Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Stop Shooting. Start Living.

SRB has a thing for attracting baffling slogans. First there was "only a punk would hurt a dog," which left you wondering which kind of punk... like a punk rocker, or an Ashton Kutcher target, or a pirate peg boy? Then there was "I was drunk. Was it my fault?" an anti-rape campaign that sounds like a pro-drunk-driving campaign. Now comes "STOP SHOOTING. START LIVING." which sounds an awful lot like a certain European Sony campaign. Can one not have a rich, satisfying life and a little shooting, too? But anyway, the point is, Operation Safe Streets is back, in which convicts are paid to broker peace and help connect at-risk youth with services. The initiative has been controversial in the past, because, well, the city is paying convicts, and results are hard to quantify. In 2009 a Safe Streets worker was wounded at a memorial BBQ while hanging out with the notorious Blackwell brothers, Bodie Barksdale's nephew was a Safe Streets outreach worker (for better or worse), and last year, SRB yanked funding for the program after suspicions surfaced of possible ties to the Black Guerrilla Family, though no one from Safe Streets was ever charged. But if you're an established 501(c)(3) interested in running your own Safe Streets program in your neighborhood, there's a $375,000 grant on offer. But therein lies the rub... if you're an established 501(c)(3), how would you know all those criminals?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If Baltimore wants to have safe streets, they need to follow the lead of EVERY state that surrounds them and go to "Shall Issue" for concealed carry permits.

Every surrounding state has seen DRAMATIC drops in crime of ALL categories since going Shall Issue, and Gang Membership is DROPPING in VA and PA.

In MD, gang membership is growing at an alarming rate, and property crimes, home invasions, and robbery are skyrocketing.

When the thugs know that the Law Abiding Citizens may be able to shoot back, they take their "business" elsewhere. Fishermen go where the fish are (or in this case sheep) and MD is a barrel full of unarmed, defenseless fish...

Wake up Maryland. Your government WANTS law abiding citizens to live in fear, victimhood and perpetual dependence, while their laws actually FACILITATE predatory violent crime.

Look to your neighbors to the West, North and South. They DO NOT have blood in the streets. The DO NOT have shootouts over parking spots. They DO NOT have skyrocketing crime, and they have HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of citizens with concealed carry permits (and they all allow Open Carry without ANY permit)

MD, on the other hand, has the most repressive gun laws in the region, where only the wealthy and well-connected can get permits, and has the highest homicide rate in the region...

Do the math, people...

Anonymous said...

"Stop Shooting, Start Living" isn't an SLB creation. That's a Safe Streets (a nationwide nonprofit)slogan that's been around for years.