Best News: Keith Davis Jr. is Free
On January 13, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates announced he was dropping charges against Keith Davis Jr. The move came after a relentless fight waged by Davis’ wife, Kelly Davis, against former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby. Mosby was in the process of taking him to trial for a fifth time when she lost her bid for reelection last year.
Davis had been imprisoned since 2015, when he was shot at by police and then apprehended in connection with the murder of security guard Kevin Jones at Pimlico Race Course.
As we’ve written about plenty of times, our carceral systems aren’t designed to keep families whole or to free anyone. Knowing Davis was free to be with the family that loved him was a great way to begin the year.
Worst Step Backwards: Ivan Bates
A piece published by The Daily Record tracks the story of Harry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was among the first city residents to be cited under Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates’ decision to return to the prosecution of low-level offenses after Marilyn Mosby, who had formerly held the job, halted the practice. Fitzgerald’s offense: carrying an open container.
Bates swore to resume citing citizens for things like sex work, open containers, and hacking when he was sworn in at the beginning of the year and had put the practice in place by June.
“At hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, The Daily Record spoke with six people who said their citations had been in error or were based on a misunderstanding by police,” reporter Madeleine O’Neill wrote. “Four of them, including 64-year-old Fitzgerald, said they agreed to the community service because they were concerned about worse consequences if they fought the charge or just wanted to get their time in court over with.”
Experts say that the practice of prosecuting low-level offenses doesn’t reduce crime and unfairly targets Black people and people who are poor.
Worst Anne Arundel County Resident: Richard Worley
In their piece “Worley Nomination Signals End of Any Pretense of Reform,” Baltimore Courtwatch writes a bit about Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley’s past.
“We know Worley oversaw the Northeast District when Tyrone West was brutally beaten to death by his officers. The officers responsible for the initial stop and for beginning the violence — Nicholas David Chapman and Jorge Omar Bernandez-Ruiz — racked up complaints under Worley’s leadership. This includes the case of Abdul Salaam, who was pulled from his car and beaten by Chapman and Bernardez-Ruiz days before they killed Tyrone West. Chapman was found guilty of assault and false imprisonment, while Bernardez-Ruiz was found not guilty of assault and guilty of false imprisonment in March 2016,” they wrote.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott nominated Worley on the heels of the largest mass shooting in Baltimore’s history. Twenty-eight people were injured, and two — 18-year-old Aaliyah Gonzalez and 20-year-old Kylis Fagbemi — were killed in a shooting at the Brooklyn Homes housing complex early last July.
Residents said they called police throughout the day to alert them of issues with the Brooklyn Day party, which has been held every year for almost 30 years, but police didn’t show up until it was too late.
Kobi Little, president of the NAACP Maryland State Conference (then serving as president of the group’s Baltimore chapter), called for more transparency over the police commissioner nomination process and asked that Scott widen the list of appointees for the job.
“We told you guys this incident was going to happen,” he said at a city council hearing about the Brooklyn Homes incident. “This is why you need community engagement on the front end.”
In September, promising tech CEO Pava LaPere was murdered. Jason Billingsley is accused of her murder and is also accused of another violent attack that happened just a few days before. Worley faced scrutiny not only because the public wasn’t aware of the first attack but because of comments he made that some said disparaged Billingsley’s first victims.
He’s not off to a great start.
Oh, also, Worley doesn’t live here yet. According to WBAL-TV, he has signed a declaration of intent to move here and has six months, starting from his appointment, to do so.
Worst Improved: The Baltimore City Police Department
Shortly after Freddie Gray’s death, the United States Department of Justice investigated the Baltimore City Police Department and found that the department had been: “(1) making unconstitutional stops, searches, and arrests; (2) using enforcement strategies that produce severe and unjustified disparities in the rates of stops, searches and arrests of African Americans; (3) using excessive force; and (4) retaliating against people engaging in constitutionally-protected expression. As a result, the city and the DOJ entered into a consent decree.
Things aren’t going great.
In August, the Baltimore Banner’s Ben Conarck reported that, while city officials say they’ve made great progress, they don’t always have the proof to back it up. They still haven’t turned over data regarding the department’s use of stop-and-searches. Conarck wrote:
“‘There are solid reasons to have positive impressions about what’s going on in the department on many fronts,’ Judge James K. Bredar told the city’s top attorney, Ebony Thompson, after she championed the progress made in recent years. ‘But positive impressions aren’t going to carry the day. The defendant has the burden of proof, and we’re rapidly approaching the point now where that’s what this process is going to be mostly about.’”
“‘There are solid reasons to have positive impressions about what’s going on in the department on many fronts,’ Judge James K. Bredar told the city’s top attorney, Ebony Thompson, after she championed the progress made in recent years. ‘But positive impressions aren’t going to carry the day. The defendant has the burden of proof, and we’re rapidly approaching the point now where that’s what this process is going to be mostly about.’”
Ben Conarck
In early November, city police fired 36 rounds at Hunter Jessup, killing him. They said he shot at them while fleeing.
Best Show Up and Show Out: From Baltimore to Palestine
When violence broke out in the Gaza Strip, activists, organizers, and educators here in Baltimore sprang into action — teaching, supporting, marching, and organizing.
“Hamas, a Palestinian political and military organization that controls Gaza, launched a brazen cross-border attack on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 Israelis, the majority of them civilians,” wrote Jaisal Noor in this publication. “In response, Israel launched an unprecedented retaliatory bombing and artillery campaign on Gaza.”
Since then, groups like Black Alliance for Peace, the Party of Socialism and Liberation, and IfNotNow Baltimore have marched, held teach-ins, and even set up shop in Kweisi Mfume’s Baltimore office to urge him to sign on to legislation calling for a ceasefire.
“I’ve never been more proud of being a Baltimorean or an American to see how much everyone is opening their eyes and seeing the truth about what’s going on overseas,” a Palestinian-American protester told us.
Worst Fight: Bike Lanes
The fighting this year over bike lanes has been intense. This conflict over who has the right to public spaces runs into differences of perspective governed by race, class, and age. The fight has bubbled over online into back-and-forth spats on Twitter and whatever is happening with the Baltimore City Voters page. We aren’t here to legislate who’s right or who’s wrong. But we are saying that we hope that the new year brings new perspectives and a way to hash this out without all the vitriol.
Worst WTF: Baltimore drivers
Driving city streets these days can be a harrowing experience. We have questions: Why race from one stop light to the next stop light? Do folks not get tired of getting ticketed by the speed cameras? Don’t you want to make it home to your friends and family in one piece?
Worst MIA: The Pepsi Sign
We said goodbye to the Pepsi Sign over I-83 this year.
“Commuters now see a sign for Plant 83, a mixed-use redevelopment of the Hampden Pepsi facility, which stopped production in 2011 and closed in 2016,” wrote the Baltimore Sun.
The old sign, which wasn’t exactly in the best condition, had become a kind of landmark for drivers navigating the many, many accidents that happen on this stretch of I-83.
Most Ignored: Covid
As much as we wish it were true, we are not post-Covid. This illness, which we are still learning about, is still a real and present threat to our health. The virtual disappearance of masks means that many of our friends and loved ones still can’t venture too far outside the confines of their homes. Anyone seeking vaccination can go to the Baltimore City Health Department’s Eastern Clinic, located at 1200 East Fayette Street. Find information about that and other Covid updates at coronavirus.baltimorecity.gov/covid-updates#Vaccines. Order tests for free here: covid.gov/tests. And mask up!
Worst Twitter Owner: Elon Musk
Baltimore Twitter has served many purposes. It’s been an organizing space, a laugh-to-keep-from-crying-space, a community bar, a place to discuss breaking news, and even a place to get recommendations on goods and services like dry cleaners or dentists.
Until Elon Musk took over.
It’s still pretty funny and informative, but Musk has allowed blue-check clout-chasers and racists to overrun the app, making it harder to find each other and driving many of our fellow Baltimoreans off to other apps.