XPost: alt.fan.sean-hannity, talk.politics.misc, alt.politics.democrats   
   From: constantine@burn.this.bitch.down.com   
      
   WASHINGTON — The Baltimore police commissioner, Anthony W.   
   Batts, who arrived in that city three years ago pledging change   
   but lost the confidence of many in his rank and file in the wake   
   of riots in April, was ousted Wednesday by Mayor Stephanie   
   Rawlings-Blake, who said he had become “a distraction” that   
   hindered efforts to fight a recent surge in violent crime.   
      
   The mayor acted just hours after the police union issued a   
   report critical of the department’s response to the unrest set   
   off by the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who   
   sustained a fatal spinal cord injury while in police custody.   
   But Ms. Rawlings-Blake insisted she was responding to a “crime   
   surge,” and not acting to placate the union, whose report said   
   the riots were preventable.   
      
   “Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police   
   leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main   
   focus: the fight against crime. So we need a change,” the mayor   
   said at a City Hall news conference. She added: “This was not an   
   easy decision. But it’s one that is in the best interest of the   
   people of Baltimore.”   
      
   Mr. Batts’s firing comes at a time of increasing tensions   
   between the police union and department leadership — and a sharp   
   rise in crime. In the weeks since May 1, when six officers were   
   charged in Mr. Gray’s death, murders have risen to a level not   
   seen in decades. There have been 155 homicides this year, 50   
   more than in the same period last year, and nonfatal shootings   
   have nearly doubled, the police said. Almost half of the   
   killings occurred after May 1.   
      
   Just Tuesday night, three people were killed and a fourth   
   injured when two gunmen jumped out of vans and started shooting   
   in West Baltimore, the blighted neighborhood where Mr. Gray came   
   of age and was arrested.   
      
   For Ms. Rawlings-Blake, an African-American leading a majority   
   black city, those competing forces created a political problem:   
   She has staked her reputation on making Baltimore safer while   
   overhauling and reining in a police department that has been   
   accused of corrupt, often brutal behavior. Until Wednesday, she   
   had expressed unqualified support for Mr. Batts, though her   
   allies said they sensed weeks ago she would ultimately get rid   
   of him.   
      
   Mr. Batts, who is also black, similarly found himself caught   
   between competing constituencies: black residents angry with the   
   police, and a union that complained commanders did not support   
   the rank and file, and had bungled the response to the April   
   unrest. And while the police say that turf wars among drug gangs   
   are behind the surge in crime, there have been questions in the   
   city about whether officers are standing down, fearing they   
   might be prosecuted for aggressive policing.   
      
   In an “after-action review” of the response to the riots   
   released Wednesday, the city’s police union, the Fraternal Order   
   of Police Lodge 3, said its members reported that they “lacked   
   basic riot equipment, training and, as events unfolded,   
   direction from leadership.” The report also complained that “the   
   passive response to the civil unrest had allowed the disorder to   
   grow into full-scale rioting,” and that officers had followed   
   direct orders from their commanders “not to intervene or engage   
   the rioters.”   
      
   Ms. Rawlings-Blake strongly disputed the report; in a statement   
   her office released at 12:45 p.m., her spokesman called it   
   “baseless and false information.” He added, “This is not a time   
   for finger-pointing and politics.”   
      
   Mr. Batts, who before learning of his firing had scheduled a 4   
   p.m. news conference that was then canceled, had himself   
   announced an outside, independent review of the department’s   
   handling of the riots just one day earlier. On Wednesday, he   
   said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun that he had been   
   “honored to serve the citizens and residents of Baltimore.”   
      
   In a statement, Gene Ryan, the president of the union, did not   
   specifically address Mr. Batts’s performance or firing, but   
   simply noted the union report that had been issued hour earlier.   
   But Louis Hopson, the board chairman of the Vanguard Justice   
   Society, which represents black officers and has complained that   
   they face discrimination in the department, said the ouster of   
   Mr. Batts was “good news.”   
      
   The mayor installed Kevin Davis, the deputy police commissioner,   
   to run the department on an interim basis. At the news   
   conference, Mr. Davis said, “My message to the rank and file is   
   that I will walk with them, I will serve with them and I will be   
   with them every step of the way.”   
      
      
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