101. That's the latest homicide number from Baltimore Police and that's just from the beginning of the year. Both city leaders and residents are fed up.
"The parents aren't raising their children. I came up in a different time. I'm 73 years of age and I'm from when you better do what your parents tell you to do," one resident said.
It's not normal and no one should be feeling like it's normal. We should be thinking about doing things every day to figure out to make the city better but we need to start with ourselves," said City Councilman Brandon Scott.
Isaac Yitzy Schliefer weighed in saying "We should not be standing by while these murders are continuing at record pace. The community needs to be outraged, everybody should be outraged."
And the pressure on city leaders is higher because the consent decree mandates better policing and public safety practices. As the homicide numbers rise, city leaders are working to get a public safety citizens advisory board in place.
"This is not tied to the consent decree, this is about citizens involvement in creating strategies and plans on how the police are going to interact with the citizens in Baltimore," Scott said.
The idea is to make the citizen advisory board law; one that stays in place long after current leaders are gone. But even with this, many think the violence is systemic.
Scott said, "We know that we have to do the job first and we have to create better communities, better health, better food options for our young people, less liquor stores in the community. All of those things tie into that in the long run."
One resident said: "These people in our offices, the people in there, they're not doing the right thing. You need all these people to get involved to make these children stop killing each other but then you can't get mad at them because the parents are doing it."
Other residents aren't sure anything will change and violence has permeated everywhere.
"I have a 6-year-old and we live in the city and my wife. It's concerning because you can go on any kind of case search and you realize that 20 homicides probably took place within 2 miles of where I live right now," said resident Eric Vincent.
At this time last year, 77 people had been killed in Baltimore. City leaders say open communication between police and the community is key to curbing the violence.
