"You don't get to act like a fool here."
After a series of attacks in and around the Inner Harbor that started in April, Bealefeld flooded the waterfront with extra police, a contingent he has quietly drawn down in recent weeks. He said on Tuesday that he wants smarter, not necessarily more, officers working, ones who can separate the troublemakers from the visitors, ones who can tell the difference between a Colorado Rockies fan and a gang member who's using the hat as a symbol of terror.
"I don't just need men and women in uniform standing around twirling espantoons," Bealefeld said. "I need men and women who are vigilant, proactive and engaged. I'm not certain that dumping more manpower into this situation is the answer."
It was just a few months ago that Bealefeld, out inspecting his new harbor platoon, lectured a group of cops he saw walking and talking along the waterfront. He urged them to separate, to cover more ground, to talk to the tourists instead of to one another.
Now the commissioner is back confronting the same questions about the same problems. And once again, he's got victims lying in a hospital with bullets in their arms and legs who are unwilling to help his detectives. He turned to the television cameras and pleaded that "someone along the way, maybe through good moral conscience to make Baltimore safer" will pick up the phone and "call us."
More likely, he admitted, "maybe they'll get pinched and they'll say, 'I know the guy who fired the shot down at the harbor.' "
Police are asking any visitors who took pictures before, during or after the shooting to contact them as part of the investigation.
But even the mayor, in blunt comments over the weekend that once again took aim at the judiciary, suggested that even had Bealefeld's cops seen the gang insignia on Saturday night, detained the group, found the gun and prevented the shooting, "I guarantee if they caught that guy, he would be out the next day, with a slap on his hand."
