The "Homicide Victim and Suspect Analysis Report 2008" is a clinical dissection of violent death in Baltimore - a grim tally stripped of tears, blood and anger.
It comes as no surprise that 186 people were killed with handguns and 137 people were killed on the streets (that doesn't include the dozen killed in alleys). All but 20 of the 234 victims were black and all but 31 were male. Among the slain, 126 were shot in the head.
Of the 107 people arrested on murder charges last year, 94 had prior criminal records - most for drugs, guns and violent crime. Thirty-six were under the supervision of state parole and probation when they were arrested. All but six were black and all but 16 were male.
Of the 234 victims, 194 had prior criminal records - most for drugs, guns and violent crime. Eighty were under the supervision of state parole and probation when they were killed.
Sadly, these numbers don't differ much from years past.
We know the people who are being killed, and we know the people who are doing the killing.
The frustrating part is that we can't seem to stop it.
It's far more complicated than locking people up and throwing away the key, though authorities push for stiff prison sentences for gun offenders and closely watch them when they're released from prison to make sure they don't violate the terms of their probation.
"There are a lot of challenges," said Sheryl Goldstein, head of the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, who is trying to get judges to stop handing out suspended sentences in gun cases. "We're not saying that everyone needs to go to jail forever, but there is this small group of high-risk offenders. The police are taking them seriously. Parole and probation is taking them seriously."
Baltimore finished 2008 with 234 slayings. That's better than the 282 in 2007 and much better than the record 353 in 1993.
City leaders are pleased with the reduction, as they should be. But we're still outraged, or at least should be, by the number of killings in a city of just over 630,000 people.
My question is how low the numbers have to get to become an acceptable part of city life. Is it 200? Is it the 175 that our former mayor and now governor once promised? Or, after a solid decade of more than 300 killings in the 1990s, is the 250 to 280 range the newly established norm?
