David “I-Can-Say-Nigger” Simon

In all the ways that count most to Black people David Simon unequivocally embodies the absolute worst of what is known as the “white moderate” male in the United States. Although his infractions are numerous, what draws the most ire is Simon’s casual and frequent use of “nigger” and “nigga”.

The most noteworthy incident in question occurred (not surprisingly) in the Trump era with Simon tweeting “Hannity my nigga!” on Monday 19 September 2016. It was a tongue-in-cheek greeting between two white men in response of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s announcement of a planned outreach effort to engage Black voters.

Although a firestorm ensued, it was not the first time that David Simon poked the bear by saying that word.

The disparaging racist language earned him a short-term suspension from the app, but not after days of defending himself. During that time Simon dug in his heels, claimed artistic freedom, and addressed his detractors as “hall monitors.” Sonja Sohn, the Asian/Black actor who portrayed Kima on HBO’s The Wire, was one of the few who came to his defense.

Screengrab taken on June 20, 2022 Twitter

White moderates have been the bane of activists toiling about in the struggle demanding the end of white supremacy even before Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King wrote about his in exasperation in a letter from the Birmingham jail in 1963. The audacity of white men who as King noted have not seen “hate filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity” to suggest a more palatable way to be treated as a full citizen that should come as a birth right.

FILE — In a Jan. 14, 2010 file photo David Simon looks on during a panel discussion in Pasadena, Calif. It was announced Sept. 28, 2010 that Simon is among 23 recipients of the year’s MacArthur Foundation “genius grants.” (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello/file)

When dripping from white lips, the dark stain that comes word “nigger” triggers the blood memory of violence, angst, subjugation. While Simon relishes its artistry, he simultaneously riles the sensibilities of our ancestors even 60 years after King’s admonishment. No federal holiday commemorating the end of enslavement championed by a white moderate cis gendered male president can provide a respite from the likes of David Simon and his devoted legion of outspoken white male fans.

What is insufferable though about the creator of the 20-year old cop drama is his “whitesplaining” to Black people how his artful use of the word is not of the offensive variety. It is this audacity that shifts the responsibility for peoples’ recoil squarely back on their Black shoulders. It’s satire, he proclaimed frequently, evoking the “fuck ’em if they can’t take a joke” axiom.

Weeks after initially posting and defending his choice, Simon displayed a small measure of introspection with two tweets on September 20, 2016: “Don’t see it as an imprecise choice, but do I wish I tried another tack to insult Fox’s racial hegemony? Sure.” Long after Trump lost his re-election bid, and with the benefit of hindsight, David Simon responded, but not with an apology. “Stand by it as an answer to a white racist…” Simon Tweeted on June 20, 2019. The tweet remains live today on Elon Musk’s Twitter even after the murderous death of George Floyd and the immergence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Truth is, Simon knows his white male privilege. The wrists slaps were factored into his calculation for all chances he took once he left the DMV for Baltimore. He spoke on his world view to graduates of his alma mater, Chevy Chase-Bethesda High school, knew it too when he spoke at the 2012 graduation:

“Certain things were assumed for my life. The guardrails were all there. The airbags all worked. I might come through with a few dents and scratches, I might screw up here and there, but by and large, the risks I was asked to take were for the most part moderate and plausible. I was going to have to work some, and get a little lucky, sure. But for real, I grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland. I mean, damn. Nice work if you can get it.”

Simon’s Revoked Hall Pass

Simon was given an inch of rope and thought he was a cowboy. “Nigga” stopped being something a Black character said and something the white David Simon tossed around carelessly. For introducing the Stringer Bell and Omar to the world, David Simon was given a temporary pass similar to the one Samuel L Jackson extended to Quentin Tarantino.

Actor Michael K. Williams as “Omar” publicity photo for The Wire.
Undated. Uncredited.

Simon’s temporary pass for saying that one word was identical to the laminated one former president Bill Clinton stores along with an emergency condom in his pocket. The pass was granted to Simon to use poetically in telling our stories; Clinton was offered one for playing the Saxaphone on Arsenio Hall’s late night talk show. Both white men have shown that all passes extended should be hereby immediately revoked. No white male moderate American should be issued another pass in the future.

Before the Fox News dust up that got tongues wagging, Simon took “nigger” out for a test run on Twitter two months earlier. No one barely noticed. Using the same tactics, Simon donned the persona of former president Richard Nixon and attacked the policies of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump:

“…let’s clamp down on the hippies and the niggers and the eggheads who are fucking us up”
David Simon, Twitter July 12, 2016

Since his coat was not severely pulled for that transgression in September, Simon put on the equivalence of Black face and started the shuck and jive routine against Hannity – this time for a larger audience.

The Washington Post made Simon’s transgression palatable to its white moderate readership when it rhetorically presented Simon’s defenders’ point of view that Simon has carte blanche to use the word because he wrote artful television shows in the realism prism depicting multi-dimensional Black characters.

If you’re not black you shouldn’t be saying “Nigga”. Plain and simple… If you can omit ‘faggot’ and ‘bitch’ from your vocabulary then why is it so hard and strenuous for you to omit ‘nigga’?
Malcolm-Aimé Musoni, HuffPost.com September 26, 2015

Racism and misogyny rest comfortably within Simon’s wheelhouse. It’s been pointed out that the reasons white males bristle over the n-word is explicitly because it’s off-limits to them. Hollywood writer/producer/actor Quentin Tarantino famously penned the word “nigger” as dialogue for himself to utter on screen.

On his personal blog, on the day commemorating Juneteenth in 2013, Simon wrote about data mining, specifically cell phone’s metadata and peoples’ right to privacy in an essay that he titled The “Nigger Wake-Up Call.” It is painfully clear that the joke went over Simon’s head. Paul Mooney’s running gag is about Blacks who are suddenly jarred into reality after believing they had achieved post-racial equality.

Simon usurped Mooney’s comedic genius for the shock value of merely using the word. What is the point of having the pass, if you don’t use it, eh David?

Simon’s ability to write authentic dialogue reflective of his immersion into Baltimore’s street culture as an observer allows him extreme latitude in his personal interactions to call people “nigger” or “nigga”. In this case, he used the latter, a distinction he made without commenting on the difference between the two.

“Simon’s works have made him a sort of elder statesman regarding the intersection of race, politics and socioeconomics in America
Cleve R. Wootson Jr, Washington Post. September 20, 2016.

Simon himself rejected the idea that he has a pass to use the n-word indiscriminately. He wrote on Twitter (which oddly enough is akin to him saying the words from his own mouth) on October 7, 2016: “And if I used the term on AA, hand me my head. Satirically, on a white con man claiming rep of AA interests? Hey.”

It should be noted also, that Simon uses African American, AA, and black (not capitalized) without any clear distinction of why. Journalists abide by AP stylebook which requires capitalization of Black as a race and the distinguishes African American as applying to both race and ethnicity, but are not interchangeable.

“Simon is no longer just a journalist or a writer: he’s become a de facto translator for middle class audiences looking to understand elements of black America.”
Lanre Bakare, “Go home, David Simon. Without Justice in Baltimore, there can be no peace. The Guardian.com 28 April 2015

The Enemy of my Enemy is a Friend Fallacy

Pinpointing the extent of Simon’s supposed allyship requires the dexterity of Simone Biles. For instance, in July 2019 when Donald Trump blasted west Baltimore as “rat invested” and placed blame squarely on then Congressman Elijah Cummings, Simon lashed out at Trump and called him a “racist moron.” Simon’s defense of his adopted city has ingratiated Simon into many locals’ good graces.

However, in 2015 when Freddie Gray was killed in custody of the Baltimore Police Department, Simon seemed more aligned with law and order than the community marching in the streets. In fact, once Baltimoreans took to the street as an uprising against racial oppression was brewing, Simon penned a plea for an end to direct action.

President Barack Obama “interviews” David Simon on police culture in 2015. The president, seeking Simon as a potential ally, probed Simon for ways to change the culture of policing by seeking out ways to encourage historically racist institutions to see the humanity in the people and communities affected by their presence. Simon suggested maximum prison sentencing as a solution.

“White people — even those who speak up about black causes, like Simon — don’t have the social capital to throw around the n-word in everyday speech,” said author Jody Armour as quoted by the same 2016 Washington Post article.

Enter the Wu-Tang

If David Simon stopped saying “nigger” his family would starve. He is royally compensated many times over for putting “nigger” on a page. Unscientifically, David Simon has written the word hundreds (if not thousands) of times.

His seminal work, The Wire ran for six seasons and has a loyal fan base. During its 10-year heyday, his internal voice must have tried out every iteration of that word’s pronunciation. But Simon says he’s never “said” the word. (If he read any of his scripts out loud, merely playing the percentages, he has surely said “nigger”).

“Nigga, is you taking notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy?! The fuck is you thinking, man?”
“The crown ain’t worth much if the nigger wearing it always getting his shit took.”
“Fuck them West Coast niggers, cause in B’more, we aim to hit a nigger, you heard?”
“This motherfucker be killing niggas just to do it. You see? Nigga kills motherfuckers just cause he can. Not cause they snitching, not cause it’s business, but just because this shit comes natural to him. Man, Little Kevin is gone! This nigga don’t feel nothing!”

Not to split hairs, but an argument could be made that there’s a world of difference between writing dialogue for a “gritty” “urban” television drama and when someone uses their personal Twitter account to flaunt their pass to their 334,000 followers gained as a result of their Hollywood celebrity status. The former is economic, the latter is all ego.

As the rapper Method Man (who portrays Melvin Wagstaff in season two of The Wire) of the Wu Tang Clan drops a verse in the 2014 hit CREAM:

Cash rules everything around me
C.R.E.A.M., get the money
Dollar dollar bill, y’all

Before there was beaucoup money to be made in a cinematic depiction of Black Baltimore, there was the use of “nigger” in Simon’s journalism career at the Baltimore Sun.

Simon’s literary success was sparked by shadowing Black people’s daily struggle of existence in West Baltimore as a journalist. He culminated the experience not by lobbying for resources, but by writing a 1997 book The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood that he co-wrote with Baltimore Police Department (BPD) detective Ed Burns.

Simon’s first book mentions “nigger” 47 times and “nigga” four.

The book was made into a critically acclaimed HBO six-part mini-series The Corner, directed by Baltimorean Charles “Roc” Dutton, who is Black. Residual checks keep coming. In contrast, odds are that the Black youth he shadowed in order to craft a realistic creative expression are in jail, prison, on parole or probation.

On DavidSimon.com, he lists two charities as “worthy causes“: The Ella Thompson Fund and The Baltimore Station as well as one scholarship fund. Simon wrote it is “probable that [donations to the organizations listed] will directly address an issue locale or dynamic that we dramatized.”

The Sun Rises on The N-Word: David’s Early Years

It is difficult to pinpoint with any degree of accuracy exactly when David Simon began taking a liking to the word tied to generational oppression of a people from African descent.

As is the moderate’s want to ask “where are his parents?, Simon admits the complexities of race was not a matter discussed at all in his house. In the next (and final) part of this series, the genealogy of Simon is explored putting into historical context some of the influences that undoubtedly shaped his world view.

Once the college grad from the Washington DC suburbs was dropped into Baltimore in the early 1980s, it was no doubt a culture shock. It would be totally understandable if the word “nigga” being tossed around like crime scene tape sent the cub reporter on the cops beat into full blush.

What was Baltimore to a kid from Montgomery County? It was another world, another America. Maybe not all of the city, but those quadrants that had been left behind…
David Simon, Graduation remakes, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School June 4, 2012

Simon’s first few years as a working journalist at the Baltimore Sun was an extension of his self-proclaimed college years – lazy and uninspired. From 1982 through 1984 the assignments were routine, and the reporting was generic; the combination offered little by way of opportunity to hone a writing style.

There were glimpses, though. Simon shone a sympathetic light on libertarian Warren Eilerston who beat federal criminal charges for refusing to pay federal taxes in August 1983. Also, in 1985, Simon deftly covered a shift in BPD policy after the public balked at the lack of transparency after a string of police shootings where the officers were either not identified to members as part of a “news blackout” and/or the officer refused to give a statement to investigators.

It would not be long before Simon’s byline would be inked above the word “nigger” published in the city’s paper of record. The subject of the 1988 story was a 51-year old resident of Baltimore’s Cherry Hill neighborhood who worked as a barmaid in 1963.

It was the occasion of the 25th anniversary of a murderous hate-crime where Hattie Carroll was caned to death by 24-year old William Santzinger for not bringing a white man’s drink fast enough in a downtown Baltimore bar.

Racially motivated murder of Hattie Carroll by caning. The Afro. 10 February 1963

In the 1988 story about the death of Hattie Carroll, Simon showed both his burgeoning talent for a narrative style of journalism. The man who killed Carroll for not bringing him his drink quick enough had spent the evening terrorizing the wait staff at the hotel. He called one woman a Black bitch. He also hit several people with his cane during the “Spinster’s Ball” a charity event attended by Baltimore’s society elite.

It was also perhaps Simon’s earliest recorded use of the word “nigger”. It was printed for no good reason. For that, the Baltimore Sun should apologize.

The word set in a line and paragraph all to itself.

It had no voice or quotation marks. It was David Simon’s voice caressing the word “nigger”:

David Simon, “The Case of Hattie Carroll, Baltimore Sun, 7 February 1988

The Sun really had no journalistic rationale for printing the racial epitaph gratuitously added by David Simon. The only context provided was that while visiting Charles County, the home of the man who killed Carroll, Simon supposedly witnessed the word’s wide use among whites in southern Maryland’s rural communities. Simon included in his story an unidentified white man (supposedly granted anonymity) from Charles County who wished “black people the best of everything, really.”

From that point in 1988, Simon took leave from The Baltimore Sun again and spent a year embedded with the Baltimore Police Department as its intern. His experience shadowing Baltimore Police Department (BPD) was memorialized in a 1991 book, that was later made into a television show for NBC, Homicide, Life on the Street. “Nigger” appears five times in the book; there’s no mention of “Nigga.”

Nor was [BPD] the most tolerant environment in which to come of age; there were cops twenty years younger who reacted to what they saw on the streets by crawling into a psychological cave, damning every nigger and liberal faggot to hell for screwing up the country
David Simon. Homicide A Year on the Killing Streets 1991

Simon’s “Nigger” Code

David Simon, much like the police he covered while a cops reporter in Baltimore, has somewhat of a code that dictates how he uses the word.

“Nigger” or “nigga” it seems is not something Simon feels that he say verbally out loud, in public. If he writes it out (in a tweet or essay), he is not restricted. However, he will take pause before he uses “my nigga” in writing if its directed to someone Black.

If it’s written as satire or in the voice of a persona he is co-opting, then he can pretend to be Black and use the word, but only direct it towards someone who is white.

The code allows Simon to write the word for characters to say as dialogue. He is also able to have a narrator describe someone as a nigger. Simon is the sole arbiter as to how many times he can write the word and if it is offensive. He believes his pass is unlimited.

Simon has not made any distinction between ending the word with an “r” or an “a”. But as stated earlier, his book The Corner uses “nigger” 10 times more frequently than “nigga”.

“David Simon is the blackest white man I have ever known. What he wrote was clearly ironic, and entirely at the expense of the whitest white man on the planet. I see no foul.”
Gene Weingarten, Washington Post columnist and Simon’s writing partner.

Sorry, Not Sorry

What seems most clear about Simon’s code is that he should never apologize when he uses it.

David Simon said that if he did delete the Hannity tweet he feared that in the void someone would claim that “I used the phrase to do anything other than to ironically mock someone’s actual co-opting of racial status [emphasis added] in order to advance their racist candidate.”

Let’s unpack the statement. First, he is arguing that if deleted, saved screenshots would also disappear from this known dimension thusly preventing him from pointing out the original context. Next, he insists that he was being ironic in mocking a white man who Simon believes to be racist by engaging him with a racially explosive word. In turn, no one focused on Hannity’s “co-opted racial status” but much of the world took Simon to the woodshed for his wanton use of a racist term. Now, that’s ironic.

Dear Apologetic Racists: Call out racism today and save tomorrow’s apology

When someone apologizes for a lengthy and horrid past of appalling racist behaviors, as did the editorial staff at the Baltimore Sun newspaper recently, it simply begs the question of when they actually stopped being racist.

In a full-page mea culpa published in the paper on Sunday February 20, 2022, the Sun editorial staff explained in their view, they have been and honorable and service-oriented journalistic institution over much of their 185-year history. (Please clap) The editors insisted that there must be recognition for the Sun providing light for ~~all~~ [white people].

After a healthy amount of self-aggrandizing about their “important role” of “uncovering corruption” and “enlightening communities”, the Sun’s editorial board ultimately apologized for the paper’s role in the oppression of Blacks “for decades.” On occasion, the Board would have us believe, they stumbled into a vat of white supremacy leanings, and for that, they want Blacks to know, they are truly sorry.

If they wanted to demonstrate their grasp of how white supremacy works, the Apology would have recognized that their actions over centuries, (not decades as they admitted) stymied the aspirations of the entire United States of America.

This writer’s response is not to interrogate ad nauseum whether the Apology is sincere, sufficient (it isn’t) or whether it missed the mark altogether. Instead, what follows is an assessment of the editorial board’s lack of understanding of the philosophical and practical aspects of white supremacy, and its insidious nature. In doing so, this response is designed to illuminate how an apology too long delayed is an apology denied.

“The Sun sharpened, preserved and furthered the structural racism that still subjugates Black Marylanders in our communities today.”
From “We are deeply and profoundly sorry: For decades, The Baltimore sun promoted policies that oppressed Black Marylanders; we are working to make amends” Baltimore Sun editorial staff’s online Apology February 18, 2022

Any conversation about the ethics of US journalism or literally anything concerning Baltimore must begin with a discussion about racism. The Apology has many shortcomings and oversights worth addressing, but this particular response largely focuses on two specifics: first, the editors failed to with any earnestness address how today’s editorial decisions are tainted by its ongoing and current culture of white supremacy. (To clarify the Sun’s actions were not merely across decades but occurred over the course of two centuries.)

Secondly, before there can be any reconciliation between the paper and the larger community of the human race (clearly not just Blacks were injured by their actions) they have to confront some extremely hard truths that involve the man who could be called the H. L. Mencken of our times, Sir Lord of Potty Mouth Misogynistic Twitter rants David Simon, creator of HBO’s “The Wire”.

There is no honor in apologizing generations after the death of a man once his private diaries revealed him to wedded to principles of white supremacy. How long must the country wait until there is enough cover for the Sun to disavow Simon’s public embrace of the most horrible word used to subjugate and perpetuate racial division?

David Simon, former Baltimore Sun reporter
and general curmudgeon, on Twitter daily

H. L. Mencken, former Baltimore Sun reporter
and general curmudgeon, deceased

In the beginning, there were racists

If ethical qualms about racist people running a city’s newspaper of record would shutter doors, there would not be a paper in the entire United States. Racism is coded in the country’s DNA. The Sun’s editors traced its racist heritage back to the paper’s 19th century founder Arunah S. Abell. Abell created the paper and immediately began stoking “the fear and anxiety of white readers with stereotypes and caricatures that reinforced their erroneous beliefs about Black Americans,” wrote the editorial Board.

Also, as in accordance with American tradition, the proud white supremacist passed along his views to his children. The heirs worked in various aspects of the paper up to eventual leadership positions creating generational wealth by oppressing generations of Blacks. The Abell family’s control of the Sun papers lasted for 150 years, and its influence continues until this day.

“[Edwin F. Abell] was regarded as a safe and steadfast champion of the South’s inherited rights, her best traditions and material welfare”
From Baltimore It’s History and It’s People, Clayton Coleman Hall, 1912

Both sons, Edwin F. and George W, steered the mantle of the growing publishing behemoth to reach across the globe with foreign bureaus. There’s money in upholding white supremacy. It seems that Maryland’s unique positioning as a border between freedom and involuntary servitude coupled with Baltimore’s growing Black population was an especially lucrative position to hold.

“The Sun’s bigotry hurt its business”
From The Apology, Baltimore Sun editorial Board February 20, 2022

The 150-year period of family control over the privately-run paper was more than enough time to secure the generational wealth to the A. S. Abell family. By 1986, Sun was sold to the Times Mirror group for $600 million (a value of $926 million today).

White-washing the stain of white supremacy

Turns out a century is more than enough time to turn a penny paper into a near billion-dollar money making machine. Doing so while simultaneously cementing within the Sun a culture adhering to the basic tenants of white supremacy was most likely an unintended consequence. In preparation for the Apology, the editors should have read “How to be an Anti-Racist” by Ibram X Kendi and “White Fragility” by Robin Diangelo.

As the Board noted, the Sun’s hiring practices are atrocious for a predominately Black city. Regrettably, the Sun did not include an announcement to “go a different direction” with its leadership. Had its publisher and editor-in-chief since 2016, Trif Alatzas decided that coinciding with the Apology – now was the time to spend more time with his family – the paper would have garnered some goodwill points towards revealing hard truths.

The past Is not dead. It’s not even past

Consistently carrying the water for white supremacy leaves a stain as indelible as indigo ink on freshly picked cotton. Some of the paper’s most blatant racist actions in the 19th and 20th century were enumerated in the Apology for the world to see:

Advertising rewards offered for returning back to their enslaver people seeking freedom
Advocating the prevention of Black citizens to vote
Advocating keeping neighborhoods racially segregated “redlining”
Not hiring a Black reporter until the 1950s (and too few ever since)
Ignoring multiple and frantic calls to address police brutality spanning generations

“The paper’s prejudice hurt people…it hurt the nation as a whole by prolonging and propagating the notion that the color of someone’s skin has anything to do with their potential or their worth to the wider world.”
From The Apology, The Baltimore Sun Editorial board February 20, 2022

Mencken with children of the Johnson family in Booth Street. 1929

The venerable Henry L. Mencken was an author, Sun reporter, columnist and editor and also a well-known racist and vocal supporter of Johns Hopkins Hospital’s eugenics programs that included forced sterilization of lower-class women and incarcerated men.

Necessary Truths

The “profound” apology (for which they are “deeply ashamed” specifies incidents from the past with consequences that reverberate to the present. The editors catalogued much of its wrongdoing that occurred between the 1857 Dred Scott Decision through Mencken’s racist reign and up until it lambasted political correctness in the 1950s for denying that the atrocious Birth of a Nation movie simply depicted the sentiments of its time.

“The Baltimore Sun frequently employed prejudice as a tool of the times.” The most recent event mentioned was a 2002 editorial dismissing the qualifications of Michael Steele, a candidate for Lt. Governor beyond simply being a token Black man.

Omnipresence of white supremacy

Recognizing racist behavior, for many has become the relatively easy part in wake of the murder of George Floyd. However, dismantling systems of white supremacy is really hard work, and the Sun has a long road ahead. Grappling with dismantling apartheid systems, South Africa gave the world a lesson in the way forward: exhaustively recognize specific truths and then foster pathways that would permit reconciliation.

In 2022, as the influence of newspapers are at record lows and the Sun’s finances are in dire straits, the Sun outlined their regrets and offered a way forward. The paper demonstrated its commitment by “atoning for the paper’s past wrongs regarding race” with a bulleted list of action item which include:

Lauch a reporting team to tell more Black stories
Establish a community engagement committee
Build a database of sources that could be called upon to diversify voices
Hire fewer white people and more “people of color”

Mere hours after its Apology, the Sun announced a about a half dozen new hires. The goodwill garnered by the Apology was immediately tempered by an exchange on social media:

Screen grab from Twitter on February 26, 2022

Denouncing David Simon as the way forward

There’s likely no correlation (certainly none that could be proven) between two Maryland events: H.L. Mencken’s death in January 1956 and David Simon’s birth in February 1960, but that’s no reason to refrain from making the argument that Simon is more likely than not, Mencken reincarnated.

Sealed until 25 years after he died, the contents of Mencken’s diary published in 1989 was discovered to be filled with hate speech that included anti-sematic rants that shocked even his closest friends who immediately distanced themselves from him. Many spoke openly about their disdain: ″The diaries are almost sick. I mean he hated everybody,″ said Gwinn Owens, a former editor and columnist on The Evening Sun whose father, Hamilton Owens, was a long-time Sunpapers editor and friend of Mencken’s, as reported by the Associate Press.

“… it is impossible to talk anything resembling discretion or judgment to a colored woman. They are all essentially child-like, and even hard experience does not teach them anything.″
From Menken’s diary, dated September 1943

The Sun’s response was to back Mencken as being colorful curmudgeon and double down by immortalizing his words by placing a colorful quote on the wall of the newsroom. The desicion to ride or die with Menken is a clear reflection of how entrenched white supremacy’s roots were dug in deep at the Sun. In the Apology, the Sun reiterated the numerous times they could have recognized or distanced themselves from Mencken and for that they apologized.

No one comes close to Mencken’s legendary status at the Sun. David Simon although has surpassed him. The creator of HBO’s critically acclaimed show The Wire has elevated Simon into the pantheon of television greats. He prefers to his misogynistic and crude comments to be enjoyed during his lifetime and posts frequently on social media and not privately in a diary.

Simon joined the Sun in 1983. By 1988 the young reporter had spent a year embedded within the notoriously corrupt Baltimore City Police department. His experience led to the publishing of his book, “Homicide, A Year on the Killing Streets.” The book and subsequent Hollywood productions catapulted David Simon to the rarefied air that in his mind apparently allows him to use the most profane and racist word known to Blacks.

The young reporter was granted unprecedented access to Baltimore police. One could only imagine just what it took for Simon, a truth-seeking journalist, to be able to forge a bond of trust with various members of a department known for its secrecy due to its over- reliance upon unconstitutional and racist behaviors. It’s worth noting that no exposé of police wrongdoings surfaced as a result of his “investigative reporting”. A few police officers were given acting roles on Simon’s Hollywood projects though.

With the city reeling because of the ineptitude of the police department at a annual price tag of half billion dollars, some have wondered what role Simon’s work has had on the city’s notable violent nature since he came on board The Sun. In January 2022, Lara Bazelon wrote about the numerous misconduct lawsuits against many of the men Simon cozied up to for New York Magazine.

The Sun should have been first to that story, but it is not too late for them to examine how “elite” officers become “untouchable.” If sincerity is at the heart of the Apology, then addressing the contributions David Simon has had as an embedded reporter to the bullet proof cover the department has enjoyed in avoiding accountability would be a clear indication of their intentions.

If the Sun were to speak hard truths to and about David Simon, it would certainly put a crack in the foundation of white supremacy that the Sun is built upon.

Twitter suspended Simon. Many have taken public stands against his language on social media. The Sun can begin atoning for the sins of its father and finally exorcise the ghosts of A. S. Abell by breaking its silence. Editors need only to summon the brashness and evoke the spirit of Mencken himself and speak truth to the powerful David Simon.

When you can’t trust the police…

Prologue: In a city where the tally of unsolved murders reach the triple digits each year, it is still surprising when a homicide detective’s murder becomes a cold case in Baltimore City.

The November 2017 broad daylight shooting death of detective Sean Suiter in a residential neighborhood has reached its third anniversary. The one sketchy suspect description was quickly recanted by the one eyewitness (also a detective).

With each passing year, it looks more probable (and not just possible) that Suiter was lured to Bennett Place, trapped in the alley, put down like a dog in the street, and the crime scene (held by police for an abnormally extended time period) was staged to look like a suicide.

A bombshell press conference by Suiter’s grieving family broke through the typical blue wall of silence in May 2019 when they claimed that the 39-year old’s murder was an inside job. This occurred on the heels of the department pledging to investigate itself when it brought in a panel called the “Independent Review Board” (IRB) to review their casefiles and in their 2018 report arrived at a manner of death different that the coroner (suicide versus homicide).

To be clear, the Suiter family believes Baltimore police was involved in the murder of one of their own, and they are not alone.

Cops controlled the narrative and the neighborhood

Controlling the narrative about the possibility of Suiter being shot with his own service weapon that allegedly was found under his body was equally as important as controlling movement in and around the crime scene around the clock for days on end.

A sober look at the case reveals much of what local media outlets have “reported” is merely a regurgitation of Baltimore Police spin. Consider the source: maybe, just maybe, the department could be frantically covering up a murder, making it prudent for professional journalists to take what law enforcement said (and probably more important what they haven’t said) with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Coverage of the Sean Suiter homicide began with widely reported misinformation that he was shot as he knocked on doors following up on a year old triple murder in the west Baltimore community of Harlem Park. The public later learned that he was likely confronted in the alley (and not the lot) and that he was assisting another junior homicide detective (David Bomenka) with his murder case that happened just weeks prior.

Unfounded Accusation #1: Suiter was shot with his own gun.

Truth: That is pure speculation on four crucial fronts:

BPD (poorly) reenacted the “discovery” of the bullet that they said killed him. This happened in front of cameras by members of the homicide unit after the crime scene unit had released the area coming up empty after digging in the exact same spot looking for other missing bullets. NOTE: The “evidence” was too damaged to run ballistics tests to try and determine if Suiter’s gun fired that bullet. All that can be proven is that the bullet dramatically “discovered” at the scene is the same type that is used by BPD. It is not hyperbole to state that Baltimore Police have made an artform out of planting evidence.

Screengrab of a local television station’s cameras that captured BPD “discovery” of the bullet that killed Det. Sean Suiter just after ending the weeklong lockdown “securing the crime scene” ie media blackout – only to have reporters camera’s booted out again.

2. Suiter’s gun has a serial number. The public has have not been shown if the weapon tested has the same serial number as the Glock service weapon that was assigned to him.

3. The public should be comfortable assuming only that the bullet that killed Suiter likely came from one of the thousands of similar weapons issued by the Baltimore Police department.

4. Suiter may not have ever fired a gun that day. His hand were wiped clean by an overzealous (unidentified) hospital employee, police said. While the report spends an inordinate amount of time discussing the blood on his sleeve, no mention was made of whether gunshot residue (GSR) tests were performed on his shirt or his jacket. Also curious is that BPD originally reported that blood was recovered on his suit jacket and was later changed to his sleeve for no apparent reason once the suicide theory took hold. No explanation is provided for the absence of any photographs on either Suiter’s jacket or his shirt before the IRB became involved a whole year after the shooting.

Unfounded Accusation #2 : Suiter fell on his gun.

Truth: No one has come forward saying they saw Suiter fall or can definitively say where his gun was before he was moved into the patrol car:

At best, the detective with Suiter is an unreliable witness (also a tradition at BPD) and at worse he saw who killed the detective, manipulated the crime scene and/or took part in the cover up. Only photos grabbed from body worn cameras (BWC) of responding officers were provided to the press and there have been no statements attributed to any specific individual saying he or she saw the gun under his body.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that BPD planted a gun at the scene, removed it and submitted one into evidence and claimed it to be Suiter’s. Ironically, Suiter was scheduled to testify about how multiple Baltimore police officers conspired to hide an illegal fatal car chase by planting evidence that sent two innocent Black men to prison rather than admit they were merely speeding.

NOTE: BPD was reprimanded by the IRB for the contaminated crime scene and “recovery” of a service weapon from the trunk of a patrol car belonging to an unidentified officer at some unspecified time that was logged into evidence as Suiter’s gun.

Baltimore Police’s “Independent Review Board Report. Page 37

In his official interviews, according to the IRB report, homicide detective David Bomenka changed his version of what he saw: included seeing a. Suiter in the act of falling, b. having just collapsed to the ground and c. having had already fallen. But he was was steadfast that he didn’t see a gun in his hand; he only said that he saw gun smoke near Suiter.
Most surprisingly, we don’t know if Bomenka saw or heard Suiter on his departmental radio. There was a transmission of Suiter sounding like he was in distress just as he was shot, according to officials. That would be a question worth knowing the answer to.
When back up officers arrived once Bomenka (or someone) called 911 (the public has not heard the recording either), the photo from the BWC and presented in the IRB report is out of focus and unclear. The peculiar wording indicates the officers “could see” the gun, not that they did see or even that said that they saw the gun. It’s a crucial distinction.

The newspaper of record in March 2018 reported as fact that Suiter’s gun, “freshly fired” was underneath his body when responding officers arrived. It’s important for responsible journalists to distinguish what police said and attribute their claims to the source as opposed to offering up speculation as factual information to a trusting public that journalists have not independently verified or obtained similar statements from multiple sources on the record.

Out of many, the most absurd claim is IRB’s determination that Suiter’s weapon undisputedly fired the fatal shot as it defies logic. First, they tested the blood on the gun BPD found in the patrol car of an unnamed officer who presented it as the same gun that was “freshly fired” that no one saw under his body. Voila, the blood tested on the gun gift wrapped to them matched Suiter’s DNA. Mind you Suiter was transported in a patrol car to the hospital bleeding from a head wound. Whoever removed the gun from the crime scene had ample opportunity to place blood on a service weapon – either a random service weapon or actually the one that belonged to Suiter.

IRB’s suicide theory would have been a more convincing claim had the IRB report included:

the serial numbers of Suiter’s assigned weapon showing they matched the gun tested
the gun tested was the exact same one was recovered at the crime scene (instead of a car trunk), but there are no crime scene photographs of where the gun was found making this impossible
BWC that clearly captured arriving officer’s discovery of the gun under his body as he was rolled over that may or may not be available
crime scene photos of the location of the gun and the bullet that no one thought to take
whether or not Suiter’s DNA was found on the “recovered” bullet
if bullets and casings didn’t just magically disappear from the scene after Suiter died

Confusingly, IRB depicts in a photo the bullet that was not tested for ballistics, have no DNA on them (presumably), and have zero evidentiary value. What should be pictured is Suiter’s firearm circling where the blood splatter was located that actually tested positive for his DNA. Page 42 of IRB report.

Missing from the report is exact amount of blood splatter reportedly on the gun that IRB tested for DNA recovered and tested from the barrel and gun surface. An assessment should be made about whether Suiter’s blood found on the weapon is consistent with someone adding blood to it, or if it is likely that the blood was from a single shot being fired at close range near someone’s head. The IRB made a similar splatter determination with blood photographed on the sleeve, but did not do so with the “smoking gun.”

The problems with a complicit media

So many questions remain unanswered about the investigation, despite the IRB. Last year, a second review of the case by Maryland State Police (MSP) was conducted, but to date no report was released to the public. Unlike the IRB, MSP did not conduct a press conference leaving media outlets to get the finding from Commissioner Michael Harrison. Without any scrutiny from the public, MSP concluded that Suiter shot himself in the head after firing three or more shots into the air before shooting himself.

Neither panel brought in by Baltimore Police department to “investigate” their investigation reported on the lockdown of Harlem Park and BPD certainly didn’t request that either group look into whether it was possible that anyone manipulated the crime scene as part of a wider cover up.

As long as the case remains open, public access to documents remain shielded. Harrison, the fourth commissioner since the shooting, had called the investigation closed after MSP’s findings, only walk it back once the State’s Attorney’s office countered him by calling it an open and pending matter last year as the second anniversary of Suiter’s death approached.

Even with what little is known, it should be at least clear that beyond statements attributed to David Bomenka, nothing reliable has been presented that 1. Suiter was shot with his own service weapon or 2. that his body fell on a smoking gun. Such reporting is far from fact and closer to fable. What is discernable from the reporting is that members of the media were not able to view BWC, did not hear the 911 call for help, have not spoken with any investigators on the record, or even been given witness statements to read.

In advance of the August 2018 IRB report the Baltimore Sun used unnamed and anonymous sources to float out the idea that Suiter shot himself in the head and then fell on his “freshly fired” gun as “new details”.

More from Baltimore Sun’s story by Justin Fenton from March 2018 just before the announcement that an IRB panel would be reviewing the methods BPD used to investigate the homicide.

Residents in the community heard between four and five gunshots according to news reports. Miraculously, after occupying the neighborhood for a week, the crime scene unit was unable to recover a single bullet, although they did retrieve three casings near where he lay dying in the lot. There’s no definitive proof offered that the recovered casings in any way matched Suiter’s weapon, yet the IRB said without hesitancy that they came from his gun, presumably because they were recovered near his body. The leaps in this reasoning might not be judged as too far fetched- had they found the other missing bullets that went into the air but didn’t come down where they could be easily found even after a week of looking for them.

Regrettably, mainstream media in real time shrugged at the occupation of West Baltimore during this entire process, arguably because of the nature of the crime makes them sympathetic to the dangers of law enforcement and more subtlety because the color of the skin of the people complaining about overreach made their claims less newsworthy. Although in November 2019 the ACLU heard the complaints and filed a lawsuit against BPD which did gain media attention.

To any casual observer, the unprecedented 24/7 lockdown of the neighborhood had nothing to do with looking for a shooter, or finding bullets (since they came up empty on both fronts) but served to manipulate the scene and make sure any concocted story would match witness accounts prompting a social media hashtag #FreeWestBaltimore.

Protect and Serve? When Protectors Become Predators

Baltimore police officers have shown themselves to be pretty darn petty.

And vindictive.

Two cases that recently came before the Civilian Review Board (CRB) exemplify the real risk citizens face when after they “see something” they actually “say something”.

The scenarios couldn’t have been more different. One happened in the summer of 2017, when a woman was arrested in front of her home on her way from work. CRB reported on the results of its two-month investigation and sustained her claims of harassment, false arrest and false imprisonment.

“This is the sort of policing you don’t want to see… I thought it was awful,”

— Dr. Mel Currie CRB’s southwestern district representative.

The other is from summer 2019, when a 28-year old man while walking by officers who were engaged in a stop, was chased, knocked to the ground and arrested himself. At its regular monthly meeting on September 19, the CRB agreed to initiate an investigation into his harassment complaint, separate from the department’s internal investigation, which may take a year.

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It’s no anomaly when Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) officials retaliate against citizens who challenge their authority, speak negatively about the department or in this one case illuminate someone’s shortcomings.

In Baltimore, the “snitches get stitches” mentality also applies to those who dare complain about excessive force or police intimidation tactics.

What happened to the claimant could have easily happened to anyone in Baltimore at a four way stop sign – blindsided when a car blows through. She avoided certain catastrophe by mere seconds at no fault of her own.

The woman did what most prudent people do, she glared at the reckless driver and kept it moving.

Things should have ended there, but it didn’t. The other car, just so happens, was a BPD squad car. It was driven by a veteran patrol officer of over 27 years. The CRB without access to personnel records is unable to determine if this was his first or fiftieth complaint, a constant irritant as the members struggle with recommending a suitable discipline.

“[The police officer] escalated the confrontation by … following her, going to her house and then towing her husband’s car,” said Betty Robinson, CRB northeastern district representative.

CRB Members Experiences Bring Unique Perspectives

Insight into the mindset of the officer was offered by CRB member Fred Jackson, retired from the Baltimore Sheriff’s department. He enumerated the series of the department’s problematic decisions in the traffic stop.

First, the officer was likely upset about the “near miss” at the intersection and likely put off by the woman’s perturbed response.

Second, the “stop” required he put both his lights and sirens and he had to have a reason to stop her. She was not given a ticket for any traffic violation. (He didn’t show up for court, thusly dismissing the case).

Finally, BPD towed the car that legally parked at her home:

“That was spiteful,” said Jackson, northwestern district representative.

In a perfect example of justice delayed is justice denied, the CRB sustained the woman’s allegations against the officer, using relying upon evidence just recently provided by BPD in violation of state statute.

BPD is required to turn over IAD files on complaints within 90 days. The internal affairs department held this case for over a year. CRB has done little to push back against the departments habitual nose thumbing of their obligation in the citizen review process.

Once investigators got the file, BWC footage shows the subject officer being “very agitated, very confrontational” said Bridal Pearson, northern district. The former CRB chair cited IAD’s reprimand of the veteran officer for “conduct unbecoming an officer” in his rationale for sustaining the woman’s complaint.

Although the woman and her husband have moved fearing BPD retaliation, this is the kind of case that keeps city solicitor Andre Davis working overtime. Davis, a mayoral appointee, has succeeded in both thwarting investigations into BPD misconduct, as well as silencing its critics.

However, now that the CRB has validated the woman’s claims, it opens the door for civil litigation.

Already victims have difficulty recovering seized property and reimbursement of costs wrongfully incurred (in this case towing), said board member Amy Cruice representing the ACLU. The victim could have used the board’s finding to assist in being made whole financially, but the year deadline for tort claim remedy also expired, she said.

Ultimately both BPD’s internal investigation and the one conducted independently by the CRB arrived at the very same conclusion: the cop was all kinds of wrong.

The officer said he had his lights and sirens on when he went through the stop signs (He didn’t). The charge against her was eluding an officer (She wasn’t).

Once she arrived and parked at her house, the victim herself had to request the officer to activate his Body Worn Camera (BWC), CRB found in its investigation. The internal investigators dinged him for that as well.

City Solicitor Abandons Citizens To Favor Shielding Bad Cops

Even though CRB was unanimous in its decision to sustain the allegation, they could not move to the next phase of recommending discipline because the case had expired by the time BPD handed over its file that permitted CRB to review evidence.

CRB has been criticized for being a paper tiger, with no real authority to implement its recommended discipline (which is reserved for the police commissioner). Seeking independence, the board rankled the law department sufficiently enough that solicitor Andre Davis backed down from ordering BPD to withhold all case files for four months as a lawsuit pended.

Allowing life-altering citizen complaints to expire is a known practice by the internal affairs division (IAD) renamed this summer Public Integrity Bureau (PIB). Major Stephanie Lansey-Delgado sent an email in April 2018 to supervisors that the department had “not been aggressive” getting cases investigated before the one year expiration date, as continuing story from Kevin Rector, reporter for Baltimore Sun.

In its public meetings, officers’ names are confidential per departmental policy regarding personnel matters and CRB does not disclose complainants’ identification.

As for the complaint CRB accepted regarding an independent investigation into the retaliatory arrest, the 28-year old man who was arrested after he commented to an officer, was arrested again- mere hours after his release. His CRB complaint claims the retaliatory arrest was harassment for bringing to light abusive behavior.

Although the parties’ identities were not disclosed at the meeting, it is pretty safe to presume the case involved 24-year veteran Sgt Ethan Newberg who told Lee Dotson to “take his charges like a man” when Newberg arrested Dotson for commenting on police activity as he passed by.

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Police Commissioner Michael Harrison in a late night June 2019 presser along with State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced the officer’s arrest on second degree assault charges. He also released BWC footage showing officers chasing and tackling Dotson.

Newberg was released from custoday and is awaiting trial.

Cops as Criminals: It’s Not Black and White

All crooked cops aren’t created equally.

Some are born crooked. Some are led astray. Still others, like Momodo Gondo, has crookedness thrust upon him.

No one can pinpoint exactly when Baltimore Police became a hotbed of corruption. More importantly though, no one alive today can honestly remember when it wasn’t.

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Above: Momodu Gondo points to former BPD commander Dean Palmere (Below) who helped orchestrate the cover up of a murder carried out by a GTTF member. Palmere is the subject of a lawsuit that claims it was his command that permitted abuses by GTTF.

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Gondo and his closest Baltimore Police Department (BPD) buddy Jemell Rayam set the federal courthouse on fire last year as cooperating witnesses against two officers standing trial, Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor. The testimony was explosive pointing fingers at higher ups and eventually one another as members of the media darlings: Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF).

Gondo is scheduled for sentencing Tuesday February 12th. The month-long trial left a lasting impression: corruption is rampant throughout BPD and everybody knows it. The most influential media types have coddled the likes of former BPD commissioner and WBAL guest talk show host Kevin Davis who as points to a few bad apples tarnishing an otherwise stellar organization.

The world (not an exaggeration) took notice of BPD’s level of corruption after what happened to 25-year old Freddie Gray. A bystander’s video of Gray, wounded and howling, sickened all with a conscience who heard it. People still cringe watching the previously healthy and strapping young man being helped into the back of a van by a cadre of white officers.

So there’s that.

Even before Gray’s fatal injuries in police custody, in 2014, the Baltimore Sun chronicled the exorbitant payouts in taxpayer dollars to silence citizens who suffered mightily at the hands of a small, but growing and increasingly violent cadre of police officers.

If Baltimore didn’t invent Walking While Black, it sure did its damnest to perfect it.

West Baltimore is where the long arm of constitutional protections simply does not reach. Never did. Generations of families suffer from substandard housing, lack of health care, poor nutrition, high drop out rates and low income with precious few escapes.

Heavily reliant upon mass transits, West Baltimore is where BPD members hone their racist practices disguised as stops, searches, and seizures. Sadly, two decades into the new millennium, some blacks believe that over policing is what is needed to make their communities safe.

The lack of concern for West Baltimore was never more evident that during the uprising when Douglass High School students were dismissed early from school, only to have the MTA refuse them service at the Mondawmin Metro stop, forcing them to walk home, only to be confronted with grown as police men (mostly) in riot gear hurling chunks of brick at the children.

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After a yearlong investigation, the Department of Justice (called in after the Freddie Gray homicide), released its findings in an August 2016 scathing report. To no one’s surprise, the DOJ found that systemic racist practices were embedded so deep into the culture that BPD had not shed even a layer of its history cloaked with KKK sympathizers.

The corruption was inescapable in 2016. Even so, when black homicide detective Sean Suiter was shot in the back of his head in November 2017 on a vacant lot in broad daylight with a white partner in tow, no one hardly blinked when BPD treated residents of Harlem Park like it was Fullujah.

Parallels to the Iraq War and BPD training are eerily similar. Evidence of mistreatment of women recruits was captured as a “trophy”.

Arguably, Momodo Gondo, as an eager recruit didn’t join BPD with plans of using his badge and glock as a literal license to kill, maim, intimidate and harass. The kid came from a “good family” of immigrants in a two parent household of professionals.

His father, Albert Gondo, a native of Sierra Leonne (as is his wife), worked for 20 years as a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools. He died in December 2016 after a lengthy battle with Cancer. According to his family, he was known a a principled man, a devoted husband and father.

When emotions ran high during the GTTF trial, Gondo would take to swearing on the memory of his dead father to repudiate fellow detective Jemelle Rayam’s claim about why Gondo was shot shoon after leaving the Academy. Rayam has yet to be sentenced.

If Gondo wasn’t born bad, when did it all go wrong?

The Academy – 2005

Gondo @22 years old

Gondo and his academy brother Rayam are the final two government witnesses awaiting sentencing. Gondo – under oath accused Rayam of cold-blooded murder (explored further in Part II) that was covered up by Palmere.

Academy training has more in common with military training than the most of the public may know. The enemy are the people on the street, the community members and the only ones cops trust are themselves. The creed is to make it home safe. It rarely has anything to do with protecting and serving the public. Especially if the public is black, male and doubly so if he lives in West Baltimore.

Indoctrination and training are the two major components of the trainee’s experiences. Like the military, the BPD academy experience is designed to break down a person, and build them up. Not coincidentally, it also serves as a loyalty demand. Recruits early on learn to depend on the brotherhood as if their life depended on it.

Gondo graduated in October 2006.

Screenshots from a 2004 era video of a training exercise where a trainee exits a gas house puking with her skin burning reliant upon BPD to carry her to safety. The level of depravity at BPD seemingly knows no bounds.

3 Shots in the Back – 2006

Gondo @23 years old

Then-Officer Gondo was shot three times in the back in December 2006, barely two months after graduating the academy. Using a photo array, Gondo fingered the shooter as 24-year old Collin Hawkins (with a long history of drug dealing offenses on his record). The feds, not the Baltimore States Attorney’s office made the case.

The particular moment that turned Gondo into a career criminal cannot be exact, but the same cannot be said for determining when BPD failed him and the community he was allowed to stalk.

Attempted Murder Trial – 2008

Gondo @25 years old

A case of He said vs He said.

The jury returned a not guilty verdict for the man charged with pumping 3 bullets into the back of a bullet proof vest Gondo was wearing as he got out of his car near his home in East Baltimore.

As the victim (and a cop to boot) Gondo pointed out for the jury, a young black man Collin Hawkins as the person he fired 13 rounds at in a street shoot out. Gondo told the jury that he he and Hawkins struggled as he tried to thwart a carjacking. No dice. The jury decided not to believe Gondo.

Hawkins’ defense attorney claimed that Gondo simply chose the wrong guy. The defense pointed to the State’s Attorney’s Office’s extremely weak case with no gun, no DNA from the reported struggle. It was just the rookie’s word, and it wasn’t enough.

Next Up: in Part II Fed Witness Testimony and The Sentencing

Freddie Gray: BPD’s Most Famous Yet Forgotten Victim

Freddie Gray’s painful wails resonate as loud as those who suffered the barbaric Middle Passage.

Instead of a transport from African tribal villages to “The New World” Baltimore Police chained him like a hog. Not in a ship, but in a van, they circled around between Gilmor projects to McCulloh Homes and back again to the Western precinct – all the time with him shackled.

It was at Western District HQ that EMT’s found him to be unresponsive, surrounded by law enforcement officers already in the throes of denials.

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It took a Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery (except for punishment of a crime) in the United States. Academy award winning director Ava DuVernay produced a Netflix documentary on the subject. Regardless, since 1865, law enforcement officers have become judge, jurors and executioners.

Running in the opposite direction at the sight of police isn’t a crime. Chasing people who do, though, ought to be be. The Baltimore six were either tried, exonerated or had their charges dropped in a court of law.

Freddie Gray was charged with possession of a knife that was hidden in his pants pocket. Police stopped him because he could. He ran because BPD are notorious for robbing people and/or planting evidence. It was an early Sunday spring morning.

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To Know Where You’re Going, Know Where You’ve Been

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Baltimore Police is awash with criminals. A Department of Justice investigation found that the department rarely follows the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution. The culture of unconstitutional behavior goes back decades, for generations.

If not for the Freddie Gray investigation, it’s likely that members of the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) would still be driving their cars into groups of unsuspecting citizens. Sgt Wayne Jenkins and officer Danny Hersl would likely be planning to burglarize their next luxury condo at the city’s crown jewel, the harbor.

The resulting Consent Decree is a referendum on the actions of BPD and Freddie Gray’s death. An in depth look at the absurdity of the internal investigation is explored in a podcast, UnDisclosed The Killing of Freddie Gray.

For perhaps underlying racist reasons the courts, the monitors and even the DOJ seem content to allow the BPD to make it about the Gun Trace Task force and not about Freddie Gray.

Gun Trace Tack Force’s Forced Confrontation of What Everybody Already Knew

Sitting in on the GTTF trial was an eye opener for many seasoned reporters. As each victim under oath recounted how armed Baltimore Police officers cased their homes, held them at under threat of lethal force and stole not just money, jewelry, clothing and for some drugs, a fact could not longer be ignored.

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Baltimore Police Department itself is corrupt. No one (other than the FOP) will dare say now that the problem is either a few bad apples or rogue officers. It’s an unavoidable certainty that the systems in place at BPD produced, cultivated and unleashed emboldened criminals to prey on primarily the weakest and most vulnerable of the city’s residents. For this, there is no redemption.

The barrel that holds together the law enforcement agency for Baltimore City is a putrid vessel carrying despicable and deplorable individuals. Anyone after listening to GTTF and still believes BPD can be reformed instead of destroyed.

Freddie Gray’s Death Cloaked BPD in Feelings of Invincibility

How rotten is BPD? GTTF robberies occurred while the feds were in cruisers doing ride alongs, knee deep scouring IAD files, and listening to wiretaps. A (still yet identified) snitch within the State’s Attorney’s office leaked to the BPD gang that indictments were likely. Jenkins, his crew, and ilk continued to plant evidence and sell drugs.

It’s easy to see why GTTF felt emboldened. Freddie Gray died from painful and pronounced injuries while police custody. His death was likely the result of excessive force by multiple officers. Even with charges filed, trials held, and exoneration handed down, there’s been no accounting for his untimely death.

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The federal government was closing in. The indicted BPD officers (low level) were weeks away from trial. Some were looking to cut a deal or change their pleas. Next, a former member of their team was scheduled to testify the next day. Before he could name names and point fingers, Det. Sean Suiter ended up with a bullet in the back of his head in an abandoned lot with only another BPD officer present.

In this environment, the likely suspect would seem to be connected to Freddie Gray and/or the GTTF crew. Instead, BPD hired an “outside” and “independent” panel which arrived at an incredulous finding of suicide.

Keeping One’s Eyes on the Prize

In a 20 minute opening statement on Thursday January 24, 2019 in the U.S. Courthouse, Judge James K. Bredar who is overseeing the implementation of the Consent Decree spoke of several matters. Not one time did he mention Freddie Gray. A synopsis of his major points are as follows:

The BPD’s training facility is really cold and unimpressive. The state should fund a new state of the art building/campus to lure good cops to Baltimore.
Michael S. Harrison, New Orleans’ top cop is the best hope Baltimore can ask for considering its last commissioner was arrested for tax evasion.
If BPD doesn’t reform itself, the violence and crime will skyrocket.
Feds find themselves in “deplorable circumstances” having (during a shut-down) to represent the government without being paid.
23 murders by the 24th of the month is a “shocking statistic”
The department’s only hope now is Michael S. Harrison.
Community engagement efforts are lagging.
BPD has written new policies.
CRB is all but in the trash bin.
Mayor Pugh didn’t show at all and Tuggle didn’t return after the lunch break to attend to a “family emergency.”

Once the meeting was winding down and some thought levity was appropriate, Judge Bredar made a quip. Bredar said he couldn’t wait to read the book interim commissioner Gary Tuggle is likely to write after his stint with BPD.

That, my dear, is the Baltimore way.

Top 10 (Known) Crimes by ex Baltimore City Police Det. Danny Hersl

Warning: Do Not Proceed Unless You Believe (Some) Baltimore Police Straight Up Rob People on the Regular

Veteran cop, Daniel T. Hersl, 49, infamous for his abusive rants and provocations of Baltimore’s citizens, awaits sentencing Friday June 22 in U.S. District Court. He faces up to 60 years after a jury found him guilty of racketeering, fraud and robbery charges as a member of the violence-prone street gang with badges, – otherwise known as the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF).

Using RICO statutes, originally crafted as a way to bust open impenetrable crime syndicates like the Mafia, the feds pursued eight cops who as employees of Baltimore City Police department created a criminal enterprise while working as BPD officers that included robbery and drug dealing.

officer arrested 4 — ex BPD Det. Jemell Rayam. During trial accused Danny Hersl of stealing $3k cash from the $20k cash they stole during a robbery — proving there is no honor among BPD thieves. The robbery victims currently have a civil lawsuit against the city.

During closing arguments in a February 2018 trial, federal prosecutors reminded jurors that Hersl, who joined BPD in 1999, and other veterans in the Baltimore City Police department were acting as both cops and robbers for years, some even before they joined the GTTF. The victims were believable; the crimes were brazen; the sentences are historical.

A timeline to assist with understanding the “Top 10” Crimes by Daniel T. “Danny” Hersl

April 2015 Freddie Gray in-custody homicide
April 2015 Civil unrest in West Baltimore’s to protest F.G’s violent death
Summer 2015 Jenkins sells looted pharma drugs, sparking opioid crisis
July 2016 Feds tap BPD vehicle in the Shropshire drug organization investigation
August 2016 Department of Justice scathing report on BPD systematic abuses
March 2017 Federal indictments announced against BPD’s GTTF squad
April 2017 City enters into a Consent Decree to reform BPD’s racists practices
Oct 2017 Rayam and Gondo testify as gov’t witness against A. Shropshire
Nov 2017 Det. Sean Suiter murdered the day before scheduled witness testimony
Jan 2018 Four ex GTTF cops testify to a 4+ year crime spree while police officers
Feb 2018 Jury find Danny Hersl and Marcus Taylor guilty using RICO

To recap, the Gun Trace Task Force was one of many special units within the BPD that operated with little oversight and under various acronyms through different administrations over decades.

As plainclothes detectives, they have untold (and undocumented) interactions with a plethora of drugs, guns, and cash. Such units are ripe for corruption, according to the the federal government, even in the best of departments. One member of GTTF, Det. Thomas Clewell who worked along side of each of the members has not been charged.

GUN TRACE TASK FORCE

In closing arguments, federal prosecutors implored the mostly white jury to see the parade of unlikely victims, some drug dealers, others with a criminal background as not worthy of protection of the United States Constitution.

Hersl’s co-defendant Marcus Taylor, who joined BPD in 2009, was sentenced to 18 years earlier this month and is planning an appeal. Judge Catherine Blake will hear motions related to Hersl’s conviction, but is expected to proceed with his sentencing. Others who plead guilty thus sparing taxpayers the expense of trial or the complete farce of proclaiming innocence are:

Sgt. Wayne Jenkins, now serving 25 years, joined BPD in 2003. Was the ranking officer in charge of the Special Enforcement Section (SES) with Taylor along with officers Evodio Hendrix and Maruice Ward before taking over GTTF. Robberies by Jenkins, Hendrix, Ward and Taylor began as early as 2013 as members of the SES squad.

Sgt. Thomas Allers, now serving 15 years, joined BPD in 1996. Headed up GTTF from its origin to 2016 before handing the reigns over to Jenkins and leaving to join a joint DEA task force.

Two other Baltimore Police detectives who plead guilty, did not go to trial and also served as cooperating witnesses (presumably are still doing so in ongoing investigations) include ex detectives Jemell Rayam and Momodu Gondo.

ex Det. Danny Hersl’s Top 10 Crimes and Lawsuits

10 Gave a slip of paper with the date written on it as a warning to H.T. after searching his mouth and down his pants not to let him see him again – only to arrest him a few days later in Nov 2015. Hersl stole $314 from a check he had just cashed. Guilty of robbery and extortion.

9 Stole narcotics and $1700 cash from A.F. and let him go. Guilty of robbery and extortion in Aug. 2016.

8 Stole $2000 from a sock in a homeless man’s storage unit. Threatened the business’ clerk when he would not hand over the surveillance video that captured the theft.

7 Took about $8000 from glove compartment of D.A. who was caught after fleeing scene tossing cocaine out of the window.

6 Nearly doubling his $75k annual salary with false claims of overtime and wire fraud.

5 Breaking the jaw of fleeing suspect until he passed out in 2010. City paid $49k.

4 Breaking the arm of a 19-year old girl in a carry out restaurant in 2007. City paid $50k

3 Dropped charges by prosecutors in a 2006 case when jurors were notified that complaints against him to Internal Affairs were in the double digits. This was 10 years before he was promoted to the GTTF.

“Misconduct, sometimes when it’s frequent enough, it indicates a lack of desire to tell the truth” (the late) Circuit Court Judge John Prevas is quoted as saying after reviewing Hersl’s IAD file, in a 2014 Baltimore Sun story

2 The double cross. Robbery of the Hamiltons in July 2016. Hersl reportedly stole $3k while the GTTF crew wasn’t looking and before BPD stole $20K from the family.

1 The depraved indifference. Instead of rending aid, Hersl sits with other GTTF cops in a nearby police car after an illegal high speed chase that resulted in an Aug 2016 car crash. Hersl is heard on the wire tap suggesting ways to cover up the fact that they were working at all by altering documents to avoid discipline or prosecution.

Hersl bike — Danny Hersl, convict and former “elite” Baltimore Police officer

Within the Constitutionally-adverse BPD, these units became known as “elite” by the media as well as up and down previous and existing names in command. Both would hype the arrests as a measure of crime fighting.

But for the citizens they were sworn to protect and serve, these units became the living, breathing, gun-toting, badge wearing symbol of why no one would ever willingly call or cooperate with the police even in the most dire of circumstances.

Hersl’s (Dis) Hornable mentions:

Harassing dirt bike enthusiasts.
Harassing local rapper Young Moose chronicled by CityPaper.
Pepper spraying demonstrators in the wake of of Freddie Gray’s death.

“Detective Hersl, he a bitch, I swear to God he ain’t right/ Heard about my rap career, he trying to fuck up my life/ That nigga fuck me over once, he ain’t getting another,” Moose raps on the song ‘Tired,’ off 2014’s “OTM 3” mixtape. “That racist bitch had the nerve to put the cuffs on my mother/ Put the cuffs on my father, then put the cuffs on my brother/ He think about me every day, that nigga mind in the gutter/ Looking for some information bitch that ain’t how I rock/ Throwing dirt on my name because I’m going to the top/ The warrant wasn’t even right when they ran in my spot.” – Young Moose interview by Brandon Soderberg

Murder By Numbers: Policing in Baltimore Just Doesn’t Add Up

Prologue: Baltimore Police are cornered. After the uprising sparked by the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, the Department retaliated by purposely neglecting neighborhoods they deem to be not worthy of police protection by what they ironically called taking a knee. In one of those areas, Harlem Park, Det. Sean Suiter was shot in the head and left for dead in 2017. Police face scrutiny from Baltimore’s Office of Civil Rights and the ACLU when it suspended the Constitution by preventing free movement in this residential area for nearly a week. Top brass rationalized the move as necessary to catch a vaguely described black man wearing a black jacket. The case is still unsolved despite a record setting $215,000 reward.

Nudged in between 2015 (Gray) and 2017 (Suiter) one murder victim went largely noticed. However, the case emerged from the shadows, in March 2018 when parents took their concerns to the regular monthly meeting of the Civilian Review Board. Just so happens, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice were in attendance and took a keen interest in the case of Greg Riddick. After tearful testimony and an enraged Board at a May 2018 CRB meeting, the Board issued its blistering findings – willfully exceeding its authority due to the atrocities its investigation uncovered.

PART I: What follows shows what happens when civilians have a say in policing and why clearly Baltimore police are utterly incapable of policing themselves.

Gregory Riddick’s parents learned of their son’s death like countless many others in Baltimore.

They logged onto to Murder Ink.

No one from BPD called the family about recovering Greg’s body. There was no late night knock on the door. Nor did the family themselves call around to hospitals or their local precinct. That stuff only happens in the movies.

In this instance, Baltimore’s latest murder victim was not identified by name, but by number. The report stated a 26-year old male died of gunshot wounds in the area where Gregg was last known to have been. It was with the announcement on Murder Ink, the family’s tug of war with the all mighty and powerful Baltimore City Police Department began.

“They didn’t ask me to come down and ID my son or nothing,” said Riddick. “The next time I saw my son was in the funeral home.”

Justice at this point seems to be too big of an ask. Each day local television, social media and The Baltimore Sun tallies up people’s sons, brothers, uncles, husbands, fathers and friends as if they were counting Chicklets out of a gumball machine.

Save the rare novelty of a victim who was also an honor roll student, a grandmother or young child, mainstream media fails to show the humanity of the lives lost, the suffering of the community, and more likely than not these days, the role that BPD played.

Murder Ink, the lifeline for much of Baltimore, didn’t tell the whole story, of course. Maintained by the alt-weekly City Paper, crime victims relied upon its community-centered reporting. Reporters filled in details where outlets like The Sun fell short.

Predictably, mainstream media only told the police’s version. Greg Riddick Jr. was shot, yes. But he was also ran over and dragged over 1,000 feet, in full view of police officers, a innocent bystander who became a witnesses, and even to those of us listening/reading the 9 1-1 call.

There’s one significant detail BPD didn’t release to the media that became the catalyst for one Baltimore’s family to become mourner-activists. Police were on the scene at the shooting. Neither officer made a move to secure the crime scene, call in the shooting, or do what the civilian did when he saw a man suffering – come to his aid.

Riddick Sr.’s strong Christian faith and the determination of everyone who loved Greg is what that propels them all to push for answers and accountability of the Baltimore City Police Department.

For an emergency, dial 9 1-1

This murder story begins with 9 1-1 call regarding shots fired and ends with a horror one cannot imagine. The tape is likely to haunt all not lulled to sleep by the silent counting of those who lost their lives to the proliferation of guns and the ineffectiveness of the Baltimore Police Department. It all happened in front of witnesses, and it was captured on video surveillance.

“I am on Harford Road and Homestead. Uh, somebody just got shot in front of me,” said the caller on the 9 1-1 tape.

These are the words of the Good Samaritan traveling home about 1 am after visiting an ailing family member. His identity is being shielded as the investigation is ongoing and because, well, it’s Baltimore.

It was his first words spoken to the 9 1-1 operator. It details the eyewitness’ account, establishes the presence of BPD at the scene, and gives a real time accounting of the hit and run that would follow after Riddick was shot.

Riddick Sr. first heard the 9 1-1 tape alone. He heard a male caller describe how he saw a car speed away after a shooting. And that the victim was laying in the middle of the street. The witness recollects first trying to get the police’s attention before resorting to calling 9 1-1.

He finds the man’s efforts and experiences to be both horrific and at the same time comforting. A complete stranger stood near his son to provide comfort and security.

“The man. He didn’t have to stop,” Riddick said.

For Annette Gibson, Greg’s mother, the discussion of the tape and the officers’ lack of action stirs up a full range of emotions.

“I couldn’t, [listen]” Gibson said through tearful sobs. “I don’t want to hear it.”

At first despondent, then determined, suddenly angry and back to sobbing she relives the events of earier that day. Greg had arrived in Baltimore earlier that day to pack. He was moving out of the city and the dangers that he was no stranger to.

Before hanging up with the 9 1-1 dispatch, the witness’ final words were prophetic.

“Yes, the police are here,” said the eyewitness. “They’re taking care of it.”

9 11 Tape Transcript

One answer Greg’s family wants to know is whether the officers at the car stop had Body Worn Cameras (BWC). A new BWC policy was implemented shortly after Gray’s widely publicized death because of explainable circumstances clouded his in custody death, eroding what little trust existed between the majority of the city’s residents and the 3000+ member force of sworn police officers.

The voice on 9 1-1 tape captures the fear many black men feel in the city. Along with the literal and figurative distance victims and witness alike experience as detached police officers pursue a traffic stop while ignoring a desperate man’s attempt to flag down assistance.

Believing half of what you see and none of what you hear.

There appears to be two sources of video that could have captured both the shooting and the hit and run. One is the owned by the liquor store on the corner and the other is the surveillance system, Citi Watch, operated by Baltimore City Police.

“[BPD] didn’t show me the one on the pole, that’s on the street, said Riddick. The family believes a video exists that would capture the exact location of the police during the traffic stop and why they both didn’t see or hear the shots that the witness did from inside his car. It would also verify the witness’s account that police ignored his request to help the gunshot victim, prompting him to call 9 1-1 instead.

Pressing for an arrest, the homicide detective initially assigned to the case, Det. Joshua Fuller, met with the family for an update on the investigation. Fuller showed Riddick the footage from the store. Two men are seen creeping along side of the liquor store lying in wait for Greg to get to the corner. Based on conversation Greg was having on the phone, Riddick believed family members would be able to identify the shooters.

No one has responded to the family’s request for Citi Watch footage. It appears that the camera is positioned perfectly to capture the assailants who crept up on Greg from Homestead as he was walking along Harford Road.

“[The family] came to I.D. [the shooters], but Fuller wouldn’t do it,” Riddick said.

According to police, while waiting to view the video, BPD overheard a conversation that concerned them about potential retaliation. As a result, the only family member who was then allowed to see the video was Riddick, Sr. He was not able to make a positive identification.

“Fuller’s supervisor told him not to (make the arrest ) because of retaliation.” Greg’s family believes something more sinister is at work. They are seeking the medical examiner’s report to determine the exact cause of death. If Greg could have survived the bullets but died because of the injuries sustained when the car ran him over, they believe Baltimore City Police have reason enough to stave off the investigation.

“I went down to Internal Affairs and filed paperwork.” A common public misconception is that IAD is an independent body charged with investigating complaints against the police.

“I told them the whole story. So I figured that OK, Internal affairs. They gonna investigate. They’re not on the police side,” said Riddick.

It then became a waiting game.

“I guess they was hoping that the eight months that the paperwork was just sitting there on his desk that I would just let it go, but I wasn’t going to let it go,” Riddick said. “Then I got a letter from [Ian] Dombrowski … that they didn’t find anything.”

The head of IAD at the time -then Deputy Commissioner Ian Dombrowki was fingered by convicted BPD officers from the now defunct Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) squad during a 2018 federal corruption and robbery trial of tipping off officers that the feds were watching. He has since been demoted to major.

His boss, the head of the department overseeing IAD, Deputy Commissioner Rodney Hill, retired shortly after the GTTF trial ended.

After IAD notified the family that it found no wrongdoing on the part of Baltimore Police in Greg’s murder, the homicide detective leading the investigation, Det. Fuller resigned from BPD, said Riddick. It would take months before the family would meet the new lead investigator Jill Beauregard-Navarro.

She would make headlines in The Baltimore Sun in May 2018 for what prominent defense attorney J. Wyndal Gordon would call “putting bodies on bodies.” BPD, facing mounting unsolved murders, has cleared record numbers by fingering a dead person as the likely the suspect – case solved. If more could be done to drag Greg’s memory for his family, it would be if such an atrocity happened.

When one door closes…

Had Riddick known to have asked, he would been told that IAD rarely sustains complaints of police misconduct. With Gregg Riddick’s death, the membership into a club no one wants to belong to grew by dozens. The friends and families of victims of gun violence quickly become students of not just the intricacies and bureaucracy that accompany police investigations but receive an up close and personal view of the purported Wall of Silence.

The family stands alone. No one in BPD or the State’s Attorney’s Office has told them that the two officers who were citing a traffic violation while Greg was being shot and later ran by over by a car did anything wrong.

When BPD didn’t find any wrongdoing with the two officers who seemingly were preoccupied with a traffic stop and not with a gunshot victim, the Riddick family filed a CRB Complaint form_2 with the Baltimore Office of Civil Rights’ Civilian Review Board.

A well respected community leader, Delegate Jill Carter left Annapolis in early 2017 to rejuvenate the Civilian Review Board as she took the helm of the Office of Civil Rights. Community members appointed by the commission and approved by the Mayor represent each of the BPD nine districts. By statute they can subpoena witnesses, view police files, and investigate complaints. What they cannot do is mete out punishment to offending officers.

The Law Enforcement Bill of Rights (LEOBR) from the 1970s establishes protocols for police accused of misconduct and criminal activity. Over the years, as cries of police abuses have increased, the protections afforded by the LEOBR has largely stayed the same. The CRB is handcuffed. The board of citizens can only investigate on claims against officers in five categories: Excessive Force, False Arrest, False Imprisonment, Harassment and Abusive Language.

Although the circumstances of Greg’s death didn’t not fit the definitions that by statue limit CRB’s purview, they took the complaint as a “harassment” claim and investigated the case.

“It breaks my heart, really really to read that whole situation,” said board member George Buntin, Wester District representative. “The harassment is not there.”

Appalled at even the failure to control the crime scene, the board’s frustration with their limitations was evident. The board met in March CRB Minutes and initially struggled with making a determination of the complaint designated as harassment.

“It’s hard to stretch any of our jurisdiction to what happened here. Can we call it harassment? I don’t think so,” said member Mel Currie, Southwestern district. “The Civilian Review Board, what I think we should be is.. .we would be the counterpart to Internal Affairs. We should be External Affairs.” Currie said.

As the board began to debate not sustaining the harassment claim, silent tears began to fall from Greg’s grandmother’s eyes. She was given a box of tissues. Greg Riddick, Sr was given the opportunity to talk.

For five minutes, a father implored the Board to not let homicide number 299 from 2016 become a historical statistic. His moving account of the circumstances of the 26-year old’s murder had seasoned Board members holding their heads in their hand and lawyers wiping at their eyes.

His sometimes wavering voice full of emotion carried much further that day because unbeknownst to him, representatives from the Department of Justice were in the audience. Video from the meeting can be viewed here around the 32 minute mark.

Justice for Greg is not likely to come from BPD, the SAO, the media or even the DOJ. It’ll happen when citizens like those on the CRB have the power to decide what behaviors they will and will not accept by the officers that roam the street.

CRB envisions itself having a different process in handling complaints where the public is negatively impacted by police action. The current process requires complainants to check a box accusing officers of a specific violation. The Board then deliberates and decides whether or not the stated accusation is upheld.

CRB chairman Bridall Pearson suggested a better process where the event is described by the complainant and the board then arrives at the label of the associated violation.

“If we have a process like that, there’s something we could do about [Riddick’s complaint],” said Pearson. “In this situation it’s difficult, because our hands are tied.”

Next Up: Part II The Medical Examiner, Healing and Advocacy

Unshackling the Chains: Racists in BPD’s Recent and Distant Past

The call for disbanding the Baltimore Police Department is getting angrier and louder.

The shouts are angry because of the illustrated disregard for the rule of law by eff the police supposedly “law enforcement officers.” The chorus is becoming increasingly louder because of the incessant chirping behind maintaining the status quo by leaders. Combined, they have become an irritant – not unlike when the smoke alarm battery demands replacement.

Nothing has shown city leaders to be more tone deaf than the February 21, 2018 hearing to elevate interim Commissioner Darryl DeSousa, a 30-year product of the corrupt system to permanent status. With a unified voice, council members are supporting the mayor’s choice chose fall behind in order to forge a path. The goal, according to Mayor Catherine Pugh is to change the narrative from the city as a national laughing-stock into what might resemble a small measure of respectability.

No council member present questioned DeSousa about the officer-involved shooting deaths of three people – when he was the young officer. Who would know better about the pattern and practices of racial policing and excessive force and how the department’s systems addresses concerns than someone knee deep, all up in the thick of it? The public was allowed to comment, but was not permitted to direct questions the one person who was present and could answer – DeSousa. Archaic rules designed to protect the status quo, even in unparalleled times.

Indisputably, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) was organized primarily to maintain the status quo of viewing blacks as inferior race. Sworn officers were hired to capture blacks thought to have escape slave_patrol d enslavement with the full support of the U.S. government under the Fugitive Slave Act. Not much has changed in the 166 years since. A civic’s lesson isn’t required to understand the nation’s past, either recent and distant, with regard to racial injustice. So let’s start with most recent.

In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice lambasted BPD for an atrocious display of patterns and practices of racial policing. The DOJ noted the activity was common over decades spanning a sea of commissioners, various council members and multiple mayors. Citing a long history and ingrained racist culture, the report then turned into a court order by way of a Consent Decree to rectify the disparities of illegal stops and searches of black men.

On September 18, 1850 President Filmore signed the Fugitive Slave Act. Eight days later a man appeared in New York from Baltimore with a power of attorney, claiming that James Hamlet was a slave of Mrs Brown. The New York Commissioner immediately complied. The slave was transported back to Baltimore; $800 dollars was raised by antislavery forces to buy James Hamlet’s freedom.

Discords in Disbandment Discussions

In describing the calls for disbandment, some doubters are quick to place those asking for the change to existing way out on the fringe or out of step. The idea that an organization other than the Baltimore City Police Department has been called everything from an unrealistic fantasy to a a racially-tinged mystical tribal hoax.

David Troy, business leader and activist, in the summer of 2016 before the GTTF became a household name, wrote an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun calling for BPD disbandment. Recognizing the magnitude the Department of Justice’s blistering report on its findings after years-long investigation of the BPD, he sought to urge legislators to act promptly and swiftly. Not exactly what they’re known for.

Free of political restraints that would cloud his judgement, Troy was able to foresee two stumbling blocks that would prohibit the degree of reform the the DOJ report indicated would be needed. First, the organizational structure as it stands is not nimble enough to be responsive to making any changes recommended by the forthcoming Consent Decree. Troy writes, “…section 16-7 of the Public Local Laws of Baltimore City prohibits the commissioner from directly firing officers below the rank of captain. This hampers the ability of the commissioner to perform one of the very tasks which may most effect the deep change required.”

Secondly, everyone is skeptical about the idea of returning control from the state because Troy writes, “Baltimore City has a poor track record of governance of its departments and agencies.” Troy cites the city’s general inability for provide oversight for any of its agencies.

By February 2018, more voices have been added to the chorus. A reckoning is coming under the edicts of the Consent Decree. More likely than not will a civilian-led commission be seriously discussed. Some see a new organization as not an alternative, but a co-partner in running the department. For instance, Dr. Lawrence Brown, assistant professor at Morgan State University suggests reshaping the focus of “law enforcement” to instead “keeping the peace” by establishing the Baltimore Peacekeeping Authority to oversee the community-engagement aspects of the department.

Still others focus on the oversight aspect to curb potential corruption. Just after DeSousa’s hearing, Baltimore Attorney Dan Sparaco, addressed some of the concerns with dismantling BPD on MarylandMatters.org‘s website. He points out the redresses suggested by Annapolis are ” laughably modest.” Early fixes such as audits are but a ripple in the ocean of corruption revealed by recent court trials. Some of Sparaco’s most noteworthy ideas most likely will be included the Community Oversight Task Force (established by the Consent Decree) recommendations as part of the Monitoring Plan, due June 30, 2018.

“Baltimore needs a commission – independent from city hall, independent from the police department, accountable to the state, and fully funded by it. The commission needs full power to subpoena and review the disciplinary files of any and all police officers, any internal affairs file and any court file…It needs to determine the scope of the corruption and recommend how the department should be managed with integrity in the future.” – Dan Sparaco

Stale Ideas

Baltimore City Council periodically stokes stale embers knowing it will gather no spark from the Baltimore City delegation in Annapolis. One such idea that keeps being resurrected was done so recently by the highly ambitious Councilman Brandon Scott.

Working with council ally, Del. Curt Anderson (D) recently snatched back his hand and the olive branch that was in it. He had sponsored legislation in 2017 requesting the state turn over BPD to the city Council, which Scott advocated. Such a change would require a vote of the entire Assembly.

At his request, according the the Baltimore Sun: “the Office of the Attorney General issued a letter Friday explaining that if the police department were to become a city agency, it would no longer benefit from the “sovereign immunity” given to state agencies. This protects the police department from liability in certain legal cases.”

The mayor, Catherine Pugh (D) was not in favor of the change.

In order to bring BPD under city control, votes would be needed from representatives from as far as Cambridge on the Eastern Shore to the solid red of Western Maryland.

Media Ambivalence

Media remains entrenched in business-as-usual by quelling voices of those seeking a brand new direction. Instead, the paper of record relegates the discussion to its opinion and editorial pages, bastardizing innovation by citizens that’s not parented by a politician.

The role of media, growing nationally and also in Baltimore, has never been do little more than regurgitate spoon-fed soundbites or bland statements directly to the public from the desks of BPD. And that was before email. Today’s media relies heavily on electronic transmissions and rarely look officials squarely in the eye to do the public’s bidding.

On the heels of a February 2018 guilty verdict against two Baltimore City Police detectives on RICO charges including robbery and extortion, and with the stinging lack of criminal prosecutions for officers responsible for the April 2015 death of Freddie Gray, citizens have all but thrown up their hands believing that BPD is even capable of doing its job. Not only were two officers in the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) found guilty and face 60 years in prison, six other GTTF squad members plead guilty and avoided trials.

Media (mostly of the social variety) has educated the public to the reality that the department is not a city agency. Baltimore residents are less likely to redirect their ire normally spewed in the direction of the Mayor and City Council, to the Maryland General Assembly. Even if the normally disengaged Baltimore delegation to the deliberative body in Annapolis were accessible, statute changes would require votes outside of the city’s border.

Recent Past and Racial Divisions

As for the past, both recent and distant, unrest – or the threat of unrest – is the necessary ingredient it appears in spearheading change in the city. Once need only to recall the height of Slave Rebellions in the 1840s and 50s through the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s, picking up again during Vietnam War protests in 1975 and most recently the young voices raised in the Freddy Gray uprisings of 2015.

It will be the people of the city who determine the city’s fate and the legislators in Annapolis are tasked with carrying it out. There are no visionaries in political office. City council is where all good ideas go to die. The mayor, city council are the least equipped to change what is inescapable truth: police are unable to police itself.

The police are powerful. It begins with their union. A generation ago, municipal workers went on strike and trash piled on on the street. Political pressure did not yield. Collective bargaining is the BPD’s ace in the hole. Once police joined in on the 1974 strike, the power dynamic shifted.

Two years later, in 1976, when the state’s political nexus was planted firmly in Baltimore and in the tight fist of Mayor William D. Schaefer, he made a power grab. No longer would Annapolis appoint the leadership of the Baltimore City Police – now only one commissioner, down from three. Violence and street protests, as with most revolutionary actions, precipitated the shift.

Gov. Marvin Mandel reluctantly relented and awarded the power to name the Baltimore City Police Department’s commissioner to the city’s mayor.

Members of AFSCME Local 1195 Baltimore, Maryland Police Union strike in 1969.

A generation or so earliery, BPD went through another major transformation. from a deliberative three member panel to a single authoritative commissioner.

The year was 1920, when the board of commissioners was usurped by a general. Charles D. Gaither set at the helm for 17 years from 1920-1937 as a result of his appointment by Governor Ritchie. His father was an officer for Confederate Army. The tenure for “The General” as he was marked by a desire for more police and speedy trial,. One could say, he was an originator of the Law and Order style of policing.

Birth of a Nation and a Racist Department

If racists policies within the department didn’t start with the general, he can surely be credited with embracing them unabashedly.

Screenshot (21)

As the General’s tenure was coming to a close, blacks were still forbidden to serve as officers in Baltimore, Jesse while was in Germany debunking Hitler’s theories of superiority of the “Aryan race” during the Olympics. Progress in race relationship would move at a snail’s pace at the department.

A website dedicated to milestones in the history of the department records explains:

“Prior to 1966, African American officers were limited to foot patrols as they were barred from the use of squad cars. These officers were quarantined in rank, barred from patrolling in White neighborhoods, and would often only be given specialty assignments in positions in the Narcotics Division or as undercover plainclothes officers. Further, African American officers were the target of racial harassment from their Caucasian coworkers and African American citizens in the communities they patrolled. During this time African American officers were subject to racial slurs from white co-workers during roll call, and encountered degrading racial graffiti in the very districts/units they were assigned. During this time period, two future police commissioners of Baltimore, Bishop L. Robinson and Edward J. Tilghman were amongst Baltimore’s African American police officers.” –

Jesse-Owens-623x438

The racist history of BPD predates both World Wars, and extends further back to the Civil War. Baltimore residents, squeezed square in the middle between ideals of the northern states and the traditions of the south have been choosing every since.

This was the war that demanded patriots of the fledgling nation to choose sides. It was in the run up to the war that Congress enacted the Fugitive Slave Law.

Before the spring of 1861 when the Civil War started, Baltimore was experiencing growth and prosperity as a port city with low unemployment, and consequently little crime.

“Free-born blacks together with newly manumitted, runaway, and autonomous urban slaves formed the beginnings of Baltimore’s African American community. Blacks in all situations, including a young Frederick Douglass, saw Baltimore as “an island of racial tolerance” compared to the rest of Maryland” “(Koamoie).

A singular event helped form the condition that the Baltimore City Police Department currently faces, when looked at in isolation one clearly can see how disbandment is the only choice, and not it’s not even a radical one.

Disbandment of the BPD will finally undo the effects of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 that the outcome of the Civil War was unable to achieve. In fact, no federal or state law, movement or milestone election has corrected centuries of racial inequities reinforced by the perpetuation of the institution named the Baltimore City Police Department. No landmark hirings, promotions or awards suggest that the department is “post racial.”

Wytte — BPD’s first black officer, Violet Hill Whyte in 1937, the year after the” General” left his helm.

The Baltimore City Police department does not address law enforcement in an equitable manner because the institution is predicated on preserving racial imbalances.

A jury unanimously saw the veracity in the argument that has roots since the it became legal to “arrest” blacks.

“…the difference between an arrest, a kidnapping, and an ambiguous area that could be labeled “arrests.” Arrests followed rules of due process that resulted in a trial. Kidnappings were the abduction of free blacks to sell on the slave market. “Arrests” were the apprehension of accused fugitive slaves without due process—no warrants, possibly a home invasion, no trial. – Matt Diggins Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017.

Citations

Milt Diggins, an independent scholar, is a former editor of the Cecil Historical Journal and a frequent contributor to local publications. His Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line: Thomas McCreary, the Notorious Slave Catcher from Maryland.

Laura Croghan Kamoie. Review of Phillips, Christopher, Freedom’s Port: The African American Community of Baltimore, 1790-1860. H-SHEAR, H-Net Reviews. August, 1998.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=2250

Continue reading “Unshackling the Chains: Racists in BPD’s Recent and Distant Past” →

The Case for Disbanding BPD

The emotions swirling around the search for a solution to the ills of Baltimore Police Department range from disillusionment to detachment. Politicians favor the nonstarter debate of turning state control of the department over to the city. Others seek to disband BPD in the mode of Camden N.J., not knowing exactly why Camden is not a model to follow.

Simply put, Baltimore cannot do what Camden did, but not for the reasons you might think.

First though, consider this undeniable fact. We all suspect Baltimore’s Police Department is rotten to the core. It might not be. But in this case, perception is reality.

sketch 2 — Sketch drawing by Tom Chalkley of former police detective Momodu Gondo in orange jumpsuit as witness against his co-defendants, fellow police officers.

A law enforcement department requires the trust and compliance of those it serves to recognize its power. Baltimore Police has bankrupted any small reserve of goodwill that remained after the death of Freddie Gray and its subsequent “investigation.”

It has only been days since the guilty verdicts of police officers who were running a robbery, extortion and drug dealing operation – but only while in uniform. The Gun Trace Task Force cloaked as an “elite” special operations squad, instead served themselves mostly conspiring to steal overtime while committing heinous crimes.

Regrettably, a choreographed cacophony of warmed over questions from the media and canned responses from those in power, reflected none of the urgency that those awaiting the verdict expected and experienced.

“Journalists” asked:

“What does this mean for BPD?”
“How does BPD move forward after the verdicts?”
Are you satisfied with the verdicts?
Does the government expect more indictments?

People watching were asking:

What the fuck?
Why not just start over from scratch?

Disgust, Disband, Discard

After hearing in harsh detail how the department serves as a racketeering front for a criminal enterprise requires more sobering questions. The verdict from Monday, February 12th confirmed what many people have been shouting about only to have their cries fall on deaf ears. Baltimore Police Department is a criminal enterprise.

An impartial group of 12 Marylanders: eight white women, one Asian woman and three black men unanimously found 2 officers guilty of knowing taking part in a conspiracy to using their power as membership in the Baltimore City Police Department to carry out their crimes. The jury was pulled from the state and not merely from Baltimore City.

Let’s not forget that six other officers told a judge they are guilty and decided to forgo any pretense of a trial. These officers had shown up for work on the day they were arrested. They were not on desk duty as punishment for any bad behavior. These officers were not home, suspended while complaints were being investigated. They were armed with guns and unfettered power up until the second the feds stepped in.

The jury has spoken: Baltimore Police Department cannot police itself.

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

While President Abraham Lincoln coined the phrase in 1858 during his campaign, it bears remembering that it was in 1860 that Maryland took over the Baltimore Police Department with the help of a radical group of nationalists. Most will recall that Baltimore was a stronghold for the Union, but the state of Maryland was generally considered a Confederate sympathizer.

” Dear Maryland General Assembly, the Civil War is over, and the North won. It’s time to give Baltimore its police department back.” – Councilman Brandon Scott

-Baltimore Sun OP-ED February 28, 2017

The Know-Nothing Party, with it’s “America First” rally cries captured only but a single state, Maryland, with it’s presidential push. It is certainly time to be on the right side of history and reject the sole success of the xenophobic party (the shame of Maryland) and return control of the state’s most diverse city to the people who live here.

The most radical proposal to date simply does not go far enough. There have been calls to move control from the state legislature to Baltimore City Council. Impassioned activists spoke to city council in 2016. However, House Bill 1504 designed to do just that, died in committee in March 2017.

In support of the bill, Baltimore City Councilman Brandon Scott and Maryland State Delegate Curt Anderson penned an editorial pointing out the “insanity of the Baltimore Police Department being a state agency” in announcing legislation designed to put the department under the city’s control. This was the concern before it was confirmed the BPD was acting as a front for an organized crime syndicate.

Camden is not a Model City

Reorganizing Baltimore Police by disbanding the existing structure and creating a new citizen-led organization has no model to follow. Police departments have disband due to cost and duplication of services, resulting in a consolidation.

The City of Camden is often brought up by media as a praiseworthy example of a high crime area that turned itself around by disbanding its police. But for many reasons, it is not a model to be used for Baltimore. Camden City Police department for all intents and purposes was folded into an existing agency, the Camden County Police Department.

The City of Camden along with others in the county such as Bellmawr, Cherry Hill, Collinswood, Haddon Township and Gloucester Township all are municipalities and have had their own police departments since about 1920s. Most disbands in NJ is a result of consolidation due to costs of very small departments.

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Politically, state officials had wrestled all power from the city. In a party tug of war, newly elected Republican Governor Chris Christie was on the surface at least, battling with South Jersey political bosses. Economic strife impacted Camden’s descisions and similar downturns had Atlantic City considering the same.

An important distinction for Baltimore, that it is an independent municipality and is not seated within a county (such as being a part of Baltimore County), which makes it unique. The city cannot simply use Camden as it model, as it has no county police force to absorb it.

Other factors make what Camden did not comparable to Baltimore, not the least of which are wide variations in population size, budget, demands, not to mention political will to merge BPD even with either Baltimore County Police or Maryland State Police.

The Way Forward

Reaction to the verdicts should be prioritized as follows:

The people
The state legislature
The governor
The mayor
The police commissioner

The people’s voice must be heard. Before any decision is made, and before the mayor and other politicians toss ideas in the trash, recognition of the harm police have done would show respect to the victims. It might also provide a path forward.

A leader would first listen to the people. Go to them. Don’t ask them to come to you. Ask what kind of policing they want to see. If it’s a 12 or 24 member commission of civilians that run the department, then make it happen. If it’s keeping the department, but turning its reigns over to Baltimore City Council, then work tirelessly to get it done. Both Governor Larry Hogan and Mayor Catherine Pugh must show clear leadership in the most important aspect of their position: public safety.

“The legislature’s control over the Baltimore Police Department is an anachronism that serves no purpose at a time when city residents are demanding accountability and rapid reform. Whether the remedy involves a passing a law clarifying the City Council’s authority to legislate on police matters or taking the department out of the state’s purview altogether, the situation needs to change.”

Baltimore Sun Editorial September 17, 2016

One way forward is to take advantage of the powers contained in the entity created by the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation resulting in a Consent Decree. This court order establishes the Community Oversight Task Force (COTF) which is charged with making recommendations to ensure community input as the department includes civilian oversight into its reform process.

The COTF is expected to bring forth its recommendations by March 2018, in time to communicate with the community and make changes before it has to submit its report to the court in June 2018.

Consider that the work the committee has put forth largely took place in 2017, well before the trial and subsequent verdicts. It likely will focus on returning power and control of BPD to the city, revising the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights (LEOBR), and creating an oversight mechanism to hear and rule on citizen complaints.

Screenshot (312)_LI — From the Department of Justice Consent Decree with Baltimore City Police Department

In short, the COTF recommendations will be reactionary and more importantly likely ignored or discarded. It’s reactionary mostly because of timing. Had this group of hard working citizens convened the day after the GTTF trial, they might be more amenable to the recommending disbanding. It’s not too late though, armed a new vision members could take a new approach. COTF could pull a Glenn Close and drop the equivalent of the dead rabbit in the state’s boiling pot.

ignored dan

Why ignored? It will ask for investigatory powers and the staff to do it. It will distance itself from the existing Citizen Review Board (CRB) that Del. Jill Carter has artfully resuscitated life into. It will ask for things that can be shot down like ducks in a row. Subpoena powers that come with exorbitant costs, even if awarded cannot be utilized without a trained staff. Any substantive changes to LEOBR will fall on deaf ears.

The unions negotiating with Baltimore Police simply will not have it. But the union doesn’t have an existing agreement with the yet to be formed Baltimore Police Commission. Expect immediate and harsh pushback of all FOPs in the state if there is an iota of a chance there is political backing of disbanding for Baltimore.

Baltimore isn’t the first entity in Maryland that suffered from blistering reports of misconduct, mismanagement and racial profiling.

In 2001, a task force addressed many of the same problems within the Prince George’s County Police Department. Crime in PG county made national headline news in the 1990s resulting in a 2004 Consent Decree with the Department of Justice. Three guesses as to what the initial barrier to reform was in their report. And you can guess if they are still waiting.

Screenshot (319)_LI — Prince George’s County Task Force Recommendation