https://twitter.com/#!/dangainor/status/201848805811957763
Twitchy told you in April about a St. Patrick’s Day beating video that sparked outrage on Twitter and beyond. One man was arrested, and the Baltimore police are seeking three others.
This weekend, the Baltimore Sun reported that rampant violence across the city that day was downplayed by BPD officials:
As an unseasonably warm St. Patrick’s Day drew to a close in Baltimore, teens by the hundreds swarmed downtown, keeping one step ahead of police while battling from corner to corner, mostly with fists, sometimes with knives.
As authorities watched from a helicopter and on video from surveillance cameras, youths marched seemingly at will through the Inner Harbor and streets north and west, frequently clashing that Saturday night. Dozens of officers called in from across the city scrambled to keep up with the attacks, shutting key intersections and trying to push the youths away from the center of tourism.
“I need somebody to go to Pratt and Light [streets] for the male who was assaulted, Charles and Pratt for the assault, Pratt and Light again for the juveniles,” a police dispatcher urgently called out in a single breath amid the melee. “I need somebody to go to Pratt and Light, a medic is trying to get through. Somebody has stomped a male in the crowd. The [ambulance] just passed a large group of kids assaulting the male with one child on the ground.”
The full scope of the March 17 disturbance has not previously come to light. Recordings from more than three hours of dispatch tapes obtained by The Baltimore Sun through the state’s Public Information Act reveal a far more violent landscape than police initially described — as well as several incidents, including a reported knifing at a Harborplace pavilion, that were not disclosed.
A police commander and the department’s chief spokesman defended how the agency confronted the youths, making 10 arrests, saying that at no time did events spiral out of control.
The crime wave continued this weekend:
https://twitter.com/#!/BaltoSpectator/status/201755405280477186
https://twitter.com/#!/Simonesince78/status/201765372360269825
https://twitter.com/#!/SuperShawn229/status/201500977377968128
https://twitter.com/#!/Runnin_over_hos/status/199886415356637184
FYI: Half of the charges in the videotaped beating case have been dropped.
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