Obviously, the $120,000 gift to the Baltimore Police Department for a couple hundred hours of aerial surveillance has hit a nerve with The Baltimore Sun ("Court documents in two cases that relied on secret aerial surveillance never mention it,"Charitable donations to Baltimore police lack oversight, transparency," Aug. 27).
The net assets of the foundation were $138 million, $28 million of which was invested in hedge funds. The CEO is paid $350,000 per year, not including travel expenses, and his six-member staff had total salaries of about $1 million per year. As per the Baltimore Community Foundation's charter, donations are supposed to be for charitable groups in the region, but it sends money also to groups in Ohio and Massachusetts. Strange? It wasn't questioned by The Sun. Then there are the contributions to religious groups. Not good for a secular-based foundation and, of course, not questioned by The Sun. By the way, the foundation's donation of $202,000 for the care of retired race horses in 2014 was definitely odd, but did The Sun question it? No, it did not. But hey, anything to put more heat on a police department trying to keep peace in one of most dangerous cities in the United States.
To the Baltimore Community Foundation's credit, the organization spells out who got foundation funding, not all foundations do. I trust The Sun reviewed all the foundation's IRS Form 990s to check for specifics about the $120,000 gift.
Yes, the police department itself did not make the gift known because it engages in undercover operations, just like they don't publish all aspects of the CitiWatch program. No police department, local, state or federal, makes known said operations for obvious reasons.
And the invasion of privacy in the world of 24/7 Google Earth, NSA listening, military, CIA and FBI spy satellites, GPS tracker apps, smart phone cameras, security cameras on streets, in businesses, private homes and neighborhoods doesn't cause many complaints. But have a small Cessna take a few hundred hours of footage over one of the most dangerous cities in the world and all hell breaks loose. Give me a break!
Bernard H. Meyer, Elkridge