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Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, addressing an alleged slowdown in police activity since six officers were charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, said Wednesday that she had told police to do their jobs. Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday that she has told the Fraternal Order of Police — the police union — that officers need to do their jobs or face internal discipline. "We know there are some officers who we have some concerns about," Rawlings-Blake told reporters at City Hall. "I've been very clear with the FOP that their officers, as long as they plan to cash their paycheck, my...

On June 6, a 16-year-old Baltimore girl named Arnesha Bowers went to a house party in West Baltimore where she met Donay Dixon, 23, and John Childs, 20. Later that night, Dixon and Childs followed Bowers to her northeast Baltimore home. Once there, police allege, the duo kicked in the basement window, sexually assaulted Bowers, strangled her with an extension cord, and then set her and the house on fire. Dixon and Childs — purportedly members of the Bloods street organization — made off with $40, a laptop and an iPad. According to reports, the pair committed the heinous crime...

BALTIMORE – A third suspect is in police custody in connection to the gruesome killing of 16-year-old Arnesha Bowers. He’s just 14-years-old and accused in one of the most vicious murders in Baltimore this year. Raeshawn Rivers was arrested after police say he actively participated in the June 7th murder of 16-year-old Arnesha Bowers at the northeast Baltimore home she shared with her grandmother. Bowers was found tied up and strangled and burned, police say Rivers and another defendant admitted to raping her. New charging documents now reveal the suspects even set her genitals on fire in an apparent effort...

BALTIMORE (Reuters) - Maryland officials are eyeing a $2.9 billion light rail project long in the works for Baltimore as a way of combating the crushing poverty that fueled rioting in the city after the police-custody death of Freddie Gray. Backers say the proposed Red Line light rail project could speed city residents to jobs and help end the isolation of poor neighborhoods, some of which still bear the scars of race riots in the 1960s...

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A war of words plays out between Baltimore’s mayor and the union that represents city police. The union wants to know–did Stephanie Rawlings-Blake order police to stand down during violent riots that injured more than 100 officers. Christie Ileto with the tense exchange. Keeping the peace in Baltimore has been a struggle since April 27–both on the streets and now among city leaders–where a very public dispute is brewing between police brass, the union and the mayor. No one was prepared when tensions boiling exploded at Mondawmin Mall before sweeping the city. “They should have had all...

BALTIMORE—Prosecutors in the Freddie Gray case have asked the judge to take the unusual step of ordering all evidence to be made confidential before the trial of six police officers charged in his death. The request seeks to prevent defense lawyers from making public any discovery material they receive in the run-up to the trial. Discovery material, which legally must be turned over to the defense, includes evidence, witness lists and other information. Prosecutors said they want to avoid what they called unfair pretrial publicity, which they largely blamed on the defense.

Our team arrived the day after Freddie Gray’s funeral—after watching Baltimore on fire the night before. High school kids had clashed with police, and a CVS at the corner of Pennsylvania and North Avenues was looted and burned—an image that would quickly be seared into the national consciousness. By the time we got to that intersection the next day, people were cleaning up the CVS. The mood was one of healing. People were playing music, dancing in the streets, and trying to get back on their feet and grapple with what had happened the night before—and to process an anger...

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus criticized Baltimore's efforts to disconnect water service for unpaid bills in a letter Monday that was focused primarily on utility privatization in Nigeria.. City officials announced in March they were sending shut-off notices to about 25,000 customers who owed a collective $40 million in overdue bills. The move prompted some activists to call for a moratorium on shut-offs in the city...

Baltimore City will not extend riot recovery money to liquor stores that operate outside of zoning regulations, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Monday. More than 380 businesses across Baltimore were damaged by riots and looting at the end of April, including 23 liquor stores that operate in residential areas. The city has banned alcohol sales in residential areas, but many liquor stores have been grandfathered into current zoning rules. If those stores plan to continue to operate as grandfathered liquor stores in their current locations, they will not be able to receive recovery money being made available to other businesses through...

Heather McDonald’s Wall Street Journal op-ed “The New Nationwide Crime Wave” has exploded into the debate over police misconduct and criminal justice reform like a flash-bang grenade. It's been discussed on numerous talk radio and cable news shows, and it's been shared nearly 40,000 times on social media. It’s a story engineered to go viral: It has a terrifying premise (crime everywhere is spiraling out of control!), a topical news hook (it’s all because of protesters!), a partisan bad guy (it’s all liberals’ fault!), and a weapons-grade dose of confirmation bias. But there is no nationwide crime wave. It is...

In the wake of months of unrest and a record month of murders, Baltimore may be a tough sell to potential vacationers as a destination for care-free summer fun. That won't stop hotels, restaurants, attractions and city officials in Charm City, who insist they are up for the challenge. For Baltimore's economy, the stakes are high. About 80,000 local jobs are dependent on the tourism industry, and close to 24 million tourists visited the city and spent $5.15 billion in 2013, a 2.2 percent increase in visitor spending over the year before.

(AP PHOTO AT LINK INCLUDES "MOSBY FOR MAYOR" SIGN!)On the day that Freddie Gray was laid to rest, nine of Baltimore’s senior ministers gathered at New Shiloh Baptist Church to lead his funeral. That evening, they reconvened at New Shiloh and debated how to intervene in a riot. Two clergymen urged that they wade into the fray and ask agitators to stand down. Others were skeptical, unsure they could have much impact, according to three people in the room. They left the room with no agreement. But in the meantime, the church had filled with additional clergy, who had heard...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Rep. Elijah E. Cummings failed to file required paperwork with city and state authorities for a rental unit he has owned in West Baltimore for years.. Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, failed to list the property in the 2000 block of W. Madison Ave. on the state's lead registry. He also did not register the three-story brick rowhouse with the city housing department until this month. Registration is required to help housing inspectors address code violations and ensure that tenants — particularly children — are not exposed to lead....

‘Bloody Sunday’ is a moment forever etched in the history of the civil rights movement in America. What should have been a peaceful march for the rights of blacks to vote without hindrance became a gruesome scene of police brutality on display. Edmund Pettus Bridge - Selma Alabama State police force marchers to turn around at a March 1965 civil rights protest (Photo: Wikimedia) The images of police battering protestors on Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama gave the world a picture of the high price people would pay for human rights. With the widespread popularity of the Oscar-winning film...

BALTIMORE A few Notes on Riots April 29, 2015 Rea L. Ginsberg, LCSW-C, ACSW, BCD **** The moment we cease to hold each other, The moment we break faith with one another, The sea engulfs us and the light goes out. – James Baldwin My town is on fire. Spreading now to Washington D.C., New York City, Minneapolis, Philadelphia. No wonder. This is not just a Baltimore problem. This is a USA problem. This is a worldwide problem. Long ago, I worked in those inflamed communities. I worked there for a year, 1966-67. When Dr. King was murdered in 1968...

Baltimore police arrested fewer people in May than in any month for at least three years, despite a surge in homicides and shootings across the city — triggering safety concerns among residents.. Several neighborhoods saw declines of more than 90 percent from April to May, while arrests in the West Baltimore area where Freddie Gray was arrested dropped by more than half during the same period, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of police data. Citywide, arrests declined 43 percent from April to May. "I've noticed fewer police," said Steve Dixon, program director for the Penn North Recovery Center in...

(PHTO MONTAGE AT LINK) Spokane NAACP ‎@SpokaneNAACP Spokane NAACP President Dolezal meeting up with Marilyn Mosby, who will be attending the #NAACP2015AnnualConvention 1:55 PM - 22 May 2015 Things were going better for Rachel Dolezal, the white NAACP leader who was pretending to be black while apparently faking hate crimes against herself, and Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore State’s Attorney who attended to make her career by wrongly indicting six police officers of different races in the death of drug dealer Freddie Gray. Dolezal was outed as a fraud by her parents. She claimed that lying about being black was fine...

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, addressed race and the criminal justice system during a stop this week in Baltimore. He spoke at a Maryland Republican fundraiser in Baltimore about racial disparities in law enforcement practices. Paul drew criticism last month in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray, who died after being injured while in police custody, and the riots that followed in Baltimore. At the time, Paul did a controversial interview with radio host Laura Ingraham during which he said some factors that influenced the violence were “the breakdown of the family structure, the lack of fathers, the...

Steven Lemmerman, who DJs under the name DJ Lemz, and his partner Stuart Parlier were walking home from a drag show at Baltimore Soundstage last night when they were attacked at the corner of Charles and Fayette streets. "We were having a little fun walking back from the show," Lemmerman said in a phone interview this morning. "I was strutting and dancing in the crosswalk when this guy gunned his engine and tried to hit me. I tapped his hood with my palm and he rushed out of the car and went after Stuart first, which means to me that...

It was just a few weeks ago when Black gangs were being praised by clergy and authorities in Baltimore for doing a better job than police of keeping the peace in the wake of the Freddie Gray riots. Since then the murder rate has skyrocketed as criminals have free rein in Baltimore as police, in response to being demonized by elected officials and the community, have held back from aggressively enforcing the law. Last Sunday morning, two reputed members of the Black gang the Bloods horrifically raped and murdered a sixteen year-old Black girl in the basement of her...