Apr 3, 2007 6:24 am US/Eastern
Baltimore Mayor Hopes To Curb Cycle Of Violence
by Mary Bubala
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Mayor Dixon has a plan to fight crime and murder in Baltimore City. (File)
CBS
A deadly cycle of violence has emerged from Philadelphia to Baltimore. With warmer weather setting in, East Coast cities must look at creative ways to keep people from killing each other.
In Philadelphia, the homicide rate is up 15%, an average of one murder a day. Their murder rate stands at 100. Baltimore's not far behind, with 72 homicides, compared to 64 at the same time last year.
"We could have had a police officer on every corner, but some of those cases would have happened anyway because, again, those individuals have chosen to be violent, to go back and get back at a person versus trying to talk through it," said Mayor Sheila Dixon.
Mayor Dixon is hoping a conflict resolution and violence intervention program called Operation Safe Streets will break a consistently deadly cycle.
"You'll see perhaps by mid-year or around the fall that it'll taper off compared to last year," Dixon said.
Baltimore City Police declined on camera interviews but tell
Eyewitness News the largest share of the homicide increase is among juveniles.
Saturday night, a 21-year-old man was shot in the back of the head outside a house on Knottwood Court. It happened right across the street from Patricia Loyal's new home. She moved here to get away from violence in another neighborhood.
"Same thing. Different place, same thing," she said. "You know, my kids are scared to go outside. They were in the house, hiding under the bed."
Criminologists say each city must choose its own solutions, but because homicide is a targeted and personal crime, they tell
Eyewitness News murder rates seldom vary more than two to three percent a year.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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