FBI to name Baltimore America’s deadliest city
An early review of the FBI’s crime report names Baltimore as the deadliest city in America.
Baltimore’s highest-ever per capita homicide rate in 2017 earned it the title of deadliest city, according to USA Today. And although the full FBI report won’t be available until later in the year, the city had more homicides than considerably larger cities.
USA Today reviewed the homicide rates in the nation’s 50 largest cities and Baltimore came out on top. The 342 homicides the city experienced in 2017 were a 17 percent increase over the prior year, and translated to a rate of 56 killed per 100,000 people.
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That easily outpaced New Orleans and Detroit, which both had about 40 killings per 100,000 people, according to the report. Baltimore also had more homicides last year than New York City, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Only Chicago had more.
Major challenges
Police distrust is a major issue for residents still reeling from the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody and a recent corruption trial that could call into question thousands of convictions.
What initially began as hundreds of court cases being compromised by the Gun Trace Task Force, has now increased to thousands according to Baltimore’s State Attorney, Marilyn J. Mosby.
Currently eight city officers have been brought up on charges of racketeering for using their badges to rob citizens. Two of these detectives were convicted just this week. Although allegations stem from 2015, some officers have come forward to report that the crimes have been going on since 2008.
The Baltimore Sun quotes Mosby, while speaking on a panel Friday morning at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, “At first it was hundreds of cases. Thanks to the testimony that came out just last week, our preliminary estimate is thousands of cases that may be impacted by the wrongful and illegal acts of those police officers.”
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Mayor Catherine E. Pugh fired Police Commissioner Kevin Davis in late January, replacing him with department veteran Darryl De Sousa. State and federal authorities have been stepping up arrests using open warrants, and residents organized a recent ceasefire weekend.
Baltimore grapples major issues like gun violence, systemic poverty and unemployment, but the city is has reportedly seen a decline in homicides this year. Through Sunday, 31 people had been killed, compared with 47 killed at the same time last year—a decline of about 34 percent.
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