Posted on 07/20/21
| News Source: WBAL
Addressing crime in Baltimore, Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby told C4 and Dan Joseph on Tuesday morning that, "What we know is coming out of COVID— it just exacerbated the crime issue the city has already had."
"We’ve seen this not only in the city of Baltimore but throughout the entire country," Mosby said while he also talked about the role city council plays with crime and its underlying issues.
"The specific thing that we're responsible for Is making sure we're developing legislation to go after those underlying issues," Mosby said.
Mosby said a bill was passed Monday night that would ensure preference was given to people or who are hiring Baltimore residents or Baltimore contracts, apprenticeship programs for young people to have more opportunities, and housing and security legislation.
“Those are the things council must continue to do to provide real opportunities for our constituents and ensuring that we’re going into the underlying issues of why crime takes place," Mosby said.
“The spike that we're seeing right now… unfortunately, crime is about opportunity," Mosby said. "In the midst of a quarantine, there were probably issues that had spilled over and are coming out to the forefront now. "
When asked about a crime spike in homicides and shootings in Baltimore within the last several years, Mosby said: "The crime has been going on for 40 years."
"We’ve seen this crime issue spike up and spike down," Mosby said. "I think we've always had a crime issue. The reality is if we have 280 homicides or 320 homicides, that's too many homicides. This idea that one number is better than the other is a problem in itself. What we really have to talk about is why has crime been so normalized in the city of Baltimore.”
With crime in Baltimore gaining attention across that state and the nation, as well as calls for police accountability and defunding, Mosby, who said he isn't sure what "defund the police" means, said that term has created division.