Baltimore Homicides: Early 2011 Report

As of this date, April 8, 2011, 48 people have been murdered in Baltimore City, 47 of them, Black (three females, 44 males) and one White male run over by a truck. Is it not obvious that the failing of Baltimore City Public Schools has made the "education" process little more than an apprenticeship for murder?

Those who live in the neighborhoods where the violence exists must feel like disposable citizens. At times, being shut in their houses to avoid the violence outside, they see the body bags and hear the frantic crying of another mother whose son is gone. In the land of opportunity the culture of murder and culture of despair live side-by-side. Some are blameless. some are perpetrators. Clearly, society's institutions are failing horribly starting with schools that don't educate, discipline or prepare.

As long as these murders happen in someone else's neighborhood and God forbid, avoid the downtown hot-spots: Mt. Vernon Square, the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Canton, Guilford, Homewood, Mt. Washington, and Little Italy, they might as well be in Los Angeles. No new social programs, no increased spending, no "crackdowns" will accomplish ANYTHING until values change. Those outside of the killing zone must accept that every life matters. In the killing zone, residents must stop seeing the police as their enemies. They must demand their streets belong to them not the hoodlums. From a child's earliest entry into society's systems, starting with pre-school and ratcheting up during school, productive values must be taught and practiced. Kids need positive roll models, hope, and clear expectations. That it's okay to skip school, steal, take drugs, bully others, and hang out in gangs must be countered with REAL options. Justice must be fair, immediate, and deserving.

Warm weather is coming. The homicides per week will be going up soon. While the murder rate is down significantly from over 300 a year and will remain so at this year's pace, how many other subdivisions in Maryland will come close to the number of killings in Baltimore by year's end. Right now, the year is just a little over finished its first quarter.

How often do we hear guns kill?  The truth is the decades of excuses and inaction are far more lethal.


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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.

Death Report Update: Murder in Baltimore - Late April Edition

April 17th marked the first homicide in Baltimore City where the victim was not a black male. Melonie Hamber of 2000 E. Hoffman Street, a two girl old black girl, was murdered by her father, Tyrone, who police indicate beat her to death with a belt. We simply cannot express our sorrow that a young life could be taken so viciously or express our outrage that a person could be so cruel to his own daughter.

Meanwhile, the homicide count is now up to 52, after a particularly lethal weekend and two recent terrifying murders in the Waverly area near the junction of Greenmount Avenue and 33rd Street. If there’s anything good in the statistics is that the overall murder rate is down from last year, but given this still projects to be 169-170 murders compared to 238, Baltimore is still a killing zone for black male citizens. While the city has crossed the threshold that it is no longer more likely than not someone will be murdered on any given day, that the murders focus so significantly on just one element of the city’s population screams for effective action.

The drug trade, lack of employment, absolutely dreadful preparation and discipline in schools, the gang culture, fractured family structure and apparent indifference of society as a whole has created what appears to be a class of disposable citizens who are doomed to failure at such a young age.

We will not presume to have the answers, but we truly believe that when these murder victims start off in a dysfunctional, incompetent school system that neither gives them the educational background and skills required to succeed in the world nor instills effective values followed up with fair but firm discipline, and as such are at a dreadful disadvantage to explore the wide range of positive possibilities for their lives. City high schools are incubators for gangs and misadventure.

The city and state can only do so much but what they are doing is not working. To put it on the communities themselves does not answer the problem either as their resources and know how is so badly fractured. It will take the larger community, a metropolitan approach where all of us see we have a stake in improving this horror not through massive handouts but identifying those resources that are the most effective and helping them achieve their goals. How many groups like ACORN have posed as helpers for such communities while pursuing a corrupt agenda of their own of no benefit to the communities they are charged with helping?

Baltimore's Shame

As of this posting, there have been 28 homicides in Baltimore. That's one murder about every 2 1/2 days. The spin-meisters will applaud that the murder rate has fallen this year.

Does anybody think that the city has been snowbound for so much time might have inhibited the life on the street out of which many of the murders arise.

Little old white ladies in Roland Park needn't worry. Yuppies in Canton, Fells Point, and Federal Hill haven't a care. EVERY SINGLE MURDER IN BALTIMORE STILL HAS A BLACK MALE AS THE MURDER VICTIM.

Racism is far more complicated that the faux-moral outrage and indignation we see reacting in horror to the utterance of the horrible "N" word. The verbalizing "Nigger" is indefensible especially when used to demean and dimiss others. There are reasons why the murder profile in Baltimore tallies up the way it does and it is not by coincidence that the only murder victims in Baltimore so far this year are black males.

Let the politicians and social activists say what they will, our brothers, members of our community at large are being written off as second class citizens.

It's time to raise expectations across the board. It's time for schools to stop making excuses for why male black students are not achieving and realize no matter what their background consists of, it is still the school's responsibility to teach all students effectively.

All these things interrelate. However, since the horror of death seldom reaches most neighborhoods, it's so easy to brush off the hard realities. It's far more complicated than simply gang violence, the drug trade, and broken families. The solution is far from unobtainable.

Murder in Baltimore: 2010

For the first month of 2010, there have been 13 murders in Baltimore, every one of them a black male. Meanwhile, has anyone checked academic achievement for black male students in Baltimore City schools? Is it any wonder that the consequences of schools that don't teach and don't promote positive values contribute to the on-going tragedy on the city's streets?

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WE CAN DO BETTER. WE MUST DO BETTER!

Baltimore City Half Way Through 2009: Murder by Numbers

114 people have been murdered in Baltimore City in the first half of 2009. That computes to a murder about every two out of three days in the city, but here’s the sadly predictable breakdown.

80 black males
10 black females
9 white males
5 Hispanic males
1 Asian male
9 “unknown” males – most almost certainly black

70% of homicides where the identity’s ethnicity is confirmed are black males.

Only 34% of Baltimore City students graduate from high school, fourth worst among big cities in America. The disparity between the city and the suburbs is the widest margin in the nation. 90% of Baltimore City’s students are black.

If the failure of Baltimore City schools to do its job is enough to make a person cry, “MURDER,” the data suggests that perception is absolutely accurate.

While the state and federal government pump more money into Baltimore City’s failing schools moving them up to second to Montgomery County in per pupil expenditures, that investment is not translating into REAL results regardless of what charts and graphs show some improvement on certain test scores. Where’s the money going? We’ve seen plenty of scandals in the last decade where money goes to the wrong places, gets gobbled up by corruption, or just seems to disappear.

Until the schools stop blaming everything and everyone but themselves, and start working toward accepting the challenges of educating students with the backgrounds their population has, Baltimore City schools will continue to be the incubator for the culture that leads to the murder of young black men who lacking any kind of meaningful education have so few positive options in life. Failure to adequately motivate and supervise students providing every student with the clear expectation of success yields chaos. Gangs create their own internal sense of order to deadly results.

Until each one of the murder victims, failing students, and dropouts are seen as real human beings and not simple statistics, until the entire community of all socio-economic backgrounds demands an end to this misery, the body count will continue. The odds are better than not, another young black male will be murdered tonight.

Were he your kid, you might understand. It’s always someone else’s problem.

Phil Spector; After First Trial Failure Nut Case Gets Put Away Where He Can't Hurt Anybody

Did anyone really think it wouldn’t come to this unless somehow some slick lawyers could make it the second coming of the O.J. Simpson trial?

Today, record producer, Phil Spector, was found guilty of second degree murder in the death of actress, Lana Clarkson. Spector, 69 years old, faces eighteen years to life for the crime almost certain to die a prisoner if the sentence is carried out.

No one better personifies the notion of a mad genius better than Phil Spector. Since going into seclusion seldom working in the music industry since the 1970’s, Spector spent most of his time holed up in his Alhambra mansion apparently quite a bizarre environment behind its walls. Spector had often been cited for rough behavior with women particularly threatening some with a gun who threatened to leave him.

As far back as 1973, Phil Spector’s violent behavior abruptly ended his professional relationship with John Lennon who contracted Spector as his producer for his solo albums up to that point. After recording Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, and Some Time in New York and producing singles “Instant Karma,” “Power to the People,” and “Happy Christmas (War is Over),” John Lennon was working on a retro album performing his versions of old rock and roll standards with Spector sitting in. These were the days John Lennon called his “lost weekend” hanging out in Los Angeles with singer, Harry Nilsson, Who drummer, Keith Moon, and at times, Ringo Starr, where their behavior was drunken and out of control often being bounced discreetly out of hot LA night spots. During one recording session things got out of hand, and gun shots were fired. Details are sketchy, but Spector would never work with John Lennon again. Lennon would eventually finish the album Rock and Roll producing the remaining numbers himself.

Phil Spector was both one of the music industry’s most influential and controversial figures during his first wave of success in the early 1960’s. His first hit was with a band called the Teddy Bears written in memory of his late father, “To Know Him is to Love Him.” Soon, the hits exploded from Ben E. King’s classic to bands like the Crystals (“Da Do Ron Ron”), the Ronettes (“Be My Baby”) but perhaps his greatest triumph was introducing the Righteous Brothers with their hits “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” and “Unchained Melody.”

Spector was known for inventing the “wall of sound,” a reverb laden sound with lavish instrumental arrangements all crafted to create a big dramatic sound that could project almost Wagnerian drama from a 6x9 car speaker. Not only were his front line acts noteworthy but the session musicians included a virtual who’s who of the Los Angeles music scene. Known as “The Wrecking Crew” figures like Glen Campbell, Leon Russell, and Sonny Bono were key players in the Spector studio.

Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys’ creative genius, was especially influenced by Phil Spector’s production techniques as the Beach Boys sound became more complex with rich harmonies and elegantly textured instrumental arrangements. From 1965 forward, the Beach Boys became two entities – a touring band without Brian, and a studio phenomenon backed primarily by musicians from the wrecking crew aside from Carl Wilson adding some guitar work, the rest of the Beach Boys were mostly just singers in the studio. The Beach Boys recorded a Spector hit for their album Summer Days (and Summer Nights), “Then I Kissed Her” their adaptation of “Then He Kissed Me,” the Crystals hit.

Other hit makers from Spector’s studio included Darlene Love, Bob B. Sox and the Blue Jeans, Curtis lee, and the Paris Sisters. Even Gene Pitney and Ike and Tina Turner recorded with Spector during his golden years.

By the end of 1966 still a young producer, Phil Spector retired.. He’d resurface as producer of the madly reverberated John Lennon single, “Instant Karma,” just weeks before being seen as part of the controversy that tore the Beatles apart.

The George Martin produced version of “Let it Be” shot up the charts as the often delayed album initially to be titled Get Back which was supposed to be the Beatles reverting to straight forward band play devoid of all the studio gizmos and magic tricks that had become a staple of their albums from Revolver forward. Film crews entered the studio to chronicle the Beatles making an album. The initial product of these efforts were released a single, a year earlier, “Get Back” and “Don’t Let Me Down” both produced by George Martin. The work from these sessions remained in the can while the Beatles entered the studio for what would turn out to be the last album they’d record as band, Abbey Road, released in September, 1969. Meanwhile, famed London engineer, Glyn Johns who worked with the Rolling Stones and Who attempted to create a finished album from these sessions.

As the conflicts between Lennon, Harrison, and McCartney grew more intense over financial management and creative direction, John Lennon brought Phil Spector in to finish the sessions to create an album which could accompany the release of the movie. While some of the songs were produced to present the live in the studio sound complete with banter between the band members, Spector’s approach was bold and heavy handed on four songs working quite favorably with Harrison’s “I Me Mine” and a new mix of Lennon’s “Across the Universe” previously released as part of Prince Charles charity efforts for wildlife preservation. Then there were two Paul McCartney’s compositions, “Let it Be” and “The Long and Winding Road.” Working with the same take as the already released single of “Let it Be,” Spector added brass, mixed up loud percussion, and found an additional shrill horrible guitar solo which played over the gentle Telecaster solo Harrison performed in the initial release. Paul McCartney’s gentle gospel influenced ballad written in memory of his mother was turned into a noisy mess. For “The Long and Winding Road,” Spector selected a take not used in the movie primarily just Paul accompanying himself on piano with some light guitar work in the background. Spector enlisted orchestral arranger Richard Hewson to score a lush, overwhelming string and brass arrangement that all but drowned out any instrumentation played by the Beatles themselves from start to finish even going so far as to add a melodramatic female choir on backing vocals. The results outraged McCartney as the band’s breakup was at hand.

First came McCartney’s declaration of independence and release of his first solo album, McCartney. Soon thereafter came the release of Let it Be. The Beatles would never record as a foursome again.

Quickly John Lennon and George Harrison were at work behind the walls of Abbey Road studios with Phil Spector at the controls flowing back and forth with Ringo Starr and Klaus Voorman working on John Lennon’s lean and mean, psycho drama, Plastic Ono Band, while Phil Spector employed every trick in his repertoire producing the sprawling, heavily produced two album solo project to kick off George Harrison’s solo career, All Things Must Pass. Discussing the recording of All Things Must Pass in 2000 while preparing the definitive remaster of the 30th anniversary release of his famous album, George Harrison confided he felt tempted to liberate the music from the heavy handed Spector treatment.. Harrison would work with Spector again working with the tapes from his two benefit concerts for Bangladesh to assemble a professionally produced live album from the massive rock all-star orchestra assembled for the occasion.

After his services were no longer requested by Harrison or Lennon, Spector resurfaced again to produce the Ramones and also worked with Leonard Cohen and Celine Dion.

Even as far back as his days harnessing the collective talents of the Wrecking Crew behind his stable of artists, the mad genius seemed like a runaway train out of control with no one knowing for sure when he’d crash and who might get sucked into the disaster. As horrible and tragic the murder of Lana Clarkson is, the warning signs of something like her fate was bound to happen.

A man who once stood atop the world of pop music in LA making millions in his 20’s will live out the rest of his life in prison. His legacy will be of his madness not his musical genius.

Last Minute Censorship of Novel Critical of Mohammed Raises Broader Questions

(The cartoon image of the Big Moh is one of several that sparked worldwide rioting when it was published in a Danish newspaper.)


Random House Fearing Islamic Reaction Pulls Novel Off Shelf Hours Before It Hit the Shelves


Any kind of intelligent discussion of the religion of Islam is becoming increasing impossible as insane political correctness combined with fear of igniting possible Muslim backlash has created a sense of manic paranoia to say anything possibly offensive to the Islamic World who is never at a loss to scream mistreatment while demanding special accomodations to practice their religion unbostructed in anyway including wanting time set aside during the work day to practice their rituals and in some cases even demanding foot washing stations.

Journalists are even coached to distort their stories as prescribed by the Society of Professional Journalists who mandate:

— Avoid using terms such as "jihad" unless you are certain of their precise meaning and include the context when they are used in quotations. The basic meaning of "jihad" is to exert oneself for the good of Islam and to better oneself.

(quoted from "Diversity Guidelines," Society for Professional Journalism, http://www.spf.org/)

Okay, you got that? Those guys who crashed airliners into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon were trying to better themselves. Well, if they came to the conclusion the world would be better off without them, that's probably a legitimate conclusion, but does anybody think that the 3000 people they murdered, the families they destroyed, the thousands more injured and disabled wanted their assistance "bettering themselves." Only in some highly revisionistic, politically correct obliterations of the context by which Jihad is normally understood can this insane redefinition of "jihad" be implied. If some Muslim fellow announces he's engaging in "jihad" and your name, family, city, nation, or faith is involved, he sure as hell is not trying to improve you. There's more garbage in their guidelines, worth reading.

Has anyone heard from Salman Rushdie lately? He's the subject of a few jihads isn't he?

If novelists can't publish novels that suggest what ever the author wants to express about Islam, where are we as a culture? Whether it's good solid fiction or even a complete thrashing of what some consider an evil religion, if there's a market for such material, publishers should market the product. How can they censor something about Mohammed while at the same time publishing a work like the DaVinci Codes which surely turns the story of Christ inside out.

Here's the article that drew RMF's attention: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,406483,00.html

Although this is a corporate decision, not a first amendment issue, it's still a sad day when a minority religion from which so much of the world's evil arises can hold an entire culture hostage for fear of how some rotten apples in their basket might respond to any suggestion that hurts their fragile feelings.

Our first amendment provides that "Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion or the free expression thereof." That's it, period. This does not mean citizens using their first amendment rights of free speech and free press can't intelligently discuss or criticize any relgion as they see fit. In fact, it also protects the freedom of those who would lie and propagandize against a person's faith as even hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan are legally permitted to spew their hatred.

There is something wrong with the world of Islam. While this writer believes most Muslims are essentially good, decent people trying to earn a living and take care of their families like just about everyone else in the world, the institution of Islam deserves an intense critical eye. Just as American Catholics had been wretchedly deceived by the church hierachy over the dreadful homosexual abuse of young boys by a handful of evil clergy, organized Islam must search its conscience and deal with those who practice evil in the name of or under the protection of their mosques.

One can argue on the teachings of the Catholic church, its positions, and how some of them impaact politics, but as an institution, what organization contributes more the the world's education while through its charitable organizations feeds many starving people around the world and provides healthy for needy communities where it can as well. Accept or deny their religious teachings, the Catholic Church is one of the greatest sources of good on the planet in 2008. As a organization created by mortal man, it is not above corruption. Yet, look at how the Catholic church is ridiculed, demeaned, and slandered not only by vicious radical Muslims but even in the conventional press in Europe and the United States where millions of Catholics practice their faith.

The Media establishment which owns a large segment of the publishing industry has no problem knocking, taunting, and damning the Protestant majority particularly Baptists or anyone who professes to live a faith-driven life. Terms like the "Religious Right," "Extreme Fundementalists," and other labels are thrown about not identify the true extremists in America's faith-based community but pulling in major figures not just within the church but society in general who are casually demeaned for their religious values.

The Jewish faith in America and the Western world takes a horrible beating from many angles as well. Basic humanity would seem to mandate that a population united by a common faith and heritage who suffered mass extermination with over six million of its faithful wiped out while millions more were starved, tortured, driven from their homes, and separated from their families in the 1930's and 1940's at the hands of Hitler's Nazi murderers deserve all the love and support any human with the slightest ounce of humanity can offer. Yet criticism of Israeli politics is often used as a convenient cloak to spread anti-Zionist bigotry and centuries old vicious stereotypes of the Jewish people. In every city and town through out the free world are vocal extremists who deny the Holocaust ever happened. Where's the outrage against them?

This year the world saw the rape and exploitation of under aged girls sanctioned and practiced by an extremist cult, a breakaway fringe group of lunatics claiming some heritage with the church of Latter Day Saints. The instant their treachery became public, the faithful from through out the Judeo Christian world were quick to condemn those wicked souls while supportting the government's effort to prosecute those monsters.

Where are the mainstream Muslims? Where are the moderate Muslims and their condemnation of mercy killings, terrorism, brutal oppression of women, and absolute intollerance of those who either practice another religion or don't practice their flavor of the month version of Mohammaed's musings? It's not fair to judge all people who practice the Muslim religion based on the behavior of the higher-up's in the relgion. Still, neither Sunnis nor Shiites as major denominations of Islam have marched their leaders before the media to address the absolute wicked behavior the world sees way too much of for the love of Mohammed.

Muslims assert they are children of Abraham as are Christians and Jews. As such their Allah is the same almighty as our God. The God I know from my cultural heritage would damn the murder and torture committed in God's name from what they believe Mohammed has instructed his followers to believe.

RMF can't help but wonder about what The Bible says about false prophets. My understanding of Mohemmed shows a fellow who was a vicious warrior and polygamist. It's hard to feel good about a religion that centers around a faith spread by the swing of the sword contrasted with the inspirational and uplifting stories of Jesus Christ, the Buddha, and Moses.

It might be politically correct to do so and if I revealed my true identity who as Batman is to Bruce Wayne, who's the real RMF, I chose to remain anonymous quite frankly so I can speak freely without fear of reprisal when expressing things many of us probably want to say about the world of Islam.

Soon, our names will be known, the gauntlet will fall, and the wickedness of Islam will be confronted and the cowardly accomodation of their vile intimidation of the world's intellectual community will be destroyed.

Be strong. Be honest. Don't let Islamic tyranny imprison your hopes and dreams. Refuse to let our leaders pussy under when Christians and Jews dare not post a copy of the Ten Commandments in their office space for fear management will scold them for creating a hostile environment as some athiests' or Moslems' "sensibilities" might be offended.

Treat others as you would want others to treat you. We've all been endowed by certain inallienable rights by our creator. LIVE IT or Mohammed might take it away.

Death Marches on in Baltimore City

On any given night, most likely someone will be murdered in the City of Baltimore. Each year, surveys are posted listing the most deadly cities in the United States. Each year, Baltimore is near the top of the list. This problem is nothing new. It goes back several decades now. How easy it is to call it "urban violence" like it's something that happens in a far distant place. However, when we think of the national landmarks of Baltimore, some of the most famous are just footsteps away from the most deadly street corners in the city. Pimlico race track is known for the Preakness Stakes each May, yet a short distance from the race track's southwestern corner is one of the most troubled areas in all of Baltimore. Johns Hopkins Hospital is known around the world as an innovator in healing, yet just blocks away from this magnificent giver of life are some of the most morbid street corners in town.

Right Minded Fellow has heard it all before. There are plenty of explanations of the problem. Some point to the failure of Baltimore City Schools turning lose an unskilled, unemployable population of young black men ill-equipped to face society. Many would argue it's the drug gangs. Bands of criminals run the streets savagely murdering anyone who stands in their way. Some slick reporter from channel 13 will almost surely stick a microphone in the typical person on the street's face to a a response of something like, "Oh, hon, we have all these guns going around killing people." Sadly many are aware of the breakdown of the black family and that boys are being raised in fatherless homes. Of course, others blame it on white racism. Somehow those white fat cats living out in the county are responsible. What's interesting about all these explanations is that it's always someone else who is to blame. Nobody is stepping forward and taking responsibility. Law enforcement is seldom effective in bad neighborhoods. There's only so much a civilian police force can do in a polite society. Still, the problem persists. The blame game can be played forever without saving a single life. Each murder is first and foremost the responsibility of the person who takes another person's life. There are so many enablers, apologists, incompentents, and ineffective city officials, it's difficult to know where to turn next, but every factor must be dealt with assetively immediately. No one will have solutions for the overall homicide epidemic in the city right away, but one by one, each explosive situation can be identified and diffused.

The 2007 murder stats break down as follows: Black females - 15; Black males - 251 ; Hispanic females - 2; Hispanic males - 2; Asian females and other - 0; Asian males and other - 2; White females - 4; White males - 8; Unknown or undisclosed females - 0; Unknown or undisclosed males - 7; In other words, a black male is six times more likely to get murdered than the entire population of other categories combined!

As of 7/19/08, 114 people have been murdered in Baltimore. At the current pace, Baltimore could see perhaps as many as 80 fewer homicides mindful that the city is just getting into the peak of the long hot summer nights when the number of murders typically rises. Though any reduction in the loss of life is a blessing, Baltimore will still see well over two hundred murders. More days than not, someone will die on Baltimore city streets. Most of them young black men. One murder is one too many. Every year there are more speeches, more blue ribbon committees, more task forces, and more money being spent. Who wouldn't love to attribute the notable lower tally to some specific actions that have been effective? Obviously, it's way to soon to tell. Only if improvement continues for a span of several years can we determine what efforts were successful in turning this horrendous problem around. For right now, there is only one cause that can be given with assurance, LUCK.

Is our city content to just write off one segment of the population. On any given night, chances are better than not a black man will be murdered. Why?

If were not part of the solution, we're part of the problem. If you live in Maryland and pay taxes, it's your responsibility as a taxpayer to oversee where and on what our lawmakers are spending our money. Plenty of money goes to Baltimore City for many purposes including law enforcement and community support. The Thornton commission helped provide Baltimore City Schools a measure of parity in finances to the wealthier suburban county.

Every citizen of Maryland has some roll to play in solving this problem. Awareness and concern are a start, but nothing short of action on all levels will succeed. That we keep hearing the same old causes and see the same old solutions constantly failing show clearly the real conversation hasn't started yet.

May this humble submission by one voice to say let's get started NOW!