Monday, May 10, 2010

Baltimore Murders - Sixty and Counting




As of May 10, sixty people have been murdered in Baltimore. If this pace were to continue, at the end of the year there would be much celebration as at the current rate there would be 167 homicides, but this is only May, the long hot summer is still approaching.
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n April 23, a 49 year old homeless man was found beaten to unconscious at 1000 W. Lexington Street. David Allen Beers was pronounced dead on Wednesday, May 5. Beers had a long record of criminal charges, burglaries and drug charges. What makes his death significant was he was the first white murder victim of 2010. On that same date another blunt force trauma victim, also white, was found in South Baltimore, the address 3733 S. Hanover Street. The victim has yet to be identified.
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On May 3rd in the block of 1500 W. Fayette Street, an indentified shooting victim was found. No identity has been released.
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On April 17, a two year old African American girl, Melonie Hamber of 2000 E. Hoffman Streete was beaten to death by her father.
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The numbers stack up that so far 56 African American males have been murdered in Baltimore. One victim was killed by her African American father. There's one murder that hasn't been identified. All but nine of the murders were shootings. There were six stabbings and three beatings.
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In the Baltimore region, if you live in Baltimore City and are a black male, murder is a fact of life. If you're anyone else or live outside of the city, you're probably not going to be killed.
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Thousands gathered to mourn the death of Yeardley Love, a beautiful 22 year old Cockeysville resident, graduate from Notre Dame Prep, and soon to graduate senior at the University of Virginia. She was savagely beated by her former boyfriend, likewise a UVA senior, a young man from a family of wealth and privilege. The entire Mid-Atlantic cries for Yeardley's death.
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Beautiful white girls don't get murdered. When they do it is BIG news. If we believe every human life is of value, while Ms. Love's death shocks us for its brutality and how unthinkable it is. Sadly, there's one difference besides the obvious for the 56 black males murdered in Baltimore, their deaths have become all too thinkable. However, are their deaths any less horrible and shocking to their families?
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What will it take for our community to feel the outrage over the thinkable loss of life we feel for the unthinkable? What's to say these murder victims might have had bright and valuable days ahead of them? Of course, Ms. Love graduated from an esteemed private Catholic school, and where did the murder victims go to school and how successful are those schools. Can anyone say vouchers?
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While there are dozens of factors that make Ms. Love's death different than the nameless 56, a duhunizing, totally ineffective, unmotivating school system is one thing we can all contribute to improving through vouchers which seem especially noteworthy when private Catholic schools are closing, supposedly due to lack of enrollment. Charter schools and other solutions outside of the assembly line education factories manned by rank-in-file, senority based educators must be made available to even the most disadvantaged schools. Streets need to be cleaned up with law enforcement present and effective community based organizations, not shams like ACORN, to provide a sense of purpose to commnities written off as slums. The Black church needs its vitality and authority restored.
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This is no pipe dream. This is no "progressive" ideological position. It's what every American, especially those who love this country and appreciate its freedom and potential must support.
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Meanwhile, the body count continues.

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