The newspaper story began with these words: “An infant child was found next to her dying mother just before dawn Tuesday…”
At least twenty people had been shot in the city over the previous 80 hours. The story went on to recall an especially violent summer with shootings and robberies all over the city.
Citizens of Baltimore may be wondering when officials will consider Plan B in the effort to curb shootings.
A police official said the immediate goal is to “get in front of” the shootings that come with retaliation. Police have been trying to get ahead of these crimes literally for years.
So what is the answer? Do the Baltimore police need more manpower on an emergency basis at least? Are we using “best practices” in Baltimore? What is state of the art deterrence? Is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake in touch with her counterparts in other cities? Does she confer her political ally Governor Martin O’Malley?
What we are doing is not working. The numbers don’t lie.
It is essential to point out, moreover, that this sort of violence would long since have elicited extraordinary responses if the offenses were occurring in the white community. We are acting as if killing the parents of infants is acceptable in other parts of the city.
Surely this is not official policy. Equally certain, the mayor and her police department would consider outside help only in the direst of circumstances.
But it hardly needs pointing out that events like the one on Tuesday is about as dire as it gets.