Welcome to what was formerly Charm City, a place where food is now treated like dangerous drugs and drugs are treated like food. As of Friday evening, Baltimore will be closing all restaurants to indoor and outdoor dining. Churches have already been severely limited in capacity. As if government can control private life and infringe upon constitutional rights. Schools have never reopened in this city full of beleaguered youth, and it has had a mask mandate in place forever.
But there is one activity the city government will not control because it is extremely essential — drug trafficking. Everywhere I walk when I unfortunately have to venture across the city line from my home, I can catch the pungent smell of drugs. The open-air drug markets that are rampant in this dying city are de facto exempt from the royal edicts.
While the mayor is sternly warning business owners that they will be criminalized for living and earning a living — in order to save lives, of course — city officials are using the virus as an excuse to release some of the worst criminals. Recently, there has been a rash of armed carjackings fairly close to my side of Baltimore County. The police, ever careworn and unappreciated, did their job and caught 14 of the perpetrators, most of whom had prior criminal charges that never resulted in jail time. Well, most of them were released immediately because, you know, COVID. It’s all in the science.
Marylin Mosby, the city’s prosecutor, hired a public defender on the taxpayer dime to set free some of the people serving the longest sentences in city jails.
This story is long, but well worth the rest of the read.