Recent horrific incidents in Southeast Baltimore have left locals reeling.
There was yesterday’s news of a 12-year-old girl being robbed at gunpoint while walking into Patterson Park Charter School at 7:30 a.m. There was Highlandtown resident Kim Leto being stabbed to death in her home by two teenagers. There was Baltimore Sun sports editor John Fogg being robbed and brutally assaulted in Canton.
And there is the overall frightening statistic that, in the Southeast district, robberies are up 35 percent and violent crime up 30 percent.
While
City Hall boasts that overall crime in the city is down, those that
live in Patterson Park, Butchers Hill, Highlandtown, and Canton are
feeling frustrated and scared. One resident, Tracey Halvorsen, who is
the president of interactive design agency Fastspot, spoke out in a moving essay that has since gone viral.
Though Halvorsen wrote the essay to incite action from the mayor and City Hall, sometimes it is words that speak the loudest.