Newly promoted to police lieutenant, Melvin Russell returned to East Baltimore in the spring of last year and thought he still owned the streets he had left for undercover drug work a decade earlier.
Back in his patrol days, all Russell had to do was park his cruiser on a crowded corner and the young men would disperse.
But now, the people wouldn't go. He climbed out and talked to the men, and they "questioned my authority," said Russell, now a major who commands the Eastern District station. "The mind-set had totally changed."
I had heard almost that exact same story about kids refusing to move for police years ago from New Yorker Edward T. Norris, when he became commissioner in 2000.
Norris used the story to push the idea that cops had gone soft. Under his leadership they'd have zero tolerance for such disrespect. Russell uses the story to push the idea that the police have lost touch and trust with the community they serve.
Russell said he didn't know how or when the word community had disappeared from policing, but I can tell you. While Russell was infiltrating drug gangs, patrol officers were locking up tens of thousands of people, many on charges that prosecutors simply tossed out because the crimes were too minor or weren't crimes at all.
Homicides in 2000 fell under 300 for the first time in a decade, but any good will citizens felt for their police department evaporated as well.
So now Russell is essentially starting over in what has traditionally been one of the most murderous, most drug-ridden, most impoverished and depressed areas of the city.
The city Health Department released a study last week pinpointing a rectangular section of East Baltimore bounded by Edison Highway and Jefferson, North Chester and East Eager streets as part of the city most deeply affected by homicide. In that area, which includes Madison-East End and parts of McElderry Park, Middle East and Milton-Montford, 22 percent of all the years of life lost to various causes could be attributed to homicide.
This area is inhabited by roughly 8,900 people. Life expectancy here is 64.5 years, well below the city's average of 70.9. The area is above the city average in terms of infant mortality, low birth weight and teen mothers (an astonishing 31 percent), and the percentage of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood is three times the city norm.
