2014 Maryland Law Enforcement “Use of Force” Data

An active list of 2014 law enforcement use of force data in Maryland — Collected by the Baltimore Public Safety Collective

Green dates are use of force incidents by the Baltimore Police Department that have been reported. Yellow dates are use of force incidents by other law enforcement agencies besides the Baltimore Police. Red dates are use of force incidents by the Baltimore Police that haven’t been reported publicly. Green names are the victims in use of force incidents that have not been identified. Black names are the victims that were wounded in use of force incidents. Red names are the victims that were killed in the use of force incidents Green LEO-involved names are the officers that have not been identified. Black LEO-involved names are the officers that have not been charged by the State’s Attorney’s Office or disciplined by the Baltimore Police Department. Red LEO-involved names are the officers that have been criminally charged by the State’s Attorney’s Office. The (SES) besides BPD refers to the “Special Enforcement Section” unit of the Baltimore Police Department, formerly officially known as the “Violent Crimes Impact Section” and most commonly known as “The Knockers”

Now compare with data provided by the Baltimore Police Department:

 

“FIT Investigations” were made public on June 1, 2014 on the Baltimore Police Department website. It was part of the long anticipated reforms that were recommended according to: “Public Safety in the City of Baltimore: A Strategic Plan for Improvement” a quarter million dollar bill for taxpayers that is supposed to “provide guidance for the future, setting forth the vision for policing Baltimore, identification of the primary strengths of the department that must be reinforced and protected, the areas for improvement, and the implementation strategy for moving forward with vigor and commitment.”  It was completed in November 2013 and went into effect January 2014.

According to the BPD website:

“To maintain organizational transparency, improve performance and increase accountability, the Baltimore Police Department’s Office of Internal Oversight (OIO) is tasked with responding, investigating and reporting police categorical use of force incidents.  OIO will update this site regularly with data related to categorical use of force incidents, which is defined as actions taken by a Baltimore police officer that may result in serious physical injury or death.”

However if you take a closer look, you will notice the Baltimore Police have failed to report numerous incidents that the Baltimore Public Safety Collective have recorded, and in some cases neither has the Baltimore Sun.

– February 26 – While off-duty, a 27 year old Baltimore Police officer, Alec Taylor, had strangled to death his girlfriends 7 month puppy after it had defecated on the carpet.

– April 26* – 16 year old Taekwon Ford (also known as “Pug” in the documentary “12 O’clock Boys“) was knocked off his dirtbike by a Baltimore Police officer in his vehicle, and then tased. The officer involved has not been identified.

– May 19* – An unidentified Baltimore Police officer shot two pitbulls, wounding one and killing the other, after they bit at an 11 year old boy.

– June 13 – A steer that escaped the slaughterhouse was shot and killed by an unidentified officer.

– June 14 – After Officer Thomas Schmitt had captured a 7 year old Shar-Pei that had gotten loose from the yard, partner Jeffrey Bolger slit the dogs throat–instead of simply returning Nala to her owner. The killing was reported 5 days after it had occurred.

– June 15 – Officer Dean McFadden drove upon what he perceived as a shoot-out between two men, so he shot and killed one, Eric Harris (30),  and let the other escape. Two days later, Baltimore Police announce that the gun Harris was allegedly in possession of was in fact a replica. Initially it was reported that: “Detectives found a gun on the man who was shot and bullet casings from both men’s guns on the street, police said.” but two days later it was announced that Harris in fact had a “true-to-life replica gun.” Which makes us wonder… because replicas fire blanks.

– June 26* – An unidentified Baltimore Police officer shot and wounded a dog. The incident was the second “police-involved shooting” of a dog that went unreported by both the Baltimore Police and Baltimore Sun.

(*) next to the date indicates that the Baltimore Sun did not report the incident. 

Police shoot robbery suspect outside Baltimore homeless shelter

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-police-shooting-homeless-shelter-20140221,0,4166210.story#ixzz2u45H05LQ

(my summary)

A man was shot by Baltimore City Police because he fit the description of an “armed robber” given by a local homeless shelter. Witnesses state that he did have a gun that he aimed into the air. This is not confirmed. As the man lay “writhing” on the ground the police noted a firearm near him as they placed their crime scene tape around him. A woman, possibly a relative of the shot man, was arrested with no explanation offered.

The police have shot five people this year, four in this past month alone.

No additional details were forthcoming.

_______________________________

(my critical analysis)

Fenton’s narrative is deliberately misleading. While the title of the article states that it will discuss the police shooting of a man, the first two paragraphs deal with a separate, unrelated homicide. By setting the article up as he has, Fenton conjures the image of the brave police valiantly working a homicide, presumably protecting citizens. This helps take the heat off of the police who shot a man who fit the description of an armed robbery, thus, committing the fifth shooting of a citizen by the police this month. Fenton’s tone does not state this as a problematic fact, leaving the reader with the impression that the problem is with the victims rather than the police. Remember – he starts the article talking about an unrelated homicide the police had just come from – which makes it easier to underplay the idea of police actions as problematic.

Reading between the lines, in Fenton’s convoluted article, I know that a man (near a homeless shelter – information designed to cast further doubt on the victim) may have looked like a description of an armed robber. Police encountered him. He allegedly had a gun and allegedly pointed it in the air. A friend says the victim was recently robbed and may have had a gun for protection. He did not point at the police. The police allegedly ordered him to drop the gun and then fired six shots – injuring the victim.

Then Fenton mentions that a probably female relative of the victim who tried to help the man was taken away in handcuffs. Wait. What? They arrested someone who was a relative of the man who was now “writhing” on the sidewalk while they continued to place the crime scene tape around him.  For what? Why? It appears that her crime – witnessing the police action, aiding the victim, or simply getting in the way of dirty cops covering their tracks – required her arrest.

The need to control the narrative – to shape the way in which this story is told – is something Fenton does over and over again. The same theme of big brave police being forced to shoot and/or kill a suspect rather than arresting him/her is found throughout his body of work. He is paid by the Baltimore Sun – there is no money or job security in his telling the truth, turning the lens through which he writes into one of questioning police behavior or even one of neutrality.

Glaring omissions in this story beg to be told but will never be addressed by Fenton or the Baltimore Sun.

–        How does the homeless shelter play into this – I know they are inherently unsafe and so do the police.

–        Is this a homeless man? Because the article implies that he is, and if he is what can this tell us about the relationship that the BCPD have with this population.

–        How did the encounter actually go down? Did the police rush the man? Did they try to talk reasonably or did they shoot first? What procedures were and were not followed in this incident – this seems to me to be the crucial question in all police involved shootings – we need details

–        Who were the police involved? Do any of them have a history of shooting other citizens or other illegal police behavior?

–        Are victims of police shootings considered guilty and in need of serious harm or death because no-one will question the very machine built to protect the cops, the city government, the corporations and all of the powerful who have the ability to stop this genocide? This machinery is one that Fenton perpetuates.

–        RACE. How does Fenton leave this issue out of his articles? Because the police are disproportionately shooting black men in Baltimore. So this story, assuming the victim was black, fits the racial profiling long established by the police here in Baltimore. How do you leave this most important equation out of this story? Baltimore police are involved in a genocide, they are involved in race-based hate crimes.