Baltimore has long been known as one of the deadliest cities in America.
It’s already seen 208 homicides this year—
putting it on pace for its most murders ever.
Some frustrated residents are now pushing for a 72-hour ceasefire
they’re calling “nobody kill anybody.”
— Y’all know about the Baltimore ceasefire?
You know about the Baltimore ceasefire?
There’s a bunch of Baltimore residents trying to have 72 hours and no murder.
It’s this weekend,
so it’s August 4th through 6th.
— That’s right, yeah!
— All the way.
— Erricka Bridgeford is sick of the rising murder rate.
But when her son told her this could be a record year,
she got pissed off.
— So we’re telling everybody to tell everybody…
— She’s part of a group that’s calling for a weekend ceasefire.
— A lot of people hear you saying, “Don’ t kill anybody for 72 hours,”
and say, “That’s not going to happen.”
— Yeah.
— How do you respond to that?
— I say, you can’t make a decision,
with whoever you roll with,
that you can’t keep this six-block radius from anything happening?
Then, like, what are you doing?
— The slogan is simple:
nobody kill anybody.
But that’s a tall order in Baltimore.
The city’s on track to hit 400 murders this year.
— Murdered.
Young lady, murdered.
Murdered,
and it’s just like…
murdered.
— Shaun Young grew up in Baltimore’s Sandtown neighborhood.
Like a lot of people here,
he finds out about homicides in the city via Instagram.
— Do you ever open this thing up and see someone you know?
— Yeah, that’s what I am trying to tell you.
I know, at least once a month,
you see one of your homeboys just passed away—
he’s been murdered. It’s like…
I dunno.
It’s sad, but it’s reality.
It’s… Baltimore.
Don’t none of it make sense when you look when you look at it logically—
just like the ceasefire:
“Okay, stop killing each other for a weekend.”
That does not make sense.
To address people and say, “Okay y’all, y’all are killing each other.”
What’s the issue?
What can we do for y’all to actually try to fix this,
as opposed to just saying, “Stop killing each other for the weekend?”
— Residents don’t feel like the city is doing enough
to address social and economic problems in the inner city.
Then there’s the fact that, last year, more than half of all murders went unsolved.
It’s a cycle that can leave criminals emboldened
and witnesses intimidated.
— Why isn’t anybody doing anything about the murders?
— But we are.
But we are.
— Mayor Catherine Pugh has been in office for seven months.
— …and they don’t understand what has taken place already…
— She inherited a police force that the Justice Department found to be
poorly trained, racist, and prone to using excessive force.
— We’re focused on how we reduce violence in our city
and what we must do as a community to reduce violence,
because this is not just a police issue.
It’s a community issue.
— Do you think that this weekend, basically this ceasefire,
is going to be successful?
— Absolutely.
I think the fact that people in the community have
taken it upon themselves to say, “We need this to stop.”
So, to the extent that we continue to have those voices echo throughout our neighborhoods,
is success to me.
— But part of the reason the community is calling for a ceasefire
is because they don’t think the Baltimore Police Department will protect them.
Especially in the last couple of years…
— …Baltimore has seen Freddie Gray die in the back of a police van,
seen two recent videos showing officers allegedly planting drugs,
and seen seven officers get indicted for robbing civilians.
But Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith
says the media is ignoring the positive things the department is doing.
And as for the cease fire:
— We’re 1,000 percent supportive of the idea,
the concept, as a police department,
but we’re not on the front lines of this.
We’re there if they need us.
— So how does that work, though,
because I think, in a way,
we’re talking about reducing murders, right?
Isn’t that y’all’s job?
— It’s everybody’s job.
Any community that thinks public safety is strictly law enforcement’s job,
they’re probably a community that’s failing at it.
— A lot of people are saying, “We don’t trust the police to be involved.”
— Well, I think you can find people who’ll say that,
just like you can find a ton that’ll say the opposite.
We’re not focused on the negative.
— There is the demographic,
who’s the demographic that we’re talking about,
you know, 18- to 30-year-old black males, for the most part.
And a lot of them are…
— No, a lot of them aren’t.
A lot of them aren’t.
That is a fallacy.
That is a blanket statement to say
the majority or a lot of 18- to 30-year-old black men don’t trust the police.
— I think there are some.
— There are some, you’re absolutely right.
But to make it a blanket, that the majority of ‘em,
I don’t think there is proof positive that that’s accurate if we go across the country.
— Baltimore City Police Department isn’t the best police department in America, like…
it’s kind-of a shame, like,
they’d rather chase guys on dirt bikes than chase down the guys out here killing people.
— A.J. Elliot has spent his whole life in West Baltimore.
He says he doesn’t dislike all police,
he just wishes they were better at their jobs.
— So are you expecting help from police?
— No, not really.
And like, the citizens, we’re getting tired, man.
So, after a while…
we’re going to have to take things into our own hands.
— City officials can look at the ceasefire as a partnership.
But a lot of citizens see it as the exact opposite—
fixing their own community because the city won’t help them.
So even if the ceasefire is successful,
some people will think it was despite the government,
and not because of it.
— A lot of people say, “72 hours… that’s a Band-Aid.”
— Absolutely.
You understand when you are on the frontlines
that everything you do in that moment is a Band-Aid.
But I’m cool with people thinking that I’m naive,
and that this is stupid.
I’m cool with that because I know that if I stop,
and all the other people in Baltimore who’re doing the work, if they stop,
you would really see the murder rate go up.
You will see how much these little Band-Aids, that you call,
were actually doing something in this city.