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Could it be that Councilman Dorsey is the ‘phony?’ | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
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Students For Life of America held a "Black Preborn Lives Matter" event outside Planned Parenthood of Baltimore on the 400 block of N. Howard Street over Labor Day weekend. They painted the street, then sang and prayed together outside the clinic. September 5, 2020

Students For Life of America held a "Black Preborn Lives Matter" event outside Planned Parenthood of Baltimore on the 400 block of N. Howard Street over Labor Day weekend. They painted the street, then sang and prayed together outside the clinic. September 5, 2020 (Barbara Haddock Taylor / Baltimore Sun)

It’s fascinating to see Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey at it again criticizing the Baltimore Police Department (“Baltimore city councilman criticizes police for posing with anti-abortion activists,” Sept. 9). He says that it is unacceptable — and in violation of department policy — that on-duty officers are participating in an anti-abortion protest. I was relieved that later in the article, he was also critical of police officers raising their fists and kneeling during protest against police brutality. My relief was short-lived since his argument was not that they were active in a political protests, but that the cops were “phony” given the department’s documented patterns of unconstitutional policing.

Reading Councilman Dorsey’s use of the term “phony” is quite ironic. While a candidate, Mr. Dorsey, a white man, campaigned in his mostly black district going door-to-door while wearing a black hoodie. When critical of city cops living in the county or out of state, he talked about “Y’all coming into the city harassing and killing our black men.” Some people may credibly argue that he was guilty of cultural appropriation. I’ll just use his term: He’s a “phony.”

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Paul Ludger Evans, Baltimore

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