The story on the closure of the Linden Bar continues to bring in e-mails. Here's the latest:

Hello Mr. Hermann,
 
Very nice article. I am surprised you even noticed the two Koreans who were demonstrating in front of City Hall.

I couldn't believe my eyes. It had to been the world's smallest picket line.  
 
It is typical of the Baltimore City Police Department to blame crime problems on businesses.

It's been done for years driving small business owners out of the city.

Yet the members of the Baltimore City Police Department cry that they do not have a tax base for a descent salary.

Closing down a liquor store, a corner carry out, or grocery store will not stop violence or the drug problem, yet the Police Department insist that these stores contribute to the problem.

The police department insinuate that these businesses conspire to sell drugs and help criminals by remaining silent. 
 

The Police Department is very contradictory. On one hand, the Police demand that the shop owners do something about the crimes that go on inside and outside their stores.  The police demand that shop owners report drug activity and help them identify criminals. So in the past the shop owners have installed cameras and some have even armed themselves.  But if the video camera system is of poor quality, the shop owners are called cheap.  When the shop owners use their guns to scare away or catch a criminal, the police respond and lock up the shop owner.  When the shop owners call 911, they are rudely addressed by annoyed patrol officers who do not want to be bothered. 
 
Whenever a store gets robbed or an owner is shot, the police answer to the problem is to tell the shop owners to put up bullet proof glass.

But you have a mayor who will beat her shoes on the desk and criticize the shop owners of alienating the citizens.

It is easier for a police department to get rid of these businesses because then it will be less work and less businesses they have to provide police services to.  But in the end, all you will have accomplished is dwindled the tax base and cause criminals to move into another neighborhood, perhaps a nice one that hasn't been effected by so much crime and violence. 
 
Drug dealers and criminals will simply mix in with an existing crowd at another corner liquor store causing turf battles and more neighborhood complaints.  And then the Police Department will try to shut that liquor store down. This will continue until there are no stores left.  We have a problem of vacant homes, now we will have vacant businesses?
 
Maybe there is no room for small businesses in the grand scheme of things in Baltimore but for now, small businesses provide citizens and yes even the criminals a service.  And by providing a service, these small businesses are keeping the criminal elements in their own neighborhoods where they are more likely to be identified if they were to commit a crime.  But let these criminals expand out to other neighborhoods just to buy beer or cigarettes, then you will have a lot of witnesses who will say, "I've never seen shooter around here before."