By Walter L. Hilliard III
So, unfortunately, Baltimore’s murder rate has spiked at 43 for the month of July, the highest number since 1972 when there were 45 homicides, according to the Baltimore Sun. There have been 187 deaths in the city through July of this year, up from 119 as of this time last July. And according to 32 pharmacies in the city, 300,000 doses of opiates were stolen during the rioting. Some believe these drugs have emboldened addicts, and the perception or reality of a lack of police presence has motivated gangs to flex their muscles with one another.
What’s going on here?
What’s going on is Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is being “hung out to dry” by angry cops and a White power structure — politicians, business owners, and the power elite, you know, the folks with the money who really run all cities, states, and our federal government.
And down Rawlings-Blake will go because the people of Baltimore have mixed feelings about her. She hurt her image with Blacks when she called the protestors and rioters “thugs,” but she may have helped herself when she fired the Black Police Chief Anthony Batts, which she should have done. He was being defiant, always condoning the cops juvenile behavior or “work slow down,” even talking about his issues to the media. So he had to go, but pay attention to what’s going on with him: here is a Black man, a Black police chief, who is indirectly validating the execution of Black men in Baltimore.
Well, good riddance to Batts.
Rawlings-Blake needs to lay down the law to police supervisors and the street cops that they will be held accountable through monitoring (send undercover observers out into the streets to watch the cops) and evaluation — and heads will roll. She’s past the point of no return with the cops; they’re poisoned and believe that they can kill whatever Black person they feel they need to kill.
So the police force in Baltimore is rotten to the core and the bad cops must go; thus, Rawlings-Blake needs to also initiate a huge police hiring effort to build up a pool of cops, whatever that number may be, to let the current police force know that they will be replaced. But she must follow through and start getting rid of people. She probably won’t be reelected unless she shows the people she’s serious, then she has a chance because the White establishment always wants a White leader.
These “powers that be,” as well as Obama’s federal government and the State of Maryland, already know that the poverty and violence problems in Baltimore are caused by a lack of jobs and a poor educational system, but I guarantee you they won’t do much about it. “Black Lives Don’t Matter.”
Lastly, I just want to say that TV shows like The Wire matter and that show has helped worsen a culture of violence and poverty caused by racism. For Hollyweird to create a drama on the backs of poor Black people is genocidal. Many Black people in Baltimore actually take pride in that show — so you know what it’s done to the minds of young kids, the kids who are now drug dealers and gang members.
Black people, we have to wake up and realize that these folks want us dead. So what are we going to do about it?
