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BALTIMORE (AP) — Since the Baltimore Police Department started overhauling its practices through a series of court-ordered reforms in 2017, officers have become significantly less likely to use force against members of the public, such as brandishing a service weapon, deploying a stun gun or striking an uncooperative suspect into compliance. But the agency still needs to improve its ability to hold wayward officers accountable and address a dire staffing shortage, according to testimony Thursday in federal court in Baltimore. With a mix of praise and admonishment, the discussion focused on recent developments in a yearslong effort to enact sweeping...

Baltimore is burning because community organizers and various thugs are tearing the city apart in the aftermath of the strange death of a young black man who was in the custody of police — and President Obama is trying to make things worse.In an incredible non-coincidence the rioting follows a weekend rally by the Occupy Wall Street-like Baltimore Peoples Assembly. There also was a first wave of rioting over the weekend. Outside activists have been flooding into Baltimore, according to reports. Police and civilians have been injured. A CVS store was looted and set on fire. Rioters chopped up fire...

You might remember the corrupt Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby who attempted to make a national name for herself in the prosecution of the “Baltimore Six”; six police officers she charged in the death of Freddie Gray back in 2015. As Baltimore burned amid political fuel driven by Black Lives Matter, Mosby was the lead narrative engineer who attempted to frame the six police officers for the death of Gray until her fraudulent charges collapsed in the first two officer trials which resulted in acquittal. According to recent media reports Marilyn Mosby and her husband, Nick Mosby, the Baltimore city counsel...

Only into the third month of the new year and more than 50 people have been killed in the Baltimore city area. The Baltimore Police Department announced Sunday that 19-year-old Singleton Blake-Duppins was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a 26-year-old man on Friday, one of four shootings in Charm City Friday night that left two men dead and four injured. At least 52 homicides were been reported throughout the city as of March 2, according to a tally by The Baltimore Sun. The major northeastern city in Maryland of more than 600,000 people is one of...

Hoping to reach African-American voters nationally in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday toured the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested — and likened the poverty he observed to that of the Third World. The independent senator, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, walked the streets of Sandtown-Winchester for about 20 minutes, joined by community leaders and a swarm of cameras that mostly blocked his view of boarded rowhomes and crumbling marble steps. A handful of residents joined the spectacle, and occasionally broke out in chants of Gray's name. The scene...

BALTIMORE -- Juan Grant, who led protests across Baltimore demanding answers after the arrest and in-custody death of his best friend Freddie Gray in 2015, was shot dead on Saturday while driving to his grandmother's house in west Baltimore. The 33-year-old's murder came on the fourth anniversary of Gray's funeral and the citywide riots that highlighted the frustration and distrust with the police department and the deep divide that exists to this day in Maryland's largest city. A day after Grant's death, another gunman in the city's western district fired into a crowd of people enjoying an afternoon cookout, killing...

Juan Grant, a close family friend of Freddie Gray’s who led protests in front of the Western District police station demanding answers after Gray’s death from injuries suffered in police custody in 2015, was shot to death in West Baltimore Saturday, his family said. Grant, whose brother had a child with Gray’s twin sister, was best friends with Gray and considered the two brothers-in-law. As tensions rose in the days after the 25-year-old died of spinal cord injuries following his arrest four years ago near Gilmor Homes, Grant returned daily to the police station and met with then-Police Commissioner Anthony...

Baltimore’s top prosecutor has filed a rarely used legal petition intended to vacate 3,778 convictions for possession of marijuana, arguing an extraordinary legal strategy is necessary to “right an extraordinary wrong.” In a highly unusual “Maryland v. Maryland” filing in state court, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby used a petition called “writ of error coram nobis” that allows a court to reopen cases when substantial error is found that wasn’t apparent in initial judgments. The petition, if granted, could wipe out thousands of pot possession convictions. Mosby’s arguments are based on what she paints as an opportunity to achieve retroactive justice...

In 2015, I documented that crime in Baltimore was rising rapidly as police resources became stretched as they dealt with riots and anger following the death of Freddie Gray. I warned that the city could tip into a permanently higher crime rate. It’s now become clear that is exactly what happened as an investigative report by The Trace reveals: "Instead of getting backup, detectives were pulled from their cases, sometimes for days at a time, to help quell the violence. By 2016, homicide investigators cumulatively spent 10,000 hours working riot duty and patrol rather than tracking down murderers… In the...

A remarkable article in USA Today confirms what common sense and intelligent observation have told us for years.  Immediately following the Baltimore race riots that ensued after Freddie Gray was found dead in the back of a police van, Baltimore cops began to "stop noticing crime."  They still responded swiftly to calls for help.  But the police force turned a blind eye to crimes being committed right in front of them. The analysis by USA Today examined millions of Baltimore police records and determined that shocking rise in crime occurred that was directly related to a fall in "on view" reports of crime...

The race to elect new state’s attorneys in Maryland is heating up, including the reelection bid of Baltimore’s now famous (infamous?) Marilyn Mosby. If you’re familiar with that name it’s probably because she was the one in charge during the Freddie Gray riots and the subsequent failed attempts to prosecute six Baltimore police officers over their actions during Gray’s arrest and death. So you probably wouldn’t be surprised to find that the campaign literature making the rounds this month includes pictures of Mosby making her famous announcement and reminders of those ill-considered trials. But there’s a catch. Freddie Gray...

I remember a time in the not so distant past. The year was 2016, and racial tensions were running high. Freddie Gray was a resident of Baltimore, Maryland. He was arrested and notoriously died while in police custody. Soon afterward, Black Lives Matter and other activists became enraged. They began to protest the police department's presence in their neighborhoods over alleged brutality. Let's fast-forward a couple of years later to present day. Now we see over 300 murders in the City of Baltimore this past year. When I saw the number of murders, I was shocked. All of the intellectuals...

For the third year in a row, Baltimore, Md., has had more than 300 murders, reaching a new record of murders per number of residents in 2017. Some residents attribute the high murder rate to relaxed police patrols in the city following high-profile cases of police brutality. Officers have backed off in neighborhoods, like the one where Freddie Gray was arrested.

The six Baltimore police officers who where charged and then later acquitted in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray were all back at work Thursday. None are patrolling the streets, but are working jobs in other departments, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Back in May it was decided in the City of Baltimore that the officers involved in the Freddie Gray incident were going to be facing disciplinary trial boards, despite having been cleared of wrongdoing in the courts. That process began playing out last month and the second officer to face the music was the supervisor in charge at the scene, Lt. Brian Rice. Much as with the result of efforts at previous trials in a court of law, Rice walked out with no finding against him and returned to his job. (Baltimore Sun) When the verdict of “not guilty”...

Calling violence in Baltimore "out of control," Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered 30 agency heads to meet every morning at police headquarters, and to make crime reduction the top mission not only of police, but also of health workers, housing officials and public works crews. The mayor ordered the directors of more than half of the city’s 55 departments to report to meetings daily at 8 a.m., when they will plan with Police Commissioner Kevin Davis where weeds should be cut, lead paint covered and drug houses boarded up and job applications can be handed out, among other tasks. [Snip] "Violence...

A Baltimore police officer involved in arresting a black man who later suffered a fatal injury during a police van ride testified at the driver’s disciplinary hearing Tuesday that the man did not show any signs he needed medical care when he was first put into the van. Officer Edward Nero testified at the hearing for Officer Caesar Goodson, the van driver who could be fired for violating department policies in the case. “He was not showing any signs of a medical emergency,” Nero, a certified emergency medical technician, said of 25-year-old Freddie Gray, who died about a week after...

At least one of the Facebook advertisements bought by the Russians during last year’s presidential campaign was targeted at voters in Baltimore and made reference to the Black Lives Matter movement, a source familiar with the ad said Wednesday. The ad — also aimed at users in Ferguson, Mo. — followed the 2015 rioting sparked by the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. The ad appeared on the social media network sometime in late 2015 or early 2016.

There's much more to Charm City than what you've seen on The Wire. Even as racial tensions make headlines in this famously blue-collar town on the Chesapeake, slick waterfront projects and farm-to-table dining have arrived along with a new, younger generation of residents set on building the place they want to live in. One native Marylander travels to the city he first knew as a kid to meet the doers and dreamers driving Baltimore's next act.

Five of the six officers charged as accessories in the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015 filed suit against Baltimore’s state attorney Marilyn Mosby (shown) for malicious prosecution, defamation of character, and invasion of privacy, among other claims. Last Friday U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Garbis, in a 65-page ruling, ruled that their lawsuit against Mosby may move forward. The next step is discovery during which Mosby and others in her department, as well as the Sheriff’s department, will be required, under oath, to explain just how she and they could reasonably claim that the officers were guilty of...