It’ll be cloudy today with temps reaching the low 80s and storms likely later in the day. Tomorrow won’t make it out of the 70s, with the chance of more rain.
With 5 more murders since Friday, Baltimore just had its deadliest month since 1972, with 43 dead and over 100 more hit in non-fatal shootings. Making the current outbreak even more stark, in the early 1970s, 50% more people lived here.
So far, there have been few arrests or named suspects in the current surge of violence – making it hard to confirm theories of what’s fueling some of it, like an alleged drug turf war after several pharmacies were looted on April 27th.
In fact, arrests are way, way down. In May, Baltimore Police made less than a third of the arrests they made in May 2014.
Ceasefire, as executed elsewhere, is supposed to curb shootings through a ‘carrot and stick’ approach – social workers, clergy and police reach out to those believed to be involved with street crime, offering access to social services (job training, addiction recovery, emergency housing) if they wish to turn away from violence – but also promising swift enforcement of the law if shootings continue. Michael resigned, complaining that the city was trying to do the program cheaply, without adequate budget for social services (ditching the carrot, but keeping the stick).
The program was then left in the temporary care of the director of the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice – who also departed in recent weeks. The city hired a new director for Ceasefire on Tuesday.
A group of police supporters held a “Blue Lives Matter” rally outside of City Hall on Saturday. The protest was peaceful, though there were a couple of heated moments when pro-police demonstrators confronted a smaller group of counter-protesters.
Martin O’Malley made his campaign for president official from atop Federal Hill on Saturday. Here’s the full text + video of the announcement The Onion has a profile of O’Malley, including his plan for the middle class (Put pictures of them on his website).