Relentless murders make city wonder: how many more?
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Baltimore, Maryland police found the bodies of a 31-year-old woman and a boy judged to be about 8 on Thursday, both with gunshot wounds to the head. The latest double-murder brings the total number of homicides reported during the month of May to 38, the highest monthly total since 1996.
Baltimore Police said they responded to the 100 block of Upmanor Road in the Uplands neighborhood at 8:19 a.m. Thursday for a report of a shooting, according to the Baltimore Sun. There have been 111 homicides reported in the city this year.
Baltimore has suffered a surge in gun violence and a drastic drop in arrests since Freddie Gray died as a result of from injuries he sustained while under police custody, which subsequently inspired city- and nationwide protests along with prompting closer scrutiny in regards to police practices.
The latest homicide statistics arrive amid reports that Baltimore police officers have lost confidence in the city’s chain of command and that they have coordinated a deliberate work slowdown by not talking to community members and showing less initiative, CNN reported. A sharp drop in arrests and increase in murders are allegedly the result of officers refusing to follow their marching orders, according to one Baltimore officer who spoke with the national news agency.
“Before it was over-policing. Now there’s no police,” said Donnail Lee, 34, who lives in the Gilmor Homes, the public housing complex where Gray was arrested. “I haven’t seen the police since the riots,” Lee told Fox News.
Cornell William Brooks — president and CEO of NAACP, which is headquartered in Baltimore — stated the community and police need to work together to reduce the violence.
“There is no excuse, none whatsoever for any kind of slow down or work stoppage,” Brooks said. “The officers have taken an oath, and that oath is not to be abdicated,” he affirmed.