The Law and Race

The statistics that surprised me the most were the ones pertaining to the types of people in Maryland jails and what charges they most likely are there with. 77% of incarcerated individuals in Maryland are African American, and African Americans only make up 28% of Maryland's overall population. 90% of incarcerated African Americans in Maryland jails were incarcerated for a drug charge. I was also astonished to hear that even though only 10% of Maryland's student population attends schools in Baltimore, 90% of school arrests are in Baltimore City. How can a minority of both these populations, make up the astounding majority of arrests and incarcerations? Do I really not know Baltimore that much at all? They don't use drugs anymore than other races do. Maybe they just get caught more than other people do, which could be possible because of how much more heavily they are policed. But if that's the case, then why isn't everyone else as heavily policed? Each race does drugs just as much as any other. The data we heard from last lecture seems to indicate that there is something wrong with the system that has led to these numbers. The policing system we have now has flaws. In neighborhoods like where Freddie Gray lived the police can easily stop and search someone they deem suspicious just because they walked the other way. These are very large issues that many people are still ignorant about I'm sure; hopefully we can fix that with the story we will be telling.

Home and Gentrification

Last class we had a few members from Communities Unite come and speak with us. They brought up some points that really impacted me. John talked about that how the police running tanks through the neighborhoods and setting up riot lines did nothing to help ease the situation, it only exacerbated the pain members of the community were feeling and transformed their pain into intense anger. Also, all of the police action that was taken showcased to the children of the community that the police do not trust them. John also mentioned that the police action that is taken now, such as helicopters flying overhead on a nightly basis, only helps to serve these two previous points. I had not truly thought too much about how the police action would affect the children, but they are raised to be distrustful of the police because the police are already distrustful of them. Rochelle said that there are kids starving not even 15 miles away from our campus and that she “shouldn’t have to tell [us] that.” That was information we should have already known according to her, and in all honesty she is right. Being so poorly informed about the city we live next to and the people living in it is a detriment to us and to the people who need our help.

I feel that there is a lot more we can add to the radio series after just a couple of our classes. We now have a larger understanding of the historical reasons and context behind the issues that are being dealt with today.  This is information that needs to be shared with people, because I am fairly certain most individuals would be surprised to hear it. I believe that personal accounts of the hardships the African-American community endures will also be more impactful when the reasons behind why they are enduring them become clearer.

A question for next panel:

I would like to know if there is a particular policy that needs to be reformed more than others to combat racial disparities (maybe one that makes it difficult to prosecute police, or one that leads to higher incarceration rates, etc.), and what changes to that policy would you want to mak

The Issues with the Police System

It was interesting to hear Michael Wood Jr. talk about the police force and the problems he sees with it. There were so many thoughts he shared that had never even crossed my mind before, despite the fact that some of them may sound simple. I never even once considered that police officers may have an “Us. Vs. Them” mentality, especially if that mentality also lead to them possibly antagonizing specific groups or types of people. I suppose this thought hits closest to home considering my cousin just became a police officer very recently in Virginia, and it’s hard for me to imagine him falling into this established issue. Michael mentioned that he believes the community should police the police, which to my understanding meant that the community should essentially be the ones who control the police to some extent. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this idea. Aren’t police officers already part of the community? They just also happen to be law enforcers; isn’t it best to let them do their job? Perhaps I misunderstood what Michael meant, but I don’t think I fully agree with him on that thought. I was also very surprised to hear so much about the systematic racism that plagues our police force. He mentioned that when the police officers who arrested Freddie Gray saw Freddie they were probably thinking “Stats, stats, stats.” It was hard to hear that, it almost felt to me that he was trying to say that because of the way the system operates police officers are encouraged not to see people, but rather just statistics.

This class has made me curious, I would like to know:

1.     What is different about Freddie Gray’s death compared to everyone else who has died in police custody, in terms of the impact or change that death has brought about? I know that it blew up on the media, but just because people heard about it doesn’t necessarily mean much has changed.

2.      What kind of policy or law changes can be brought about on the political battlefront to truly and successfully combat this issue of systematic racism in the police force?

For next class, a few questions I would have are:

1.      What can the average Baltimore citizen do to aid the people in the streets find a home?

2.      Why has public housing in Baltimore been declining, and why is there an increase in non-affordable housing? Besides the simple answer of money, is it because of a set of policies that have been set in place?

3.      What is being done to change the issues with non-affordable housing right now?

Introduction/Test Post

My name is Tyler Walsh. I am a Media Communication Studies major and I am minoring in Psychology. I like to spend my free time playing video games with my friends and just relaxing in general. I am looking forward to sharing the experiences this class has to offer with the rest of you and wish you all a great semester.