The Reality of Baltimore

THE riots and political rage in Baltimore over the last few days represent mass denial and projection — even if the police acted wrongly and unjustly in the death of Freddie Gray. That’s because the overwhelming violent risk to black Baltimoreans does not come from the police. It comes from their fellow citizens.
Baltimore, in 2013, had the fifth highest murder rate in America. The victims and the perpetrators were overwhelmingly black, judging from lists of the victims and accused. Here is a list of the 233 homicides from 2014. Look at the high number of black shooting victims. Among them was Michael Mayfield, a 17-year-old member of Edmondson-Westside High’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps who played baseball and was a “youth ambassador” and peer mediator. He was shot in the head while sitting in a car outside his grandmother’s home and the suspect is described as black. The murder is believed to be a case of mistaken identity. The 2014 death tolls also includes Allan Foster, a 56-year-old black retired roofer who helped organize the March of Dimes’ annual Great Chesapeake Bay Swim. From a news report after his death:
Most evenings, the 56-year-old and his wife walked to a neighborhood store to play Keno, which is what they were doing moments before Foster was gunned down Thursday outside his Irvington home in Southwest Baltimore.
Marcia Simpson-Foster, who said her husband didn’t have any trouble with anyone, believes it must have been a case of mistaken identity.






