POLICING - Baltimore Communities

"Staggering arrest rates strain Baltimore community relations with police" PBS NewsHour 5/2/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  All week long, many young people from the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood and other inner city Baltimore communities have been protesting the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police.  Natasha Pratt-Harris, an associate professor of criminal justice and sociology at Morgan State University in Baltimore, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss relations with police.

HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR:  Of course, all week long, we’ve seen many young people from Sandtown-Winchester, other inner city Baltimore communities, along with many other concerned citizens, protesting the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police.

For a look at relations with the police, we are joined now by Natasha Pratt-Harris, a PhD, and associate professor of criminal justice and sociology at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

So, Professor, I want to play you a clip we came across this week.  It’s of a young man talking about how he believes police treat men of color as suspects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE:  It hurts. It really hurts.  You know, when you come out in the morning and you just can’t come out, take deep breath and take a walk.

You can’t even take a walk, because when you do, half of the times they are staring at you, they are looking at you.  You got something planned in their minds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARI SREENIVASAN:  Is that a fair description about what’s happening?

NATASHA PRATT-HARRIS, MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY:  I would just say he’s speaking his truth.

I actually grew up in the city of Baltimore, attended public schools.  I actually teach in the city of Baltimore at Morgan State University.

I have not met a man of color in this city who spent any significant time in the city who hasn’t had that experience, an experience that was in some ways negative, some negative encounter.

So, what he said does not surprise me.  I will say that, you know, we don’t necessarily hear voices like his sharing what’s happened.  So, it’s without a doubt a fair description.

One of the things that I want to make certain is clear, however, is that is not the only experience for residents of the city when it comes to law enforcement.

There are quite a few positive encounters, but those negative ones outweigh the positive, similar to this past week.  We’ve seen the negative depictions of persons who were engaged in violent criminal acts and those negative things outweighed the very positive things that happened.

"In Freddie Gray’s neighborhood, a bleak outlook for family life" PBS NewsHour 5/2/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In the Sandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, where Freddie Gray grew up and was arrested, both the number of babies born to teenagers and the incarceration rate are exponentially higher than the national average.  Tara Huffman, the director of the criminal and juvenile justice program at the Open Society Institute in Baltimore, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the social aspects of life in Sandtown.