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Police Chief Who Pledged Reforms Fired Amid Crime Spike

Published

11 years ago

July 9, 2015

In this April 30, 2015, file photo, Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Anthony Batts listens as Deputy Commissioner Kevin Davis speaks at a news conference, in Baltimore. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced the firing of Batts in a news release Wednesday, July 8. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

JULIET LINDERMAN, Associated Press

BALTIMORE (AP) — Less than three years ago, Anthony Batts was hand-picked by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to combat crime and reform a troubled law enforcement department in one of America’s most violent cities.

On Wednesday, Batts was fired as police commissioner amid the worst crime spike in the city since the 1970s and plummeting morale among officers who complained their boss was failing to provide the support and leadership they needed to do their jobs.

“We cannot continue to debate the leadership of the department,” Rawlings-Blake told a news conference she called to announce her decision. “We cannot continue to have the level of violence we’ve seen in recent weeks in this city.”

Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, who has only been with the department since January, will serve as interim commissioner, Rawlings-Blake said.

Batts and Rawlings-Blake are African-American, as is the city’s top prosecutor, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. Davis is white. Sixty percent of the city’s population is black, while the police department is 48 percent African-American. Mosby said her office has already met with Davis and she looks forward to working with him.

The firing comes less than three months after the city erupted in riots following the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died in April of injuries he received in police custody. Six police officers have been criminally charged in Gray’s death. Gray died April 19. Most of the unrest took place on April 27.

The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a civil rights review of the department and Batts announced Tuesday that an outside organization would review the police response to the unrest.

But the Baltimore police union released a scathing post-mortem report Wednesday accusing Batts and other top brass of instructing officers not to engage with rioters and to allow looting and destruction to occur.

“The officers repeatedly expressed concern that the passive response of the Baltimore police commanders to the civil unrest allowed the disorder to grow into full-scale rioting,” Gene Ryan, president of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, wrote in the report. “The riots were preventable.”

In the weeks after the riots, homicides and other violent crimes spiked and arrests began to plummet as word spread that police officers were afraid that they, too, would be charged with crimes if something went wrong during the course of their duties.

Baltimore’s homicide total this year is 156, according to police. That’s a 48 percent increase compared with the same time last year. Shootings have increased 86 percent.

In the latest example, gunmen jumped out of two vans and fired at a group of people a few blocks from an urban university campus Tuesday night, killing three people.

The startling spike stands in stark contrast to Batts’ promise to fight violent crime when he arrived in Baltimore in 2012.

At a swearing-in ceremony in November of that year, Batts pledged to “continue our progress at reducing violent crime and holding accountable those that perpetrate violence in our good streets.”

Batts took over from Fred Bealefeld, who resigned after five years as commissioner and 31 in the Baltimore Police Department. Batts too was a veteran officer, though new to the city of Baltimore: He spent three decades in California, two as commissioner of the embattled Oakland Police Department and seven as commissioner of the Long Beach police department, where he’d served as a law enforcement officer for 20 years.

“I worked closely with Commissioner Batts and always found him open to my ideas for reforming the department,” said Baltimore City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young. “He was engaging, experienced, and served our city to the best of his ability.”

But Young said that when he talked recently with citizens and police officers, “it became increasingly clear that a growing lack of confidence in the direction of our city’s crime-fighting strategy had the potential to severely damage the long-term health of our city.”

The Rev. Jamal Bryant, who delivered the fiery eulogy at Gray’s funeral, called Batts’ firing a first step toward healing police-community relations.

“It’s no secret there’s been great strain and stress since the uprising,” he said. “It became not just a disconnect between police and the community but between the police and their commissioner.”

In the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of West Baltimore, where Gray was arrested, residents praised the mayor’s decision.

Keonna Stokes, 22, said she was glad to see Batts removed from his position, and hopes a new commissioner will have a lower tolerance for police misconduct.

“The police wouldn’t do the things they do if the commissioner didn’t allow it,” she said. “He should have been fired. We call the police when we really need them, when people hurt us. But now we don’t call them, because they hurt us. If they didn’t, Freddie would still be here.”

Batts’ contract with the city paid him $190,000 and was to run through June 2020. It includes a provision for a severance payment equal to his annual salary if he is terminated without cause.

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Oakland Mayor Reads to Children at Bookout Block Party at Marcus Books Store

Booths lined the street with arts and crafts, and children participated in hands-on art projects. A large display of books was on display and each child chose his/her free book to take home. Food and snacks were available, and free water was encouraged to keep all hydrated.

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(L.to R.) Cherysse Calhoun and Blanche Richardson of Marcus Books join Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee with Indya McGuffin and Bean Tupou of Storyland Collective inside the store on Sept. 12. Courtesy photo.

By Barbara Bauer, Special to The Post

Floating bubbles greeted families on arrival at the Bookout Block Party held on Sat. Sept. 12 at 39th and MLK Blvd. in Oakland.

Sponsored by Marcus Books and Storyland Collective, a wonderland of activity for children stretched to Longfellow School while live music filled the air, courtesy of KWC Complex Jazz Group.

A large area of turf was filled with huge bean bags for jumping, rolling, and sitting to listen as families crowded close to listen to Oakland Mayor Barbara Mayor Barbara Lee read a book out loud.

Of the numerous booths present were, “Claim Your Scholarship,” a program for Oakland Public School students and “VOLUNTEER NOW,” a program encouraging volunteers to help boost reading proficiency. Individuals sold their art and products. Free gifts were at many tables and a raffle was held.

The event with Marcus books culminated a summer-long program organized by Storyland Collective, a literacy arts organization bringing children’s ‘storytime,’ local authors, and art activities to Bay Area neighborhoods. Marcus Books is the oldest, independent Black-owned book store in the U.S., featuring books by and about Black people here and abroad.

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Black History

Tradition Comes to the Streets in 11th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival at the Freedom Farmers Market

Mayor Barbara Lee stops by to support vendors, Winky Dinky Dogs owner Tyranny Allen A streamlined Oakland Black-Eyed Pea Festival took place on Sat. Sept. 12 in the lower Temescal neighborhood on the blocked off street that connect Shattuck and Telegraph avenues. An early start b

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(L. to R.) Black-Eyed Pea Festival Director Wanda Ravernell with Barbara Lee and Winky Binky Dogs owner, Tyranny. Courtesy photo.

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Mayor Barbara Lee stops by to support vendors, Winky Dinky Dogs owner Tyranny Allen

A streamlined Oakland Black-Eyed Pea Festival took place on Sat. Sept. 12 in the lower Temescal neighborhood on the blocked off street that connect Shattuck and Telegraph avenues.

An early start brought together vendor regulars from festival partner, the Freedom Farmers’ Market, and vendors who have supported the festival at its previous location at Marston Campbell Park.

Wanda Ravernell, the festival producer/director was on the verge of cancelling the festival because of funding limitations in May before reaching out to Elaine Smith, president of Farms to grow, Inc., which supervisors the market.

From its start in 2014, the festival has focused on the traditions of African American culture through music, food and art. That emphasis included fresh food vendors, particularly growers of African American legacy crops like black-eyed peas, yams, watermelon, collard greens and okra, which all originate in Africa.

To Fresno farmer Will Scott of Scott Family Farms, the Freedom Farmers’ Market allows him to bring those crops to the inner city – and support the nutrition of African Americans.

Shortly after the festival opened Saturday morning with prayers and salutes to the ancestors by Wakan Wiya Two-Spirit Drum and Awon Ohun Omnira, led M. Zamora and Otobaji Stewart respectively, 86-year-old Scott, the son of a sharecropper, announced that he will put other endeavors aside to dedicate the rest of his life to raise those foods.

Smith shared that Farms to Grow assists Black farmers in helping them overcome one of their main impediments to success – distribution – while creating alliances to help Black people maintain farmland and make it prosperous for younger generations to keep farming and farmland in the family.

As the morning progressed to afternoon, a steady stream of visitors drifted from booth to booth, chatting with vendors and each other.

Scott noted that a market day like this was what he was accustomed to in his youth, where the market was not just about buying things but also a place for valuable social exchange.

The social aspect became even pronounced shortly after midday when Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee stopped by to shop and visit with some of the vendors, including Ellen Bimpeh of Sankofa, and Ravernell who was selling T-shirts designed by Stewart.

Lee is also a fan of Winky Dinky Dogs, an eatery owned by Tyranny Allen whose second brick-and-mortar venture further anchors a hub of businesses at that corner.

As he has in previous years, Andre Thierry of Accordion Soul, closed the festival with a 90-minute set that brought young and the young-at-heart on their feet to dance in a line or as impromptu couples.

And, surprisingly, the man Allen refers to as the mayor of 45th Street, came out on cane and chair to sit by the curb in the sun and listen to music reminiscent of his Louisiana roots. His appearance seemed to echo Scott’s observance about the market: to bring people together.

The Freedom Farmers’ Market is located at 4521 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland and is open on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month until Nov. 14. For more information and to apply to be a vendor, go to https://www.farmstogrow.org/freedomfarmersmarket

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Business

Attorney General Rob Bonta Continues Opposition to President Trump’s Tariff Regime

“President Trump is so intent on raising the cost of living for Americans that he is willing to break law after law to continue his tariff regime,” said Bonta.

Published

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Calif. Attorney General Rob Bonta. Courtesy photo.

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California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as part of a coalition of 25 states, filed an amicus brief in the Court of International Trade in Learning Resources v. Trump, a case challenging President Trump’s latest “unlawful” attempt to tax the states and American consumers through illegal tariffs, according to a media release issued by the California Department of Justice.

In the brief, Bonta argues the latest round of tariffs levied under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 are pretextual and are not targeted to address the purported harms of forced labor, as that statute requires, but instead are designed to re-create the tariffs already declared illegal by various courts.

Last month, Bonta and the coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to impose these tariffs on over 80 countries that together account for 99.4% of all U.S. imports — costs that will be passed along to Americans already struggling with affordability.

“President Trump is so intent on raising the cost of living for Americans that he is willing to break law after law to continue his tariff regime,” said Bonta.

“Imposing these tariffs under Section 301 has nothing to do with forced labor and everything to do with continuing the President’s failed economic policy and reimposing the global tariffs that the Supreme Court invalidated,” he continued.

“We urge the Court of International Trade to declare the president’s tariffs under Section 301 illegal. Tariffs are taxes, and the American people cannot and should not shoulder the extra costs that come from the president’s illegal tariffs.”