Baltimore County NAACP Calls on Hogan to Deploy National Guard to Baltimore

The Randallstown’s chapter of the NAACP is urging Gov. Larry Hogan to declare a “public emergency” and deploy the National Guard to Baltimore in an effort to quell rising gun violence in the city.

“This violence in the City of Baltimore is a crisis and up to this point, the government has been unable to quell the violence. Under an emergency declaration, the Maryland National Guard could be assigned to handle routine patrols, direct traffic and respond to accidents, freeing city officers to be in the community, serving the backlog of violent warrants, solving homicides and other violent crimes,” the group wrote in a letter.

Ryan Coleman, the president of the Randallstown chapter of the NAACP, said his group is usually concerned with Baltimore County issues, but he said crime in the city affects the whole region.

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Coleman added that a third of the people arrested for homicides committed in the county live in the city.

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The Baltimore City chapter of the NAACP said they disagreed with the letter, saying the Randallstown chapter does not have jurisdiction over Baltimore City. {snip}

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Like other major cities across the country, Baltimore has been experiencing an uptick in violent crime and is on pace to surpass 300 homicides this year for the eighth year in a row. {snip}

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The group noted that most of the victims of gun violence in Baltimore are Black.

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Maryland gubernatorial candidate Rushern Baker, the former Prince George’s County executive, has been a strong proponent of deploying the National Guard to Baltimore.

Hogan deployed the National Guard to Baltimore in 2015 amid the unrest after the death of Freddie Gray. However, recently Hogan has resisted calls for a military presence in Baltimore.

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