Nothing fails to say "we heard you and we are going to start respecting your rights and treating you as a human being" like a curfew. There is no way authorities can better shout from the rooftops that they absolutely don't get it.
Here are a couple thoughts on how to constructively move forward:
•Call a special session on the Maryland Legislature and change the laws to create a Community Review Board with investigative, subpoena and charging powers in all cases of police misconduct.
•Increase the penalties on police who cover up a crime and create extremely tough penalties on police involved in a conspiracy to obstruct justice.
•Increase police pay and require them to live in the neighborhoods where they work.
•Fund lead paint mitigation.
•Fund community designed neighborhood revitalization that employs locals selected by locals to convene community meetings and plan and implement revitalization. (This is needed statewide, in rural, suburban, and urban areas, so it should be funded for any neighborhood anywhere in the state to use.)
•Re-establish a state-based Civilian Conservation Corps to get people back to work improving their own communities.
•Fund police re-training, including an extensive reform of how we approach crowd control.
•Increase funding for the state and local public health departments to help improve living conditions.
•Increase funding to schools and universities to reduce class sizes, empower creativity and critical thinking and create college scholarships to make college more accessible.
These are constructive steps that are desperately needed for public safety (including safety from police who are breaking the law) and for the economic future of our great state. Nothing will better address public discontent at police behavior than serious reforms enacted right now. That is how you settle the situation down. Sending police and National Guard dressed for battle into people's neighborhoods does not. Giving the people angry that the police killed their loved ones without consequence a target to throw things at does the exact opposite and continues to inflame the situation.
Evan Coren, Washington
The writer is a former member of the Columbia Association board.