On the American Music Awards In 2009, hip-hop mogul Jay-Z famously countered rapper 50 Cent, who had been taking public pictures at him, with the now legendary phrases: “Males lie, ladies lie, numbers don’t,” referring to his rival’s music gross sales.
Numbers equally discredit Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s crime discount guarantees and assertions. Amongst different issues, he pledged to slash homicides and shootings 15% every year throughout his four-year time period, a objective he met only once in his first three years, and is on observe to overlook once more this yr, if current homicide trends proceed.
The query is: Are Mayor Brandon Scott’s deceptive crime messages unwitting or intentional?
Throughout his first yr, homicides and shootings elevated. Within the second yr, the numbers remained flat. In 2023, his third yr, numbers confirmed a plunge in homicides and shootings. However who deserves the credit score? Some say U.S. Lawyer Erek Barron’s “Al Capone” type of prosecution on the federal degree is accountable. Others credit score State’s Lawyer Ivan Bates, who entered workplace promising prison terms for illegally possessing firearms. However solely rank partisans credit score Mayor Scott, who took workplace in December 2020.
Furthermore, whereas homicides and shootings fell in 2023, many different classes of crime jumped in neighborhoods throughout town, in keeping with my evaluation of Baltimore Metropolis Police Division knowledge, together with rape, aggravated assault, auto theft and housebreaking. Baltimore residents don’t really feel protected, in keeping with opinion polls — together with one released this month by The Solar, Fox45 and the College of Baltimore — whatever the rhetoric Mayor Scott and his cronies proceed to spout.
Baltimore police numbers present a soar in crime in 221 of the 278 neighborhoods that make up Allure Metropolis. Solely 46 neighborhoods witnessed crime discount, whereas crime remained degree in 11.
Auto theft in Baltimore rocketed 133% in a single yr alone. Mayor Scott’s ballyhooed redevelopment space across the Internal Harbor hosted 2,154 reported violent and quality-of-life crimes up to now two years.
In Scott’s yard of East Baltimore, communities corresponding to Belair-Edison noticed a 109% improve in property crime over the previous yr, whereas neighborhoods such as Berea — a tight-knit African American group — witnessed auto thefts improve 675%.
Little Italy and different historic areas witnessed a 500% climb in auto thefts and 118% hike in violent crime over the last yr. No neighborhood is protected, together with communities represented by a number of the metropolis’s most influential politicians.
In Bolton Hill, the longtime residency of Metropolis Council President Nick Mosby and his ex-wife, former Baltimore State’s Lawyer Marilyn Mosby, property crime spiked 41% with a rash of stolen vehicles going from 16 circumstances in 2022 to 101 in 2023. In Metropolis Comptroller Bill Henry’s Radnor Winston neighborhood, aggravated assault, housebreaking, auto theft and larceny mushroomed.
Mayor Scott continues to tout the success of his Group Violence Discount Technique (GVRS). However the numbers inform a unique story. Crime jumped in 17 of the 21 neighborhoods within the Western District of Baltimore. Three communities noticed crime fall. No change was reported in a single neighborhood.
Whereas traditionally violent areas of this district witnessed progress in 2023, with a 9% lower in whole crime in Upton, for instance, neighborhoods corresponding to Sandtown-Winchester — home of the riots following the loss of life of younger Freddie Grey whereas in police custody — noticed a dramatic 30% hike in crime. In addition to the 14% improve in violent crime, this space of West Baltimore witnessed a 95% improve in robberies, which features a 200% improve in industrial robberies, in addition to a 300% improve in arsons and a 252% improve in auto theft.
In his current press conference with Maryland Lawyer Normal Anthony Brown, Mayor Scott trumpeted their professed partnership in combating crime by means of the GVRS initiative. However the putative beneficiaries of the supposed crime-fighting success had been nowhere to be seen or heard. They’re figments of the imaginations of Scott and Brown — very similar to the “honesty” and “candor” Mr. Brown, who lives in Prince George’s County, claims metropolis residents acquired from the first-term mayor.
Within the subsequent election, Baltimore voters will now not be prepared to throw the cube with their lives or property. Has Mayor Scott occupied his workplace too lengthy for any good he has accomplished?
The residents of Baltimore deserve higher than Scott’s revisionist crime knowledge. It’s far too vital a topic — life and loss of life in some circumstances — to cherry-pick which numbers to share for the sake of profitable a mayoral contest.
Armstrong Williams ([email protected]; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and proprietor of the broadcasting firm, Howard Stirk Holdings. He’s additionally half proprietor of The Baltimore Solar.
