Baltimore’s ‘crime creep’ problem
One of my employees was mugged this week, a block away from our shop at 314 N. Charles St., near the intersection with Saratoga Street. It happened at 2:30 on a warm and sunny Tuesday afternoon, with plenty of people around. My shop’s security cameras caught two of the perpetrators following this young woman. They caught up to her, knocked her down and grabbed the iPhone in her hand, scattered her other belongings and ran away.
I have 15 employees, and this particular crime victim is, lucky for me, one very scrappy individual. Rather than cowering and being frightened about continuing to work in the city, she was angry that her property was stolen, and shocked and disappointed that not one of the dozens of witnesses came over to see if she was hurt.
She is a Baltimore City resident — about half my staff are — and resides in a neighborhood that makes her no stranger to city crimes. However, when she took this job with me last year, she felt very safe, knowing that at least the downtown business district of Baltimore was not a dangerous area, relatively speaking.
However, in this past year, we have witnessed a distressing downward spiral in the quality of our city neighborhood: rampant vandalism; persistent homeless individuals trespassing, littering and even defecating in business vestibules; car breakins; drug deals. All of this is happening on what is essentially Baltimore’s “Main Street.”
Those of us who are business and property owners try to be good corporate citizens: bringing in — and paying — tax revenue; hiring city residents; keeping our properties clean, safe, well-lit and attractive; training our employees on safe practices while in the city. We are doing our part.
It’s time for the city employees, politicians, police and other public and private agencies to do theirs. In my experience, they seem to treat these types of crime as mere nuisances, especially when compared to the escalating murder rate and drug crimes elsewhere in the city.
In reading about how New York City tackled its out-of-control murder rate in the 1990s, I learned of a controversial practice of policing called Broken Window Theory. Basically, this holds that visible and outward signs of crime and civil disorder create an environment for larger and far more serious crimes. Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Police Commissioner William Bratton employed this strategy to their advantage, cutting the overall murder rate significantly by first tackling the more minor city issues.
As Baltimore mayor from 1999 to 2007, Martin O’Malley implemented a form of this here, though unlike Mr. Giuliani, he’s widely criticized for it. Mr. O’Malley’s effort is blamed for thousands of unnecessary arrests and a widening rift between police and city communities that continues today.
It is clear that in this atmosphere of strained police-community relations, a broken windows strategy would have to be implemented thoughtfully and with the support of the communities they serve so we could get the New York benefit, and not a repeat of the Baltimore breach.
Healthy, productive areas of Baltimore City are supporting and subsidizing all of the rest. If these areas are not cared for properly, more businesses will close or move to safer areas, speeding further decay. The crimes we are experiencing in the downtown area — and police and politicians are dismissing — are not merely “nuisances” but symptoms of the creeping crime moving in from other areas. By tacitly allowing them to continue, it simply emboldens these criminals into thinking we are “safe pickings.”
When a young woman gets mugged in our city center in broad daylight on a workday, wehave to ask ourselves: Howdid we allow this to happen to our city?
And are we willing to let it continue?