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In update 59 in November of 2019, I wrote of current Mayor Jack Young, who is taking no responsibility for Baltimore’s dubious distinction as a crime capital.  I also noted he thinks warring gang members should be given the opportunity to duke it out with boxing gloves.  Presumably, they would then become fast friends and give up their lives of crime rather than shooting up the surrounding neighborhood.  Young follows in the hapless footsteps of former Mayor Catherine Pugh, as NPR reports:

…Catherine Pugh pleaded guilty to corruption charges on Thursday, a day after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing her of using a fraudulent children’s book business to enrich herself and fuel her political career.

Pugh, 69, a Democrat who took office in 2016, acknowledged her guilt to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government and two counts of tax evasion.

The deal to plead guilty on four of the 11 counts she was indicted on sets Pugh up for a sentencing hearing scheduled for Feb. 27. Prosecutors said they will recommend to the judge that Pugh be sent to prison for five years.

‘She betrayed the trust placed in her by the public,’ U.S. Attorney for Maryland Robert Hur saidafter the court hearing in Baltimore. ‘We need dedication and professionalism from our leaders, not fraud and corruption.

No!  Not a Democrat Baltimore politician!?  I can’t believe it!

Prosecutors accused Pugh of earning nearly $800,000 from a self-published children’s book series known as Healthy Holly that promoted exercise and nutritional eating though stories of an African American girl.

On second thought, I can believe it, if only because current Mayor Young is back in the “so that’s why Baltimore is a Third World war zone” spotlight, as Fox News reports:

 

As Baltimore grapples with an ever-growing homicide rate, the city’s mayor raised eyebrows on Monday when he voiced concern about a mysterious white van roaming the streets with someone trying to ‘snatch up young girls’ — something that has been refuted by his own police force.

Baltimore Mayor Bernard ‘Jack’ Young made the comment during an interview with WBAL-TV while discussing human trafficking. He said he had received information about a white van trying to abduct girls for their organs. It’s ‘all over Facebook,’ said Young, who took office in May.

‘We’re getting reports of somebody in a white van trying to snatch up young girls for human trafficking and for selling body parts, I’m told,’ he told WBAL-TV. ‘So we have to really be careful, because there’s so much evil going on, not just in the city of Baltimore, but around the country.’

Responding to Young’s warning, the police have said “What?!”  They note they’re aware of the Facebook rumor, but have no such reports or any reason to believe what Young said is true.

As regular readers know, I’ve asserted that Baltimore Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby has learned precisely nothing from her Freddie Gray debacle.  Recently, she has proved that assertion, as Fox also reports:

credit: time.com

A state’s attorney for Baltimore has presented a list of 305 city police officers whose credibility is in question and prevents them from being called as witnesses — findings that are part of an ongoing effort to ensure the force’s honesty following a corruption scandal that shocked the city in 2017.

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby presented the number to members of the state Commission to Restore Trust in Policing in a meeting on Tuesday at the University of Baltimore Law School. The list represents nearly 15 percent of Baltimore’s 2,300-member police force, The Baltimore Sun reported.

‘We have 305 officers with integrity issues and/or allegations of integrity issues that would in essence put them in jeopardy from testifying,’ Mosby said.

The committee was formed to ensure the department’s integrity after several rogue members of an elite unit known as the Gun Trace Task Force were caught and convicted of robbery, extortion and racketeering charges.

IF Mosby is correct, what’s the problem?  More shortly.

Mosby said the allegations against the 305 officers pertain to theft, perjury or ‘something to do with their credibility,’ FOX45 Baltimore reported.

“Something to do with their credibility?”  Mosby is sticking with the tactics of failing to provide specific, unassailable evidence of her assertions that have turned Baltimore into a haven for criminals, and decimated the Baltimore Police Department.

Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner Brian Nadeau said ‘quite a few’ of the officers were subjects of complaints that were not sustained, the Sun reported. A breakdown of the officers, the sustained complaints and how many remained with the force was not provided at the meeting.

He said only 22 officers on Mosby’s list shouldn’t be called as witnesses, noting that only two of those officers remained with the department and both were undergoing an administrative review. The rest of the officers were fully capable of performing their jobs.

‘Nobody on that list that I wouldn’t have working on the street, making cases,’ Nadeau said.

he issue is not only one of credibility, but proper relationships between agencies. Prosecutors must work closely with the police.  If they do not trust each other, the public, particularly the public living in high crime areas—most of Baltimore—suffers, often at the cost of their lives.  Mosby has slandered some 15% of the Baltimore PD, essentially tarring every officer of that force with a vague accusation of corruption or incompetence.

Keep in mind, gentle readers, that post Freddie Gray, as many BPD officers as could manage, fled, leaving the force chronically short-handed.  So bad is Baltimore, so little trust do the police have in the prosecutor and Baltimore’s politicians, the only people wanting to work as BPD officers tend to be the unqualified, even the criminal.  Baltimore has reportedly so lowered its qualification standards that people with criminal records, histories of drug us, and DUI convictions are not only being interviewed, but accepted.  This state of affairs is not restricted to Baltimore.  Law enforcement agencies around the nation—generally in Democrat-controlled cities—are doing the same, often in the name of diversity and inclusion.  I wrote about this first for PJ Media back in 2011.  

BPD officers know the politicians and prosecutors do not have their backs, and are eager to sacrifice them on the political alter.  If Mosby has actual evidence of any behavior, even of crimes, that would render any officer useless in court, there is only one rational, acceptable way to handle it: work with the highest levels of the BPD to conduct a professional investigation, and if criminal conduct or violations of rules or procedures so serious as to render the officer useless are discovered, discipline, fire and/or prosecute them.

Obviously, each case must be handled individually and professionally, so that not only the police, but the public can be reasonably assured actually corrupt officers are being removed, and honorable officers are being supported.  Equally obviously, Mosby has no intention of acting professionally or honorably, preferring instead political grandstanding.  Likely, she has no ability to properly do her job, as she so amply demonstrated in her persecution of innocent officers in the Gray case.

Why Baltimore’s crime rate has skyrocketed since the Freddie Gray case remains a mystery, at least to the media, Marilyn Mosby, and Baltimore’s Democrat politicians.