One of the more fascinating reads coming out of the Baltimore media is most certainly The City Paper’s Murder Ink, a no-frills, no opinions box article detailing the week’s tally of Baltimore murders and ongoing updates on previous murder cases. And given the propensity for murder in this city, it usually has at least two to three stories to tell. Furthermore, like a somewhat more streamlined and useful Citistat there are annotated Google maps of the city complete with pinned locations of each and every murder throughout the year, with 2007 being one of the most murderous years on record (281).
Generally speaking, there are only a few “hot spot” areas in which a large concentration of murders occur, notably Park Heights which featured a number of killings. One area in particular however, a 4×5 block area known as Barclay, hosted nine slayings over the course of 2007. Nine. Within a five block area.
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Granted, out of 281 murders Barclay’s scorecard might seem not quite so significant, but the tiny size of the area – within 25th St. and North Ave., St. Paul and Greenmount Ave. – and its proximity to a host of prominent areas (5 blocks from Hopkins campus, less than 3 from Penn Station) make it far too close for comfort as far as I am concerned. |
To make matters slightly more disturbing, a trend of “seemingly random” beatings and robberies have been on the rise in the Charles Village area. Hopkins students have been assaulted in broad daylight by what appears to be gang initiation troops, who make their move in guerilla fashion and exit the area as quickly as they entered it. Were I a police officer, my eyes would be directed toward Barclay for the answer to the question “Where the hell are these people coming from?” Well, either Barclay or the Clifton Park area, regardless it’s a frightening concept that even after all of the effort put into hiring private security and placing emergency poles around the Homewood area, students are still being assaulted in such fashion.
The march of crime continues unabated I guess, let’s see if Dixon’s new regime can make a difference in the long run.
I don’t know about random. It’s a 5-block walk from a blighted, high-crime area to a prestigious university campus. I’m surprised that more crime doesn’t happen there. Hopkins seems to do a good job of keeping it down and Charles Village has a pretty high police presence. If you’ve ever driven down St. Paul Street after dark, it’s not surprising that there are all those murders in Barclay. Everyone on the street is either a dealer, a pimp or a prostitute. I’m always amazed that Charles Village isn’t a lot worse than it is. But what’s really strange is that Guilford is only another couple blocks north of Hopkins.
Yeah I guess what I meant by ‘seemingly random’ was both somewhat sarcastic and also indicated by the linked article as the incidents were ‘unrelated’ but your point definitely makes itself. (air quotes added)