Plenty of money for prisons, none to fund recreation centers. Broken families and busted schools. But most of all, lack of concern among city residents for the rising homicide rate was cited as one of a litany of ills prompting community activists to stage a symbolic “lie in” on Sunday near City Hall.
“We need to raise the level of outrage,” said Walter Lomax, who was released from prison after serving 39 years for a murder before being released after a judge questioned the conviction.
“People have grown immune to the violence, they?re too used to it and we need to change that attitude.”
“This is a community call to action,” said Kimberly Haven, executive director of Justice Maryland, a group that advocates for prisoner?s rights.
“We need to come together as a city and show we care.”
The protest, scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at War Memorial Plaza, is billed as a “lie in.” Several hundred people are expected to lie on the plaza, just a few hundred feet from City Hall.
“We need to connect the dots and show that we will fight the violence together,” Haven said.
There have been 245 homicides in Baltimore in 2007, compared to 225 at the same time last year ? a rise in bloodletting that prompted Mayor Sheila Dixon to change police commissioners and alter the city?s crime-fighting strategy.
Still, as the city continues on a pace to reach 300 murders for the first time in years, Lola Jenkins said she has seen enough.
“I?ve lost three nephews, one cousin and two friends in 10 years,” she said as she stood in the rain in frontof the locked doors of the Greenmount Community Center in East Baltimore.
“We?ve lost our sense of community, and we?ve lost the strength of the family,” she proclaimed as she promised to attend Sunday?s protest.
“The community needs to change.”
