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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSome folks in Baltimore are organizing a rally to confront Martin O'Malley on his announcement day
...kinda makes my heart sink thinking about it, but I'm hoping for a good day, nonetheless.
Here's where I read about it: https://twitter.com/BmoreBloc/status/603915741130293248 (more)
Here's the poster image:
Baltimore BLOC @BmoreBloc · 2h 2 hours ago
O'Malley wants to make his announcement HERE? After everything he's done? He will regret that decision #ShutItDown
I sincerely hope this doesn't get any steam up (struggled with even posting this). Maybe it won't be enough to make a disruption.
I don't believe Martin O'Malley's policing decisions (or those of his police chief(s)) a decade ago have an iota to do with the police force today...but some folks there claim his support for the BP's zero-tolerance policy 'created' the atmosphere surrounding the killing of Freddie Gray by cops who took him into custody. O'Malley's made several reasonable defenses of his actions and had a reasonably successful visit to the city in the wake of the protests over Gray's death.
You think your candidate is facing hard questions about their relationship with the black community? Come on into my kitchen...
leftofcool
(19,460 posts)I agree with you that O'Malley's decisions have no bearing on what is going on in Baltimore today but I suspect he will have to answer some questions about it.
elleng
(131,107 posts)as mayor and governor, and we'll all learn from it.
leftofcool
(19,460 posts)I want to hear what he has to say. I really think that the primary is going to ultimately a 2 way race between Hillary and Martin and will be close in the end. I support Hillary but O'Malley is darn sure my second choice!
elleng
(131,107 posts)snooper2
(30,151 posts)FSogol
(45,526 posts)mentioned O'Malley.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...it's awkward because I've been using that feed as one of my sources relating to the Gray killing and the protest actions. I'm definitely worlds apart on O'Malley from a community I find myself in solidarity with on most every other issue.
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)Folks should be free to do this, even if it's for political theater or for something I don't agree with.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...but this is just misguided and off-base, imo.
I hope it isn't exploited and inflated beyond its actual impact (which I hope is nil).
FSogol
(45,526 posts)Yes.
elleng
(131,107 posts)The important aspect of the First Amendment, 'It's a free country,' is people must learn the difference between what they CAN DO and what they SHOULD DO, and this might include those who are NOT interested in non-violence and civil discourse. The promo seems to suggest that.
JustAnotherGen
(31,886 posts)elleng
(131,107 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,886 posts)Found this op in the Iowa group yesterday.
elleng
(131,107 posts)from near me in MD to near my brother in IA!
JustAnotherGen
(31,886 posts)Wonder if I can still get a cheap plane ticket? I'm going to protest him for having a black and white picture on the landing page of his web site.
MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Watch what that fuckwad in the gas mask does to this fire hose in this video. I cannot support ANY group that would use this fuckwad as the face of their movement:
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...I can't believe they used him in their appeal.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)elleng
(131,107 posts)I HOPE/PRAY Baltimore (Mayor + people) handle this well.
He'll clearly be handling the issue for a long time, and I expect we'll all learn a thing or two about policing AND about how Martin O'Malley handles problems and issues. He is, after all, I think, a problem solver.
Koinos
(2,792 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)It is also not misguided at all. If O'Malley is ready, which I know he will be, he will address this in a very positive and real way. Movements like this should absolutely be targeted at our party and should be done so at a time when they get maximum exposure. The Democratic Party is the party they should be lobbying. O'Malley has time to prepare for this. If done properly, it could enormously add to his kick-off.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...O'Malley is a good communicator and he's no stranger to the city or the community.
I do think this could very well be a good opportunity to demonstrate his communication skills and his commitment and understanding of these issues surrounding policing and the black community.
That said, I think the hostility and blame directed toward O'Malley for the present situation is misguided and should be directed to the present mayoral regime in office, not someone who served a decade ago and has almost nothing to do with the situation which is being demonstrated against. A little drama there....should be interesting.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)10 and 20 years ago across multiple cities and the WH have a lot to do with present police.
Some... War on Drugs... Have a tail as long as 1973.
Policy does not exist in a vacuum. And I invite you to sit down with plenty young activists. They will I assure you educate you.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...condescending, as usual.
Stick to the facts of Baltimore and O'Malley's tenure. If you think you have something relevant and constructive about that tenure, then share it, by all means. But stick to the facts and leave the loose conjecture about 'tails' and 'wars' out of it.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)And broken windows policing started before O'Malley and continued after him.
I know these facts seem condescending to you. For that I am sorry.
The war on drugs, and BPD has taken plenty of John Byrne grants, started under Nixon, but got accelerated under Clinton. When O'Malley was Mayor he took plenty of those grants. They continued after his tenure.
This is what we all should be talking about. The policies. And I give a tinkers damn about the letter behind the name.
I am glad he is running. The more the merrier, but as a nation it is time we are real adults and speak of how these policies came to be.
FSogol
(45,526 posts)Since you brought up the War on Drugs, O'Malley signed state legislation that allows the police to write citations for marijuana instead of forcing arrests.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)That he did that as governor. But the discussion, as a nation, has to be the totality of this.
It includes the Byrne DOJ grants, as well as the equitable sharing,which the POTUS recently reversed. And you telling me broken windows is not continuing is funny as shit because there are very few of the 18,000 departments that are not doing it.
It has to be reversed and police militarization has to stop. Period. End of discussion
FSogol
(45,526 posts)FSogol
(45,526 posts)I think your scanner signals got crossed up again.
Free feel to change the subject and post more non-sequiturs.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)You did.
As mayor he was in charge of one of those 18,000 departments. One department that has come under DOJ magnifying glass a few times.
But it is silly to not look at policy effects because it was my guy (tm) and not the other guy with the other letter
I look at the policy,you will continue to look at letters. Also, from talking to people who have been affected by policing more than others, some in Baltimore, I get precisely where this is coming from.
Will FNC exploit it? Does the sun rise in the East? But going la, la, la is unhelpful. Which is what is happening here.
For the record, as governor he has a better cat bird seat to change this than as mayor.
This is why I suggested to the OP to go talk, mostly listen, to young activists. I have, and I have been far better educated on these issues.
Now let's not answer the points made and call this too a non sequitur
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...and to suggest that 'young activists' could 'educate me' on those policies is what I find ludicrous and condescending. Do the math. How old were these youth when O'Malley was mayor? I'm 54, have lived in Md. since I was 10 and I've been intimately familiar with Baltimore since Schmoke.
article:
"By the time OMalley left office in 2007, arrests had returned to their 1998 levels."
And arrests have kept falling since. In 2012, Baltimore police made 38 percent fewer arrests than in 1998. If the riot was fueled by anger not only over police brutality but also police arrests for low-level crimes, as Simon seems to suggest, it's a good thing the rioters were too young to light a match or loot a store in 1998 or 2003...
Heres the official data: In 2006, OMalleys final full year as mayor (he left office in January 2007), Baltimore police made 93,000 arrests. In 1998, his predecessors last full year in office, police made 89,000 arrests. A difference of 4,000 doesn't qualify as a continuation of mass arrests. I should have been more precise by saying almost returned to 1998 levels. But the point still stands: The decline in arrests began in 2004, when OMalley was still mayor -- at least according to official data.
... if youre going to argue, as Simon (The Wire) did, that Freddie Grays death and the ensuing riots are the result of a police department with too many officers who were taught to "roam the city, jack everyone up, and call for the wagon, then its only fair to the officers -- and to readers -- to point out that the most recent arrest figures are lower than at any point since at least 1994.
read: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-05-21/debating-the-wire-creator-on-baltimore-arrests
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Irony does not start to describe this.
And the department, I am positive, did not get any more grants under the DOD 1030 program or any more John Byrne grants.
I am happy i do not live in that pretend reality.
Baltimore has been under a look by the Feds a few times.
We are done. It comes down to you do not think there is anything to the complaints. And if you cannot see that, for whatever partisan reason, I will not try to challenge this, at the danger of creating cognitive dissonance.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...the arrest rate fell BEFORE he left office.
"By the time OMalley left office in 2007, arrests had returned to their 1998 levels."
There is zero connection between a policy of arrests - which ended BEFORE he left office - and the killing of Freddie Gray. And, young activists who were little children at the time have nothing to 'educate me' about that tenure.
The 'cognitive dissonance' comes from your deliberate garbling of the facts and your word salad about drug grants. Plus your assertion that the policy continued after he left office is pure bull.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)But you are ignoring the complaints of community leaders, and your posting that was very ironic... like extremely ironic. In fact, you owe me an irony meter.
Stats are NOT, contrary to your views, ALL OF THE POLICY. They are an important part, but far from all of it. Nor do they reflect life in the urban core of insert american city here. But when I heard the kids and older community leaders in Ferguson talk to Media, and later the kids and leaders in Baltimore, I could have been speaking to both the kids and community leaders here in Mt Hope or Valencia Park. The continuity is stunning from one city to the next and across states.
Look, I am happy he is running, the more the merrier. But if you cannot understand why people in the inner city blame O'Malley (and every other politician by the way, this is far from partisan for them), for police issues, I cannot help you. That is where taking with community leaders, which of course you will not do... comes in. You will not talk to the kids either. And trust me, they will give you an earful if you listen.
When you accuse me of condescension, well guess what Bigtree, I have lived in San Diego all my adult life, except for three years when Tom was deployed from Honolulu Hawaii. Talking to the people of MY INNER CITY, and how city hall ignores them and hyper police them opened my eyes to these issues. I did a lot of listening mostly. Nor did I realize that crap was going on. Why? A lot of it is not reported in the media, though your paper of record has been doing a very good job in the recent past.
In fact, this is part of the systemic implied bias issues we are having as a nation.
Now here are two political realities. O'Malley does not need their votes to win the nomination, In fact, NO POLITICIAN does. They know it, they expect to be ignored again. This is one reason why a lot of the people across multiple inner cores do NOT vote.
Nor does O'Malley, or any other politician, needs to pursue those votes.
I get it why they will protest. In THEIR REALITY, the one you are purposely ignoring... he is part of the problem. Whether they are correct or not does not matter. But the rest of us should be able to grow up, stop this partisan bullshit, grade A and all, and damn it LISTEN!
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...outright lying to make a point.
O'Malley has zero to do with Freddie Gray's death and it's beyond despicable for you to promote lies about his record to make the connection.
By the way, opining all the way across the country from San Diego, you ignore the FACT that the people in these communities elected him in overwhelming majorities, several times in his public life. So much for hiding your views behind the 'people in the inner city.'
Stick to San Diego politics. You suck crap with your baiting posts about my state.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)you seem unable or unwilling to comprehend.
Oh and one last thing.
I did not make that connection to Freddie Gray and his death. YOU DID.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...it's a bogus one, which you are willing to perpetuate by lying about the arrest rate and portraying the protest over the killing of Freddie Gray as a protest of O'Malley.
And, again, from all the way across the country, I know it's hard to accurately portray the politics in my state. However. the 'inner city' community you insist holds O'Malley responsible for the current state of the BPD voted for him in overwhelming numbers in several elections. Of course, you're free to represent their views by relying on the views of 'young activists' who were small children at the time of his tenure as mayor.
...'one last thing.'
Promises, promises.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Read this article by another clueless reporter about what is going on in this country.
http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer
And with that, hide this OP of yours... I do not expect you to get it.
I admit, it takes a lot of getting out of comfort zones.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...or the subject of this op.
Hide this op? More condescension. Disgusting.
You just can't accept that someone might have an opinion which differs from your own (all the way across the nation in San Diego). That includes people who live here in my state, whose views you so arrogantly pretend to represent.
I'll be damned if I hide my op just because you've attempted to contradict me with misleading and false facts about policing in Baltimore. I'll be damned if I'll hide my op because you presume you can talk down to me from across the country about my state and my governor.
FSogol
(45,526 posts)Historic NY
(37,453 posts)trying to stop the killing streets of Baltimore.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...but it has been a hell of a couple of weeks here on the streets.
Some folks are blaming the police for a deliberate slowdown in protest of the arrests of those officers. Irony?
eloydude
(376 posts)but don't think he should run. But will welcome his participation as another Hillary alternative.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)in the Waverly neighborhood north of downtown. It was right down the street from the local Refuse and Resist! guy's place where many of us were staying.
pnwmom
(108,994 posts)And that they were unfair during the years he WAS in office.
He has a lot to answer for.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)the issue of policing at a policy level has to be faced directly. It is not just O'Malley. The OP cannot understand that for the people in the inner core of Baltimore this police shit and not being listened to by city hall has not a tinkers damn to do with how many votes were cast, or how often city hall ignores their needs.
I heard them talking to media and it was like I was talking to my local residents of yet another urban core.
No, they don't vote that much either. Nor do they see it as relevant to their lives.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...for the police killing of Freddie Gray.
It's not only intellectually false, it's factually false.
pnwmom
(108,994 posts)and wrong, and he shouldn't be holding himself up as someone who knows how to handle crime.
His policies, if they were still in force, certainly wouldn't help avoid situations like that killing.
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...but the record is much more complex than the policy of zero-tolerance arrests.
from David Freedlander at Daily Beast:
From 2000 to 2010, the incidence of crime in Baltimore dropped 43 percent, outpacing by a stretch the 11 percent drop that the nation saw during that period. The crime rate dropped by 40 percent. Graduation rates rose. Median home prices doubled. A new biotech park was built on the citys east side. A new performing arts center was built on the west side. OMalley was obsessed with numbers and metrics, and set up a 311 call center to track citizen complaints. A program called Project 5000 enlisted volunteer attorneys to help deal with the citys massive vacant home problem as titles to those homes was eventually transferred to individuals and nonprofits for redevelopment. The school system was pulled back from the fiscal brink. CitiStat, designed to track crime, helped bring the crime rate down and created a budget surplus of $54 million that was then reinvested in schools and programs for children. At last, the population stabilized. It was no longer necessary to flee, if you could. The number of college-educated 25-to-34-year-olds living within three miles of downtown Baltimore increased 92 percent in the 10 years after OMalley became mayor, fourth among the nations 51st-largest metro areas.
Time magazine named OMalley one of the five best big-city mayors in America. Esquire named him the best young mayor in America. CitiStat won Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government Award.
To be sure, change was both too fast and too slow. The blight and poverty remained. And although crime dropped, OMalleys zero tolerance policing policy created a backlash in the very communities it was designed to protect. But those policies were not as unpopular as the rioting now in the streets of Baltimore would suggest.
I dont recall OMalley stating that he would do something about black crime, just crime, wrote liberal Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodericks toward the end of OMalleys time in City Hall. Coming out of the long, dreary Schmoke years, Baltimoreans appreciated OMalleys almost singular focus, along with millions in increased funding dedicated to drug treatment for the citys thousands of addicts who contribute, directly and indirectly, to 80 percent of crime.
He was trying to stop the crime on the streets. People were getting killed daily on Old York Road and in Park Heights, Robert Nowlin, a Baltimore community activist, told The Daily Beast. He did something a lot of these mayors dont do: He walked with the small people. A lot of these mayors stay in the affluent areas. He walked the streets...
...Tying OMalley to Baltimore is an old political saw. When he tried to run for governor of Maryland, Republicans ran ads with flashing police lights, talked about how OMalley would do for Baltimore what he did for Maryland. OMalley won statewide twice though, boosted by those same Baltimore neighborhoods that he is now blamed for turning into powder kegs...
read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/06/you-have-martin-o-malley-all-wrong.html
Joe the Revelator
(14,915 posts)I bring it up every night, but why, oh, why don't we have a better bench this cycle?
bigtree
(86,005 posts)...and, I think, just wishful thinking from opponents.
He did very well, politically, in my state - even the communities which are portrayed by the some in the media and elsewhere as opposed to him voted for Martin O'Malley in overwhelming numbers in each of his elections to office.
O'Malley won his first Democratic mayoral primary with 53%. O'Malley went on to win the general election with 90% of the vote, defeating Republican nominee David Tufaro.
In 2003, O'Malley ran for re-election. He was challenged in the Democratic primary by four candidates, but defeated them with 67% of the vote. In the general election, he won re-election with 87% of the vote.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_O%27Malley
http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=141293