Canton Crime

A 22 year old woman was murdered 5 blocks from my house in Canton this week.  I didn't get sent out on the call as  I was doing a folo to the big water main break in Bethesda earlier that morning.  At my local bar people know what I do and were asking about the murder.  I told them that it seemed like the woman was not from the area and was driven into Canton, shot in a car, and left there.  This seemed to immediately calm their fears.  And I can understand why.  Having someone being walked up to, robbed, and shot is a very scary thing to live with when you walk the streets of your neighborhood.  But thinking that someone's life is less valuable because they were maybe involved in the drug trade when they were killed is horrible.  

Everyone lives with blinders on.  Everyone makes up these fake baltimore boundaries in order to justify even living in this city of 250+ murders a year. 

You don't go north of Patterson Park

You don't go west of MLK Blvd

You don't go down to Cherry Hill or Brooklyn

But crime happens everywhere!  Look at the two murders in Federal Hill earlier this year.  Similar circumstances to the one in Canton but imagine if you were walking to your car when you saw this.  All of a sudden you're an innocent person wrapped up in a terrible deed and with your only crime being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Can We Get Some Dip For These Chips on Our Shoulders?

Oh, Baltimore.  And I mean that affectionately.  I don't think you could find a better metropolitan city that takes up the banner of "the middle child" so well.  Sandwiched in-between New York, Philly, and DC we are easily a forgotten stop down I-95.  

I think this really plays out in the national media.  Take Saturday's Ravens win.  a 9-5 team goes to play the Dallas Cowboys in Texas and walks out with a shocking win.  Had the Eagles, or the Giants, or  the Redskins won that football game the headline on ESPN would declare "(Big City Team) trounces Cowboys in Pivotal Matchup" Instead what do the Ravens get?  "Cowboys Blow it" "Cowboys Let it Go in Final Game in Texas Stadium."  No mention of the Ravens.  No respect. 

I guess it will make eventual championships a little bit sweeter when they are won, but don't leave out Baltimore because you're tired of mentioning large mid-atlantic cities. 

Baltimore residents know they don't get any respect, and it has created an entire endearing quality to the people who live here.  A not so Philly-esque negativity combined with a total lack of DC cockiness.  

The Last Man In Baltimore You Want to See

A few months back I was sent to a shooting in  East Baltimore.  The corner of Patterson Park Ave and North Ave. A horrid, forgotten stretch of the city that the Baltimore Sun profiled in a fantastic article. This shooting was more a standard crime of passion than your standard Baltimore drug-related homicide.  A jealous boyfriend stormed into his ex-girlfriends house and added her to the list of 230+ murders in Charm City for the year.  

While at the scene, a crowd of locals had started to form.  Usual watchers with the usual questions.  Who you with? What happened? One guy I started talking to, lets call him Tommy.  Tommy was a nice guy, seemed to have the local scoop on what happened and in traditional Baltimore resident fashion, wanted nothing to do with me after I asked him if he wanted to do an on-camera interview.  I relented and continued to film the scene, and Tommy eventually warmed back up to me and continued to chat.  

After getting my video I said my goodbyes to the locals and went back to the station.  I got to be a visitor in these forgotten sections of the city, but everytime I leave I get the same look and feel from the locals who resent me (and maybe themselves) for having to be residents of these corners.

A few weeks go by and I'm sent to another afternoon shooting.  This time on the west side of town.  It was a gang related shooting.  Two guys waiting in a car get run up on and shot multiple times.  Once again a very active scene with a lot of locals standing around, a lot of police, and a lot of crime tape.  Well who do I see watching the scene but none other than my friend Tommy.  

He sees me, smiles, and comes over.  Once again gives me the scoop and once again dodges an on camera interview.  At this point I'm joking with Tommy and I ask him if he's got a nose for trouble? This is twice in a month I see him at two separate crime scenes on opposite sides of town.  Tommy says its bad luck and I kiddingly tell him to stay the hell away from me because it seems whenever Tommy walks around the streets of Baltimore people tend to get killed.  

Now I chalk this up to coincidence. I'm sure Tommy had nothing to do with either murder, but there are probably hundreds of Tommys in this town.  People who have lived their entire lives with an umbrella of crime and poverty hanging over them.  And most of them are good people! That's what needs to be taken from this.  Sure they may have a few drug charges on their record but for the most part citizens of Baltimore don't kill each-other.  There are just a few more who do in this town compared to others.  The goodness in the people who aren't running around with guns is lost in a lack of chance for them to succeed.  Drive east on North Ave between Greenmount Ave and Bel Air.  Tell me how many grocery stores, doctors offices, office buildings, or job training centers you see.  Then tell me how many liquor stores, drug dealers and carryout food joints you see.  

There isn't an opportunity in these communities to improve.  And until those investments are made there are still going to be dead gang members and guys like Tommy soaking it all in like it's as normal as the sunset.

Cities Finest

"You ever piss on your old lady in the shower?"  Was a question posed to me by a Baltimore City Firefighter after leaving the scene of a suspected bomb in a Park Heights home.  A call was received that there was a cell phone placed in the oven with a some strange package attached to it.  Turned out to be nothing, but the group of firefighters nearby just helped me cement my belief that you can see and hear anything in this town, especially from complete strangers.  

I was packing up my camera and tripod and came walking past a group of four firefighters who were hanging out and smoking.  "Hey we got a question for you." one of them said.  "This guy over here (pointing to another firefighter) is getting married next week.  We've all been married and we want to see if he (again referring to the engaged fireman) is the only one who hasn't done this so, you ever piss on your old lady in the shower?" I tried to hide how hilarious this sounded to me and  of course I was taken aback but had to agree that I had in fact never urinated on another individual in a shower.  "Aww!!!" the three pissing firefighters said and I think slowly began to wonder if they were in the minority. 

So the engaged fireman thanked me for my honesty and I packed up the news truck and drove the quick 5 min drive down Druid Park Drive to the station.  And that's what I love about Baltimore and this job.  I think I've been given a unique opportunity to see people at their best and at their worst, and meet people I would have never met before.  I've probably walked through more drug corners than an suburban kid probably should, and learned how dishearteningly close the bad neighborhoods are in Baltimore to the good ones and wonder what sort of strange luck, or tradition that keeps one block safe and drug/violence free but another 400 yards away clocks 4 homicides a year. 

There are a lot of good people in Baltimore.  I've been lucky to meet some of them but spend most of my day documenting the bad.  And you really start to get numb to it.