BALTIMORE, Md. — Dorothy Scriber lost her son nearly nine years ago, gunned down on a porch just a few doors down from her West Baltimore home.
"He was just lying there, lifeless. [I was the] second one the scene as a nurse. I save lives every day, couldn't save his," Scriber said.
It is the kind of pain doesn’t fade...it haunts.
It is why Scriber and other members of a fast-growing group, Mothers Against Murdered Sons and Daughters showed up in front of city hall today with a message for the mayor.
If no one is going to be prosecuted for marijuana they feel, then why spend valuable time and resources arresting anyone for it.
“Just get the word out that stop arresting the young people for smoking weed,” Scriber said, “You have other, bigger things to focus on...which is homicide."
It was a message amplified by a mobile billboard making its way around downtown.
Pictured is Mayor Catherine Pugh with a plea from this group to pour more resources into the escalating violence epidemic that has resulted in four years straight of more than 300 homicides.
But as that billboard was parked on Fayette Street, the mayor walked out to the group for a private conversation. Afterward, the mayor spoke briefly with the media.
"I just saw them standing over there,” Pugh said, “I know her and I met with her before and I stood with them, Mothers against Murdered Sons. We've been together before and she said the billboard was not her idea and something went wrong but that is not my issue and we have a police commissioner who is willing to meet with her at any time."
It is unclear if the mayor will formally respond to the group's plea but her image is prominently placed on the side of the mobile billboard. The MOMS groups looking, waiting to be heard.
A plea from the mourning to the mayor: spend more time on the stubborn epidemic that keeps growing the ranks of this select but painful group.
