Council President Brandon M. Scott Releases Statement on Violence So Far in 2020

Council President Brandon M. Scott Releases
Statement on Violence So Far in 2020

"Already being ahead of last year’s pace for shootings and homicides is not acceptable."

BALTIMORE, MD (January 31, 2020) — Council President Brandon M. Scott released the following statement Friday evening, responding to the already 26 homicides so far this year:

“I am gravely concerned about the violence in Baltimore, just one month into 2020. Already being ahead of last year’s pace for homicides is not acceptable.

There are solutions. I myself have proposed solutions, many of which have yet to be implemented, like a targeted focus on violent repeat offenders and deeper investments in community-based, violence-interruption models that employ credible messengers.

Just this afternoon, I was in Franklin Square, where the community was celebrating 6 months without a shooting. That's due in large part to the effectiveness of Safe Streets. Where are the plans to expand and invest more heavily in this model across more of our neighborhoods? That's what we should be talking about.  

At last evening's City Council Monthly BPD Oversight hearing, I pressed the Department on how many gun arrests involved violent repeat offenders so far this year. No one had that information on hand and had to provide it later. For me, that is an indication that our focus is not where we so desperately need it to be.

When we truly implement a violence reduction strategy that focuses on violent repeat offenders, I am confident we can reduce the murders in our city. The results we see now are nowhere near satisfactory. It gives me concern that recent talk of targeting the small number of people perpetrating the majority of violence may amount to little more than buzzwords.”