Thread by @HeatherWarnken

Such important work by @lakeidrachavis & @geoffhing, and a must-read for those considering a bill currently before the MD General Assembly to increase incarceration penalties for possession of an unlicensed firearm (the entirety of the Baltimore SAO’s legislative agenda). #MDGA23

https://twitter.com/MarshallProj/status/1638888577861029888

This approach will harm communities while not improving public safety, & this reporting explores some key facets of how & why. Those opposing the bill have been sounding alarm re this worsening racial disparities in MD: already 1st in the US in its overincarceration of Black men.

Continued misplaced focus on wide net arrest and punishment continues to distract from more consequential areas of needed attention and SAO resources (eg, trust building and other work necessary for addressing of abysmal clearance rates for homicides and nonfatal shootings). And-

And continues to inflate the power & role of an ineffective, inhumane criminal legal system as the answer to public safety, rather than investing in communities & in health and healing oriented strategies more capable of addressing victim trauma & the root causes of gun violence.

We've done nothing close to making & scaling these investments, especially not where gun violence is concentrated- and a documented result of redlining and abandonment. Especially hard to reconcile with continued overcriminalizing of poor, Black residents with a near blank check.

Many parallels to Baltimore here. “Chicago’s current push to get guns off the street follows years of documented problems with some of the tactics its police use...The Chicago Police Dept has also faced lawsuits accusing officers of planting guns at crime scenes.” Sound familiar?

Another familiar area of struggle and deflection of needed work: "solving violent crimes is harder than making weapons possession arrests bc detectives have to compile several types of evidence to prove guilt...Finding witnesses is particularly difficult"
baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-…

As the article notes: "Similar trends were found in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Memphis."

"The Houston, Cleveland, Baltimore and Memphis police departments did not respond to our findings."
themarshallproject.org/2023/03/23/gun…

Ending the immeasurable pain of gun violence could not be more important or urgent. That's why we must keep lifting up the evidence on what is and is not effective, and at what cost. And keep demanding more from our leaders than politically expedient, failed policies of the past.

During the year+ TMP spent reporting this story
>3,200 ppl were shot in Chicago and >600 died from their injuries. "Police have made an arrest in less than 1 in 5 of their cases."
And Baltimore topped 300 murders for 8th yr with 36% closure rate. There is definitely a better way.

Grateful for the ways this powerful and timely reporting is adding to the conversation. Here's more about the issues surrounding this bill, including opposition testimony cosigned by 30 CBOs, public safety advocates, civil liberties orgs, clinicians & more

https://twitter.com/ubalt_ccjr/status/1636087325577863170?s=20