Yes, that O'Malley, Martin O'Malley, the current darling of the progressives, the presumptive shining white knight who will save us from the deeply flawed Hillary Clinton, sharing the despicable zero-tolerance policies of Michael Bloomberg? In Baltimore, O'Malley began and advocated zero-tolerance policies that led to stop-and-frisk policies that clearly targeted minorities. The same policies that eventually led to shootings and beatings of minorities in a variety of cities including New York, Boston, and Ferguson were espoused by a Democrat who is now being touted as a Democratic candidate for President?
Sadly, it is true.
Of course, this has been known by the citizens of Baltimore and the press for a long time. Which is not to say that O'Malley has no supporters... of course he does.
For today, let's take a look at a New York Times article by Sheryl Gay Stolberg from April 24, 2015 - Baltimore's 'Broken Relationship' With Police.
There are many other articles that could be offered, but let's just start with this one and see if there is any interest in proceeding. Some excerpts from the article:
“This is part of a decades-long, growing frustration over the extent to which police in Baltimore have adopted a highly militarized approach to policing residents of our city,” said Sonia Kumar, a staff lawyer with the A.C.L.U. of Maryland, which brought a 2006 lawsuit to change some police practices here.
Let's see, 2006 would be during O'Malley's tenure as Mayor, wouldn't it?
And who bears responsibility for the zero-tolerance policy?
Civil rights advocates and some elected officials here trace the tensions to “zero-tolerance policing,” a crime-fighting strategy championed by Martin O’Malley, the former governor and a potential Democratic candidate for president, when he was the mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007.
But were there any incidents during his reign? well, there was at least one:
10 Years Before Freddie Gray, Baltimore Police ‘Accidentally’ Snapped a Perp’s Spine
Well surely, someone must have noticed this pattern if it existed during O'Malley's tenure, right? Well, yes they did:
In 2006, the A.C.L.U and the N.A.A.C.P. sued Baltimore, alleging a broad pattern of abuse. The city settled in 2010 for $870,000 and publicly abandoned zero-tolerance policing. But people here say tensions persist.
There seem to be many, many diaries (as a matter of fact almost daily) touting Martin O'Malley as an alternative to Hillary Clinton. I, for one, would like to see some repudiation of these abhorrent zero tolerance/stop-and-frisk/shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later police tactics as opposed to bragging about highly suspect crime reduction records.
Are we really considering voting for a candidate who has even a whiff of connection to tactics that killed Freddie Gray and many others?