For a second time this year, Baltimore's monthly homicide count has reached historic highs, with 43 homicides for July — the deadliest month since August 1990 — when the city recorded 42 homicides, according to the Baltimore Sun.
According to the New York Post, “Crime experts and residents of Baltimore’s most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.”
What the “crime experts” and Baltimore residents failed to mention, is an extremely short-staffed and demoralized police department that lacks the manpower and resources they need to do the job they are sworn to do; a mayor that ordered her police department to give rioters and looters, “space to destroy” the community those cops and that mayor was sworn to protect, and a failing of leadership that’s not addressing the crime issues which must be addressed.
Mistrust of the police and the generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for blacks are part of the picture. Competition among drug dealers is a part of it, but where are these young people getting these illegal guns?
Where’s the mayor’s plan on reducing the violent crime? Where’s the governor with the resources that Baltimore needs to hire more cops? I’d bet you could find a mountain of money in Maryland’s budget that’s being spent on failed social programs, and other nonsense, that could be better spent on reducing crime.
Where is the White House when it comes to cities like Baltimore, and the others in the FBI’s top 10 most violent cities in America?
After three people were fatally shot on a street corner in Baltimore in July, a man rode around on a bicycle shouting, “We need jobs! We need jobs!"
I’ve got news for him, the community leaders, the mayor, and the governor — there are not going to be any jobs in a community that isn’t safe, and Rudy Giuliani proved that in the 1990s.
No one is going to go to live, work, visit, or go to school in an area where they don’t feel safe. We proved that in New York City in the 1990s, and until Baltimore’s street are safe from violent crime, there will continue to be poverty, failing schools, decreasing property values — and unfortunately the murders will increase.
The national anti-cop rhetoric has turned the police into public enemy No. 1, and that has emboldened the real bad guys. There are 700,000 local and state police officers in this country, and sure, there may be some bad ones that must be dealt with, but we have turned all of them into the enemy.
The Baltimore police aren't responsible for increasing violent crime and murder; the bad guys are. It’s time for our political leadership to put their money where their mouths are, hire the manpower that’s needed to secure their streets, get the cops the resources they need to do their job, and support them for the thankless job they have.
Failure to do so, is going to be responsible for more violent crime, more murders, more poverty, and more sadness.
In 1986, Kerik joined the New York City Police Department where he earned the medal for valor. In 1991 he was transferred to the U.S. Justice Department's New York Drug Enforcement Task Force. In August 2000, Kerik served as police commissioner of New York. He led New York City through the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. After retiring from the NYPD, Kerik accepted a request by the White House to lead Iraq's provisional government's efforts to reconstitute the Iraqi Interior Ministry. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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