for deportation at the Pakistan High Commission has caused a diplomatic row. - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8338808.stm
Matthew, Mark is here primarily to report for his paper and his readers back in the UK. We have asked him to post his thoughts on this blog. -Justin
Posted by: Matthew | November 2, 2009 11:05 PM
I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts. This is a very intriguing exercise you are undertaking.
Posted by: Lee Krempel | November 2, 2009 11:24 PM
Welcome to Baltimore, hon.
Posted by: Paul | November 3, 2009 5:42 AM