Baltimore Community Organization Calls On Mayor Pugh To End Marijuana Arrests With New Billboard
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A new rolling billboard rolled up to city hall, sponsored by a group that no one wants to belong to.
Because membership costs everything.
"My son Jaycee was murdered in 2017," said Giselle Morch "So now I'm in the club, Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters."
What they're asking the Mayor for is a change in policing, away from Marijuana busts, to increased murder investigations.
"A lot of time and energy and resources are spent on smaller crimes, we think," Daphne Alston said. "and not getting these young men off the street who have murdered our children."
With 300 murders a year in Baltimore, the arrest rates of suspects is far below the national average.
The call to stop marijuana arrests follows state attorney Marilyn Mosby's decision to stop prosecuting those cases.
"Is the enforcement and prosecution of marijuana possession making our city safer?" asked Mosby. "The answer is emphatically no."
Alston wanted a shift in law enforcement priorities.
"We think it's time to get hard on real hard crime," she said.
The mayor briefly met with the group, which she has talked with before.
As to meeting their demand but like earlier commissioners, Michael Harrison has indicated that he would continue marijuana arrests.
"No more mothers and fathers should be grieving over somebody's future that's not gone," said Morch.
It's not clear if the billboard will bring change but mothers who have lost children don't want other mothers to go through what they have.
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