Mob tactics routinely call for threatening people who get in the way. Apparently, so do Baltimore City Police methods.
City Council Member Kenneth Harris asked the police to outline for him police standards for arrest and for frisking.
In response, Deputy Police Commissioner Marcus Brown wrote in a June 5 letter to Harris that the department?s arrest policy has not changed.
He also mentioned that “several of your fellow city council members have contacted me this week to say that if you did not want police to enforce quality of life crimes in your district, they would be glad to have the added enforcement in theirs.”
Is that a threat? It sure sounds like one.
Brown qualified his remarks. “Obviously, we would never do that because your constituents are asking for our help, and we intend to give it to them.” But he never should have implied that the police can and will shift policing based on favorable treatment by council members.
Council President Sheila Dixon called the inclusion of that comment in the letter “totally inappropriate” at a council meeting Monday evening.
Harris was not asking frivolous questions.
A number of recent arrests have thrown innocent people in jail and tarnished the city?s image just as it launches a new campaign to attract tourists. Harris wanted to know if a policy change prompted the arrest last month of a young Virginia couple lost in Cherry Hill after an Orioles game that led to them being thrown in jail and their car impounded and broken into. He also questioned the arrest over Memorial Day weekend of a pastor on his way to church for a suspended license ? which the pastor says MVA records prove false ? that led to his wife being stranded, his car impounded and 17 hours in Central Booking.
Harris also said that a number of officers have called him to complain about career evaluations that rely in part on how many arrests they make.
Brown denies the Police Department operates under a quota system. “It operates under a crime reduction system,” he said.
If that is the case, he should be able to outline police policies for arresting and frisking people.
We are eagerly waiting.
