The Baltimore community remains focused on the need to get justice for Freddie Gray, supporting his family and continuing to build our community.
We need to transform law enforcement by instituting policies that hold officers who abuse their power accountable. We recognize that black lives matter; now, our police force must reflect this. The Greater Baltimore Urban League will work with our local elected officials to ensure that everyone in law enforcement, from the commissioner to the foot patrolman, understands that everyone in our community is entitled to be treated with respect. We need to overhaul the entire system to address inequities.
The open letter to State's Attorney Mosby from the Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP) focused on the need for accountability, while asking the Mrs. Mosby to recuse herself from the case against the six police officers who killed Freddie Gray. The FOP and other advocates for law enforcement institutions should instead focus on the need to prepare officers and teach them how to work with the neighborhoods they serve. Law enforcement should prioritize building relationships and accountability with the citizens whom they are sworn to protect. That type of focus will bring the greater accountability and transparency that Mrs. Mosby champions.
To heal our city, we cannot focus exclusively on law enforcement, however. We must eliminate destructive policies that increase the disparities between neighborhoods. These policies are literally a matter of life and death. The life expectancy for resident in Roland Park is age 84. Residents of Canton and Federal Hill have an average life expectancy around 78. Penn North, Washington Village, Brooklyn and Cherry Hill all have average life expectancies around 74. There is a longer life expectancy in Iran and Iraq than in Sandtown-Winchester, Upton/Druid Heights, Greenmount East and Seton Hill (65 years old). This is not just a result of personal choice. It is the manifestation of poor education, low quality housing, negative health outcomes, a cycle of imprisonment and economic policies that have isolated and neglected parts of Baltimore for decades. We cannot live in a city where residents in some communities are experiencing an entirely different Baltimore than others.
We cannot invest in the larger prisons and more police to the detriment of the education and jobs for the people of this great city. We find ourselves in a place where $288 million per year are spent on the incarceration of people from Baltimore City. Maryland spends $17 million a year on the incarceration of citizens from Sandtown-Winchester/Poplar Hill alone. We are overinvesting in prisons and under-investing in people. We need to dramatically shift how we use resources to affect change in our communities.
Beyond government reform, there is also a need for the Baltimore business community to make investments in the communities in the city. We have neighbors who are eager for an opportunity work hard and earn a living wage. There are community-based organizations willing to provide services to prepare other residents to fully participate in the workforce. Grassroots and community-based organizations cannot do it alone. Transformative change requires that all sectors must actively invest in our communities, including the private sector. We have reached the point where the responsibility of making life in our city better must borne by the non-profit, private and government sectors. There is a need to aggressively expand economic opportunity through the creation of jobs in the city. Job creation — and capacity-building efforts to train the unemployed — are critical components of an economically healthy society. Baltimore businesses have to actively explore ways to get into the community and innovate opportunities and jobs for all of Baltimore. Job creation and the expanding Baltimore sectors are critical areas for the private sector to contribute. There have been limited efforts to dig deep into the community and employ citizens, but that is a part of the critical problem. Engaging the community requires patience — in order to employ a highly productive pipeline of Baltimore residents, we have to support them, train them, and ensure that they have the skills that will guarantee their success. We have not yet seen Baltimore businesses hurry to reach back into communities, and that is required to mobilize the workforce in disinvested Baltimore neighborhoods.
We must double down on efforts to create policies and programs that broaden access for all members of the community. The system has to transform. We need a strong education pipeline, specialized trainings, and jobs ready for our capable, growing workforce. I have seen communities that are filled with beautiful, talented and resilient individuals who are fully committed to Baltimore. I continue to meet community members who have created and love the culture of Baltimore and want to enjoy full participation in the growth of this city. We now need our policies to create that opportunity.
J. Howard Henderson is president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Urban League.