Agents from the state’s Department of Parole and Probation are investigating alleged threats made by suspected drug dealers against activists in South Baltimore’s Pigtown neighborhood.
After they learned of the threats from an article in Monday’s Examiner, the agents interviewed activists Nathan Flynn and Sebastian Sassi, who are part of the Washington Village/Pigtown Neighborhood Planning Council.
“They took a statement from me,” Flynn said. “They said they’re going to investigate.”
State corrections spokesman Rick Binetti said he couldn’t discuss details because the case is ongoing.
Flynn and Sassi are part of a group of residents who pick up trash, fix up the neighborhood and work with police to improve the community.
But that activism has met backlash from area drug dealers, who don’t like the men disrupting their trade, they said.
On Wednesday, Flynn said a known area drug dealer, who had pulled a gun on him before, threatened to shoot him and kill his dog.
Flynn said police told him that because they did not witness the incident, he must go to the court commissioner’s office and swear out charges against the dealer.
But Flynn and Sassi said the court commissioner turned them away.
“The woman there told me it’s not against the law to threaten a citizen,” Flynn said. “She said it would be a crime to threaten [Baltimore Mayor] Sheila Dixon, but not an average law-abiding citizen. … I was offended.”
So, Flynn and Sassi went public with their concerns.
“What Sebastian and I did was not to make any of the departments look bad,” Flynn said. “It was just exposing a wound that’s getting worse and more infected. As a citizen, I know I’m not being protected.”
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