Op-Ed - Baltimore City administration said "No."Have you seen the
lame response of the Mayor's office to the contention of the Governor's office that it offered policing assistance which was rebuffed by Baltimore's executive?
Hell no. Oh, hell no.
Ed Norris' (then head of State Police) letter states:
“Maryland State Police can provide you with immediate help,” Norris wrote. “By granting
full police authority to state troopers in Baltimore, the police presence in the city would immediately increase by 5 percent, due to the number of troopers who live there.”
O'Malley states he welcomes state assistance in policing and Kristen Mahoney qualifies:
"it was state police who dropped the ball by not following through with their offer.She said her department couldn't permit troopers to roam the city without supervision, but to help with specific tasks." No. What he said was "full police authority" You said "No."
Uh-uh. The state police offer is not because they're bored and looking for a way to spend an afternoon. The offer was to do the job that the Mayor's people have failed at. The Mayor of Baltimore has no business 'supervising' state troops. State troops should be sent in and should take care of business, the same as in any other condition of emergency.
Ms. Mahoney has been very clear that her department will not permit state troops within her jurisdiction. That's it. Mr. O'Malley, let me translate for you.
You said "No."
Your police department said "No."
If that's not your intention, please instruct Mr. Hamm to say "Yes, we will grant full police authority." Not "Yes, but only...." The operative term is "Yes."
Until then, it means "No."
As in ... no safety, no peace of mind, and no end to the murders and other violence rampant in your city.
And one other thing.... on election day, Mr. O'Malley..... "No."
Now, that said, does Mr. O'Malley always have his hand out for cold, hard cash from the State? Sure. His Commissioner has blown an astounding amount of $$$ on counterproductive overtime at time and a half, all the while failing to even expend the amount of payroll appropriated for regular officers' salaries. Why? Because he can't persuade acceptable candidates to work in this rotten jurisdiction. The pay sucks, it's hazardous, and cops don't like working under an arrests quota. What quota? THE quota. Stop playin', sucka. There's a quota. You know it, I know it, and the President of the FOP knows it. No personnel.
O'Malley says fiscal aid to the police decreased during his administration. Yeah, and? He runs a lousy department. I haven't seen this many unsustainable arrests since Saddam Hussein's Republican Guards. Would I fiscally support a foreign dictator's goon squad? Nope. So why should I support the repressive regime of our Mayor's city government? No respect.
If anything, the Baltimore City Police Department should have its police powers suspended and its budget turned over to a State supervisory body, so that we can achieve a reduction in violent crime which reflects more than the best efforts of the Mayor's spin doctors to inflate the number of murders at the start of his administration, so that the reduction in crime appears much higher than it truly is. No progress.
The Baltimore City council should also request that the State and the FBI investigate the routine abuse of civil rights of much of the population of Baltimore. Mr. Hamm is lying. His people do it daily. This I say as someone who has been arrested on absolutely false, groundless bases on multiple occasions. And been uncharged, dismissed or null prossed each time, but jailed nonetheless. This last time, had I not arranged a bail, I would have sat in pretrial detention for three weeks, waiting for the State's Attorney to determine from the witness that no law had been broken, at which time the charge was dropped. I was told "You are free to leave." No apology. No offer of restitution from the department. No.... nothin'.
I know it may not be that way in lily-white Baltimore A, but in Baltimore B it happens daily. For real. It's actually worse than my memories of Chicago in the early 70's. And senior police personnel don't care for it as a work environment, according to Paul Blair of the FOP,because they feel untrusted and resented by the public, as well they should.
Can I be more understanding of Mr. O'Malley's games, given the very high esteem in which I hold good law enforcement personnel?Like I said................ No.
I'm including in the comments section a discussion of the legal basis for Mr. O'Malley's false arrest policies, because of its length.
