Want to work for Baltimore PD?

I didn’t think so.

Apparently, no one else does either.

From BaltimoreCBSLocal.com:

Baltimore Police Working To Retain Officers Despite High Crime & Overtime Issues

by Mike Hellgren

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — There’s growing concern over a shortage of police officers in Baltimore City. Despite ramping up recruiting efforts, there’s still big turnover in the department.

For only the second time in the last two decades, Baltimore hits 100 homicides before the end of April.

The murder rate is up 30 percent over last year — a grim milestone. The murder that pushed the city over the  100-mark happened on Lombard Street, one of the busiest intersections downtown.

The number of officers is at its lowest point that it’s been in the past decade, which has become cause for concern.

The city is operating with hundreds of fewer officers than at any point over the past decade.

Considering Baltimore PD, the city itself, its contentious relationship with its mayor and attorney general, this is not a shocking situation with which the police department finds itself.

The department is spending almost $1 million dollars a month just on overtime to keep up.

That’s what immediately occurs when you have insufficient personnel to cover various shifts and assignments. It’s a stopgap measure and usually challenges the budget of the applicable city or county. It’s also a measure that generally irritates the specific county supervisors, city mayors or managers involved.

This is very telling information with a rather insightful statement proffered from a citizen.

It’s noticeable to community activist Ericka Alston-Buck, with Penn-North Kids Safe Zone.

“When I walk up to one of the officers, the first thing I ask is what district are you out of, because 9o percent of the time, they’re not a western district officer,  so everyone is working overtime.”

“There needs to be something attractive about being a police officer here in Baltimore City. I don’t see the attraction,” she says.

Apparently neither do a lot of other people.

Because these days that, above, is the attraction. Translated: not so much. How many Millennials and GenZr’s are interested in that kind of confrontation, with no reaction allowed?

The issue just didn’t emerge this week. BPD began having recruitment issues directly following the Freddie Gray incident.

What to do? I know. Relax standards. Hello, anyone remember Rampart?

A bright spot now for recruitment efforts: Maryland regulators just relaxed standards for marijuana use, making more people eligible to become officers.

Outstanding. More officers laboring under the influence of THC. Good for the manufacturer of Doritos, perhaps.

The beginning salary for a city officer is just under $49,000 plus benefits.

That’s what starting custodians make in California schools. Custodians who have no responsibility to wield power, arrest people or utilize deadly force.

This at a time when Baltimore just hit 100 homicides prior to the end of April, up 30% from last year at the same time. But pay close attention; the issue in Baltimore isn’t about pay necessarily. It’s about applicants. There aren’t enough. They can’t fill the positions they already have, much less attempt to expand the department.

Why would that be?

It stems from a number of factors, to include Black Lives Matter and the “hands up don’t shoot” lie.

The Ferguson Effect is another factor as the label of “overpolicing” has been charged to American departments. The uptick in the shootings of officers is also an issue, not necessarily the consequence of a given call but specifically the ambushing and targeting for assassination of police officers while on duty.

Baltimore is now also operating under a federal consent decree as it has been accused of over policing.

Some in Chicago, for example, are even calling for the entire defunding of the Chicago Police Department.

Following the Freddie Gray death, state attorney general Marilyn Mosby charged seven Baltimore Police officers, five of whom are black. Not one officer has been found guilty, and charges were dropped entirely on three of the officers. Over policing? How about Mosby’s over-charging? A federal judge in January allowed a suit against Mosby for malicious prosecution to proceed.

People are now concluding there are too many marks in the negative column as opposed to the positive column regarding a police officer career in the city of Baltimore.

But it isn’t only Baltimore affected. Police recruiting around the country is down and becoming quite difficult. The attrition rate for police officers (14%) is higher than both nursing (12%) and teaching (13%). Pay, “disqualifying behaviors,” and credit problems are also issues,

This all gets down to riots, this gets down to crime, and this gets down to war. What commonality do rioters, criminals and despots have? They are all predators of opportunity and weakness.

With that in common, what happens when people stage a riot and there is no one to respond? What occurs when there is a crime and there is no one to respond? What happens when there is a war and there is no one to defend the nation?

What happens when you run out of Sheepdogs to defend the Sheep against the wolves?

Ask the citizens of Berkeley on Saturday, April 15th, when Americans were left to fight it out on the streets of the United States as law enforcement officers were either forced to or willingly allowed violence to occur directly in front of their eyes.

What happens then?

BZ

 

Baltimore black-on-black murders since Gray: where are the riots?

Baltimore Black LeadersAnd the hits just keep on coming.

May was a great month for Baltimore, if you’re a dead black male.

34 black males died in May, in the great Demorat-controlled city of Baltimore.  There have been 109 homicides to date in Baltimore.  Easily over 95% of the victims were black.  Most all the suspects were — wait for it.  .  .

Just this past weekend under the tutelage of the Mayor Hyphenate, there were 27 shootings and 8 deaths.  How many were black-on-black?  I’ll give you one silly-willy guess.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Baltimore possesses a great number of “chocolates” as termed by Ray Nagin.

Let’s see: there are 622,000 people in Baltimore.  63% of its population is black.  The Mayor is black, the Police Chief is black, the city council president is black, the council itself is 2/3rds black, 48% of the police force is black, the Police Commissioner is black.  All chocolates.  But here is a very telling paragraph:

“It transcends whether the mayor is black or not,” said Lawrence Brown, a Morgan State University professor and community activist. “Black people view policing as racist, and it doesn’t matter if the mayor is black, the police chief is black or the president is black. There’s a long history of brutal policing in black communities, so people don’t have any expectations.” 

“Black people view policing as racist.”

And that’s a sentence you’ll be hard-pressed to overcome when it sources from people who are too many times criminals.  Note to black criminals: stop committing crimes, if you don’t want to be considered or “labeled” as a criminal.  Pretty damned simple.  Really.

From CBSBaltimore.com:

29 Shootings, 9 Fatal, Over Memorial Day Weekend In Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ)–It’s been a violent  weekend in Baltimore after a surge of shootings–some deadly across the city.

Amy Yensi has more.

Police say 29 people were shot, 9 of them killed over this weekend, adding to the  record-breaking violence.

The shooting didn’t stop on Monday night after a 9-year-old boy and another man were both injured by gun fire in the 2900 block of Arunah Avenue. Police say the child was shot in the leg and another man suffered a graze wound to the head.

35 killings in Baltimore in one month.  May was Baltimore’s deadliest month since 1999.

Of course, Freddie Gray was worth turning an already piece-of-crap Baltimore into an even larger piece-of-crap city, costing the city even more money and putting it in even greater debt.

Baltimore Cop Car Smashed With NarrativeMake no mistake: Demorats have been in charge of Baltimore since 1967, and since the 1968 riots nothing has been done in West Baltimore.  Repeat: nothing since 1968.  For 48 years Demorats have been in charge of Baltimore and apparently nothing much has happened.  The city hasn’t been able to repair itself since the 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. riots.

Despite the fact that it has, to date, received $1.8 BILLION federal dollars.  Where did that money go?

Pat Dollard writes:

Thanks To Black Leaders And Black Criminals, Baltimore Has 27 Shootings And 8 Deaths This Weekend

This is the direct result of black leaders Barack Obama, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Attorney General Mosby,Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Al Sharpton, all declaring war on America’s cops, and lynching 6 Baltimore on phony murder charges.

[Prediction: those cops will be found not guilty, or guilty of much lesser charges. – BZ]

John Nolte writes:

“Poverty has nothing to do with it. This madness and chaos and anarchy is a Democrat-driven culture that starts at the top with a racially-divisive White House heartbreakingly effective at ginning up hate and violence. Where I currently reside here in Watauga County, North Carolina, the poverty level is 31.3%. Median income is only $34,293. In both of those areas we are much worse off than Baltimore, that has a poverty rate of only 23.8% and a median income of $41,385. Despite all that, we don’t riot here in Watauga County. Thankfully, we have not been poisoned by the same left-wing culture that is rotting Baltimore, and so many other cities like it, from the inside out. We get along remarkably well. We are neighbors. We are people who help out one another. We take pride in our community, and are grateful for what we do have. We are far from perfect, but we work out our many differences in civilized ways. Solutions are our goal, not cronyism, narcissistic victimhood, and the blaming of others.”

But here’s the dirty little secret that Demorats don’t want you to know, in concert with their Poverty and Race Pimp abiders like Jackson and Sharpton — who continue to privately profit from race baiting:

It isn’t a “race” problem with Baltimore.  It’s a Demorat problem.

Look at any busted and broken major city in the United States, and I’ll show you a city run by Demorats.  Demorat, liberal, “Progressive,” Socialist policies are historically a failure.  But no one wants to consider anything different.  Throwing more cash at Baltimore is like throwing cash at an African tinpot dictator.  It’ll never get past the government “heads.”  It will never “trickle down.”

That said, as my headline asks: so where are the riots?

Blacks rioted in Baltimore following one black male dying whist in Baltimore PD custody (in which half of the cops indicated were black, with one black female officer).

Yet, blacks continue to kill blacks in Baltimore with offhand impunity.

Where are the riots?

Oh, right.  That’s the wrong narrative.

BZ

 

All 6 Baltimore officers indicted

From WFSB.com:

Baltimore officers indicted for the death of Freddie Gray

by Zach Winslett

(RNN) – All six officers charged for the death of Freddie Gray have been indicted by a grand jury. 

“As our investigation has continued, additional info has been discovered, and, as is often the case, additional charges can be added,” Baltimore State Attorney Marilyn Mosby said.

In the meantime, the Mayor Hyphenate says Baltimore crime is off the charts.

And that hurts her.

Baltimore’s mayor: Spike in crime ‘disheartening’

by Yvonne Wenger

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called the city’s recent spike in violence “disheartening” Thursday as police work to address a dramatic increase in homicides and nonfatal shootings.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” the mayor told reporters at a news conference. “It is disheartening, but I am still resolved to continue to reduce violent crime in our city.”

The city has experienced 100 homicides this year, compared with 71 at this time last year, the police department said. It’s the fastest the city has reached 100 homicides since 2007. Last year, the city reached the mark on July 4. Nonfatal shootings are up more than 70 percent with at least 19 people shot on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I wonder: are Baltimore police hedging their arrest bets?

BZ

 

Baltimore riots focus on Philadelphia

Baltimore Riot Cop Cars Burn

A disenfranchised and aggrieved young black man in Baltimore blah blah blah blah.

Ah, there’s nothing like the smell of a good Leftist city burned to the ground in the morning, well-accomplished by Free Cheese Drones.  Drones who refuse to listen to facts, disregard history, and are spurred on by the American Media Maggots.

Go Maggots!

Burn it up, FCDs.  Make those Leftists pay for their failed ideas and stolen cash.  Stolen cash, you ask?  Of course; between the 1968 MLK riots and now not one serious brick has been replaced in West Baltimore.  Demorats have been in charge since 1967.

Just one logical question:

Where did all of that federal and state money go?  Certainly not towards the rebuilding of Baltimore.

That’s right, the Baltimore with Leftists and Demorats in charge.  Praise be to Gore.  Salaam Alaikum.

48 years later, everything is better, is it not, because Baltimore PD is finally reflective of its surrounding neighborhoods, right?

Just as Ferguson PD was accused of: not being reflective of its chocolate surroundings.  Because, as we all know, if the cops were all chocolate, Michael Brown wouldn’t have been shot, and Trayvon Martin would still be walking in his hoodie.

Oh wait.  Martin was shot by an Hispanic civilian.  And Baltimore PD reflects its community.  What is quite wrong with these pictures?

Apparently something just doesn’t compute.

But here’s what does compute: black Leftists in charge of Leftist bastions like Baltimore refusing to answer logical and pointed questions because they would be placed in a poor light.  Remember the Obama Rule: asking a pointed question is in and of itself racist in nature.

Particularly by the Evil Fox News, who doggedly insists upon having questions answered:

Oh such Evil!  Such Evil Fox News!

So just what does the Mayor Hyphenate say, as Leland Vittert asks:

1. To the police officers who were injured because the Mayor Hyphenate ordered them not to respond to people using force against them?
2. To the officers who were ordered to not wear certain protective gear lest they appear “too militaristic”?
3. To the businesses that were looted, because the Mayor Hyphenate said “it was only property”?
4. Why did the Baltimore cops shield the Mayor Hyphenate but failed — yes, failed — to protect Baltimore businesses?

More news is coming out about Freddie Gray, as well:

At this point, bottom line?

You want to burn Leftist Cities, FCDs?

You go right ahead.

BZ

 

But wait, there’s more:

From the WashingtonPost.com:

Prisoner in van said Freddie Gray was ‘trying to injure himself,’ document says

by Peter Hermann

A prisoner sharing a police transport van with Freddie Gray told investigators that he could hear Gray “banging against the walls” of the vehicle and believed that he “was intentionally trying to injure himself,” according to a police document obtained by The Washington Post.

The prisoner, who is currently in jail, was separated from Gray by a metal partition and could not see him. His statement is contained in an application for a search warrant, which is sealed by the court. The Post was given the document under the condition that the prisoner not be named because the person who provided it feared for the inmate’s safety.

The document, written by a Baltimore police investigator, offers the first glimpse of what might have happened inside the van. It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version, which is just one piece of a much larger probe.

Is this perchance another replay of Ferguson, where persons who told the truth were targeted for violence because it flew in the face of the embraced meme?

BZ

UPDATE:

From WJLA.com:

Law enforcement sources say Freddie Gray suffered head injury in police transport van

by Brad Bell

BALTIMORE, Md. (WJLA) — An investigation into the death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray has found no evidence that his fatal injuries were caused during the videotaped arrest and interaction with police officers, according to multiple law enforcement sources.

The sources spoke to ABC7 News after being briefed on the findings of a police report turned over to prosecutors on Thursday.

Sources said the medical examiner found Gray’s catastrophic injury was caused when he slammed into the back of the police transport van, apparently breaking his neck; a head injury he sustained matches a bolt in the back of the van.

Details surrounding exactly what caused Gray to slam into the back of the van was unclear. The officer driving the van has yet to give a statement to authorities. It’s also unclear whether Gray’s head injury was voluntary or was a result of some other action.