We’re now learning about a law enforcement sweep called “Operation Washout,” in which 93 allegedly violent offenders were arrested and pulled off the streets of Baltimore.
The operation was carried out over a two-week period in July, but the story hit the wire services only a couple of days ago.
Among those arrested were four suspects wanted for homicide, 11 wanted for attempted homicide, 26 for domestic violence, three for rape and four for gun offenses. Many are suspected gang members.
Accompanying news of the arrests is a statement from Johnny Hughes, U.S. marshall for Maryland, declaring, “Arresting these most violent fugitives has enhanced safety for the citizens of Baltimore and the surrounding areas.”
Oh, yeah?
In the current atmosphere — “current” meaning over the past 10 years or so — it feels more like clearing the corners for the next round of thugs to step up and take aim.
Consider, too, that the sweep followed a 10-day period in June in which the city was staggered by 18 homicides.
And some of us were reminded of a remark made during that murderous June streak by Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison.
“We are seeing the same thing” — spikes in violent crime — “that you’re seeing in New York and all the other big cities across the country,” he said.
Big cities?
He’s putting Baltimore in the same breath with New York?
What year is Harrison living in?
New York City’s population is 8.3 million, according to the latest census figures.
That makes New York’s population the biggest in the country.
Baltimore’s population is 585,708.
That makes us the 30th biggest city in America, just behind Louisville and just ahead of Milwaukee.
At last count, Baltimore had 216 homicides this year.
New York had 277.
A difference of 61 homicides, and New York’s population is more than 13 times bigger than Baltimore’s.
Some of us who grew up in the post-war years remember when Baltimore’s population was 950,000 and we were the sixth biggest city in America.
Where did everybody go?
They went as far from the bullets as they could. They went away avenues where abandoned houses pockmark entire neighborhoods. They went away from public schools turning out high school graduates who can barely do long division.
And they went away from law enforcement officials who issue empty platitudes instead of real results cutting crime.
Like a federal marshal whose task force arrests four homicide suspects out of hundreds who will pull the trigger this year and says this has “enhanced” everybody’s sense of safety.
And a police commissioner who dares compare ever-shrinking Baltimore to ever-booming New York and imagines nobody around here knows how to count.
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books. His most recent, “Front Stoops in the Fifties: Baltimore Legends Come of Age,” was reissued in paperback by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
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