Is the Inner Harbor safe?
The resounding question after the July 4 violence at the harbor is whether it's safe. Various city officials, politicians, residents and pundits contributed to our coverage today.
At left, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake holds a picture of a potential suspect police are searching for in the fatal stabbing. A 4-year-old boy was also hit by a stray bullet. She's flanked by Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III on the left and Fire Chief James S. Clack. The picture was taken by The Sun's Barbara Haddock Taylor.
Here is a sampling of what they said. We'd love to he hear from you:
"What goes on in these neighborhoods, it's basically hell on earth," said Ed Burns, the former city police officer who, with David Simon, wrote and produced such Baltimore-defining works as "The Corner" and "The Wire."
"We're very happy if it's confined to these neighborhoods because these people aren't us. But we can't expect it to stay in the neigbhorhoods," He said. "I'm all for people going to the harbor and having a good time. But I think people should pay more attention to their society. Consider the harbor [like] a gated community, like where the rich go to hide behind gates. When you put 600 police there, these people are relatively safe. That's a good thing. But to think that we don't pay attention to those people who aren't safe, that's another thing. It's us living in two separate worlds."
More observations:
"I don't even know how you explain that to your kid: You can be walking down a street and a stray bullet hits you," said William H. Cole IV, the Baltimore city councilman whose district includes the Inner Harbor. "The whole thing is just mind-boggling. How do you stop that?"
"Downtown is the fastest-growing neighborhood in the city. People would not be moving in if downtown was unsafe," said Kirby Fowler, president of the Downtown Partnership. "It's incredibly difficult to stop everything from happening when you have tens of thousands of people."
"Our citizens, our visitors deserve better, and [they] will get better," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Tuesday. Of the injured child, she said: "It's a worst nightmare for any parent to have this happen on a day that we expect to celebrate ... that we expect to have good memories. We will find out who did this."
"It was kind of like a moving mob," said Jean Holzhueter, was at the harbor during the fireworks. Although police responded quickly, she said, Holzhueter was afraid she would be pushed into the water by the expanding crowd. "It was just scary how fast it grew."
Nicola Henry, a 21-year-old from Jamaica, is a first-time Baltimore visitor. "I'm disappointed," she said. "Baltimore is a nice place. I guess things like that happen, but it puts a damper on how I view the city."
Mark and Peg Wytrwal of Las Vegas, dressed in matching patriotic T-shirts, said they came to Baltimore to enjoy the history. "It's sad to say, but that's the world we live in today," Mark Wytrwal said of the violence. "We won't let it deter us from enjoying the city, though."
Categories: Confronting crime, Downtown, Top brass
Comments
Of course it's not safe. If you even have to ask the question, part of you already knows the answer. If it were safe, we would not have headline stories about stabbings, shootings, large fights (riots? melees?), and other street crimes that we have over the past few years. I might qualify that to say that it's not safe after dark. During the day, there does not seem to be the same level of problems there, but after the sun goes down and the criminals come out, the trouble begins.
Posted by: Geoff | July 6, 2011 8:27 AM
I do pay attention to my society. That's exactly why I work hard so I don't live in those neighborhoods. That's why I don't choose to smoke crack cocaine and crystal meth.
Burns is right. I am not them. I've been working my whole life not to be them.
Posted by: V | July 6, 2011 9:38 AM
Lets not forget they followed these boys after they lefted to keep the fight going. They was drunk seem like they was looking for trouble. The "black young thugs" was trying to avoid it. I think it was self defense. Did they ever think to fingerprint the bottle?
Posted by: moniqueadams32@yahoo.co | July 8, 2011 9:29 AM
I had a pretty good idea that when my culture attends some kind of festivity we always bring trouble. After watching the news of the females fighting, the stabbing, thee shooting of a kid and not to mention the folks who were being pushed in the the harbor it's a disgrace to me to be African American. Not all of us males are cut throats or murders but most of us have no respect for others or the concept of it. Most dress like with their pants hanging off, clothing smelling soiled, uncut heads, and all the other negativity that goes with it. African American men we need to wake up and stand up. We're number one with all that is negative in the US when it comes to crime, not taking care of our children, not seeking education to better our selves, etc., etc.
Posted by: maximum | July 11, 2011 7:01 PM