Pirate's Cove

This is what happens when the mayor offers to “give room to destroy” to thugs

(Fox News) An epidemic of murder that has gripped Baltimore in the month following the Freddie Gray riots is threatening to undo decades of rebirth in the city’s popular downtown — and in the process, wipe away tens of millions of tourist dollars.

“Sales are next to nothing,” said Kenneth Robinson, manager of the Fudgery, an iconic candy store tucked in the heart of the Inner Harbor.

Local merchants were just starting to see business bounce back after last month’s riots. But a crime crisis has since gripped Baltimore, with police saying criminals have taken advantage of the situation to wreak havoc on Charm City.

Nine people were killed and nearly 30 wounded over the holiday weekend, about three weeks after the rioting. With 38 homicides so far in May, Baltimore is seeing its deadliest month since 1999. The number of killings this year is now at 111, compared with 211 for all of 2014.

Well, let’s be honest: business wasn’t all that great prior to the riots. Baltimore is a city renowned for the use of thick, often bullet-proof, plexiglass at merchants, meant to protect the employees and merchandise from the patrons. This is a city that has to “surge” all its law enforcement, with help from the State police, to protect places like the Inner Harbor during July 4th weeks over the past several years from roaming gangs of “youths”.

A debate is now raging in Baltimore and beyond over whether police, in the wake of the riots, are being constrained and are reticent to patrol aggressively — as crime soars.

Baltimore police union boss Lt. Gene Ryan said in a statement Thursday that criminals are “taking advantage” of the situation and “feel empowered now.” He said “police are under siege” and afraid of going to jail for “doing their jobs.”

In roughly the first two weeks of May, arrests were down by 57 percent, which has also resulted in accusations that the police have intentionally retaliated. “My hope is the police will get the support they need from the community to be able to get some answers and bring some of these individuals to justice,” Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake told reporters Tuesday regarding the crime wave.

The police in very Liberal Baltimore are rightly concerned that the Social Justice Warriors will come after them, and that they will not have the backing of the city they work for, what with the mayor and chief prosecutor being SWJs themselves, seemingly on the side of the looters and rioters.

Consider the Baltimore Orioles: their attendance has plummeted from last year post-riots. Who wants to go somewhere that they cannot expect a reasonable measure of safety? It’s a microcosm of Baltimore, where citizens and visitors alike cannot expect a reasonable measure of safety.