BALTIMORE, Md. — Saving lives means changing lives and a young man named ‘Asa’ says his is one of them.
“I grew up in a single parent home,” said Asa, “There was a lot of poverty. I knew that my mother couldn’t raise a man so I looked next best or coolest thing growing up, which was my cousins on the corners selling drugs, gunning people down, robbing people and that led me to follow in those footsteps.”
City, state and federal leaders joined the community on Monday in celebrating a drop in murders by a third and non-fatal shootings by a quarter in the last year alone.
Saving lives, changing lives
“As mayor, I have a mandate and responsibility to make Baltimore the safest Baltimore that we can be together,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, “This year, we will release a new five-year comprehensive violence plan that will help us build on the work that we have started. We will maintain our focus on reducing homicide by at least 15 percent each year.”
A look at those same numbers over the last five years is even more remarkable when you see that both homicides and non-fatal shootings have dropped by more than 50 percent.
Police are no longer overwhelmed in trying to clear cases.
“The homicide clearance rate is 65,” said Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley, “Almost every single category is above the national average. Robbery clearance, and again, that goes back to the work of the men and women, but we can’t do it without the community.”
While prosecutors are doing their part in making sure offenders answer for their crimes.
“In 2022, they arrested 15 hundred repeat violent offenders of which only 267 went to jail,” noted Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, “Now, when you sit down and look at the numbers, I think last year, they arrest almost 11 hundred of which we sent 467 of them to prison.”
It appears when you add in the mayor’s Gun Violence Reduction Strategy offering wayward people a new path, it’s a strategy that not only saves lives, it can change them as well.
“I went into the program, GVRS, to help me as far as getting on my feet and finding the right things, the positive things to do,” said Asa, “and be a leader for all my younger brothers and my cousins.”
