As Baltimore sleeps, the thugs are up with their guns at the ready and after a quick get together, they set out to bathe the streets in blood. Whether the victims are opposing gangs or just random targets makes no difference because they are black and no one cares.
The critics are right. While all this mayhem is going on, the police are standing by or rather standing down ("Arrests in Baltimore plummet, and residents are fearful," June 13). The reason for the lack of policing by the police is quite understandable — the men and women in blue became law enforcement officers to enforce laws and maintain peace in the communities that they serve.
Going out on the streets to battle a wide array of violent armed career criminals has risk, and the guys in blue are willing to take the risk that may cost them their lives but they are not willing to risk their reputation, their careers, their futures and their freedom for doing their jobs.
Getting all bloodied up in the "hood" doing police work now may be rewarded with criminal charges by confused, ambitious and biased local officials who do not want to face the truth about their city — that it is infested with degenerates, drug users and sellers, looters, arsonists, gun smugglers, thieves, contraband sellers, un-taxed cigarette sellers, shooters, murderers, anarchists, wanted felons and derelicts of every stripe.
The good people of Baltimore deserve better, so do those who have invested in the city to make it better. They don't appear to count. Even baseball fans are now left out in the cold, and it is no fair to tourists who come to the city to see historical places that belong to the nation. Until the mayor, the state's attorney and other local and state officials are willing to face the facts about a large portion of their city, nothing is going to change and Baltimore will become the nation's crime capital.
In the meantime, the thin blue line will get thinner and thinner. In a reversal of roles, the police are now the enemy in the eyes of some politicians who seek to profit by attacking the police and by their racist policies.
Louis Ginesi Dominguez, Warrenton, Va.