A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.
It?s an old joke.
But it encapsulates the paradox Baltimore City must resolve in dealing with one of the worst violent crime records in our nation.
This is an ancient paradox. The people call for law and order.
But when authorities impose it ruthlessly and imperfectly, the people cry foul.
The arrest of a young Virginia man in May and abandonment of his girlfriend ? daughter of a police officer ? on Baltimore?s mean streets after an Orioles game revealed a hidden syndrome infecting Baltimore?s body politic.
Just as some human illnesses result from the body?s immune system overreacting to infection, so Baltimore?s syndrome is caused by inappropriate police response to the very real contagion of crime.
Baltimore City leads Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City in murders per capita.
And our city leads them in arrests with one for every six residents compared to one in 11 for Washington, 1 in 21 in Philadelphia and 1 in 28 in New York.
Certainly higher crime rates and higher arrest rates tend to go hand in hand.
And more than two decades of evidence indicates cities that crackdown on minor crime can get major criminals off streets, reducing serious crime.
But that theory requires precise, professional law enforcement effort from officers on the beat through prosecution and conviction.
When, as in Baltimore last year, city state?s attorneys decline to prosecute 25,000 cases, we have evidence the crackdown is not focused, precise or effective.
This means every minute officers spend arresting citizens who present no real criminal threat is a minute robbed from apprehending professional criminals, murderers, muggers, rapists, burglars and drug dealers who are a threat.
It means swamped prosecutors and clogged courts are less able to bring the gavel down on those who routinely wreak havoc on society.
And, worst of all, it undermines the public trust honest citizens must have in their police.
Examiner reporter Stephen Janis recounted the stories of 11 citizens swept up in five cases that clearly make average citizens feel more at risk than safe when they turn to Baltimore police for help.
So far, the city has been lucky. No innocent person, perhaps a visitor to Charm City, has ended up dead because of city policy and subsequent law enforcement action.
That would put us on the national map for all the wrong reasons.
What we need immediately is a less draconian policy, improved training and greater discretionary powers for line officers to focus enforcement on criminals.
What we need longer term is higher pay, better education and tougher discipline for city police.
Ultimately, what we need is stronger leadership.
