Less in Baltimore

“I’m hearing it from guys who were go-getters, who would go out here and get the guns and the bad guys and drugs. They’re hands-off now. I’ve never seen so many dejected faces. Policing, as we once knew it, has changed.” In the Baltimore Sun, Justin Fenton and Justin George take a look at how that city’s strife is playing out in the media and on the streets.

+ David Simon: “Overpolicing and a malignant drug prohibition have systemically repressed and isolated the poor, created an American gulag, and transformed law enforcement into a militarized and brutalizing force utterly disconnected from communities in which thousands are arrested but crime itself — real crime — is scarcely addressed.”

+ If you’re interested in the topic of urban violence and the challenges faced by the police, I highly recommend the book Ghettoside by Jill Leovy. Very interesting book written at the exact right time.

+ LA Times: Number of police officers killed in 2014 jumps 89%.