Baltimore murder rate surges even higher

The city, with an already sky-high murder rate, has set a new per-capita homicide record as gunmen go an a killing spree, sometimes for no apparent reason at all.

Some 343 killings were registered in 2017, bringing the annual murder rate to its highest ever of roughly 56 killings per 100 000 inhabitants. Baltimore has 615000 inhabitants living in the city.

Mayor Catherine Pugh told the Associated Press: “Not only is it disheartening, it’s painful.” Violent crime rates in Baltimore have been notoriously high for decades and some locals are even calling it “Bodymore” because of the high body count and no-one seems to have an answer for the scourge.

The failure of the predominantly African American city to protect the lives of its people, has been subject of endless interpretation. Some attribute the increase to illegal guns, the opioid epidemic, inequality or a lack of opportunity.

Others blame the police, accusing them of racial prejudice or being too eager to do the job. Six officers were charged in connection with the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, an African American whose death in police custody resulted in massive black protests and the worst riots in decades.

Baltimore’s murder rate actually surged after Gray’s death in 2015, a year when the city saw over 340 killings. There’s been a depressingly steady increase in murders ever since.

Donald Norris, professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, however now blames the police for not being present enough. “The great increase in murders is happening partly because the police have withdrawn from aggressively addressing crime in the city’s many poor, crime-ridden neighbourhoods,: he said.

Arrests too have declined to their lowest level in years, as officers face a tough environment with little support from the community.

Mayor Pugh, who took office as mayor in December 2016, told attendees at a candlelight vigil she hosted for victims of violence at the time that “this will become the safest city in America” and promised to focus on reducing crime, boosting police recruits, and improving neglected African American neighbourhoods.