Hamm defends force against critical radio adCity police chief says he won’t let officers ‘be used as a political football’ The Associated Press Baltimore Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm defended his officers today against criticism that city police arrest thousands of people—predominantly black—every year without ever charging them with a crime. Hamm held a brief news conference to respond to a radio advertisement prepared by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s campaign committee. “We work too hard … and we’re not going to let them [officers] be used as a political football,” Hamm said. He said crime is down, arrests are down and the number of cases at the Central Booking and Intake Center that are thrown out is down. The news conference came a day after the Ehrlich campaign began running a radio advertisement on stations in Baltimore and Prince George’s County with programming aimed at black audiences. In the 30-second spot, Billy Murphy, a black lawyer from Baltimore who supports Ehrlich, said Baltimore Mayor O’Malley, Ehrlich’s Democratic opponent for the governor’s office, “sanctions and directs the arrests of thousands of Baltimore city people” who are never charged with crimes and charges thousands who are never tried because there wasn’t enough evidence to support the charges. During the campaign, Ehrlich, a Republican, has focused much of his criticism of O’Malley on two areas, education and crime. But until now, his advertising campaign has been directed at weaknesses in city schools. O’Malley’s campaign said the radio advertisement is a sign of desperation by the governor because the mayor has consistently been the leader in polls, including a recent poll conducted for The Baltimore Sun that showed O’Malley with a slight lead. Asked what his message would be to Ehrlich, Hamm said: “My message to everyone in Maryland is this. We have the greatest crime decrease in the state of Maryland, and we did it without state help.” |
