Baltimore
Crisis and Leadership
The infamous Baltimore city riots occurred after the mysterious death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year old African American from Baltimore who was arrested the morning of April 12, 2015. At approximately 8:40 AM, three city police officers spotted Gray while on bike patrol near the corner of North Avenue and Mount Street in West Baltimore. Gray supposedly ran away when he saw the police and in response, the officers chased and handcuffed Mr. Gray. The officers found a folding knife (allegedly legal under Maryland law) on Mr. Gray and charged him with illegal possession of a switchblade. While in police custody and in transit to Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center, Mr. Gray suffered a spinal cord injury. Upon arrival to the police station nearly an hour after his arrest, Mr. Gray was found unresponsive and not breathing. Gray was rushed to the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center where he died a week later.1 (Link to New York Times timeline of arrest and death of Freddie Gray)
Freddie Gray's death led to wide scale riots across the city of Baltimore with protests about social inequality and racism.2 Buildings and cars were set on fire, damaging nearly 400 businesses and injuring approximately 160 police officers.3 The incident of Freddie Gray and the aftermath of the riots went viral on social media and in the mainstream news. The Baltimore riots cost an estimated $9 million in damages.4
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"As the city's health commissioner... I spoke with a 62-year-old woman who had a heart attack a year ago and who had stopped taking her blood pressure and blood-thinning medications. Her pharmacy was one of the dozen that burned down, and neither she nor the other people in her senior housing building could figure out where to get their prescriptions filled. Her pills ran out two days before, and she'd planned to hold out until the pharmacy reopened."5 - Leana Wen, the Baltimore City Health Commissioner |
As Wen explained, in the course of the violent riots, fires, and looting, the initial priority for health officials was to "make sure that our acute care hospitals were protected and that staff and patients could get to them safely. In the immediate aftermath, our focus was on ensuring that injured patients got triaged and treated."6
The Baltimore City Health Department coordinated with Mayor Rawlings-Blake, the Maryland Health Department, state and city departments such as the Fire Department and local clinics, and private companies to ensure Baltimoreans received essential services during this time. Wen and her staff developed a hospital security plan and set up a central number for individuals impacted by pharmacy closures for prescription transfers, transportation, and medication delivery. According to the Baltimore City Health Department, 13 pharmacies in the city closed due to looting or fire damage.7 Since many residents have limited mobility and depend on pharmacies for prescriptions and for other necessities such as diapers and food, it was important to find ways for people to access such services.8
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"Things that seemed straightforward often were not. Transferring prescriptions from one pharmacy to another would seem easy. But what happens if the pharmacies are in different chains, or if the one that closed was an independent pharmacy where all records were destroyed? The nearest pharmacy may be just a few blocks away, but what if the patient has limited mobility and even a few blocks are prohibitive?" - Leana Wen, the Baltimore City Health Commissioner, NPR May 4, 2015 |
To ensure wider reach of information to community members, the Baltimore City Health Department mobilized student volunteers from universities in the area to visit homes and buildings that belonged to senior residents. They went door-to-door assessing peoples needs and responding to those needs accordingly. In coordination with public and private partners, the Baltimore City Health Department set up the Baltimore Healthcare Access List to provide up-to-date information on closures and operating hours of hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies. The Department also collaborated with the State Department of Aging and other local businesses to ensure people had access to food.
With the continued help of local, state, non-profit, and private partners, the Baltimore City Health Department created a Mental Health/Recovery Plan. The plan comprised of a 24-hour crisis line and teams of licensed mental health professionals on call to visit affected neighborhoods to provide group counseling services. They organized mental health professionals at the 189 public schools in the area, while also providing group counseling and health circles at churches and community meetings.9 After the riots, Wen also fast tracked three Baltimore Corps fellowship positions to attend community health fairs and other forums to identify community needs. Their 16-month fellowship roles focused on identifying underlying health issues including mental health, substance abuse, and trauma, and scaling up existing programs to address these needs.10
Despite having an emergency preparedness plan in place, Wen discussed the need to be flexible and to focus on people's needs in real time. In an interview with Public Health Newswire she noted, " "It is also important to be nimble and flexible. The problems we might think people are having may not be what people actually need addressed." She also noted that it is "important to encourage staff to be creative with their approaches ... they need the space and autonomy to come up with solutions themselves." For instance, she mentioned that her staff came up with a plan in conjunction with the police department to protect the Baltimore zoo during the period of unrest and city closings, while also helping closed restaurants during the riots renew their licensures.11
"Listen first"12
- Tagline by the fellows from the Baltimore corps in the aftermath of the riots.
The community plays an integral role in voicing their needs and participating in community forums to ensure their needs are heard. As the Baltimore City Health Commissioner, Leana wen, expressed above, preparedness plans often do not reflect the realities on the ground for unique situations that might arise. Despite having emergency plans in place, the communities themselves are the most important individuals in voicing the realities of a given situation. The community also played a large role in the city-wide clean-up efforts. As the New York Times reported, "Hundreds of people of all ages and races - many of them toting brooms and trash bags - worked to clear the neighborhood of rocks and debris."13
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"There has been a crisis in Baltimore County even before the governor declared an official state of emergency -- an emergency of poverty, unemployment, and disenfranchisement from the political process."
- Clergy member speaking to a WBAL TV reporter during the interfaith march through west Baltimore during the looting and riots, WBALTV, April 27, 2015 & the Huffington Post, April 29, 2015. |
Religious leaders of different faiths, from Christians to Muslims, marched together in unity through the streets of West Baltimore during the persistent unrest. Over 100 clergy members linked arms and marched towards the line of police patrolling the streets, stopping to kneel and pray along the way. The clergy members also reportedly convinced armed officers to march back through the streets with them, leading the way to address other areas of violence.14 The New York Times further reported that nearly 1,000 people gathered at the Empowerment Temple A.M.E Church on Tuesday evening, April 28th 2015, to hear approximately 500 religious leaders of different faiths call for "healing". Members of the community voiced their concerns about job creation, education, and policing.15
In the midst of the riots, college students collectively voiced their concerns through street protests and social media. A group called "City Bloc" emerged on twitter to organize peaceful demonstrations, while other students across high schools and universities peacefully took a stance on the streets.16
Other students, along with faculty and staff from colleges and universities in the area helped with city hotlines, outreach, and cleanup activities. They helped in creating community notifications and educational material to notify the community of services available during this period. Students also played an important role in engaging with their respective schools in discussions pertaining to the riots and the underlying social and economic issues facing Baltimore.17
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"As activists, journalists and citizens poured into the areas of Baltimore that were being affected, news of events arrived in my feed mere seconds after it occurred. By far the most powerful tool of the night were Twitter lists of accounts from people who were on the ground."
- Christopher Mims for The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2015 |
With 64% of Americans and 85% of millennials owning a smart phone, mobilization of student demonstrations began over social media, and firsthand accounts of the riots streamed through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Vine.18 People's stories went viral and the world was instantly updated on what was happening on the ground. Largely due to the immediate impacts of social media, pastors and citizens groups promptly went to the streets in attempts to calm the situation. During the aftermath, people also used social media such as Facebook to organize cleanups. Mims asked, "Would the Baltimore riots of 2015 have been worse without the immediacy of social media?"19
While the advancement of technology and social media spearheaded efforts to bring peace to the wide scale disorder, it also presents an opportunity to escalate situations and spread misinformation. High school students used social media to call on other students to "purge," a reference to the 2013 horror movie about one night a year when crime is legal. As a result, police began preparing for what they expected to be a demonstration of high school students, which quickly evolved beyond juveniles and turned into violent protests.20 Additionally, while misinformation spread across social media platforms, rumors were just as quickly shot down and discredited by the people on the ground.21 Furthermore, social media's narcissistic association led individuals flocking to the scene, what Mims calls, "Facebook's version of disaster tourism."22 In such instances, social media poses more of a hindrance to peace rather than as a facilitator.
In reflection of the larger underlying issues, however, social media can play a positive force in uncovering inequities, poverty, and long-term civil unrest. In President Obama's statement to the public in the wake of the riots, he affirmed that such issues sparking the violence are not new. Though he said, "the good news is ... perhaps there's a new found awareness because of social media and video cameras that there are problems and challenges when it comes to how policing and how our laws are applied to certain communities, and we have to pay attention to it and respond.23
The city of Baltimore turned to Mayor Rawlings-Blake for leadership during the violent demonstrations. The city police confessed to being underprepared and outnumbered, and debates erupted as to whether the Mayor waited too long to ask the Governor to send the National Guard. Mayor Rawlings-Blake admitted to have faced a "very delicate balancing act" and tried to avoid creating a militarized atmosphere that could further "escalat[e] and increas[e] the problem," which happened in the case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO.24 The Mayor further implemented a city-wide curfew for one week from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM, which was lifted on May 3, 2015. Small business owners and employees voiced concern, as some places operate in the evening hours and could lose one week of revenue and income. The curfew affected all transportation facilities and "non-essential business operations," including restaurants, entertainment venues, and bars.25
The Governor reported to the New York Times that he was ready and prepared as early as Saturday [April 25, 2015] to declare a state of emergency and to send in the National Guard. As per protocol, however, he had to wait on the Mayor's decision, which she requested on Monday evening [April 27, 2015] approximately 2 hours after the rioting began. The Republican Governor led efforts in collaboration with the state's insurance commissioner and the Small Business Administration to ensure businesses receive financial assistance for any damages incurred during the riots.26
The police and the National Guard played paramount roles in the Baltimore unrest by patrolling the streets and restoring order in West Baltimore.27 According to Baltimore Magazine, it is the first time the National Guard has been deployed since the April 4, 1968 assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.28 Approximately 2,000 National Guard troops and nearly 500 law enforcement officers from other states including PA, NJ, and DC joined Baltimore and Maryland State police officers in efforts to quell the violence.29 The Baltimore police admitted to being underprepared, as they prepared for a high school demonstration event that unfolded quite differently. Some community members said the police had "inflamed the situation" by sending hundreds of officers to the Mondawmin Mall following the school day.30
The President worked to reassure the public that the federal government and local officials were seeking answers to what happened to Mr. Gray. He criticized those who carried out violent demonstrations and criminal looting calling them "criminals and thugs."31 He said, "There is no excuse for the kind of violence that we saw. It is counterproductive."32 He made it appoint to distinguish the violence from the peaceful demonstrations taking place after Mr. Gray's death.
Researchers and the academic community are continued leaders in examining and disclosing ways to mend the inequities in Baltimore. Open discussions with students and faculty covering poverty and unemployment, race relations, drug and law enforcement policies, crime, and other important issues have and will continue to occur. Shortly after the riots, for instance, Richard Rothstein, at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law, wrote a piece in the Washington Post titled, "From Ferguson to Baltimore: The consequences of government-sponsored segregation."33 He describes in detail the historical steps towards segregation in the city and how it has led to "aggressive policing" and ghetto conditions leading to cyclical poverty and violence.34 Additionally, the Johns Hopkins' Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response center (CEPAR) has been asked to evaluate how Baltimore City agencies responded to the riots to make improvements for future emergencies.35 The University established the center after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks where they saw the need to bring together expertise for disaster planning and response.36