‘The Wire’ Is Finished, but Baltimore Still Bleeds The murder rate in America’s deadliest big city is twice that of increasingly violent Mexico.

Wall Street Journal ^ | February 7, 2020 | Sean Kennedy

[karpov]

...

Although 2019’s murder toll isn’t final yet, the city hit a 25-year high with 348 killings. In 1993, when Baltimore notched its all-time high of 353 killings, Charm City had 130,000 more residents than today.

...

During the 2015 riots, then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told police to stand down and give rioters “space to destroy.” The next year the Obama Justice Department released a report slamming Baltimore police as excessively violent and discriminatory and forced the city to sign a consent decree mandating strict oversight and limits on common police tactics like stop, question and frisk.

While the city has become a killing field, the homicide unit is staffed by only 45 detectives who are actively working cases. Those detectives are expected to solve hundreds of nonmurder cases as well. A 2018 study by the BPD acknowledged homicide cops need to be dedicated exclusively to killings and the number of homicide investigators needs to be doubled. The manpower shortage has created a situation in which arrests are made in less than 35% of murder investigations. The department is dealing with more than 1,500 open homicide cases from the past 10 years. Many of the city’s 711 nonfatal shootings in 2019 will also go unsolved.

...

Even in cases in which police do make an arrest, their hard work often goes to waste. Despite a soaring homicide rate during her tenure, the State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has put fewer killers behind bars annually than her predecessor. Between 2015 and 2018, fewer than 1 in 6 charged murderers in Baltimore earned a prison sentence. Ms. Mosby has lost or dropped 43% of her homicide cases. Most urban prosecutors win 70% of their cases. Worse, Ms. Mosby has allowed 76 convicted killers to accept probation and return to Baltimore’s streets.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Mifume was not a paragon of virtue. As I recall, he had 4-5 kids by different women, possibly none of whom he married. Took a once legit NAACP chapter to the Marxist Left and almost destroyed it.

Sexual harassment charges were lodged against him. Possibly misuse of funds too.

He’s smart. Could have been a contender if he had kept his nose clean and his pecker in his paints, yet the white liberals and black political machine (parts are corrupt as hell) backed him and he became a congressman.

Well, in a Democrat run/ruined city, you get what you paid/vote for, in spades and bodies.

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

There is a very sharp black you g lady running against him she could win!! She is VERY PRETTY young and black men just might vote for her!!!

[HollyB]

Kimberly Klacik?

She’s a Republican. We’re talking Baltimore City.

[Bernard]

Wait: it’s February and they still haven’t finished counting dead people? Sounds like the guys who wrote the Iowa software are doing the counting.

[The FIGHTIN Illini]

Some of my favorite Wire intro quotes:

‘Deserve got nuthin’ to do with it.’
‘World goin’ one way, people another.’
‘Conscience do cost.’
‘Call it a crisis of leadership.’
‘A man must have a code.’
‘Come at the king, you best not miss.’
‘They can chew you up, but they gotta spit you out.’
‘Don’t matter how many times you get burnt, you just keep doin’ the same.’

and

‘Business. Always business.’

What a great show.

McNulty could be a real pig at times but he always saw the big picture.