It was toward the end of the day at the Gun Trace Task Force trial of Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor yesterday when Ronald Hamilton, whose home was raided without a warrant by the GTTF in July 2016, finally had enough.

On the stand, he received too many nagging, loaded questions about where and how he got his money and not enough about what he believed to be the real issue at hand: the full extent of the GTTF’s reign of terror. So, when Christopher Nieto, the defense attorney for Taylor, asked one more time about the $17,000 in cash he put down for his half-a-million dollar home in Westminster, Hamilton blew up.

“I put $17,000 down on the house. You wanna know it right? I put $17,000 down,” he said.

Then he got loud: “THIS RIGHT HERE DESTROYED MY WHOLE FUCKING FAMILY MAN. . . . EVERYBODY’S LIFE IS DESTROYED, MAN. . . . THEY CAME IN MY HOUSE AND DESTROYED MY FAMILY. . . . I’M GETTING DIVORCED BECAUSE OF THIS.”

He added that his kids are afraid to go in their own house now, his wife waits at the nearby Wal-Mart if she gets home from work before Hamilton does because she doesn’t like to enter the house alone, and she’s taking medication for stress caused by the raid.

“You want the facts?” he asked Nieto. “Is this what you want?”

Hamilton’s invective was aimed at the pack of federally-indicted cops, along with their defense lawyers, whose entire argument, time and time again, implied drug dealers are not only entirely untrustworthy but hardly even allowed to have grievances (or carry cash).

Attorneys went over nearly every transaction Hamilton made over a period of years, pouring over his receipts, gambling records, and properties. But it was the questioning about his home—which, prosecutors allege, was invaded by the rogue cops who had followed him and his wife from a Home Depot store—that set him over the edge.

Hamilton’s outburst may have been one of the pivotal moments in the case, voicing the fear and rage that all of Wednesday’s witnesses seemed to feel.

In March 2016, Oreese Stevenson was arrested by Sgt. Wayne Jenkins’ pre-GTTF special unit (consisting that night of Taylor, Ward, and Evodio Hendrix) after a friend entered Stevenson’s car with a backpack for a cocaine deal. Jenkins and Ward told Stevenson they approached because his windows were tinted too dark—Stevenson said they weren’t tinted “at all”—and Jenkins jumped in the car, grabbed the backpack of money (which Stevenson said he expected to have contained $21,500), and later took Stevenson’s house keys.

Soon after, Keona Holloway, Stevenson’s girlfriend, who also testified, got a call from her 12-year-old son that cops were at the house, so she left her nursing job early. Inside the house, Jenkins showed her a piece of paper and claimed it was a warrant. She also said he recorded video of them entering the house, recreating their entry (when GTTF’s Maurice Ward testified last week, he said that during that same incident they recreated discovery of a safe in the basement).

Stevenson later spotted discrepancies between what he had when he was arrested and what was seized. He said there would have been $21,500 in the car but police said they seized $15,000; he said he had $300,000 in a safe but police said they seized $100,000; and he said he had 10 kilograms of cocaine in a safe but police said they seized 8 kilograms.

“I’ve never seen them stop a car and run right into the house that way,” Stevenson said, reflecting on how the arrest began.

In August 2016, Dennis Armstrong was pulled over by GTTF’s Hersl, Jenkins, and Momodu Gondo but sped off, lobbing cocaine out of his van and onto the street to destroy the evidence. When cops nabbed him after he drove down a dead end street and ran off on foot, they drove his van to a storage facility where he kept his coke, they had learned. He never consented to them accessing the storage unit.

Armstrong was charged with possession, possession with intent to distribute, driving without a seatbelt, and driving with a minor in the car without a seatbelt (he did not have a minor in the car). When he got out of jail, he got his watch, belt, and a bunch of lottery tickets back. He also learned GTTF had claimed they had only seized $2,800 when he said he had $8,000 in his van. And the 2 kilograms of coke he said he had inside his storage locker were not there and his storage locker was wrecked.

The possession charge—for which he received two years probation—was for what amounted to a few “crumbs” of coke, Armstrong said.

In September 2016, Sergio Summerville, who was experiencing homelessness at the time, had his friend Fats drive him to his storage facility near the Horseshoe Casino where he kept his belongings and the “small amounts” of cocaine and heroin he was selling. On the way out of the facility, two unmarked police cars pulled up to Fats’ car. Jenkins claimed they were DEA and had a warrant, and Hersl said they knew Summerville was a big deal drug dealer “from the Avenue.”

Summerville said that he was offered “freedom” if he gave up information on other dealers, and that when they finally let his friend Fats go, Summerville shouted out the code so he could exit the storage facility and that Hersl saved the code in his phone. When Summerville tried to look at Hersl’s phone, Hersl elbowed him. Summerville was eventually let go too and never charged with a crime. He said GTTF stole $4800 out of a sock in his storage unit where he hid his money.

“They came at me like a gang or something,” Summerville said.

The day’s lineup of witnesses—all of whom had immunity—show the extent of the GTTF’s targets: big time and small time dealers, current and former, some charged with crimes and some not at all.

But this cast of characters also illustrates the specific nature of drug dealing in a deindustrialized city like Baltimore—dealing as a dependable, dangerous side hustle and hardly glamorous even if you’re shipping out plenty of product. Stevenson is currently a truck driver and had the job on and off again while dealing. He was using money he earned to start an Assisted Living service with his girlfriend Holloway. Armstrong’s day job was a maintenance worker for public housing; and Summerville sold while he was homeless—now he works as a caterer.

GTTF’s alleged actions didn’t stop at those who dabbled in dealing though. Gregory Thompson, a maintenance man for the storage facility near the casino, is about as “square” as you can get and testified that Jenkins and Hersl intimidated him the night of the September 2016 incident with Summerville.

The commotion caused by the GTTF stopping Summerville and Fats caused Thompson to come out to see what was going on. Jenkins and Hersl—he had a hard time remembering who said what—asked to see the facility’s security cameras and he told him they would need a warrant for that. They didn’t like that answer, got “about a foot and a half” away from him, and threatened him.

“You look like someone who needs to get robbed,” Thompson said Jenkins or Hersl told him—he couldn’t remember which one had said it.

“As far as I’m concerned, they both said it to me,” Thompson added.

Thompson’s life wasn’t destroyed by the encounter that night, but he was clearly shaken and angry, more than a year later.

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On Aug. 31, 2016, two cars full of Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) officers watched in the distance as two cars that had just collided sat on the sidewalk badly damaged, with the state of the passengers unknown.

Detective Jemell Rayam suggested they get out and help, but aiding the injured drivers was not an option because Sgt. Wayne Jenkins—who was described by those he commanded in the GTTF as both a “prince” in the Baltimore Police Department and as “crazy”— told them not to do anything.

He had also, told them to initiate the chase that led to this moment.

So they waited, listening to the radio, waiting for a concerned citizen to call in the crash or for other cops to come to the scene.

This is all according to Rayam, who pleaded guilty along with all of the officers except for Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor, and seemed visibly shaken and sometimes confused. It was his second day testifying in the ongoing federal corruption trial of the GTTF.

And though Taylor’s defense relied solely on presenting the witnesses as liars, what Rayam said was corroborated by audio from a bug the FBI had planted in the car of GTTF detective Momodu Gondo.

Rayam explained it all began that day when Jenkins saw a car he wanted to stop at a gas station. The car fled and both Jenkins and Gondo, each driving an unmarked car, drove after it in pursuit. The car they were pursuing ran a red light and, in Rayam’s words, was “pretty much T-boned,” by another car.

“It was bad, real bad,” Rayam said. “Both of the cars collided with each other.”

Briefly, he couldn’t answer follow up questions—a crying Rayam wasn’t sure which crash they were asking about.

“There were so many car accidents,” he said.

Instead of checking on the victims of the accident, the members of the GTTF sat tight and waited, worrying that their role in the event may have been discovered.

“None of us stopped to render aid or to see if anyone was hurt,” Rayam said.

On the tape, Hersl suggested covering it up: “We could go stop the slips at 10:30 before that happened. ‘Hey I was in this car just driving home,’” he said, and laughed.

The trial, now in its second week, has presented a tremendous amount of evidence showing that the officers claimed overtime for hours they did not work.

Hersl laughed again on the tape and wondered what was in the car.

Jenkins and others worried that Citiwatch may have it all recorded—they hoped the rain that night would make them hard to see—and worried the pursued may be able to mention he was chased.

“That dude is unconscious. He ain’t saying shit,” Taylor said.

“These car chases. That’s what happens. It’s a crapshoot, you know?” Hersl said.

This was an extraordinary statement to hear coming from Hersl as his family sat in the courtroom. In 2013, a driver—who was being followed, but not chased, by a state trooper—killed Hersl’s brother Matthew in front of City Hall in downtown Baltimore. WBAL said that Stephen, Herl’s other brother, told them Matthew “didn’t drive because he didn’t like traffic and thought drivers were dangerous.”

This incident wherein a chase led to a car crash echoes other events in this case. In 2010, Jenkins, Officer Ryan Guinn, and Det. Sean Suiter initiated a chase that also ended in a crash—one that was fatal. According to the federal indictment, the officers had a sergeant come and bring an ounce of heroin to plant in the back of the car they were pursuing, before giving first aid to the man, who ultimately died. Umar Burley, who was driving the car they chased, was recently freed from federal prison. Sean Suiter was murdered a day before testifying in the case—and the police car bringing him to Shock Trauma crashed on the way there. Guinn was reinstated to BPD after a two-week suspension—and, last week in court, another Gun Trace Task Force member Maurice Ward testified that Jenkins told him that Guinn had informed the squad that they were under investigation.

Hersl has admitted to stealing money, but his lawyers are arguing that because he had probable cause he did not rob his targets—and did not use violence to take the money. He glared at Rayam as he testified about the wreck and various thefts. Rayam has confessed to dealing drugs, stealing drugs, and strong-arm robbery. In court, he suggested that Momodu Gondo, with whom he worked closely, had discussed other serious crimes, including a possible murder.

He alluded on several occasions to the numerous internal affairs complaints against Hersl but the judge shut him down—that information was not admissible in court. On another occasion, federal prosecutors asked Rayam if Hersl gave him money for selling cocaine. Hersl’s lawyer objected and the judge sustained the objection.

But the overall sense is that, for the Gun Trace Task Force—and especially Jenkins, who has pleaded guilty but is not expected to testify—Baltimore City was at once a killing field and playground.

It is too easy to see Jenkins and Gondo and Rayam as sociopathic exceptions who are especially depraved. More testimony later the same day shows how this behavior stems from creating a city which criminalizes—or at best contains—a large part of its population. This structural disdain for life became clear in testimony from Herbert Tate, one of the witnesses against Hersl, who was treated like a criminal by defense attorneys.

Tate said he was on Robb Street in the Midway neighborhood on Nov. 27, 2015 to see old friends. A few days earlier, he said, Hersl had stopped him on Robb Street, searched him, and given him a slip of paper—not a proper citation, just a piece of paper—called it a warning, and said, “Next time I see you, you’re going to jail.”

It was about 5 p.m., Tate said, when he was walking up the street with an alcoholic beverage—he couldn’t remember if it was beer or wine—when Hersl, Officer Kevin Fassl, and Sgt. John Burns pulled up on him. Tate says that Hersl told Fassl to grab him. Fassl searched him, including searching his waistband and putting their fingers in his mouth, and then sat him down in handcuffs. In his pockets, they found $530 in cash, some receipts, and pay stubs—but no drugs. Hersl, Tate testified, dug around in vacants and on stoops looking for drugs. He went around a corner for about 10 minutes, Tate said, and came back with “blue and whites.”

Tate testified that he did not know what “blue and whites” were at the time but later learned it was heroin. Hersl sat beside his lawyer, William Purpura, glowering as Tate testified that Fassl asked Hersl what to do with the money and Hersl said, “Keep it.”

When Tate asked them to count it, he says that Burns got angry and bragged about how much money he made. According to a 2016 spreadsheet of Baltimore City employee salary data, Burns brought in a little more than $86,000, but with overtime—one of the main issues at stake in the case—he made nearly double that, bringing in $164,403 in 2016. On Feb. 21, 2017—just over a week before the Gun Trace Task Force indictments came down, Burns took medical leave and began raising funds with a GoFundMe account that claimed he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome triggered, the fundraiser says, from “inhaling fecal matter during a search warrant.”

By the time the money made its way into evidence, the $530 had become $216. When Tate was released from jail, he was given 91 cents back. He never saw the rest of the money.

Defense lawyers made a different issue out of the money. Christopher Nieto, who is representing Marcus Taylor, who was not involved in Tate’s arrest at all, made a point of mentioning that some of the money submitted as evidence was in small bills like singles, fives, and tens.

“Dollar bills suggest drug distribution,” Nieto said.

“Everybody has dollar bills,” Tate responded.

The claim was odd in the context of a trial in which it had been repeatedly stated that large sums of cash also indicated drug dealing. Whatever amount of money African-Americans have in Baltimore City can indicate criminal activity, apparently: Tate had a 2003 charge tied to possession and distribution of narcotics, for which he took probation before judgement and admitted on the stand that when he was in high school he “did some things”—meaning small-time dealing—but had never been arrested back then.

Nieto repeatedly referred to Robb Street as “an open air drug market,” “a drug neighborhood,” and a “not a great neighborhood.” A perception encouraged, in part, because these neighborhoods are criminalized.

“That’s what y’all label it as, but that’s not what it is to me,” said Tate, who testified that he had grown up in the area and had friends and family there and coached a children’s basketball team in the area.

Nieto also said that Tate had a black ski mask when he was arrested, though Tate said he had it on him because it was cold and that he was wearing it as “a winter hat.”

This attitude displayed in the questioning of Tate (that certain people are inherently criminal) is the animating force behind the GTTF criminal enterprise, but it isn’t that far from the assumptions of our criminal justice system, which, in 21st century American cities, is based on an almost Calvinist view of crime: If some people are criminal, nothing you do to them can be criminal.

Because of the 2015 arrest, Tate said, he lost his job because he was in jail for four days, then lost his car because he couldn’t pay for it because he lost his job and couldn’t get another job because of the narcotics charge—and to this day, he owes a friend for the bail.

“I’m still paying them back,” Tate said.

In March of 2016, the state dismissed Hersl’s charges against Tate—a common occurrence in Baltimore. After the charges were dismissed, Tate was able to get another job, as an HVAC technician, which he has to this day. He also said that after the arrest, he moved away from Baltimore to Anne Arundel County.

“I got out of the city,” he said.

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-Baltimore native, comedian, and Oscar winner Mo’Nique issued a call via Instagram last week for her fans to boycott Netflix because the streaming content company offered her $500,000 to do a comedy special versus the $11 million they’ve paid Amy Schumer and $20 million she says they’ve paid Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle. People, it seems, are mostly laughing off her request, but Mo’Nique has a point. She’s a fucking Oscar winner, after all. Mo’Nique accused them of colorism and gender bias and it’s worth noting: Another black comedian, Wanda Sykes, says Netflix also tried to lowball her but she instead opted to work with another company.

-Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, along with 21 other AGs from around the country, are fighting back after the FCC’s recent net neutrality repeal, filing a lawsuit to block the move. Opponents of the repeal say it favors big business and makes the web less accessible for regular citizens by allowing companies like AT&T and Comcast to manipulate download speeds and favor some sites over others. “The repeal of net neutrality would have dire consequences for consumers and businesses in Maryland and across the country that rely on a free and open internet,” Frosh said via a statement.

-Amazon released the list of cities in the running to be the site of their HQ2 headquarters, and Baltimore didn’t make the cut. That’s a good or bad thing, depending on who you ask. Mayor Catherine Pugh released a statement shortly after the announcement, saying that she was disappointed but that she’s not letting this stop her from pursuing a “strong growth agenda for Baltimore,” which means trying to lure other big businesses, like Apple, to the city. We just want to know: Is she ever going to tell us what she promised Amazon in the first place?

-We all got a shock last Friday morning when we learned that Mayor Pugh had axed now-former Police Commissioner Kevin Davis, and named 30-year veteran Darryl DeSousa as commissioner-designate. Pugh said that she made the move because she was “impatient.” Our beef: There were over 300 murders in this city last year. What made the mayor run out of patience now? Also, how is a 30-year veteran going to bring change to a department that desperately needs it?

-City officials announced last week that they’d be forcing the people experiencing homelessness out of the makeshift encampment set up under Interstate 83. They said the move is driven by safety concerns, including the recent cold weather and the use of open flames. The city will provide up to 40 beds for anyone who wants them. However, according to advocates who spoke to The Baltimore Sun, the move is potentially traumatizing for many of the people who live there, noting that some places meant to be havens for people instead offer a whole host of other problems. Similar concerns were voiced during Mayor Pugh’s interaction with the protesters who set up tents on the lawn in front of City Hall this summer. There’s still much to be done to solve the city’s problem with homelessness.

-Thousands turned out in Baltimore last Saturday to mark the one year anniversary of the Women’s March. There were lots of signs and some dancing and words from Mayor Catherine Pugh, State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, and City Health Commissioner Leana Wen, among others. Ava Pipitone, executive director of the Baltimore Transgender Alliance noted that even among members of the #resistance, there is still much work to be done—noting that we “not anchor our womenhood to the genitals of cis women,” and adding, “we need to upgrade our language from reaction to collective action.”

-The primaries are in June and candidates were required to file their latest fundraising stats last week. We learned that Republican Governor Larry Hogan has the most cash on hand—more than $9 million—and that he’s received donations from the Koch brothers. Among the Democrats, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz has received $2 million, Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker has $1.05 million, and Ben Jealous has received $1.5 million in donations.

-Between Jan. 15 (when the previous issue of the Beat went to press) and Jan. 22 (when this issue of the Beat went to press) there were two homicides in Baltimore: A not yet identified man on Jan. 20 and Darone Johnson on Jan. 21. On Jan. 21, the Baltimore Police also mentioned “26 year-old Marco Byrd, murdered on January 19, 2018 in the 600 block of Duncan Street,” though this has not been determined to be a homicide. There have been 13 homicides in Baltimore this year.

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My husband nearly became Baltimore’s seventh homicide of the year. He was robbed at gunpoint a block from our house on a dark street corner just a few hundred feet from the local Safeway.

He noticed a young man who had slipped on the ice and approached to help him up. At the same time, the young man got up from the sidewalk, pulled out a pistol, and sprinted toward my husband. An accomplice restrained my husband and the two men proceeded to steal all his identity documents, his wallet, and his phone.

We have all become sadly resigned to the random violence—especially gun violence—occurring throughout our city. We all hope that our neighborhoods will be spared. We certainly hope that our loved ones will be safe. But two nights ago, my husband very easily could have been shot and killed. He is alive because he was lucky.

My husband was robbed on that street corner, and nearly lost his life, because that street is empty. There were no businesses open at the time of the incident, because there are no businesses. Had there been one restaurant, bar, or other venue supporting patrons at that time of night, my husband would have benefited from eyes on the street, lit storefronts, and a place to call the police after his phone was stolen.

For the past five years, my husband and I have been actively working to improve conditions in our neighborhood. We began by planting trees. We then moved to buying and installing brightly colored benches and chairs to beautify the area. . . . We’ve begun to bring in businesses—we’ve helped Brown Rice open, we supported liquor licenses for Terra Cafe and the Eagle. We currently work directly with investors and property owners to promote the neighborhood.

By now, we would surely have more businesses in the neighborhood, and it would be a safer place to walk at night if our ongoing efforts were not frustrated by the narrow view that the only people who are out at night are predators or prey. For the last nine months, we have faced stiff opposition against all efforts to open new late night businesses in our neighborhood. From the Planning Commission, our elected officials, and the few citizens with enough influence to make demands of both.

Too many people in the city have an unfounded fear of corner stores, bars, and any venue open late at night (not that 10:30 is so late). Too many are opposed to storefronts they subjectively deem “tacky.” And too many have convinced themselves that the only sign of a successful neighborhood is a shiny new Whole Foods with valet parking.

We make it deliberately difficult for small businesses to thrive in our neighborhoods. Healthy cities, safe cities, are those with pedestrians on streets at all hours. Who feels unsafe on New York’s 5th Avenue at 5 a.m.? Or 2 a.m.? Who believes my husband would have been robbed at gunpoint on Baltimore’s own Cross Street?

In recent months, we have had various meetings with Councilman Robert Stokes and the director of planning about simple zoning changes in our neighborhood that would permit more businesses of the type that would have been—at the very least—a place where my husband could have called 911. In a separate meeting, I advocated for a neighborhood business that the mayor herself challenged, with Bill Cole in tow. Each of the businesses we have supported is a source of tax revenue, jobs, and eyes on the street.

Ten small businesses employing 12 people is as good as any shiny new Whole Foods.

The violence that occurs in each individual’s case is sometimes random. But the culture of violence that currently permeates Baltimore most certainly is not.

Every day the people of the city have less and less hope, and the desperate young people with the least hope of all will take what they can get from anyone on an otherwise empty street.

The streets are empty because the city is empty. Stephanie Rawlings-Blake promised thousands of new families would move to Baltimore, but in truth thousands have actually left. To bring them back and to welcome newcomers, the city needs hundreds of new small businesses (hopefully, many of them black-owned) located in neighborhoods where people live. Like my husband, one should not need a car to feel safe while fetching milk. These new businesses will put jobs within walking distance of people who now spend hours on transit for jobs paying less than a $15 minimum wage at the Amazon warehouse.

It goes without saying that small businesses that create jobs also pay taxes. This is tax revenue we need to fund our schools, replace our pipes, and pay for the 6,000 new lights the mayor has promised us.

We cannot solve this problem with more policing. The people who oppose small businesses are the same who have turned the police into the enforcer against every minor act of “trespass and loitering.”

The irony of the situation is that we demand more police to patrol more empty spaces—spaces that are empty because there are no businesses to fund the police.

The worst culprits in the crime that victimized my husband are such policies perpetuated by the mayor and those who share the “Narrow View.”

My husband is shaken by the incident. But he’s alive. And neither of us blames anything other than the city’s policies for the crime that made him a victim.

As a result of what happened, and because of our deep commitment to the neighborhood and the city, we will continue to fight for new businesses here. We intend to continue our efforts until it’s safe to walk from the Washington Monument to University Avenue; and from Penn North to Broadway.

We would like to thank the members of the Baltimore City Police Department who responded to this incident. And we would like to especially thank them for their extra effort in calling the Department of Public Works to replace the failed streetlight at the corner where it all happened.

Kelly Cross is president of the Old Goucher Community Association and a former Democratic primary candidate for 12th District City Council. He is on twitter @Kelly4Baltimore.

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