Free Republic

(Maryland State Attorney?) As the number of shootings and homicides has surged in Baltimore, some police officers say they feel hesitant on the job under intense public scrutiny and in the wake of criminal charges against six officers in the Freddie Gray case. State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby's decision last week to charge the officers has stoked strong opinions across the country -- including praise from those who want accountability and derision from some legal experts. But perhaps the most jarring effect has been on the Baltimore Police Department. "In 29 years, I've gone through some bad times, but I've...

A Dundalk man continues to recover after being violently beaten by a group of teenagers. Now a 17-year-old is facing attempted murder charges, a 15-year-old is charged with assault and more arrests are expected. Meghan McCorkell has more on the brutal attack. Richard Fletcher is out of the hospital, but he suffered extensive injuries. We want to warn you: some of the video and images you are about to see are very disturbing. Horrifying cell phone video shows a group of teens surrounding 61-year-old Richard Fletcher, kicking and hitting him again and again until he drops to the ground. He...

Iowa Rep. Steve King took President Obama to task Saturday, blaming him for the conditions that caused civil unrest in Baltimore and Ferguson. “President Obama has consistently driven wedges between people. And he perceives a difference on race, maybe on ethnicity, well yes on ethnicity, sexual orientation—wedge after wedge after wedge. I didn’t really imagine they were going to drive a wedge between the law and law-breakers,” King told reporters at the South Carolina Freedom Summit in Greenville. King cited the example of Obama’s “Beer Summit” early in his first term with Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard...

Less than 24 hours after two officers were gunned down in Mississippi, the sheriff of Milwaukee County — a frequent guest on Fox News — blamed the killing on President Barack Obama on Twitter, saying the president “started this war on police.” Earlier Sunday, Sheriff David A. Clarke, noted the shooting that claimed the lives on two officers, 34-year-old Benjamin Deen and 25-year-old Liquori Tate, in Hattiesburg. The sheriff re-tweeted: “Basic traffic stop in Hattiesburg, 2 Police Officers assassinated. The post Ferguson targeting of our Cops continues.”

A suspected Subway sandwich store employee has sparked outrage with tasteless social media posts celebrating Saturday’s killing of two Mississippi cops. “2 police officers was shot in hattiesburg tonight.!” cheered Sierra “C-Babi” Mccurdy, in a message posted overnight. “We can turn this bxtch into Baltimore real quick,” she posted on Facebook. “Police take away innocent people lives everyday now & get away w/ it, fxck them…[no mercy].”

hatever one might have thought about the Maryland Transportation Authority's decision to raise tolls four years ago, no one can say the two-phase proposal wasn't scrutinized from all angles or that the public wasn't given sufficient opportunity to ask questions or make comment. The same can't be said for the agency's decision to roll them back — in some cases below what they were before the last price increase. That secrecy and abrupt decision-making should give Marylanders pause about what's going on at the agency that owns and manages some of the state's most important — and costly — transportation...

The city of Baltimore, Md. has been home to roughly two dozen murders since police arrested Freddie Gray on April 12 for possession of an illegal switchblade. [Snip] Meanwhile, searchable data from The Baltimore Sun shows that 26 homicides have occurred in the city limits of Baltimore during the last 30 days — or since April 9.

As the number of shootings and homicides has surged in Baltimore, some police officers say they feel hesitant on the job under intense public scrutiny and in the wake of criminal charges against six officers in the Freddie Gray case.State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby's decision last week to charge the officers has stoked strong opinions across the country — including praise from those who want accountability and derision from some legal experts. But perhaps the most jarring effect has been on the Baltimore Police Department. "In 29 years, I've gone through some bad times, but I've never seen it this...

First Lady Michelle Obama urged students at Tuskegee University, a historically black university in Alabama, to remain involved in civic life during a time of tension regarding race relations across the country. At the school's commencement address, the First Lady listed scenarios in which African-Americans feel they encounter systemic discrimination, such as "nagging worries that you're going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason." She said those feelings are "real," but disengaging is not an option. "I want to be very clear that those feelings are not an excuse to just throw up our hands and give...

In the summer of 1996 I got off a long flight at Baltimore to begin a PhD at Johns Hopkins University. My roommates-to-be were two Indian students who had rented a car to pick me up were somewhat unfamiliar with the roads. So, having taken a wrong turn off the highway, we found ourselves in West Baltimore, not far from Mondawmin Mall where two weeks ago rioting began in the wake of the custodial death of Freddie Gray. Out of the backseat I saw shabbily dressed people sitting on plastic chairs or on the stoops of their rowhouses. These houses...

Prince released his much-anticipated protest song about “Baltimore” on Saturday — one day before his scheduled “Rally 4 Peace” concert in the troubled city.

Baltimore is awesome! Watch the Orioles! Watch the Ravens! Take a boat tour in the harbor and then dine in one of the fabulous restaurants with a view. Visit the aquarium! You will love Baltimore! Link to revised economic development / Chamber of Commerce video)

A coalition of youth and juvenile justice advocates called on the city school system Thursday to refrain from suspending or expelling teenagers arrested in last week's rioting in Baltimore. In the days after the melee outside Mondawmin Mall, which sparked rioting in other parts of Baltimore, city schools CEO Gregory Thornton said that students who participated in the incidents would face consequences. The Coalition to Reform School Discipline -- which includes the American Civil Liberties Union, Maryland Disability Law Center, Advocates for Children and Youth, and Office of the Public Defender -- issued a joint statement asking the school system...

Baltimore is the latest American city to become a stage for the farce that is our national racial discourse. The swift, politicized indictment of 6 police officers for the death of Freddie Gray––which brought down, for now, the curtain on this performance by abandoning all the canons of procedural justice–– is a fitting end to this sorry spectacle. The winners of this shameful display are obvious, as they always are after these riots. Local thieves, gangsters, and thugs; bourgeois white “anarchists” out on a lark; junior-high posers indulging adult-sanctioned destruction; well-heeled black politicians fanning the flames and leveraging the...

“If we are spending a trillion dollars to rebuild Afghanistan’s schools, we can’t, you know, put a little taste Baltimore’s way. It’s crazy.” –Jon Stewart, “The Daily Show,” April 28, 2015 Using USAID’s ForeignAssistance.gov Web site, one can drill down to individual programs in Afghanistan year after year. For basic education in Afghanistan, the number is about $100 million annually. Adding higher education boosts the spending about $30 million a year. For instance, in 2012 and 2013, the total spent on education in Afghanistan was $128.6 million and $115.1 million, respectively. Now let’s compare that to the federal spending for...

Defense attorneys representing six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray filed a motion Friday to have the case dismissed, or for the city’s top prosecutor to be recused from the case and replaced by a special prosecutor, citing alleged conflict of interest. The attorneys argue in the documents that the officers were victims of an 'overzealous prosecution' by State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who they claim has personal and political motivations in the case. Among the alleged conflicts of interest cited, the motion includes Mosby's marriage to the city councilman who represents the district where Gray died.

I didn't realize this was happening until I ran across it on a search. 70 vintage planes flying over the most restricted airspace in the world. Should be cool. For the first time since 21 Jan 2009, I wish I was in DC.

Freddie Gray family lawyer William Murphy CNN reports that attorneys for the six Baltimore police officers charged by Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby in the death of Freddie Gray have filed a lengthy motion in Baltimore City District Court to have Mosby removed from the case–either by her recusal or by court order.The motion–which I have not yet seen, but hope to soon–purportedly sets out at least five conflicts of interest as the basis for recusal, including: Both Mosby and her husband, a Baltimore City Council member, are positioned for personal financial and political gain from the case.Mosby has existing personal relationships...

In 2011, I was arrested by Baltimore City Police on charges of conspiracy to commit first degree attempted murder. You might be asking yourself, “Why? What did he do?” I took a cell phone video of a small drunken scuffle in a downtown Baltimore parking garage. I was not a participant in the fight, nor was I an instigator. Despite what the facts of the situation presented, a personal family relationship with one of the so-called “victims” took precedence over the law. What started as a typical two-sided misdemeanor became a one-sided fight for freedom. I spent 50 days in...

Ten shootings were reported Thursday across Baltimore, continuing a spate of gun violence that began after riots overtook West Baltimore on April 27. At least two people died.. Just after midnight on Thursday morning, a 24-year-old man walked into an area hospital with a gunshot wound to his foot. The victim told police he was approached by an unknown man who shot him in the 1200 block of E. North Ave. At 8:14 a.m., police were called to the 2800 block of Elgin Ave. in West Baltimore, where officers found a 21-year-old man shot in the shoulder. The victim told...