I want to disclose that I am a black man in my 40s. Although I did not reside in Baltimore, several of my close friends did and still do. I witnessed friends get arrested for absolutely nothing, just for the crime of being black, thanks to O'Malley and his changes to policing in the city of Baltimore. I am not surprised these issues have come to the forefront, because no good comes from racial profiling.
This Washington Post article sheds some light on critical comments towards O'Malley from Baltimore civil and religious leaders, primarily from the aspect of the African-American community.
As Baltimore mayor, critics say, O’Malley’s police tactics sowed distrust
It was as a crime-busting mayor some 15 years ago that O’Malley first gained national attention. Although he is positioning himself as a progressive alternative to Hillary Clinton, O’Malley also touts a police crackdown during his time as mayor that led to a stark reduction in drug violence and homicides as one of his major achievements.
Yet some civic leaders and community activists in Baltimore portray O’Malley’s policing policies in troubling terms. The say the “zero-tolerance” approach mistreated young black men even as it helped dramatically reduce crime, fueling a deep mistrust of law enforcement that flared anew last week when Gray died after suffering a spinal injury while in police custody.
There is a strange set of values here when on one hand you claim to have progressive values, on the other hand you tout your record as a crime fighter, a guy who cleaned up crime dramatically. The nasty side effects of racial profiling, arresting blacks for being black, arresting homeless people for being homeless, cracking down on even the smallest infractions with a big hammer when intervention or treatment is needed, is the opposite of Progressive thought. We are all witnessing the results of such bad policies today.
Police in Baltimore — like their counterparts elsewhere — have had strained relations with African Americans for generations. But community leaders say the relationship reached a nadir during O’Malley’s tenure, thanks to a policing strategy that resulted in tens of thousands of arrests for minor offenses such as loitering and littering.
Although prosecutors declined to bring many of the cases, activists contend that those who were arrested often could not get their records expunged, making it harder for them to get jobs.
Tens of thousands arrests for loitering and littering. Then making it impossible for those wrongful arrested to get jobs because they can't even expunge their arrest records. I had no idea it went as far as that.
“We still have men who are suffering from it today,” said Marvin “Doc” Cheathem, a past president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, which won a court settlement stemming from the city’s policing policies. “The guy is good at talking, but a lot of us know the real story of the harm he brought to our city.”
Bishop Douglas Miles, a community leader, said O’Malley’s department “set the tone for how the police department in Baltimore has reacted to poor and African American communities since then.”
“None of us are in favor of crime,” Miles said. “But we also recognized that you couldn’t correct the problem through wholesale arrests.”
The president of the Baltimore NAACP at the time talks about the "real story of the harm he brought to our city" and claims young men in Baltimore are still feeling the repercussions of those policies implemented by O'Malley. It went as far as the NAACP having to sue the city, and was rewarded a large settlement, because of O'Malley's damaging policies.
A. Dwight Pettit, a Baltimore lawyer whose clients have won numerous settlements from police brutality complaints, said O’Malley’s “approach to policing when he was mayor was disregard for the Constitution.”
“His philosophy was, ‘Put them in jail and figure it out later,’ and that will solve the crime problem,” he said. “It created a confrontational mentality with the police.”
Disregarding the constitution. Arrest first, ask later. As an African-American I cant vote for a guy like that. He might be ok for some white Progressives, but he has wronged our community, and never apologized.
Sharpton — who said he invited O’Malley to speak at the convention because he is a potential presidential candidate -- still recalls O’Malley’s police strategies when he was mayor, which he criticized at the time for leading “to a lot of racial profiling and harassment of black men.”
“It breeds mistrust when you have everyone stopped two or three times,” Sharpton said. “It permeates throughout the community.”
Al Sharpton weighed in highly critical about O'Malley's police strategies, stating that it leads "to a lot of racial profiling and harassment of black men." "Breeds mistrust... permeates through the community." I am listening, Al.
In 2005, with O’Malley in office, Cheathem recalled the local NAACP branch being “inundated with calls from African Americans and Hispanic men saying they were being arrested and no charges were being filed.”
A contingent of activists “met with the mayor and shared our anger — that these guys weren’t being charged but were coming out with arrest records,” Cheathem recalled. “We requested that this process be stopped, and he was not receptive to it at all. We left with the idea that we had no recourse but to sue.”
The president of the Baltimore NAACP brought concerns about racial profiling and baseless arrests to O'Malley. Those falsely arrested were let go without charges but ended up with arrests on their records, which made it impossible to get jobs. The NAACP asked the practice to be stopped, and O'Malley would not hear any of it. So, they sued the city and won. Because O'Malley was wrong.
The NAACP joined in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU that was based on the arrest of a 19-year-old man with no prior criminal record who spent hours in jail for dropping a candy wrapper on the street while sitting on the steps of his aunt’s house. The suit named O’Malley and other Baltimore officials, including the police commissioner, and alleged that the Baltimore police had improperly arrested thousands of people “without probable cause and in violation of the U.S. Constitution.”
The complaint was settled four years later, with Baltimore agreeing to pay an $870,000 settlement. By then, O’Malley was governor. But the memory of his police strategy endured.
The Baltimore ACLU actually filed a lawsuit against the city and O'Malley, a lawsuit the NAACP joined because of an arrest of a 19-year old who had the audacity to drop a candy wrapper on the street? Instead admitting wrong doing it took four years to settle the case.
“We’re not saying the mayor had ill intentions,” said state Del. Jill Carter (D-Baltimore), a longtime O’Malley critic. “He probably had the best intentions. But when all the evidence hit that this was creating more problems, he should have been able to reassess it.”
The evidence of what O'Malley's policies were doing to the city became clear, but O'Malley kept right on with it. No remorse, no intention to reassess failed policies. Failed the minority communities of Baltimore. Failed the African-American community of Baltimore. I can not with a clear conscience support him for the nomination.
On this issue, also read
Back in Baltimore, Martin O’Malley is heckled, and could face political fallout
Martin O’Malley Adopted ‘Giuliani Time’ Police Strategy as Baltimore Mayor
For O’Malley, Baltimore Rioting Complicates Bid Against Clinton