Homicide in Baltimore

Baltimore is breaking records. In particular, it is breaking records for homicides. It is leading the nation in per capita homicides. Congratulations to the political leaders of the city for having earned this distinction.

Everyone knows why this is happening. The city followed Obama administration guidelines and blamed white police officers—in truth, not just white officers—for black on black crime. In the past the police were blamed for being too tough. So the police laid back. The result: more homicides. Now the police are being blamed for being too lenient, too hands-off.

The consequences, reported by the New York Post:

Others blame police, accusing them of taking a hands-off approach to fighting crime since six officers were charged in connection with the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, a black man whose fatal spinal cord injury in police custody triggered massive protests that year and the city’s worst riots in decades.

“The conventional wisdom, or widely agreed upon speculation, suggests that the great increase in murders is happening partly because the police have withdrawn from aggressively addressing crime in the city’s many poor, crime-ridden neighborhoods,” said Donald Norris, professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Of course, there are more homicides in Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago… but, on a per capita basis, Baltimore rules.