Maryland Leaders Call For Police Reforms
By Rachel Baye • Jun 5, 2020
Protestors march along North Avenue in Baltimore last weekend.
Credit Emily Sullivan / WYPR
As the country approaches the end of a second week of protests over police abuse of black Americans, state and local leaders in Maryland are calling for reforms, including changes to state laws governing police. Many of the proposed changes have been attempted before unsuccessfully, but some lawmakers say this time is different.
A ban on chokeholds; a duty to intervene when police see other officers using excessive force; an independent investigator to prosecute deaths or injuries caused by police; and required implicit bias training are among the reforms Will Smith, a Montgomery County Democrat who leads the state Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee, calls for in a letter sent Thursday to constituents, journalists and fellow senators.
"It is really sad that it's taken, you know, yet another high profile murder for us to have the political will to take the necessary steps," Smith said. "But I do want to capture this moment."
The protests around the country have created the political will to pass reforms that have been attempted in Annapolis in the past but have ultimately failed, Smith said.
For example, his letter proposes changes to the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, a state law that protects police during investigations for misconduct. Among other things, Smith said he wants to eliminate a five-day waiting period between an incident and when the officers involved can be questioned about it.
"As a civilian walking down the street, if you were charged with something or accused of something, you don't get five days to come in and talk to the prosecutor," Smith said. "So then it begs the question, you know, why are we giving the law enforcement officers that type of protection?"
Last weekend, House Speaker Adrienne Jones announced the creation of a new workgroup focused on police accountability and tapped Howard County Democrat Vanessa Atterbeary, vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to lead the group.
Atterbeary said the topics she plans to take up include use of force policies and making internal police misconduct investigations public record — policies that were considered and failed to make it through the General Assembly as recently as this year.
Like Smith, she said this moment feels different from previous times when police treatment of black Americans was in the public spotlight, including the months following Freddie Gray's death in police custody in 2015.
"I had a colleague of mine who is not in the same party as me send me an email and she was outraged," Atterbeary said. "That doesn't mean that we're going to be on the same page about how we need to move forward, but everyone I think is coming from a position that we need to do something, and we need to do something now."
Atterbeary said Maryland police departments should also eliminate officers who have been repeatedly accused of abuse — officers like the Minneapolis cop who knelt on George Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes until he died.
Atterbeary, who is black and a mother of young children, said the deaths of Floyd and other black victims of police brutality and hate crimes make her worry for her sons.
"I think when my boys were maybe 3 and 4, and it was the anniversary of Trayvon Martin," Atterbeary said. "And at that young age, I had to start talking to them about this because my one son was going through a phase where he just wanted to wear a hoodie every single day. And as a mother, I was kind of freaking out. I'm like, you can't walk around in a hoodie as a black boy."
Other leaders calling for reforms include Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman submitted a budget request for police body cameras.
But Dayvon Love, director of public policy for the think tank Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle and a frequent advocate on policing issues in Annapolis, said he isn't optimistic that many of these reforms will pass.
"No matter how big the moment seems now, what ultimately matters to people is their livelihoods and their careers and their ambitions," Love said.
He said he anticipates pushback from both the police union and politicians worried about the loss of campaign dollars.
Baltimore A Year After Freddie Gray
Baltimore City Police
vanessa atterbeary
"People Are Ready To Rebel": Youth Lead Protest Against Police Brutality
By Mark Gunnery • Jun 2, 2020
Mark Gunnery/WYPR
Protests continued in Baltimore on Monday as young people flooded the streets to protest the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis.
The youth-led protest marched through downtown Baltimore on Monday, calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality. Taking up several city blocks, protestors marched onto I-83, blocking rush hour traffic and chanting "Black Lives Matter" and "Black Power," before rallying in front of City Hall.
Baltimore Mourns George Floyd, Freddie Gray And Police Brutality Victims Past And Present
By Emily Sullivan • Jun 1, 2020
Emily Sullivan/WYPR
This weekend, demonstrators in Baltimore City joined thousands who took to the streets in cities large and small across the nation protesting the killing of George Floyd. In Baltimore, many of those who want justice for Floyd – a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly 9 minutes – expressed open wounds left by the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police five years ago. WYPR's Emily Sullivan reports.
Racism: A Public Health Crisis?
By Sheilah Kast, Melissa Gerr & Maureen Harvie • Jun 2, 2020
Scores of U.S.cities are shaken by protests, some of them violent, of how police treat African Americans. In the shadow of centuries of slavery, oppression and inequity, we ask Larell Smith-Bacon, the the head of the conflict-resolution effort Restorative Response Baltimore--what message the demonstrations are meant to send to white people. And activist J.C. Faulk, who for decades has created dialogue to address racism, talks about why he's organizing food deliveries during the pandemic with Bmore Community Food, and what that means for racial justice. For information about Restorative Response Baltimore, visit this link. To request food or get involved with Bmore Community Food, visit this link.
Young Activists After The Uprising
By Sheilah Kast & Mark Gunnery • Apr 23, 2020
AP Photo/David Goldman
Five years after Freddie Gray died in police custody, we trace the impact of the Baltimore Uprising on young activists and organizers. Young people were at the center of the Uprising, demanding that those in power address injustice, police misconduct and more. Organizing Black's Michaela Duchess Brown, who grew up a few blocks from Gray, had already been organizing for eight years in 2015. She says the Uprising sparked a change in youth activism in the city. Plus, Jamie Grace Alexander, a black student activist formerly with the Baltimore Transgender Alliance, and Lana Weidgenant, of the climate justice group Zero Hour, tell us what the Uprising meant to them.
After The Uprising: Six Views On What's Changed In Five Years
By Tom Hall, Cianna B. Greaves, Kathleen Cahill & Rob Sivak • Apr 27, 2020
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
On this special edition of Midday, six reflections on the April 27, 2015 Uprising, and how the community at the epicenter of that unrest - Sandtown-Winchester - has fared since a 25-year old black man named Freddie Gray died from injuries he sustained while in police custody. At the heart of the protests and the rioting that erupted after Gray's funeral: anger and frustration with a system steeped in racism, inequity and apathy; and a police force that operated with seeming impunity...
(Special Election Notice - 7th Congressional District - Click to Read)
Five Years After Freddie Gray: Six Views On What's Changed
By Tom Hall, Cianna B. Greaves, Kathleen Cahill & Rob Sivak • May 25, 2020
Happy Memorial Day, and welcome to Midday.
The poet Langston Hughes asked "What happens to a dream deferred?" "Maybe it just sags like a heavy load," he observed. "Or does it explode?" Five years ago, Baltimore did explode in a paroxysm of violence that has come to be known as "The Uprising."
Today on this encore edition of Midday, we reflect on The Uprising with six people whose roots are in West Baltimore, who work with those who were most significantly affected in 2015 and who have been part of the positive change that the community has experienced, even as it continues to confront long standing challenges. This show originally aired on April 27, 2020.
Maryland Lawmakers Form Police Accountability Workgroup
By Rachel Baye • May 31, 2020
Leaders in the Maryland House of Delegates are forming a workgroup that aims to improve trust and accountability in police statewide. The announcement this weekend came a few hours before hundreds in Baltimore joined nationwide protests of abuses by police.
"Policing in America is broken," said House Speaker Adrienne Jones in a statement announcing the new workgroup. "As the mother of two sons, accountability in policing is not just philosophical, it is personal."