IN SQUEEGEE TEEN’S CASE, WE SHOULD ALL BE SORRY
When the trial at the end of July was over for a teenage squeegee worker who fatally shot a Hampden man after a confrontation at a Baltimore intersection, a unanimous guilty verdict on manslaughter charges had been rendered.
Their deliberations done, the jury filed out. But witnesses noticed one tearful juror, a woman, who looked at the defendant and mouthed “I’m sorry” as she left the courtroom. I want her to know she’s not alone. I’m sorry, too. For the teen and his parents, for the slain man’s family, for the jury, for the squeegee boys, for Baltimore.
I’m sorry 48-year-old Timothy Reynolds won’t get to see his children grow into adults.
I’m sorry you can face prosecution as an adult for something you did as a teen.
I’m sorry so many of our youngest residents live so close to the bone that their only options include quietly starving or rudely begging.
I’m sorry so many people value their cars more than they value people. Property rights are not human rights.
I’m sorry a grown man wielding a bat took it upon himself to confront a group of kids wielding spray bottles.
I’m sorry that I wonder if Maryland had adopted a stand your ground law would the squeegee worker have ever been charged? Would Mr. Reynolds have ever left his car?
I’m sorry guns are so easy to get that they can find their way into a teen’s possession.
I’m sorry young people in Baltimore are being shot at the highest rate in at least a decade. I’m sorry young people in Baltimore are too often the ones pulling the trigger. According to Baltimore Police, the number of minors arrested in connection to homicides and nonfatal shootings tripled from 2018 to 2022.
I’m sorry we have citizens and politicians who believe we have to live with mass shootings. We don’t.
I’m sorry I cannot accept your thoughts or your prayers.
I’m sorry there have been
158 homicides so far this year in Baltimore City, according to Baltimore Police. That’s 25% fewer than in 2022 but still too many.
I’m sorry Baltimore’s youth do not feel protected, valued or indeed, wanted in their own city.
I’m sorry they might be right.
I’m sorry a dozen Baltimore citizens had to sit in a room and decide the fate of a teenager they never met and could only judge by a deadly decision he made within seconds or minutes, in one hour of one day out of the 5,474 days he’d been on this Earth.
I’m sorry I don’t have any answers. I’m exhausted every day by the overwhelming need for change in our city. The desire for civility and compassion, integrity and direction, and confidence and commitment to making Baltimore a safe place for families to live and thrive.
Yes, we need better leaders. But we also need better neighbors.
Because it’s not enough for it to be one juror who feels the weight, not to mention the moral distress, of the task in Baltimore. We should all be sorry.