Homicides in Baltimore are up dramatically — the most in four decades — since six officers were charged in April after the death of Freddie Gray, a young, black man who was injured while in police custody.
Baltimore's police commissioner, Anthony Batts, is asking for backup from federal agents and prosecutors to help him counter the spike in violence.
The fallout from rioting in April may be worse than first thought: Batts says at least 27 pharmacies and two methadone clinics were looted.
"There's enough narcotics on the streets of Baltimore to keep it intoxicated for a year," he told reporters Wednesday.
But as crime has risen in the city, arrests have also fallen by half, leading some to accuse police of a deliberate slowdown.
"They're not coming because they're afraid," says Franklin, in the living room of the narrow, brick rowhouse where he's lived nearly four decades. He doesn't want to use his full name because a drug dealer lives a few doors down. He says the number of visitors there is up in recent weeks.
"I see 'em come up, knock on that door. All hours of the night," he says.
He says "drug boys" sit on the stoops of empty houses across the street, organizing the sales.
That's not new. Franklin is used to calling the cops, and until recently, he says they'd come to clear out the young men, one by one.
"They patted him down. If he had something on him, good. They lock him up," Franklin says. "If not, they'd write a citation. And that's the way it used to be. But not now."
Since the officers were charged in Gray's death, Franklin says police don't come. What's more, he says his dealer neighbor has grown bolder, holding all-night parties that practically close off the block.
https://www.npr.org/2015/06/04/411917414/since-freddie-gray-s-death-violent-crime-is-up-in-west-baltimore
