I had the privilege of having the City of Baltimore as a client for about seven years in the late 1990's, as I recall the time frame. My Firm's long standing environmental representation of the City ended with the advent of the Martin O'Malley Mayoral Administration, which for those desirous of fact checking can establish the exact end date for the services provided by myself and my partners.
Lamentably, getting paid the outstanding balances owed to the firm took almost another year of effort, as I recall the word from City Hall being at that time that we had made more than enough from Baltimore, despite unpaid invoices totally more than $70,000.00. Moreover, the numerous phone calls from the politically connected (large campaign contributions made) law firm's replacement lawyers seeking advice - for free- on matters both routine and obvious to any environmental law specialist made the insult of being stiffed on these bills all the more offensive.
With that context and possible bias on the record, let me get to the point here. I still love Baltimore, its Inner Harbor, history, its architecture, sewerage systems, its potable drinking water plants, its good people and most definitely its terrific food and restaurants. Sure, I saw plenty of decay and urban blight; nonetheless, mostly I inter-acted with very bright, hard working folks who respected their home town and looked to the future with both hope and appreciation for the means to achieve a better tomorrow.
Today, however, I fear that the Battle of Baltimore may have already been lost, as no society can intentionally withhold the protection of property and police officers lives and expect others than the wild thugs to be enthralled by the devastating realities of such "life on the street."
Just take a moment to ponder the now ongoing thought process of current city business owners and potential business investors in Baltimore - a Mayor repeatedly apologizes for calling looters, arsonists and attempted murders of police officers "thugs". They are our unsupervised children, after all; yet offers nothing but contempt for the very economic lives of the city's business owners - with the back of her hand, this mayor gave our children all the space needed to destroy these life sustaining institutions, as these thugs needed to vent their anger.
Simply disgusting, and a clear abdication of the Mayor's sworn duty to uphold the law, and to preclude criminals from being given full and complete immunity to purge the town of the racist haunts as is a CVS pharmacy and a religious organization funded senior citizen home.
In sum, I will believe Prosecutor Mosby's refrain that - on her watch (better watch closely before she runs for higher office) - no one is above the law, just as soon as she opens an investigation to determine whether the current Mayor engaged in criminal misconduct in office by stopping law enforcement arrests over a 48 hour period of city riots that gutted hundreds of burned out cars, buildings and citizen belief in the honesty of elected representatives. Don't hold your breath, or smoke might just get in your eyes.
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