It was always going to be just a matter of time before another interaction involving the police and a Black person in Baltimore ended badly. We’ve just seen three happen, all within the span of a few weeks.
Bilal “BJ” Abdullah died on June 17 in a chaotic incident in Upton community. Police bodyworn cameras show him firing three shots at officers. Officers fired 38 shots back at him.
On June 25, Dontae Maurice Melton Jr. died in police custody after being restrained by BPD officers. He’d approached them looking for help.
On June 27, an officer shot and killed 70-year-old Pytorcarcha Brooks. They had been called to her home for a welfare check and police say she advanced with a knife on an officer who slipped and fell.
And in truth, it’s likely that there are other incidents that happened in the years since Freddie Gray’s in 2015. Incidents involving police and the communities they are supposed to serve.
We document all of these incidents in this issue.
I say that it was only a matter of time because we haven’t gotten to the root of the problem, and there is very little political will to do that work.
Freddie Gray’s death happened after a series of public Black deaths happened nationwide, in ways that could no longer be ignored. When communities couldn’t be ignored, politicians got uncomfortable. And when politicians got uncomfortable, they used their power to at least make motions toward the idea that something safer and better than policing as we knew it could exist.
Ten years passed and politicians are no longer uncomfortable. State’s Attorney Ivan Bates addressed the Baltimore City Police Department directly at his swearing in several years ago. He told them that they should feel more free to do their jobs under his reign than they should under former State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who had instituted more progressive measures. “For far too long, the State’s Attorney’s Office has tried to be all things to everybody, and, quite frankly, it hasn’t worked.”
Last week, Mayor Brandon Scott gave police his own sign of approval. “We should not allow anybody to be reduced to the worst moments of their life or circumstances around their death,” media quoted him as saying after Abdullah’s death. “But I’m going to be very clear, we cannot and will not allow individuals to carry and use illegal guns against police officers or anybody else in Baltimore without there being repercussions.”
He made the comments at the opening of a pool. The public death didn’t justify a press conference. There were no words about the safety of others in a community where over 30 shots were fired by police officers. There were no words of sympathy for the people who witnessed the incident.
This paper is free because I feel strongly that healthy communities only exist when everyone is informed. In the same way, healthy communities cannot exist unless the safety and health of everyone is a priority.
The unrest that followed his death was a bubbling up of years of slights and resentments. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called outraged Baltimoreans thugs and doomed her career in public office.
Back in 2015, then-councilperson Brandon Scott marched with groups calling for change. In 2025, he went out of his way to side with police.
“We should not allow anybody to be reduced to the worst moments of their life or circumstances around their death,” he said. “But I’m going to be very clear, we cannot and will not allow individuals to carry and use illegal guns against police officers or anybody else in Baltimore without there being repercussions.”
He made the comments at the opening of a pool. The public death didn’t justify a press conference.