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U.S. NEWS Friday 27 december 2019
Nonstop violence

as Baltimore nears

record homicide rate

By REGINA GARCIA CANO "It's a major concern for
BALTIMORE (AP) — Balti- me, not just as a hope-
more could wrap up 2019 ful man but as a citizen of
with its highest per-capita Baltimore who grew up in
homicide rate on record as inner city Baltimore," said
killings of adults and minors Carmichael "Stokey" Can-
alike for drugs, retribution, nady, a reformed drug In this Monday morning, Feb. 4, 2019 file photo, Baltimore Police
money or no clear reason dealer turned community block off Penn Street at Lombard after a shooting at the University
continue to add up and activist who wants to be of Maryland Medical Center Shock Trauma in Baltimore.
city officials appear unable mayor. "I remember when Associated Press
to stop the violence. a person had a conflict
Police recorded 338 ho- and would have a fight at Police Commissioner Mi- continues and then you ask
micides as of Tuesday, fol- best, now these young kids, chael Harrison, who was the question, 'When does
lowing a week of relentless at the age of 13, 14 years tapped this year to fix a it stop?' without fixing the
gunfire that saw eight peo- old, are finding handguns dispirited department and reason it starts."
ple shot — three of them in their possession and they regain residents' trust, un- Last week, the U.S. De-
fatally — in one day and use them as toys ... The veiled a five-year crime- partment of Justice and
nine others — one fatally whole system needs to be fighting plan in July, that members of the state's
— another day. That total revamped." includes a goal of respond- congressional delegation
is up from 309 in 2018 and This is the fifth year in a row ing to calls within 10 min- announced additional re-
four shy of the 342 killings this Mid-Atlantic commu- utes and prioritizing those sources to help Harrison
tallied in 2017 and 2015, the nity dubbed "Charm City" threatening life or property. and federal law enforce-
year when the city's homi- has reported more than The plan also contains re- ment in Maryland track
cide rate suddenly spiked. 300 killings. Before 2015, cruitment strategies, com- guns, hire additional police
With just over 600,000 resi- that number had gener- munity engagement efforts officers and beef up task
dents, Baltimore's homi- ally been on the decline, and accountability mea- forces. Harrison, in a rever-
cide rate would reach ap- but the trend reversed af- sures. But the department sal, agreed to allow three
proximately 57 per 100,000 ter civil unrest followed the lacks the personnel and surveillance airplanes to fly
residents if the death toll death in police custody of resources to achieve all the above the city for up to six
reaches 342. That would a young black man, Fred- goals, and Harrison has ac- months as part of a pilot
eclipse the rate of 1993, die Gray. knowledged that the city's program.
when the city had a record Reasons for the upward deep-rooted "gun culture" Law enforcement experts,
353 killings but was also trend vary and are sub- also must be changed. however, warn it would be
much more populous. ject to interpretation. Many "People can expect that unfair to assume that law
By contrast, New York City, accuse police of taking number to go down, we are enforcement alone will re-
with more than 8 million res- a hands-off approach to building capacity, but we duce violent crime.
idents, had 306 homicides crime fighting since six of need to have some type of "Let's not assume simply
through Dec. 15. their own were charged effect on the poverty, the that by putting more offi-
Police yellow tape and in connection with Gray's housing, the education, cers, this is going to lead to
makeshift memorials with death. Others attribute it the addiction, the skills, the greater closure of cases or
flowers, stuffed animals and to the apparent free flow jobs and the lack thereof, will be a deterrent," Jeffrey
balloons have become of illegal guns, the effects together at the same time," Ian Ross, a criminologist at
common in some neigh- of a punishing opioid epi- Harrison told The Associat- the University of Baltimore.
borhoods of this deeply demic, social inequalities ed Press. "All of that has to "It may help families, it may
segregated city. Memorials and a lack of decent jobs be addressed while prose- put behind bars some more
can be found within blocks for many in disenfranchised cuting people who commit bad guys, but it doesn't
of each other at the same neighborhoods. Some say crimes and preventing oth- mean it necessarily leads
time. political incompetence at er people from committing to a decrease in crime and
City Hall also contributed. those crimes. Otherwise, it homicides."q

Nigerian man dies in ICE custody

after sex abuse conviction

SNOW HILL, Md. (AP) — A County Jail in Snow Hill, abuse of a minor and was
Nigerian man died in fed- Maryland, according to a convicted last week in Bal-
eral immigration custody Monday news release from timore City Circuit Court.
over the weekend, days U.S. Immigration and Cus- Officials said he entered
after he was convicted of toms Enforcement. the U.S. lawfully on a non-
a sex offense and assault in The official cause of death immigrant visa in 2017 but
Maryland. was not immediately de- did not comply with the
Anthony Oluseye Akinyemi, termined, but authorities terms of his admission.
56, died Saturday after be- believe Akinyemi killed He had been in ICE cus-
ing found unresponsive in himself. Akinyemi had tody for less than 24 hours,
his cell at the Worcester been charged with sexual authorities said.q