Some of the neighborhoods targeted for increased policing, through the Johns Hopkins Private Police force being considered before the Maryland

general assembly this Friday February 22 2019, are communities of increased fragmentation and abandonment. These neighborhoods are prone to increased police violence and health inequity. This is not new news… that certain populations: homeless, black and brown people, transgendered people, drug users, those who appear to be poor, those who appear to be immigrants… the marginalized people without power- are targeted by police. (1,2,3,4)

We know also that Baltimore’s police department is currently under a consent decree due to excessive police violence.

We know also that the city of Baltimore has a problem with crime. That neighborhoods with increased fragmentation when violently policed results in stress and poor health contributing to the severe health inequities in our city. These are often neighborhoods with increased poverty,  decreased household income, increased boarded housing and decreased investment and housing inspectors, decreased employment, and increased crime.

From an article about policing and health in Baltimore published in the Journal of Urban Health in 2016:

“Baltimore, Maryland, experienced its share of heightened attention to the problem of police violence after Freddie Gray, a young black man, was killed in police custody April 19, 2015.  Across the city, residents organized and protested against police violence and economic deprivation.  Six officers were indicted for police violence and homicide.(5)  While the case had not been tried as of this writing [2015], civil claim payouts to the family of this victim of a spinal cord injury during a van ride occurred quickly in the highest amount in Baltimore’s history, $6.4 million.(6)

The public outcry reflects the fact that there is a long history of police violence and expanded use of police power against the most marginalized in Baltimore.(7,8)  “Undue Force,” an investigative series by the Baltimore Sun newspaper, revealed that between 2011 and 2014, 317 lawsuits were filed against Baltimore City police officers, alleging civil rights and constitutional violations including false arrest, battery and false imprisonment.(9) These lawsuits resulted in 102 court judgments and settlements for police brutality, with payouts of about $5.7 million.   The series concluded:

‘ Those cases detail a frightful human toll. Officers have battered dozens of residents who suffered broken bones —           jaws,          noses, arms, legs, ankles — head trauma, organ failure, and even death, coming during questionable     arrests. Some    residents were beaten while handcuffed; others were thrown to the pavement…. City policies help to minimize transparency of the scope and impact of beatings from the public.’

Violent policing at very high rates not only harms individuals but also communities.  Under the “Zero Tolerance” policy enacted in Baltimore in 2005, police officers targeted low-income and African American communities with high crime rates.^15,16  In 2005, more than 100,000 arrests occurred in a city of 640,000 people; 17-35% of arrests were interpreted as “no probable cause” and arrests ending with “release without charges” increased between 2000 and 2005.(10,11)  At that rate of arrest, the policing became a form of structural violence and had a major effect on day-to-day community life.(12,13,14)  Because violent policing is linked to a number of harms to individuals and to communities, it might contribute to community fragmentation and poor health, a connection that will be investigated in this paper.”

The paper continues with the conclusion:

“Results of this study suggest that Baltimore’s poor, African-American neighborhoods, which have been disinvested and fragmented, are prime targets for the “War on Drugs” policies. This hyper-targeting of neighborhoods increases the risk of police violence. Residents felt that these conditions of disinvestment and deterioration were havens for police violence. Police violence was enacted through racial profiling, corruption, and insufficient training.  Residents felt that police violence increased fragmentation and decreased cohesion and healthy social networks.  Stress and worry, resulting from fear of police harassment and a sense of disempowerment, were reported as contributors to community fragmentation and poor health.  Residents felt that the criminal justice system lacked transparency and accurate data collection. They felt it needed accountability to acknowledge the history of police violence and identify ways to remedy and prevent its continuation. Residents also recognized that the systems that maintain disinvestment in education, employment, housing, recreation, criminal justice, and segregation needed to be changed.”

Abandoned houses north of Johns Hopkins medical campus in Middle East Baltimore

Finally  the article provides suggestions to address community fragmentation and its causes of abandonment and disinvestment, communities prone to hyper-policing and police violence:

One short term approach in addressing violence by police is mandatory data collection of injuries reported by those affected.  Another is to increase funding for evaluation and training for culturally competent policing. Another short term approach to addressing policing enacted through the “war on drugs” in distressed communities is to require more research to determine evidence-based practices which will lead to improved public health for everyone.(15,16)

A long term approach requires a cross-sectoral action. This will require affected community, planners, policy makers, and advocates of law enforcement, public health, economic and community development, schools, recreation, and housing to be at the table to identify how each impact and is impacted by crime, policing and police violence. The sequela of segregation of communities and its role in affecting the existing fragmentation and vulnerability to drug markets   and hyper-policing requires further investigation. A root-cause analysis and policy and funding to systematically desegregate and equalize such communities should be a long term goal.(17)

It would not only be unethical, it would continue its history of structural violence, for a prestigious hospital and university like the Johns Hopkins Conglomerate to support increasing policing in neighborhoods that are prone to police violence: neighborhoods like Middle East Baltimore, Madison East End, CARE, McKeldery Park and other East Baltimore neighborhoods surrounding its East Baltimore  medical campus. Neighborhoods east of its Homewood campus, neighborhoods

surrounding its Bayview Campus, and some neighborhoods surrounding its Peabody campus. These neighborhoods house different marginalized populations which are at risk for police violence resulting in poor health outcome.

Instead, this health conglomerate should address the underlying causes of crime, severe community fragmentation from a legacy of abandonment and disinvestment. The Johns Hopkins Conglomerate should change the tide of inequitable investment in our most disenfranchised neighborhoods, neighborhoods in which it is situated.

Policing is a determinant of health. In Baltimore, where policing has a long and current history of violence, increasing policing is a negative determinant of health resulting in greater health inequities.

Join neighbors, friends, and relatives and testify on Friday February 22 2019 in Annapolis. Write a testimony to your representative or take a ride down to Annapolis that day. We, the citizens of Baltimore, have a responsibility to rebuild our city to be healthy for everyone, not just some. Increasing policing around the campuses of prestigious institutions like the Johns Hopkins Conglomerate continues the separation of ‘us’ and ‘them’ and continues our history of health inequities. It’s time to change all that.

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1. Linton SL, Jennings JM, Latkin CA, Gomez MB, Mehta SH.  Application of space-time scan statistics to describe geographic and temporal clustering of visible drug activity. J Urban Health. 2014; 91: 940-956.

2. Hayashim K, Small W, Csete J, Hattirat S, Kerr T. Experiences with policing among people who inject drugs in Bangkok, Thailand: a qualitative study. 2013; PLoS Med 10(12): e1001570. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001570 Accessed May 29 2015

3. Markwick N, McNeil R, Small W, Kerr T. Exploring the public health impacts of private security guards on people who use drugs: a qualitative study.  J of Urban Health. epub. 2015; 1-14.

4. Rothstein R. From Ferguson to Baltimore: The fruits of government sanctioned segregation. April 29 2015. Economic Policy Institute.  http://www.epi.org/blog/from-ferguson-to-baltimore-the-fruits-of-government-sponsored-segregation/ Accessed October 24, 2015

5. Blinder A, Perez-Pena R.  Six Baltimore Police officers charged in Freddie Gray death. New York Times. May 5 2015 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/us/freddie-gray-autopsy-report-given-to-baltimore-prosecutors.html?_r=0. Accessed May10 2015

6. Wenger Y, Puente M. Baltimore to pay Freddie Gray’s family $6.4 million to settle civil claims. Baltimore Sun. September 8 2015 http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-84378265/ Accessed October 2015

7. Stolberg CG. Baltimore’s “broken relationship” with police. New York Times. April 24 2015 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/us/baltimores-broken-relationship-with-police.html?_r=1 Accessed October 20 2015

8. Tabor N. The mayor who cracked down on Baltimore. Jacobin Magazine. May 14 2015. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/omalley-baltimore-clinton-democratic-primary-president/ Accessed October 20 2015

9. Puente M. Undue force. Baltimore Sun. September 28 2014 http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/police-settlements/ Accessed May 30 2015

10. Janis S. Why did they arrest me?  Washington Examiner July 17 2006 http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/why-did-they-arrest-me/article/69845. Accessed May 1 2015

11. Sarah LB. Justice Undone: Examining arrests ending in release without charges in Baltimore City.  A thesis submitted to the Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Public Policy. 2007. Baltimore, Maryland

12. Krug EG, Dahlberg LL, Mercy JA, Zwi AB, Lozano R. (Eds.). World report on violence and health. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. 2001. pp. 5-6 http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/world_report/en/introduction.pdf   Accessed May 12 2015

13. Galtung J. Violence, Peace, and peace research. J Peace Research. 1969; 6: 167-191.

14. Alexander M. The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. 2012. New York: The New Press

15. Cleveland MM. Economics of illegal drug markets: What happens if we downsize the drug war?” pp 173-196. in Drugs and Society: U.S. Public Policy, Fish JM, Ed. 2006. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

16. The negative impact of the war on drugs on public health: The hidden hepatitis C epidemic. Global Commission on Drug Policy. May 2013. http://www.globalcommissionondrugs.org/hepatitis/gcdp_hepatitis_english.pdf Accessed October 20 2015

17. Coates TN. The case for reparations. The Atlantic. June 2014 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/ Accessed October 20 105