Baltimore – It was almost instinctive that Ray Kelly jumped into action when he learned that a group of high school students faced the police. I wanted to help protect children and decalize things, but instead, he observed to burn his neighborhood.
Unrest It exploded After Freddie Gray died because of the wounds of the column suffered during transport in a police truck in April 2015. The protesters broke into the west of Baltimore-Black-Black, set the police cars and loot business cars. They were fighting the generations of oppression experienced by black Americans, from racist housing policies and crumbled schools to limited, rampant job opportunities armed violence and bad living conditions.
A community activist from Gray’s neighborhood, Kelly was focused on police responsibility for years. As the federal investigators launched an investigation into the Baltimore Police Department and local prosecutors accused the officers involved, they doubled by requesting a stronger supervision at a time of a growing national indignation on Police brutality.
Ten years later, his continuous efforts illustrate Baltimore’s progress, and his lack.
Among the positive changes, said Kelly, there are more mechanisms to address miscarriage and hold the officers responsible. Homicides and shootings are trend down after a prolonged increase that began following Gray’s death. And while West Baltimore still faces poverty and generalized negligence, he said, at least elected officials are paying more attention.
“People have to listen to us, because now there is this possibility that we can organize and raise our voices,” Kelly said. “I think Freddie Gray’s death launched him.”
But progress is often painfully slow and unfortunately insufficient. Meanwhile, city leaders face new obstacles to the intensive attacks of the Trump administration against civil rights and diversity initiatives.
For Gray’s family, a decade has passed since his private loss was developed in National News.
Next to the mayor and other dignitaries on Saturday morning, his twin sister Fredricka placed a crown of flowers near the site of his arrest, marking the anniversary of when he died in the hospital.
“Justice is still for Freddie Gray,” he said, repeating what became a shout of rally in 2015. “Ten years now.”
Baltimore has a long history of mistreating its black residents. In 1910, the city leaders promulgated the first residential segregation ordinance of the country that restricts African -American owners to certain blocks.
Kelly grew during the apogee of the cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and The National War on Drugswhen the police routinely carried out “street sweeps” or mass arrests in western Baltimore. When he began selling drugs to stay during high school, the police was just another obstacle in a battle already uphill. He later fought with addiction and fulfilled time in prison.
After returning home in the early 2000s, Kelly began working with a neighborhood defense group to improve public security. That put it in a unique position when the United States Department of Justice launched its city police investigation: knowing that residents would distrust federal investigators, Kelly helped make introductions and encouraged people to participate.
“It was a bet,” he said. “It was not really what this community does.”
But the bet was worth it. The investigation discovered long -standing patterns of excessive force, illegal arrests and discriminatory police practices, especially against black people.
The findings resulted in a 2017 consent decree that requires a series of reforms for the department, which promised to review its policies and training.
Since then, progress is advancing.
The agency celebrated a milestone this week when a federal judge finished two of the 17 sections of the consent decree after finding a complete and sustained compliance, even with rules to transport people in police trucks. Gray was handcuffed, chained and transported without seat belt while officers repeatedly ignored their calls to medical care.
Department leaders say that a large -scale change is happening, although not during the night. Officers have increased feet patrols, low -level arrests decreased and even suffered Emotional regulation training. They are less likely to use force by detaining people, and have contributed to historical reductions in homicides by associating with service providers to address the fundamental causes of armed violence.
Police Commissioner Richard Worley said that during his career, he has seen the police culture change from “Guardians Warriors.”
However, many Baltimore residents still do not trust the police to act with compassion and integrity. They do not believe that the department has suffered a significant cultural change.
“It will take years and years to redefine the police department in the eyes of the community,” said American district judge James Bredar during the Consent Decree Hearing on Thursday. “This work is critical, even if it does not bear fruit immediately.”
Gray, 25, was arrested near his home in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood of West Baltimore, a community that once was that he had fallen into poor condition.
At its peak, the nearby Pennsylvania Avenue was a black entertainment district with renowned jazz clubs, exclusive stores and vibrant nightlife. His cultural artifacts include the childhood house of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American designated for the Supreme Court, and a bronze statue of the legend of Jazz Billie Holiday, which also had roots in the west of Baltimore.
A confluence of factors contributed to its decline, including urban flight and chronic divestment. Some businesses left after the riots after the 1968 murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
Outdoor drug markets moved, and the police became a common complaint of residents. Then, when Gray was violently arrested after making visual contact with the officers and fleeing, that long frustration was passed. The authorities responded to the 2015 protests by bringing Maryland’s National Guard and imposing a curfew throughout the city.
Many residents celebrated when prosecutors later announced criminal charges Against the six officers involved, but none was convicted.
Meanwhile, political leaders visited Sandtown and promised to invest in homes, youth programs and more. These great promises have greatly failed to materialize.
“It is still the same damn place with the same damn problems,” Kelly said, looking down the street outside the former church rectory that houses its defense organization, the Citizens Policing project. “We have heard a lot of talking, but this is what we see.”
When the city closed the neighborhood recreation center in 2021, Sandtown Youth did not run out of anywhere, said Ryeheen Watson, 17, whose childhood was developed in the shadow of Gray’s death.
“It was like, nothing good for our community comes,” he said. “But when you start as an helpless, there is no place to go.”
Trump’s second administration will probably create even more challenges for communities such as Sandtown, since the White House cuts federal initiatives aimed at advancing racial equity.
Baltimore’s lawyer, Billy Murphy, who represented the gray family, said that while blacks continue to fight for their collective future, a resurgence of white supremacism is infecting national politics.
“Where are we today? That’s where we are,” Murphy said in a recent event that commemorates Gray’s death. “We head back.”
But at least at the local level, the political discourse now includes more progressive black voices, said Dayvon Love, director of public policies for the leaders of a group of experts of a beautiful struggle. In his opinion, Gray’s death was a turning point.
“That has advanced our ability to advocate without apologies for blacks so that before the lifting it was excluded,” said Love.
Mayor Brandon Scott says that his administration is achieving a long -awaited progress by investing in historically neglected neighborhoods, including a $ 15 million plan to renew the Sandtown recreation center and improvements to Gilmor Homes, the public housing complex where Gray was arrested.
However, Scott said in an interview: “We are not celebrating here, because work is not complete.”
For Kelly, discussions about politics and progress often lose the point by not recognizing Gray, West Baltimore’s young man who died after a tragic encounter with the police a decade ago.
Instead of marking the anniversary of his death, Kelly suggested, perhaps his birthday should be held: August 16, 1989.
