News from Bal'mer would be hilarious if the stakes weren't so high. While violent crime rates climb to new records, half the officials dream up far-fetched policy responses worthy of a freshman in Politics 101 . The other half invent new ways to argue it's not my fault . Either way, taxpayers pick up the tab ...
Remember when lockdowns were only for prisons? Then they became fashionable for schools. [Little difference, some public school students assure me.] Now officials want lockdowns on a street near you
One of the policy responses was a short-lived idea of Councilman Curran . He wanted to impose martial law on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. (Proponents were careful to assure us that it really is not martial law, which is an immediate clue that they knew they were promoting martial law.) Whole areas would be cordoned off, police would stop'n'frisk anyone they wanted, assembly of more than a few people would be banned but remember, this isn't martial law. (Just responsible government practices that brought a big thumbs up from King George back in the 1770's.) Curran's proposal was quietly withdrawn, but will be back. Anyone who would submit this nonsense in the first place will never understand how offensive it is he'll only figure it was an idea before its time.
Did we mention picking up the tab? Not only does the city top the charts for crime, it does with police overtime too. A report which said millions of dollars were spent on 1.5 million overtime hours last year emerged as this year's murder count climbed past 110. (One question we haven't yet heard: are we spending this cash on the right stuff? ) Homicide detectives responded by shifting into high gear and hitting the links? Officials say they are checking to see if the detectives' participation in a recent charity golf tournament happened to run up this year's overtime. Of course, these same officials paused to express support for new gun control before all heading out to the 19 th hole.
Yes, gun control. Taking Mayor Dixon's lead, they want to make enforcing gun laws their top priority. Dixon's idea is to ensure police lock up guns. (We presume this is an admission that locking up thugs is beyond them.) More gun traces, new sting operations and for the first time, a gun offender registry, wherein the city would track addresses of people who have previous gun convictions. (Our view: tracking current address of people who have multiple violent crime convictions should be easy. Its called jail .) Remember, most bare' gun crimes (those unconnected with some other crime) are technical infractions, so Dixon's proposal is the equivalent of announcing that her city will continue to over-spend on programs which do nothing to dent the rising violent crime rates.
This all makes a lot more sense when you remember that this year's mayoral primary election is September 11 th . Dixon who inherited her job when O'Malley went to Annapolis has very little time to distinguish herself from the pack in order to win the election and keep her job. But real public safety programs that work take time. They involve getting police out on streets (which is not nearly as safe as doing data entry in a gun registration computer), cracking down on a few bad eggs (which involves alienating police unions needed in elections) and streamlining the operations (which involves brain strain while trying to understand all the ways minor officials enjoy an easy, if not also profitable existence from business as usual.) Dixon won't risk an election for that. But when crime gets worse as summer boils on as it will her handlers know she must get ahead of' the crime issue. She needs voters to see her as doing something . Let's see what sounds good and won't rock the boat? Oh! How about gun control? Ahhh.