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BELIEVE! In Baltimore’s Blue Light Special
Baltimore seems to be involved in a bitter struggle to re-configure itself, or at least its public image. January 2008 kicked off the new-fangled smoking ban that all the other “big-shot” cool cities have been doing for the past few years. And they’ve got all these crazy bike lanes and the word “green” written on a bunch of things. And you can go take yoga and buy over-priced sandwiches and smoothies and everything a girl could want…
Except that its totally bogus, and is nothing more than another link in the gold chain fence that the city’s white upper class have been erecting again and again for decades to run and keep out the po’ white folks and the blacks.
The worst, most horrific Orwellian fascist psychotic nightmarish bullshit that Baltimore is prey to (er, publicly anyway!) is this infestation of flashing blue lights in the most crime-ridden (black) neighborhoods, which have the goddamned word “BELIEVE” written on them.
BELIEF used to be something reserved for a higher power, but now - Baltimore - THIS IS YOUR GOD!
The net effect, of course, is that the rich white people who are jetting about from yoga class to yoga class go driving to get Starbucks from another part of the city, they know where NOT to go - because the “bad” neighborhoods all have these flashing blue “DANGER DANGER” lights which you can see for at least half a mile in any direction and steer clear of.
They say these lights are designed to stop crime and to collect evidence. But what they’re for is so the city can cut cost on foot patrols in neighborhoods which don’t create enough tax revenue to be worthwhile, so that they can focus their forces protecting the people who are ‘worth’ protecting: the upper class white people and the international biomedical cadre sucked into the giant vortex that is Johns Hopkins University.
But hey, I love Baltimore. It’s a great place to get drunk! Except the beer the sell around here sucks and prices at bars are steadily increasing. But according to the police, everybody LOVES the cameras, drunk or no:
“Residents love them and so do front-line prosecutors,” said Baltimore police spokesman Matt Jablow, who cites a 16 percent decrease in crime in the areas with surveillance cameras. “The whole gamut of crimes have been solved by these cameras and countless other crimes have not taken place because of these cameras. Can you put a price tag on that? We don’t think so.”
Of course, you can put a price tag on the equipment and technology ($10 million dollars, part of which comes from Homeland Security and “seized drug dealer funds”). And you can look easily at their effectiveness at collecting evidence. According to that Baltimore Examiner article, fully 30% of the arrests made via camera data are thrown out for lack of evidence - even though collecting evidence is the “sole purpose” of these cameras.
No mainstream news articles I’ve seen on this topic have talked about the psychological impact of these lights and cameras. The closest I’ve seen has been this hilarious bit from a Hopkins newsletter:
“Every time we put up a camera that doesn’t have that flashing blue light,” Mahoney explained, “people don’t believe it’s a camera, so we had to order flashing blue lights and install them. People love those cameras so much.”
I love that every time there is a quote about how much neighborhood residents “love” these cameras that it is always attributed to a “police department spokesperson” and never actually to a neighborhood resident. Personally, I don’t understand how people can be expected to live in a neighborhood which has these non-stop distress beacons blasting all through the night. Imagine living in an apartment building on the corner of one of these lights and having that shit blink constantly… Eventually, your awareness of these bright flashing lights becomes more and more dimmed, and you grow more and more accustomed to helicopters chasing you and voices of authority coming out of the sky. What you’re seeing here is psychological conditioning on a mass scale: preparations for worse things to come. They change things a little at a time so you don’t freak out all at once. The future’s so bright (with blinking lights), I gotta wear shades.
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March 31st, 2008 at 11:33 am
Well, crime sucks. If I had those blue light thingys here in Madison, I would avoid those areas too. But I already know where those areas are. Because A little chart was in the paper with yellow dots and red dots on a map. Yellow dots for mugging and red with a weapon or somthing…Well anyway, I avoid the dots.
What it is this phenomenon is about is what this 4 hour work week guy is talking about. “The new rich” NAFTA and what not helps people who use it to their advantage. But for those people who used to work in manufacturing those “po’ white folks” you referred to…They are now trying to make it in the service industry.
But here is the thing…you don’t have to be white to be successful in bussiness. You don’t have to have rich family connections. Anybody can do it that sets their mind to it. That’s the American dream. The dream isn’t dead.
But there is a class structure and a lot of the people born into the upper class are assholes. Becaquse they don’t have the confidence of people who made it from nothing. So they turn to politics which is about power. Bush/Clinton/Obama its all the same. Politics is about power.
The American dream is about using your creativity to give people somthing they want and getting rich from it. its open to everyone.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:45 am
I’m not so sure this is true in Maryland… I mean, the state sport is jousting. This is old money in the worst way:
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/symbols/sport.html
March 31st, 2008 at 5:46 pm
The blue monsters are retarded. They should all be busted up.
They don’t piss me off as much as the freakin’ helicopters. They hovered over my house for an hour the other day. I just glare at em when they pass by, and when extremely pissed will show them the bird (it is birdland yknow).
The smoking ban doesn’t piss me off in the least bit actually, and you know I can chimney some cigs.
Hopkins ain’t just biomedical either. We launch satellites and a bunch of cool aviation stuff. When you are awarded by the US Government with more money and awards ($1 billion+ a year) than any other educational/research in the US, it is tough to leave a small footprint.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I don’t mind the smoking ban, it was more just an story-telling point to establish and re-enforce themes…
And Hopkins doesn’t bother me much, though I have heard about some shady real estate dealings they’ve allegedly been involved in. But that’s almost the name of the game with real estate, it seems.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Ted’s suggestions are good but ‘I get allergic smelling hay’ as Ms. Gabor said. If you’re planning to lay down roots in Baltimore I’d say buy someplace to live now if you can. You’re about to be priced out of the city. In spite of everything that’s been said about the economy some places, like Chicago, are holding their value. The city steers development through permits and TIF’s and Baltimore seems to have a plan.
Given your description Chicago was at the point Baltimore is at now about 5-10 years ago. Nobody notices the blue lights anymore. The neighborhoods they are meant for are considered temporary until the economy improves. I don’t know why but Chicago has never had helicopters.
Because Baltimore didn’t have a big boom like Florida, California etc. the real estate prices won’t collapse and they may go up for the type of property you might want to buy. Check out foreclosures, auctions etc.
Here the housing projects (evil institutions designed for racial segregation themselves) were mostly emptied out and the residents given Section 8 vouchers. They were encouraged to move to suburbs and they did. Now they can’t move back to the city due to the cost.
My best friend’s husband described their move back as being because “you moved all of the drug dealers out to the suburbs”.
But, if ownership doesn’t appeal to you you’ve always got Ted for survival lessons.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Oh well. I see from your other comment you’re leaving but everybody who does plan to stay in Baltimore 5+ years should think about buying real estate.
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:02 pm
check it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZjp654VaX0
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:27 am
[…] Baltimore’s Disco Party Lights [TMBCHR] […]
April 4th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
http://trappedinmatter.blogspot.com/20...gency-notification-system-update.html
I forgot about this. I’ve never noticed it but I guess it’s up and running.