Police Spokesman Whose Brother Was Murdered: 'Unnecessary' Baltimore Violence 'Pissing Me Off'
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore Police spokesman T.J. Smith called once again Friday for something to be done about keeping criminals off city streets.
Speaking at press conference held to provide updates about two of this week's homicides, Smith said the suspects have not yet been identified in either case -- the murder of a 19-year-old Morgan State student Jonathan Tobash or the murder of a Baltimore Tattoo Museum employee Jim Forrester.
But Smith, whose own brother was one of Baltimore's more than 330 homicide victims so far this year, said the likelihood is great that they are repeat offenders who police have encountered before.
"It's that same revolving group of bad guys that are wreaking havoc for people's families, and it's actually pissing me off as I sit here and talk about it because it's unnecessary," he said.
"I'm just tired of seeing it. I'm tired of getting up here and talking about somebody's record... they shouldn't have the opportunity to hurt people's families like this, especially around the holidays, but any time of year."
Smith said there needs to be some accountability in communities and in Annapolis to make sure violent offenders don't get those opportunities.
"We keep making up these excuses for these people who are harming our citizens," he said. "The question keeps coming to the government: 'What are you going to do about it?' Well what are we going to do about it, as a community, to make sure people that want to take young people's lives like this and keep those people off the streets and away from our children. We have to do this collectively. The legislative session is coming up in Annapolis and we can't have people just standing on the street corners in Baltimore, we need to beat the doors down in Annapolis and demand change to hold people who have shown their propensity toward violence accountable... we can't keep kicking the can down the road."
When asked what kind of reforms need to be made, Smith said "I don't know what those reforms look like, the community knows what those reforms look like."
"It's much greater than just police reform," he continued. "We could have the perfect police department but as long idiots on the streets with guns and they want to use them against 19-year-olds, we have a greater reform that needs to be done."
He did mention that the measures could include anything from more community centers, more mental treatment availability or more accountability from the criminal justice system.
"Whatever it is to hold people accountable, we need to push for it," he said. "...Just like we want to get rid of those bad, corrupt, piece of crap cops, we need to get rid of these bad, corrupt, piece of crap people who want to do this to families."
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