I’m sorry, but did anyone listen to the story the mugging victim told the mayor last week at the Glen Avenue Association meeting at the JCC?
The man was slugged in the face. And then an assailant got a stick and hit him in the arm with it.
The victim, who was walking with his son near Dorset and Labyrinth must have posed quite a threat to the four youths who attacked them. Men carrying prayer books on Jewish holidays, after all, can be quite intimidating.
I’m sorry.
But did I hear Mayor Sheila Dixon tell the audience that we have to concern ourselves about the life of the child who did the attacking?
Did the head of the city say something like we have to feel for the child and ask what in his life wasn’t going correctly so that would cause him to commit a crime?
I know I need the wax cleaned out of my ears, but did the mayor ask about the victims?
Because if she did, I am pretty sure I didn’t hear her concern.
We have hate crimes going on here Ms. Mayor.
If this was white on black, I’d bet that the made-for-TV reverends of the world would be on the muscle, marching to validate their double standards.
But as Jews, we’re not permitted to see in this a hate crime? Jewish people walking along residential streets being pounded on by black teenagers? This wasn’t an exchange of dialogue between cultures. This was an out and out crime against civil rights. That’s what this was.
Instead, we’re asked to consider the family circumstances of the perp by the mayor of our city?
I don’t think so.
I want to consider the family of the victims for a change.
It’s been well over a year since the first meeting at Cross Country Elementary School where we were told that the community would be better policed. We had just come through a period of time where 33 homes had been broken into.
Now, instead of homes, the criminals are “breaking” people, Jewish people.
And the Jewish community can’t be lulled to sleep that it only happens once in a while.
This might as well have been you or your son or your parent.
The police presence, as good as it is, has to continue in the community, especially when we are walking to shuls at night.
The quality of Jewish life can’t be compromised by a group of thugs looking for a recreational beat down. And the mayor of our city shouldn’t be validating any of this through soft talk.
It’s got to end. Safety has to be part of our lives.
It should be a priority. Shouldn’t it be Ms. Mayor?

I think the expression “you made your bed now sleep in it “aplies here.As long as the Jewish Times and misguided Jews continue to support liberal Democrats blindly(see the puff piece on O’mally in this weeks edition)we will suffer the affects of thier warped views.

I believe these attacks were part of a gang initiation rite.  The area in which we live is rife with gang activity which does not usually impact upon the frum community.  Unfortunately, gangs use attacks upon the helpless to enhance their status amongst their peers.  Perhaps the rabbeim in town can find a heter for us to carry defensive weapons when we walk the streets at night on Shabbos and Yom Tov.  I now fear for my husband every time he walks to shul.

Come now sir, certainly you must understand that ‘intervention’ is a political key word used to extort more funds from the public.  Link that word with ‘youth’ or ‘children’ and who in their right mind could say no?  Don’t you want to help children? 

Want help?  Get their parents to start caring about their own lives and those of their children enough to not tolerate those who would go around beating up people of any persuation.  Get the ‘communities’ (read: city blocks because there is sense of community) to start putting their feet down and saying enough is enough.

But things like this will not happen because we live in a culture where you almost should never judge, and certain not if those being scrutinized qualify as a socially protected minority.

From Duke to Baltimore and all over, the only ones fit to be judged are of course the rich, and preferably the whites.

I am sure those people walking with prayer books did something to stir up the ire of these imisunderstood youths.  How else could you explain it?

The unfortunate answer and this will continue to happen, is the moving out of Baltimore City. All who will remain will be the citizens who our current and likely next Mayor care most about, the criminals. The victims will continue to get fed up and leave the city. The tax base will continue to erode, taxes will increase and no one will be able to sustain it, and the system will contimue to breakdown.

Hopefully in 20 years you won’t see the Mayor warring with the Baltimore County Executive over the high rate of crime crossing over from Baltimore City to Baltimore County.

This is inevitable with the politicians as they exist today in Baltimore City….

No, you didn’t miss it, Phil. 

Someone pointed this out to Mayor Dixon at the Glen Ave. meeting.  I think her answer then briefly acknowledged the victims, and continued to emphasize the need to prevent new thugs by giving early intervention to kids at risk. 

Ok, but it sidesteps the part when they are already thugs.  If one is already a criminal, is there a program with good data that Mayor Dixon has in mind? 

So far by her answers, the victims seem way down on her list.