Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie Gray
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A 31-year-old woman and a young boy were shot in the head Thursday, becoming Baltimore's 37th and 38th homicide victims so far this month, the city's deadliest in 15 years.
The most recent killings claimed the lives of Jennifer Jeffrey and her 7-year-old son, Kester Anthony Browne. They were identified by Jeffrey's sister, Danielle Wilder.
Jeffrey and her son were found dead early Thursday, each from gunshot wounds to the head.
As family members cried and held each other on the quiet, leafy block in Southwest Baltimore where they lived, Wilder said she felt as if "my heart has been ripped out."
Wilder said a neighbor called their other sister early Thursday, concerned that she hadn't heard any noise coming from Jeffrey's house: no footsteps, Wilder said, no voices, and no gunshots. But when her brother let himself into the house to check on the mother and son, he discovered their bodies.
"She was in the living room," Wilder said. "The baby was upstairs, in the bed."
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Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie …
Police investigate a shooting at North Ave and Pennsylvania Avenue on May 18, 2015 in Baltimore, Md. …
Wilder said police told her there were no signs of forced entry, and that whoever killed Jeffrey and Browne were let into the house sometime yesterday. Wilder said Jeffrey also lived with her niece and grand-niece. Wilder said she believed that whoever killed Jeffrey wanted to catch her alone, and that the boy was collateral damage.
Thursday's deaths continue a grisly and dramatic uptick in homicides across Baltimore that has so far claimed the lives of 38 people. Meanwhile, arrests have plunged: Police are booking fewer than half the number of people they pulled off the streets last year.
Arrests were already declining before Freddie Gray died on April 19 of injuries he suffered in police custody, but they dropped sharply thereafter, as his death unleashed protests, riots, the criminal indictment of six officers and a full-on civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that has officers working under close scrutiny.
"I'm afraid to go outside," said Antoinette Perrine, whose brother was shot down three weeks ago on a basketball court near her home in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. Ever since, she has barricaded her door and added metal slabs inside her windows to deflect gunfire.
"It's so bad, people are afraid to let their kids outside," Perrine said. "People wake up with shots through their windows. Police used to sit on every corner, on the top of the block. These days? They're nowhere."
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Freddie Gray dies in police custody in Baltimore
Police stand in formation as a curfew approaches for the second night in a row, Wednesday, April 29, …
West Baltimore residents worry they've been abandoned by the officers they once accused of harassing them, leaving some neighborhoods like the Wild West without a lawman around.
"Before it was over-policing. Now there's no police," said Donnail "Dreads" Lee, 34, who lives in the Gilmor Homes, the public housing complex where Gray, 25, was chased down. "People feel as though they can do things and get away with it. I see people walking with guns almost every single day, because they know the police aren't pulling them up like they used to."
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said his officers "are not holding back," despite encountering dangerous hostility in the Western District.
"Our officers tell me that when officers pull up, they have 30 to 50 people surrounding them at any time," Batts said.
Batts provided more details at a City Council meeting Wednesday night, saying officers now fear getting arrested for making mistakes.
Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie …
Police surround a building as a person walks out with his hands behind his head during a scene of vi …
"What is happening, there is a lot of levels of confusion in the police organization. There are people who have pain, there are people who are hurt, there are people who are frustrated, there are people who are angry," Batts said. "There are people, and they've said this to me, 'If I get out of my car and make a stop for a reasonable suspicion that leads to probable cause but I make a mistake on it, will I be arrested?' They pull up to a scene and another officer has done something that they don't know, it may be illegal, will they be arrested for it? Those are things they are asking."
The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 on Thursday posted a statement from President Gene Ryan on social media saying that the police are "under siege."
"The criminals are taking advantage of the situation in Baltimore since the unrest," Ryan wrote. "(Police) are more afraid of going to jail for doing their jobs properly than they are of getting shot on duty."
Protesters said Gray's death is emblematic of a pattern of police violence and brutality against impoverished African-Americans in Baltimore. In October, Batts and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake invited the Justice Department to participate in a collaborative review of police policies. The fallout from Gray's death prompted the mayor to ramp that up, and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch agreed to a more intensive probe into whether the department employs discriminatory policing, excessive force and unconstitutional searches and arrests.
Baltimore was seeing a slight rise in homicides this year even before Gray's death April 19. But the 38 homicides so far in May is a major spike, after 22 in April, 15 in March, 13 in February and 23 in January.
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Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie …
Madison Street is blocked by police due to a barricade situation on May 20, 2015 in Baltimore, Md. C …
With one weekend still to go, May 2015 is already the deadliest month in 15 years, surpassing the November 1999 total of 36.
Ten of May's homicides happened in the Western District, which has had as many homicides in the first five months of this year as it did all of last year.
Non-fatal shootings are spiking as well — 91 so far in May, 58 of them in the Western District.
The mayor said her office is "examining" the relationship between the homicide spike and the dwindling arrest rate.
Even before Gray's death, police were making between 25 and 28 percent fewer arrests each month than they made in the same month last year. But so far in May, arrests are down roughly 56 percent. Police booked just 1,045 people in the first 19 days of May, an average of 55 a day. In the same time period last year, police arrested 2,396 people, an average of 126 a day.
The most recent killings claimed the lives of Jennifer Jeffrey and her 7-year-old son, Kester Anthony Browne. They were identified by Jeffrey's sister, Danielle Wilder.
Jeffrey and her son were found dead early Thursday, each from gunshot wounds to the head.
As family members cried and held each other on the quiet, leafy block in Southwest Baltimore where they lived, Wilder said she felt as if "my heart has been ripped out."
Wilder said a neighbor called their other sister early Thursday, concerned that she hadn't heard any noise coming from Jeffrey's house: no footsteps, Wilder said, no voices, and no gunshots. But when her brother let himself into the house to check on the mother and son, he discovered their bodies.
"She was in the living room," Wilder said. "The baby was upstairs, in the bed."
View gallery
Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie …
Police investigate a shooting at North Ave and Pennsylvania Avenue on May 18, 2015 in Baltimore, Md. …
Wilder said police told her there were no signs of forced entry, and that whoever killed Jeffrey and Browne were let into the house sometime yesterday. Wilder said Jeffrey also lived with her niece and grand-niece. Wilder said she believed that whoever killed Jeffrey wanted to catch her alone, and that the boy was collateral damage.
Thursday's deaths continue a grisly and dramatic uptick in homicides across Baltimore that has so far claimed the lives of 38 people. Meanwhile, arrests have plunged: Police are booking fewer than half the number of people they pulled off the streets last year.
Arrests were already declining before Freddie Gray died on April 19 of injuries he suffered in police custody, but they dropped sharply thereafter, as his death unleashed protests, riots, the criminal indictment of six officers and a full-on civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that has officers working under close scrutiny.
"I'm afraid to go outside," said Antoinette Perrine, whose brother was shot down three weeks ago on a basketball court near her home in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. Ever since, she has barricaded her door and added metal slabs inside her windows to deflect gunfire.
"It's so bad, people are afraid to let their kids outside," Perrine said. "People wake up with shots through their windows. Police used to sit on every corner, on the top of the block. These days? They're nowhere."
View gallery
Freddie Gray dies in police custody in Baltimore
Police stand in formation as a curfew approaches for the second night in a row, Wednesday, April 29, …
West Baltimore residents worry they've been abandoned by the officers they once accused of harassing them, leaving some neighborhoods like the Wild West without a lawman around.
"Before it was over-policing. Now there's no police," said Donnail "Dreads" Lee, 34, who lives in the Gilmor Homes, the public housing complex where Gray, 25, was chased down. "People feel as though they can do things and get away with it. I see people walking with guns almost every single day, because they know the police aren't pulling them up like they used to."
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said his officers "are not holding back," despite encountering dangerous hostility in the Western District.
"Our officers tell me that when officers pull up, they have 30 to 50 people surrounding them at any time," Batts said.
Batts provided more details at a City Council meeting Wednesday night, saying officers now fear getting arrested for making mistakes.
Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie …
Police surround a building as a person walks out with his hands behind his head during a scene of vi …
"What is happening, there is a lot of levels of confusion in the police organization. There are people who have pain, there are people who are hurt, there are people who are frustrated, there are people who are angry," Batts said. "There are people, and they've said this to me, 'If I get out of my car and make a stop for a reasonable suspicion that leads to probable cause but I make a mistake on it, will I be arrested?' They pull up to a scene and another officer has done something that they don't know, it may be illegal, will they be arrested for it? Those are things they are asking."
The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 on Thursday posted a statement from President Gene Ryan on social media saying that the police are "under siege."
"The criminals are taking advantage of the situation in Baltimore since the unrest," Ryan wrote. "(Police) are more afraid of going to jail for doing their jobs properly than they are of getting shot on duty."
Protesters said Gray's death is emblematic of a pattern of police violence and brutality against impoverished African-Americans in Baltimore. In October, Batts and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake invited the Justice Department to participate in a collaborative review of police policies. The fallout from Gray's death prompted the mayor to ramp that up, and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch agreed to a more intensive probe into whether the department employs discriminatory policing, excessive force and unconstitutional searches and arrests.
Baltimore was seeing a slight rise in homicides this year even before Gray's death April 19. But the 38 homicides so far in May is a major spike, after 22 in April, 15 in March, 13 in February and 23 in January.
View gallery
Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie …
Madison Street is blocked by police due to a barricade situation on May 20, 2015 in Baltimore, Md. C …
With one weekend still to go, May 2015 is already the deadliest month in 15 years, surpassing the November 1999 total of 36.
Ten of May's homicides happened in the Western District, which has had as many homicides in the first five months of this year as it did all of last year.
Non-fatal shootings are spiking as well — 91 so far in May, 58 of them in the Western District.
The mayor said her office is "examining" the relationship between the homicide spike and the dwindling arrest rate.
Even before Gray's death, police were making between 25 and 28 percent fewer arrests each month than they made in the same month last year. But so far in May, arrests are down roughly 56 percent. Police booked just 1,045 people in the first 19 days of May, an average of 55 a day. In the same time period last year, police arrested 2,396 people, an average of 126 a day.
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In fact, police did not make any arrests in the triple digits between April 22 and May 19, except on two occasions: On April 27, when protests gave way to rioting, police arrested 246 people. On May 2, the last day of a city-wide curfew, police booked 140 people.
At a news conference Wednesday, Rawlings-Blake said there are "a lot of reasons why we're having a surge in violence."
"Other cities that have experienced police officers accused or indicted of crimes, there's a lot of distrust and a community breakdown," Rawlings-Blake said. "The result is routinely increased violence."
"It's clear that the relationship between the commissioner and the rank-and-file is strained," she added. "He's working very hard to repair that relationship."
Emergency response specialist Michael Greenberger cautions against directly blaming police. The founder and director of the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security, the spike in homicides is more likely a response to Gray's death and the rioting.
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Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie …
People are seen at the Gilmor Homes housing projects in Baltimore, Maryland May 3, 2015. Baltimore m …
"We went through a period of such intense anger that the murder rate got out of control. I think it's been really hard for the police to keep on top of that," he said.
Lee disagrees. He says rival gang members are taking advantage of the police reticence to settle old scores.
"There was a shooting down the street, and the man was standing in the middle of the street with a gun, just shooting," Lee added. "Usually, you can't walk up and down the street drinking or smoking weed. Now, people are everywhere smoking weed, and police just ride by, look at you, and keep going. There used to be police on every corner. I don't think they'll be back this summer."
Batts acknowledged that "the service we're giving is off-target with the community as a whole" and he promised to pay special attention to the Western District.
Veronica Edmonds, a 26-year-old mother of seven in the Gilmor Homes, said she wishes the police would return, and focus on violent crime rather than minor drug offenses.
"If they focused more on criminals and left the petty stuff alone, the community would have more respect for police officers," she said. -
the problem i have with this...is the police fall back to say ok you need us.....but to need them is to be ok with them killing innocent people..
so they are punishing the community for wanting them to be lawful.
and this is ok in america today -
Police acting like spoiled brats. My question is where are all the so called "good" cops?
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i feel like this is the time for the community to take control and show the cops are not needed ........this is the time to check the fukk ? .
this is when neighborhood watch and 100 black men can take control and regulate.... -
OK, since yall gon force Bmore on a ? this early in the morning wtf...let's keep it real
THEM MURDERS OR THE ORIGINAL RIOTS ON THE FIRST DAY THAT GOT NEWS COVERAGE (CVS burning, kids goin crazy in the streets) AINT HAVE ? TO DO WITH FREDDIE GRAY...
Why ? ain't goin in bus loads out there to rebuild/restructure/reeducate like New Orleans post Katrina???
? only wanna cry foul from a SAFE distance cuz in actuality NOBODY REALLY GIVES A ?
Back to business.. -
@DWO sorry bro I tried..you actually seem like one of the few 'cool' ? out there that's actually ON SOME ? so no hate towards you..
*Proceeds to run thru hell with gasoline draws on..or whatever clever lil death threat you got 4 me LOL -
2stepz_ahead wrote: »i feel like this is the time for the community to take control and show the cops are not needed ........this is the time to check the fukk ? .
this is when neighborhood watch and 100 black men can take control and regulate....
Exactly. You need real leaders and the youth news to abide and learn critical thinking. -
The user and all related content has been deleted.
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When I stated that the ? ? Geraldo was right in that other thread, people were so up in arms. The truth of the matter is that we're killing each other in high numbers and there isn't any outrage. We want these racist ass cops out of our community, and with good reason. But we're ok with Dante and Tyrone terrorizing our neighborhoods with drugs and violence. Smh We enable thugs and gangs by not checking them or calling the cops when we see ? going on. But then want to cry when people get killed. Ass backwards
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Black_Samson wrote: »They sound like the ? hadjis in iraq.
Yall ? live in this community, will rise against the police, POLICE the police but wont organize to run the filth out of your community.
Perpetual victims too afraid to do what it takes to take their streets back.
Exactly. What's happening in Baltimore makes me angry. It seemed that the community was finally driven by collective action to force some positive change.
We all agreed that the Police Department was getting out of hand. Justice was served, in a manner of speaking.
And yet...we're back to the status quo, only this time it's worse than before because that same department is completely demotivated to do anything.
The onus falls entirely on the Baltimorean. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't say FTP, get them out etc..and then contribute to the issues by plunging your communities further into purgatory.
I'm not saying all Baltimoreans are the problem, but to the good people of the city, I ask...Where's the mobilazition and the spirit you showed against the Police to end violence like this?
A 7 year old child will not see a future. Countless others have been affected by senseless tragedies.
Am I to think the Cops weren't the problem? Was the problem the Baltimorean, after all?
If Life is truly worth as much as you protest (in the case of Freddie Gray), all of this has to stop.
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So much for black excellence this ? is shameful.. Cops dont have ? to do with black people hating each other and its worse than the "hadjis" in alot of respects..
? dont see the value in themselves and each other.
I have a self made quote
you can blame them for the conditions but you cant blame them for your actions. -
2stepz_ahead wrote: »the problem i have with this...is the police fall back to say ok you need us.....but to need them is to be ok with them killing innocent people..
so they are punishing the community for wanting them to be lawful.
and this is ok in america today
Bruh, the police arrive after ? goes down, not before hand. If a ? wants to shoot somebody now, no cop is going to miraculously appear and prevent the crime.
This is what I don't understand with this Black Lives Matter ? . It only matters when cops doing the killing or racist whites but when our own doing the ? , no one talking then.
? praised the riots, but need hand outs because local grocers were burnt down.
? took to twitter condemning cops, but ? in the street popping off.
? praised the riots but the cost of the damage is coming right out of the working man's paycheck
Like I said before, there's ? on both sides of the fence. -
2stepz_ahead wrote: »the problem i have with this...is the police fall back to say ok you need us.....but to need them is to be ok with them killing innocent people..
so they are punishing the community for wanting them to be lawful.
and this is ok in america today
Bruh, the police arrive after ? goes down, not before hand. If a ? wants to shoot somebody now, no cop is going to miraculously appear and prevent the crime.
This is what I don't understand with this Black Lives Matter ? . It only matters when cops doing the killing or racist whites but when our own doing the ? , no one talking then.
? praised the riots, but need hand outs because local grocers were burnt down.
? took to twitter condemning cops, but ? in the street popping off.
? praised the riots but the cost of the damage is coming right out of the working man's paycheck
Like I said before, there's ? on both sides of the fence.
true...but the ? on both sides can be stopped by us.
we know the criminals in our community....we know there parents and cousins. they need to be stamped out and family shamed and forced out the hood.
we need to save and protect the good people and fukk those who dont want ? .
then we have no reason for cops to comes an act like everybody act likes those few criminals.
we would ? two birds with one stone and then build -
The ghetto is ? up...that's a fact. Why is the ghetto ? up?
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Because you're in it
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Like I've always said neither protesting or rioting will solve the problems
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The ghetto is ? up...that's a fact. Why is the ghetto ? up?
because people learn to live with excuses for their situation.
the people i know who made it out the hood...their parents never had money but they didnt make excuses why they didnt have money..they didnt make it ok they was living below the poverty line...they did what they had to survive but they never made it like it was ok to live like that.
they put more importance into standing in line for 5 hours at walmart on black friday to get that tv than to wait in line for 2 at a job fair.
man i have so many solutions......but it always comes with me being a ? or not understanding. -
2stepz_ahead wrote: »The ghetto is ? up...that's a fact. Why is the ghetto ? up?
because people learn to live with excuses for their situation.
the people i know who made it out the hood...their parents never had money but they didnt make excuses why they didnt have money..they didnt make it ok they was living below the poverty line...they did what they had to survive but they never made it like it was ok to live like that.
they put more importance into standing in line for 5 hours at walmart on black friday to get that tv than to wait in line for 2 at a job fair.
man i have so many solutions......but it always comes with me being a ? or not understanding.
Before even those solutions it comes in the MIND set.. You can be poor and have value. -
2stepz_ahead wrote: »The ghetto is ? up...that's a fact. Why is the ghetto ? up?
because people learn to live with excuses for their situation.
the people i know who made it out the hood...their parents never had money but they didnt make excuses why they didnt have money..they didnt make it ok they was living below the poverty line...they did what they had to survive but they never made it like it was ok to live like that.
they put more importance into standing in line for 5 hours at walmart on black friday to get that tv than to wait in line for 2 at a job fair.
man i have so many solutions......but it always comes with me being a ? or not understanding.
I wouldn't call you a ? . But uhhhhh...............That was kind of whoa, especially coming from you. But I don't know your background, so I can't say. -
why you say "coming from me"2stepz_ahead wrote: »The ghetto is ? up...that's a fact. Why is the ghetto ? up?
because people learn to live with excuses for their situation.
the people i know who made it out the hood...their parents never had money but they didnt make excuses why they didnt have money..they didnt make it ok they was living below the poverty line...they did what they had to survive but they never made it like it was ok to live like that.
they put more importance into standing in line for 5 hours at walmart on black friday to get that tv than to wait in line for 2 at a job fair.
man i have so many solutions......but it always comes with me being a ? or not understanding.
I wouldn't call you a ? . But uhhhhh...............That was kind of whoa, especially coming from you. But I don't know your background, so I can't say.
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playmaker88 wrote: »2stepz_ahead wrote: »The ghetto is ? up...that's a fact. Why is the ghetto ? up?
because people learn to live with excuses for their situation.
the people i know who made it out the hood...their parents never had money but they didnt make excuses why they didnt have money..they didnt make it ok they was living below the poverty line...they did what they had to survive but they never made it like it was ok to live like that.
they put more importance into standing in line for 5 hours at walmart on black friday to get that tv than to wait in line for 2 at a job fair.
man i have so many solutions......but it always comes with me being a ? or not understanding.
Before even those solutions it comes in the MIND set.. You can be poor and have value.
right....and those people usually make it out...if they are not discouraged from those around them. -
one thing i hate hearing is that .....
people who make it out is the exception and not the rule.
i always want to know why they cant be the rule.
like @playmaker88 says.....the mindset.
why look at yourself as lower because you are in a low cost area?
then you got ? who love jail.....they do whatever they gotta do to be in jail. i call them communist ? .....cause they want someone to give them everything and tell them what to do.. -
2stepz_ahead wrote: »
why you say "coming from me"2stepz_ahead wrote: »The ghetto is ? up...that's a fact. Why is the ghetto ? up?
because people learn to live with excuses for their situation.
the people i know who made it out the hood...their parents never had money but they didnt make excuses why they didnt have money..they didnt make it ok they was living below the poverty line...they did what they had to survive but they never made it like it was ok to live like that.
they put more importance into standing in line for 5 hours at walmart on black friday to get that tv than to wait in line for 2 at a job fair.
man i have so many solutions......but it always comes with me being a ? or not understanding.
I wouldn't call you a ? . But uhhhhh...............That was kind of whoa, especially coming from you. But I don't know your background, so I can't say.
I've read your posts. That was outside of what i'm used to seeing from you. -
2stepz_ahead wrote: »one thing i hate hearing is that .....
people who make it out is the exception and not the rule.
i always want to know why they cant be the rule.
like @playmaker88 says.....the mindset.
why look at yourself as lower because you are in a low cost area?
then you got ? who love jail.....they do whatever they gotta do to be in jail. i call them communist ? .....cause they want someone to give them everything and tell them what to do..
and you dont gotta even be rich to make it.. you just gotta live..LIVE if you see one person make it.. You can too those people who make it reside in some of those same dwellings and just live their life the grind life.. and sadly they get casket quicker than these aimless "terrorist" -
Listen, when society keep telling you you're lower. Everybody isn't hard wired to take that stand and say i'm not. When you see some of the ? these kids see, it's hard to see beyond the projects, i'm not saying it's impossible. and I'd never reinforce that excuse with "those" children, but let's see ? try to win the 100 yard dash with 1 leg cut off, that's pretty much the circumstances these youngins is dealt a lot of the time, then when you settle for what you've been given(low income, lack of education, low paying jobs, lack of finacial literacy), they have a way of instilling that ? it attitude in your children, then once one of the children get out, the pressure to keep it real remains and sometimes you get drug back in. Vicious cycle doesn't even begin to bring it to terms. To be a black man living in poverty, I wouldn't wish that on nobody. There's so much that comes with it. Then you said ? love jail, are you out of your ? mind? Nobody loves jail, it's not for humans, but like I said, there's a certain hopelessness bruh, where you just accept your position in the world. Why ? about it, real ? ain't ? about jail, they take it in stride. You can never show weakness in the jungle.
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