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January 16, 2016 - January 22, 2016, The Afro-American
BALTIMORE-AREA
Race and Politics
Looking Back and Looking Forward to Annapolis 2016
Three Arrested for Murder of Cyclist
Baltimore City Police
Senior AFRO Contributor
On Monday, I was speaking with Bobby Marvin Holmes, one of the senior producers of First Edition (also an outstanding young filmmaker and community leader) about show ideas this week. And he said, `We should talk about the open of the 2016 session in Annapolis on Wednesday.’ My response was a combination of genuine surprise, bemusement and mild panic. Damn. Could the 2016 legislative session in Annapolis be set to start already? I distinctly remember the beginning of the 2015 session; there was so much anticipation and (truth be told) anxiety in the days leading up to the open. We had reported consistently and in depth on First Edition about what seemed like the pervasive misconduct of the Baltimore City Police Department. There was the now infamous videotape of Kollin Truss as we say in West Baltimore getting banked by now former police officer Vincent Cosom, while his thug buddies (who I believe remain members of the BCPD!) held Truss’ arms at a bus stop on the corner of North and Greenmount in June of 2014. When the video went public in September 2014, it sparked a firestorm of outrage. The video of the beating also foreshadowed the bombshell investigative report by the Baltimore Sun, which outlined a phalanx of police brutality cases, accented by the bruised and battered faces of mostly Black people on the front page of the newspaper, that led to more than $6 million in payouts by the city to the victims of police officers. Community leaders like Dayvon Love and Adam Jackson of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, Pastor Heber Brown of Pleasant Hope Baptist church, as well as political leaders like Del. Jill Carter, and the ACLU prepared for a battle to legislate significant law enforcement reform. However, after all the lobbying, rallies and testimony the seemingly insurmountable blue wall Continued on B2
Baltimore Rebuilds
Harlem Park Community Assc. Working to Restore Neighborhood By Tiffany Ginyard Special to the AFRO
Daquan Middleton, 16, Antwan Eldridge, 17 and Prince Greene, 15 are all being charged as adults for the murder of Robert Ponsi. Ponsi was killed in Waverly on Jan. 10. Sean Yoes
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By James Bentley Afro Associate Editor On the evening of Jan. 9 Robert Ponsi, 29, a server in Harbor East’s James Joyce Pub was robbed and stabbed to death on his bicycle in the Waverly community. According to reports, officers were called at 9:10 p.m. and found Ponsi stabbed multiple times at the intersection of Venable Avenue and Old York Road. He was later pronounced dead at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Baltimore City Police identified and arrested two suspects in connection with the attack. Two teenagers, Daquan Middleton, 16, of Berea, and Antwan Eldridge, 17, of Ednor Gardens were charged with the crime on Jan. 11. Both males are being charged as adults with murder, armed robbery and assault, police said. Homicide detectives continue looking to identify any other suspects possibly involved in the attack and asked that anyone with information to contact Metro Crime Stoppers. A third arrest was made on Jan. 11, after detectives executed a search and seizure warrant in the 600 block of E. 37th Street. They arrested Prince Greene, 15, of the same block. He has been charged as an adult with 1st degree and 2nd degree murder and related charges. He is currently being held at the Central Booking Intake Facility. Greene is a student at City College High School. The first two suspects both attend Renaissance Academy High School, a charter school in Marble Hill that was on the brink of being closed last year. City Schools CEO Gregory
Thornton ultimately decided to keep the school open after lobbying by the school and the community. Last Nov. a student involved in an altercation was found to have a loaded handgun on school grounds. Then on Nov. 24 Ananias Jolley, a junior at the school, was stabbed repeatedly in a classroom, alledegedly by fellow student Donte Crawford, 17. On Dec. 20 Jolley died and on Jan. 6 Crawford was charged with first degree murder, among other charges. Thornton is now reportedly reconsidering his Nov. 10 decision. Renaissance Principal Nikkia T. Rowe did not respond to a request for comment. After the Nov. stabbing she told reporters, “We don’t need judgment as a school community. What we need is for more people who have a sense of urgency who are passionate about the next generation like my staff to not sit around and judge, but to positively contribute to change the outcome.” Thomascine Greene, a well-known community activist in Waverly, is the mother of Prince Greene, who was arrested in connection with the murder of Ponsi. According to The Baltimore Sun, Greene’s mother was recently at a neighborhood association meeting pleading for more resources. “Every community meeting that we have, I’m talking about the youth,” she said. “With God as my witness, I said, ‘You’re going to wait until somebody gets killed, and have a community center in his name. Let’s not wait. We have to do something for these kids,’” Greene told the Sun. Greene did not respond to a request for comment.
Baltimore Set for 15th Annual MLK Parade By James Bentley jbentley@afro.com Afro Associate Editor On Jan. 18 Baltimore City will pay homage to the life of one of America’s most prominent civil rights leaders and activists, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The celebration will include floats, regional marching bands, steppers, equestrian groups, honor and color guards, cheer and dance squads and military and civic organizations. The parade will be held from noon to 2 p.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard beginning at the intersection of MLK and Eutaw Street continuing south and concluding at Baltimore Street. The parade is produced and coordinated by The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts and cosponsored with the Mayor’s office, the AFRO, Radio One, The Baltimore Running Festival and OneBaltimore among others. This is a free event. For more information on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, call 410-752-8632 or visit promotionandarts.org.
5 Baltimore Schools to Receive $300K Education Grant By AFRO Staff U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), along with a representative from the Department of Education, will present a check for $300,000 to five Baltimore City School on Jan. 14. The money is from a grant called Project Serv and is designed to help schools recover from traumatic events. Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings, Baltimore City Councilman Nick Mosby, and Dr. Gregory Thornton, CEO, Baltimore City Schools, are scheduled to give remarks. The ceremony will take place at 1:30 p.m. at Matthew A. Henson Elementary School, one of the five recipients. The other four are: Gilmor Elementary, Frederick Douglass High School, William Pinderhughes Elementary/Middle, and Harlem Park Elementary/Middle. Principals from each institution will be on hand. Last June Cardin, along with Councilman Nick Mosby and Marvin “Doc” L. Cheatham Sr., president of the Matthew A. Henson Neighborhood Association, and other participated in a community rountable that was broadcast on C-Span on what to do in the wake of the riots.
There’s a buzz going around Harlem Park that change is coming. But first, members of the Harlem Park West Community Association (HPW) are working to bring some old things back--- like the activism and leadership that helped this neighborhood thrive in its heyday. Harlem Park West Community Association was formed in April 2015, in response to the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black male who died in police custody, that same month. The board of directors is mostly comprised of people outside of the community, save the organization’s president, Joy Ross, who purchased her home on Fulton Avenue in 2014. “We just get out there and get things done,” Ross told the AFRO. “We want the people here to know that, in spite of the current structure and conditions, we are people that really care.” Historically, Harlem Park was a mixed-income Black community. Today, the median income is $27,000, the unemployment rate is 51.8%, and about 45% of the community is vacant, according to the 2010 Census. What was once a spiritual and cultural epicenter for Blacks living on Baltimore’s West
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New Political Faces
Mayoral Candidate Embry Stresses Experience Prosecuting Crime By Lisa Snowden-McCray Special to the AFRO Baltimore City mayoral candidate Elizabeth Embry believes that her experience prosecuting some of the city’s most violent and horrific crimes gives her the edge needed to move the city forward. “It’s…having someone who has thought about the problems of the city and looked at how to do things differently. Not just tinker around the edges,” Embry said in an interview with the AFRO. “Really change the way we police. Really (Courtesy photo) addressing the problem that especially young Elizabeth Embry, Black men in parts of the city have no other options than selling drugs,” she said. and her family, “What does that really mean? Sure, we know it, have roots in but what does that mean that the city is spending Baltimore. money, the city is investing in job training and bringing businesses to neighborhoods, making sure that there’s transportation from Sandtown and Cherry Hill to the job centers. Being focused on the disparities of the city and how to address them across policy areas and having that be front and center in everything that the city does.” Embry said that she would be rolling out detailed plans about what she would do as mayor in the coming weeks. Embry was a Deputy State’s Attorney under former City State’s Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein. She also worked for the Mayor’s Office Continued on B2
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2016
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Past 7 days Data as of Jan. 13