The East Baltimore block where five people were shot and one killed last weekend doesn’t look that much different from many in the city; row home after row home, a few people sitting on the steps, a few trees and a random vacant home. It sits at the busy intersection of North Kenwood and East Monument Streets, not far from Johns Hopkins Hospital, not that far from Patterson Park.
“This is an area that is not foreign to violent crime,” says Keith Matthews, commander of the city police Eastern District.
In 2012, there were six homicides in this zip code, 21205. And this year, Matthews says, the trends were heading downward.
There had been one homicide this year before the weekend. Police have not made any arrests in this case but believe the shooting was the result of a personal dispute. Neighbors say they heard fighting between women in the neighborhood Friday night
The problems that ripple through this neighborhood are common to many of Baltimore’s neighborhoods, neighbors say.
Gregory Steward, 51, says what he sees every day in his part of the city is tragic.
“The root cause is these people have nothing to look forward to. You wake up in the morning and you think you’re gonna lose as soon as you get up. Some people say, ‘So what?’.” Steward says it’s the lack of jobs that keep so many in his neighborhood idle and open to whatever opportunities cross their path.
Nependa Fisher, 24, says the neighborhood has never been safe.
“I just stay to myself and try to stay out of trouble and keep my son doing stuff and occupied away from here as much as I can. This ain’t no environment to bring your kid up in”. She says she keeps her son inside all the time and is taking him to Richmond to stay with relatives for the summer.
And she criticizes the police who patrol her neighborhood. Now that they need information about the crime, they’re asking for help
“These police don’t do nothing. They sit in their car. They mess with people. Instead of using their badge to pull rank, they should talk to people. Maybe then people would start opening up to them,” she says.
Some folks in the neighborhood said there has to be a tragedy for the police to step in. And others say the neighborhood drug slingers aren’t afraid of the police.
Vernon MacDonald, 86, has lived there for seventeen years. His wife is a member of the community organization and he’s a deacon at a Baptist church. “I sit right here and watch the police on that corner and the dope man on that corner. “You got your corner, I got mine””, he says as he sits on his stoop.
The recent shooting, like the slingers, is a symptom of bigger problems.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, reached by phone at the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s meetings in Las Vegas, said she needs the community to help.
“I’ve made it very clear that the only way we’re going to get to a significantly safer city is in partnership with the community,” she says.
But for people in this neighborhood, they’ve heard about partnerships before – and they’re still waiting for the jobs to come and the guns to go.