Religious leaders, politicians and citizens gathered outside City Hall Monday to show support for the Rev. Charles Neal, the minister who was arrested for allegedly driving with a suspended license.
The protest, called the Clergy Rally for Justice, was attended by state Del. Jill Carter, state Sen. Verna Jones and several local pastors, all who said unjust arrests have to stop.
“There will be no peace without justice,” said Phillip Brown Jr., president of the Baltimore City PTA. “We must fight for our rights until these illegal arrests stop,” he said.
Neal, who was arrested, his car impounded and his wife left on the street, demanded an end to the illegal arrests that he said landed him in jail unjustly. “I was stripped and searched and humiliated. Enough is enough. We need to let the mayor know that we want this policy to stop,” he said.
But police spokesman Matt Jablow said that both crime and arrests are down this year. “Of the roughly 1 million calls we receive every year, only a small fraction result in arrests,” he said.
The city?s arrest policy has come under scrutiny after a series of stories in The Examiner highlighted cases like Neal?s.
Carter, who has been critical ofthe city?s arrest policy in the past, said the issue affects too many people to ignore. “Unfortunately, what happened to Reverend Neal and his wife has happened to 100,000 people since this problem started,” Carter said, referring to arrests that do not result in charges.
Jones worried that arresting people for nuisance crimes was not only a waste of police resources, but unfairly giving people a permanent record. “This year an expungement bill was introduced into the state legislature that would taken these arrests off people?s records, but because of petty politics it never made it out of committee,” she said.
Harry Wallace, 39, of East Baltimore, said that being arrested had hurt his hauling business. “I?ve been arrested five or six times in the past year. It?s out of control in East Baltimore,” he said.
Neal said Baltimore?s ministers have an obligation to fight. “If you lock up the clergy, you are attacking the heart of the community,” he said. “The clergy of this city need to speak out.”
