SWAMP corruption in Baltimore? Trump recently seemed to be enjoying ripping Baltimore on Twitter. There were protests against his remarks especially from Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md but what is really happening in Baltimore?
Here are the 5 things you need to know.
Isabel Mercedes Cumming, the Inspector General of Baltimore City, recently declared the city has a major problem with waste and fraud. And she “plans to reinvigorate the office and hire more staff to scrutinize city practices for waste and fraud,” The Baltimore Sun reported.
“Nobody is off limits,” said Isabel Cumming, 55, the city’s first female inspector general.
“We can really save some money for the city of Baltimore,” Cumming said. “Overtime situations, theft of time. Purchase cards. There are so many areas that need to be looked at…I love going after white-collar criminals.”
The corruption has been building for years and now people are fighting back with lawsuits — up to 55. “The dozens of people expected to file suits stemming from the criminal actions of Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force are likely to look for ways to get the city to pay. While it should be straightforward to establish the liability of the officers convicted of federal crimes, experts said, they are unlikely to have many financial assets to pay damages. Forty-five potential plaintiffs have filed
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 18: Boyce Watkins Jamarlin talks with Dr. Boyce Watkins about the lopsided relationship between the Democratic Party and Black America. They discuss potential 2020 presidential candidates, Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris, and whether corporations and interests connected to foreign countries have more influence than Black voters on policy and priorities.
Baltimore has been suffering from decades of mismanagement and crime. “Crime is so pervasive today that Johns Hopkins University, the city’s largest private-sector employer, won approval this year from the state legislature to create its own armed police force to protect students, faculty, and its medical campus. The rate of violent crime has been terrible for years and last year Baltimore topped the FBI’s homicide list at a time when violent crime has been decreasing nationally,” The National Review reported.
The Mayor of Baltimore, Democrat Catherine Pugh, is taking an indefinite leave of absence. She is still collecting her $185,000-per-year salary even though she is embroiled in a scandal over the $500,000 she received from sales of self-published children’s books to the University of Maryland Medical System. She was a board member at the university. She also received $300,000 from other businesses and organizations, “some of which had won multi-million-dollar contracts from the city and state during her tenure in Baltimore and Annapolis,” The National Review reported.
The Commission to Restore Trust in Policing, a seven-member panel that is undertaking a multi-year investigation of corruption within the Baltimore Police Department, has uncovered mass correction in the city’s police department. Testimony has shown evidence of citizens being framed, robbed or unlawfully searched and arrested by police officers in the city, including members of the Gun Trace Task Force who were convicted of crimes.
“I’m just kind of at a loss…I spent 23 years of my career in the Baltimore Police Department and some of the stuff you’ve talked about today really makes me sick to my stomach,” said commission member Gary McLhinney, assistant secretary for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional, following presentation of the evidence.
Nine members of the elite Gun Trace Task Force unit have been convicted or pleaded guilty to corruption that included robbery and extortion, planting evidence and illegal searches and seizures of citizens, Patch reported.
