{"id":45148,"date":"2017-08-07T23:07:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T03:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=45148"},"modified":"2020-08-02T23:07:22","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T03:07:22","slug":"good-intentions-predictable-outcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=45148","title":{"rendered":"Good intentions, predictable outcome"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Didn\u2019t see that coming<\/a>: grassroots movement declaring a ceasefire in Baltimore, challenging the city to \u2018nobody kill anybody\u2019 over a 72-hour period, results in two men dead from gunshots<\/span><\/p>\n

I hate to (I really don\u2019t<\/em>) goof on what\u2019s ultimately very good intentioned, but come on \u2013 this is Baltimore we\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 This is a city in America where the life expectancy is something that sounds like medieval times, when the bubonic plague was ravaging the realm, that\u2019s how much violence is a problem there.\u00a0 It may sound like a clich\u00e9 to some, but there is a shred of reality in the notion of surviving each day, because violence in Baltimore isn\u2019t just commonplace, it\u2019s a way of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not (entirely) saying all this because I love to take potshots at Baltimore; I\u2019ve seen the looming threat and constant presence of violence in that god-forsaken city.\u00a0 I remember when my mom wanted to be alone for a weekend, she\u2019d jettison my sister and I off to Baltimore to stay with an aunt and cousin who lived in the deepest, darkest part of Baltimore, and I remember hearing the nightly routine of dirtbikes and ATVs that buzzed down Monroe Street that were speculated to be MS-13 drug trails.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen fights on the streets, and I knew a friend of an acquaintance who was jumped and hospitalized in ICU during an Otakon, in a very populated area near the Harbor.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Baltimore\u2019s a dangerous place, there\u2019s no way to deny it.\u00a0 So it is not the least bit of a shocker when in spite of the efforts of the people, pleading with those with ill-intentions to put their guns down and just not kill someone for three days, that such a request could not be fulfilled.\u00a0 72 hours without any killing was simply too much to ask of Baltimore, and the baby steps need to be reduced dramatically if the people want to have any chance at feeling any modicum of social victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frankly, I don\u2019t have much faith that Baltimore could last 72 minutes<\/em> without a killing somewhere, much less 72 hours.\u00a0 When people are still getting shot in the midst of an unofficial ceasefire at 5 p.m. in the summer which is basically broad daylight, there\u2019s not much hope that violence has any chance at being curbed in a place like Baltimore.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s really a gigantic crapshoot and luck of the draw that violent incidents don\u2019t happen in Baltimore, and frankly I have to be amazed at my own survival, considering just how many times I\u2019ve been in Baltimore in my life, in spite of the fact that I really do dislike the city.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been to numerous Otakons and despite my dislike for the city, Camden Yards is still amongst the finest baseball parks in MLB.\u00a0 Needless to say, I\u2019ve walked around the streets of Baltimore at nighttime a.m. hours several times, and the worst thing that\u2019s ever happened to me was being propositioned by some hookers once.\u00a0 Looking back, I have to thank my lucky stars that I\u2019d never been shot at once.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seriously though, it is sad that in spite of the good intentions, Baltimore could not make it through an entire weekend without anyone getting killed.\u00a0 The world truly doesn\u2019t need this much<\/em> violence, much less one individual city on a planet full of major cities.\u00a0 But at the same time, given the history of endless and massive violence in the city, it\u2019s not at all the least bit surprising that they failed.\u00a0 72 hours is a bar set entirely too hard, and considering the rate of death is nearly one murder a day, Baltimore needs to prove that they can go 24 hours without a killing before, they can aspire to go 72.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Didn\u2019t see that coming: grassroots movement declaring a ceasefire in Baltimore, challenging the city to \u2018nobody kill anybody\u2019 over a 72-hour period, results in two men dead from gunshots I hate to (I really don\u2019t) goof on what\u2019s ultimately very good intentioned, but come on \u2013 this is Baltimore we\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 This is a … Continue reading Good intentions, predictable outcome<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[112,45],"class_list":["post-45148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-crime","tag-fail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45150,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45148\/revisions\/45150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}