Amid police dysfunction, Baltimore violence spikes in aftermath of riots

While the protests have faded in Baltimore, the anger has not — nor has the violence.

On Wednesday night, gunshots sounded across the rough parts of Baltimore. Seven people were wounded in gunfire during the night. A 34-year-old man died after being shot multiple times in the Penn North neighborhood. Three of the victims were teenagers. 

“It is certainly unacceptable for this community to see three teenagers being shot on a beautiful summer night like this,” said interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis. “It’s my impression that they’ve had enough.”

The shootings are part of a wave of violence that has hit Baltimore’s streets this summer. The uptick in crime immediately followed the riots in April after Freddie Gray, a black man, died from injuries suffered in police custody. May was the deadliest month recorded in the city since 1972. Baltimore’s homicide count so far this year is 175, according to data collected by The Baltimore Sun. There were 115 by this time last year.

Some Baltimore residents and law enforcement experts believe the increase in violence is a product of the lack of stability and low morale in the police department, as arrest rates have decreased markedly amid a shake-up of senior officers.

“How do you get any type of training and procedures and policies of any lasting duration when you go through six commissioners?” said Baltimore resident and attorney A. Dwight Pettit, referring to the city’s high turnover in commissioners in the last 12 years.

In the aftermath of the riots, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake fired Police Commissioner Anthony Batts. The public dismissal came hours after the city’s police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, released a 32-page report criticizing Batts and his top command staff for their “lack of support” for officers when the protests escalated. The report states that “officers were ordered to allow the protesters room to destroy and allow the destruction of property so that the rioters would appear to be the aggressors.”

Pettit believes the post-riot spike in crime is the result of a history of endemic police dysfunction. “Every time you turn around, there’s a new commissioner with a new philosophy with a new staff with a new reorganization. I mean, I don’t know how Baltimore has survived this long with that type of instability,” he said.

Despite the rise in violence, citywide arrests have plummeted in the last several months. The Sun found that arrests dropped 43 percent from April to May of this year. Some neighborhoods have seen as much as a 95 percent reduction in arrests since April.

Edward Norris, who served as Baltimore police commissioner from 2000 to 2002, said the decrease in arrests shows that officers have lost confidence in their chain of command.

“If you don’t feel like you’re supported, you’re not going to be the first car on the scene. You’ll be the fifth car on the scene,” he said. “If you get into a fight or a shooting or anything like that, who’s going to have your back then? And that’s the feeling a lot of officers have right now.”

Norris said fewer police on the streets led to a spike in crime as local gangs took advantage, leading to an increase in violent confrontations and shootings.

“What we’re seeing now is a lack of aggressiveness at the police department, and therefore you see a spike in violent crime,” he said. “When people are not fearful or they think they’re not going to get engaged in the streets, they’re much more likely to carry their guns.”

Al Jazeera reached out to the Baltimore Police Department, which did not respond to a request for comment.