Fall Guy: Baltimore Mayor Fires Police Commissioner
Offers no explanation, but firing comes amid surge in violence
7.8.2015 |
News
| Bradford Thomas |
After repeatedly suggesting that law enforcement was in part to blame for the surge in homicides and shootings in the city, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (D) has fired Police Commissioner Anthony Batts.
She made the announcement that Batts was fired Wednesday, with no explanation of the reason for his firing. Deputy Police Commissioner Kevin Davis will serve as interim commissioner.
Rawlings-Blake has been under increasing scrutiny since she said she would give those who "wished to destroy" in the protests surrounding Freddie Gray the "space to do that" and reportedly telling law enforcement to "stand down" as rioters destroyed the city. Though she insisted that the phrase was taken out of context, she later admitted that she "certainly used the wrong phrase."
Since the riots, the city's crime rate has skyrocketed, and the mayor has repeatedly suggested that police officers were deliberately not doing their jobs, presumably to defy her and Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who threw the book at the six officers involved in the Gray case and has badly mishandled the aftermath. Rawlings-Blake drove a further wedge between herself and law enforcement when she called on the Department of Justice to conduct a Ferguson-style civil rights investigation into the police department.
The police union has been vocal in its response to their treatment by the mayor and state's attorney, but the NAACP has come to the Rawlings-Blake's defense, decrying the union's criticism as "borderline racist." Though the mayor and many in the left-wing media have pointed the finger at law enforcement, many Baltimore residents, particularly in the worst sections of the city, put the lion's share of the blame on the mayor for the crime wave.
Despite the crisis her city currently faces, Rawlings-Blake was recently elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which she says she'll use to Baltimore's advantage by promoting the "urban agenda."
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/fall-guy-baltimore-mayor-fires-police-commissioner
