Sunday, May 31, 2015

Tutu In A Tizzy

Good Afternoon from Philadelphia!

Well? I have made it plain that I DO NOT LIKE DESMOND TUTU. For good reason. Now a few moments ago I posted that Jacob Zuma was cleared of charges regarding him wasting taxpayer money. Prior to THAT POST I made it clear that South African Blacks will have to start REARING-N-RAISING THEIR KIDS TO GET RID OF THESE ANC CLODS-&-CLOWNS, who just wanna fuck Black South Africans over.

This means Jacob Zuma AND Desmond Tutu, although as usual, Tutu is a clergyman. -_- Great, the useless Black Pastors and Preachers of the US exported to SA. Both producing the same BULLSHIT RESULTS. Zuma is an easy-to-read DIRT-BAG. I don't need to spend any energy to KNOW that he's full of shit, BUT!? Tutu is more cunning and appears to be HARMLESS, when he is JUST AS DANGEROUS AS ZUMA. As I said before, Tutu the White-Treehugger was right there to talk about forgiveness and all this other BULLSHIT, when Apartheid ended.

So instead of Whites and ANY BLACKS WHO FURTHERED THE INTEREST OF WHITES, getting the NUREMBERG TREATMENT.
In the youtube above NOTICE HOW THE WHITES COVER THEIR OWN ASSES and talk about HOW THEY ROSE ABOVE HATRED, and DIDN'T PUNISH THE NAZI-GERMAN PEOPLE... But? If you're a student of history you know that THE ONLY REASONS WHY THEY DID THIS WAS;

1) It was the FUCKING OVER OF GERMANY AND AUSTRIA with the Treaty of Versailles that CAUSED THE RISE OF ADOLF HITLER. So no FOOL wants to make the same mistake TWICE where the sheer DEATH TOLL of WW II AND THE PERMANENT DAMAGE IT DID TO WHITE SUPREMACY-POWER, many of the White Colonies in Africa USED WWII TO BREAK AWAY FROM THEIR WHITE OPPRESSORS.

This is why being able to UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE that Whites are NOT GOING TO GIVE BLACK PEOPLE A REAL EDUCATION. Either YOU WILL TAKE IT AND DECODE WHAT WHITES SAY, or?! You will make your own schools, we MUST MAKE OUR OWN SCHOOLS, WHICH WE HAVE DONE IN THE PAST, and teach Our Children the Truth of What is Going On, why, where, when and How we must Regain our own Power.

2) They PILFERED NAZI SCIENTIST, INVENTIONS AND ENGINEERS! They rose above their feelings so they could get their hands on those Nazi-scientists and THEIR INVENTIONS AND THEIR ENGINEERS! Which is EXACTLY why I have always said that South Africa should have had a Nuremberg-style court hearing where the BLATANTLY OBVIOUS WHITES ARE FLAT OUT EXECUTED!

And the Whites with technical expertise and such are allowed to live based off of CUTTING A DEAL WITH THE INCOMING BLACK GOVERNMENT SO THAT THEIR KNOWLEDGE CAN BE PASSED TO BLACK SOUTH AFRICANS and the country's transition can be FAR SMOOTHER ON A TECHNICAL, ENGINEERING  AND EDUCATIONAL BASIS. More than a SOCIAL ONE.

Many do not know that during the 90's America INTENTIONALLY offered incentives to LURE South African medical assistants, nurses AND DOCTORS! Out of South Africa. I stumbled across this BY ACCIDENT in 1996 and was enraged! Because they knew that South Africa needed these medical experts and assistants to deal with the SUDDEN OVERRUNNING OF HIV/AIDS, which MYSTERIOUSLY DIDN'T STRIKE THE WHITE MINORITY POPULATION....

Notice also that the youtube talks about how it was about HUMANITY bringing to justice the, NO. This was an INTERNAL POWER STRUGGLE BETWEEN WHITE OPPRESSIVE FORCES ON WHO WAS GOING TO RULE OVER US AND THE WORLD, PERIOD! There are too many stories of Black American soldiers WHO GOT TREATED WORSE THAN NAZI-PRISONERS OF WAR, so this had nothing to do with humanity. The same way the American Civil War was NEVER ABOUT freeing any Black Slaves. It was about which White Part of the Country, the North or the South, would have the most control over the DIRECTION OF THE COUNTRY AND CONGRESS, nothing more. Nothing less.

Here is Tutu's dumb-ass;

Tutu blasts govt for 'humiliating' S.Africa

AFP
 

Zuma Not Liable

Good Afternoon from Upper Darby!

Well, looks like South African President Jacob Zuma is not liable for repaying money he spent to upgrade his rural home. Here is the article;

South Africa minister rules Zuma not liable for home upgrades

Reuters
 

Op-Ed From Ghana

Good Afternoon from Upper Darby!

I found a nice opinion-editorial piece from Ghana! Again!? I post these things because as Black Americans we do not get to hear ANYTHING ABOUT BLACK AFRICA unless it is HIV/AIDS or some other bullshit! So!? I look around online on youtube, just trying to get a feel for what is going on with Our People outside of America. Now!? I know some will say, Oh well Black Africans don't like Black Americans....
-_-
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!
Yeah, okay, whatever!
^_^!
I went to high school with Black Africans from West, to Central, North, to East and South! Which means I went to school with Black Africans, one of the covers I STILL HAVE is from a Ugandan friend of mine. I have roomed and lived with Nigerians. And I have had Nigerians as neighbors! ^_^!!!! I have gone to Lincoln University with Blacks from all over the PLANET! As I have been putting myself back together again my next move is to finally get MY PASSPORT! At some point I am going to travel to Africa before I go anywhere else. What I REALLY WANT TO DO!? Is INVEST IN SOME PART OF AFRICA! But I need to get my money up and I have a lot of catching up to do with My Son, so!? The first thing I need to do is stabilize myself financially FIRST. That also doesn't include INVESTING IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY HERE. I see this as a given, but I decided to type that just in case so it isn't misunderstood that investing here in the Black American community is important too.
-_-
I just realized that maybe I need to open an account with a Nigerian or South African bank too? Hmmmmm, that's not a bad idea. Try to do some currency trading maybe?
Either way!? Here is the article;

Opinion:Dwindling respect for leadership: a blame for the aged Asagas or the youth?

Tuesday, 19 May 2015 14:27
I have no degree, diploma or basic knowledge of elementary economics from any educational institution. But I know by my own common sense growing up as a child, that the cost or standard of living in my home, was largely determined by the earnings of my parents.

In my home, I knew that my mother- a mere plantain seller, earned very little to support my father, who was then a cook at the defunct Ghana Textiles Manufacturing Company, GTMC -another case of a mismanaged and collapsed national asset that held so much potential for job creation and industrialization in Ghana. That's just by the way.

Domiciled in an oven-like single room with mum and dad and my siblings, was vital pictographic evidence to me that there was little money at home although I was only a child.

I remember how in those days my mum shared a bottle of Fanta for my brother and I on the last days of the ecstatic school vacations known as 'Our Day' amongst children.

As innocent kids whose hearts and minds were filled with 'folly', we still had some thread of wisdom never to demand more of our parents even when we saw other kids with full bottles of Fanta and Coca-Cola which we unknowingly pronounced 'Caca-cola', and nicely prepared jollof rice with meat; while we only had an egg divided into two-halves and shared on our plain 'rice and oil' with grind pepper.

On Christmas days; while some kids wore flashy 'already made' attires with their hats to match' we wore what was known as 'up and down' sown by a family friend who was a tailor. And for the sake of longevity, they came in oversize.

But in all of these, we were among the happiest kids because no matter what the occasion  was; we also took part in it in our own small way and according to the earnings of our parents.

I honestly do not remember times that we questioned or demanded beyond what our parents toiled to offer us. And most importantly, we never drew comparisons with the fortunate kids who may have been born with spoons in their mouths.

Now an adult, I have come to realize that if we compared; we would have hurt the strenuous efforts our parents had made to put some smiles on our faces - we would have been ungrateful and insensitive to their plight, and would have dampened their spirit of love and care.

On the other hand, my father was not too hard on us when our end of term school reports were not as excellent as those kids in the neighborhood who were in better endowed schools and even had the luxury of private teachers.

He did not compare us to them but rather encouraged us to up our game in the face of the challenges of having to learn in a congested public basic school, coupled with household chores and hawking the streets and corners of Ashaiman with plantain at the least chance, with very little or no time to read at home.

Ghana's economic situation may fit into the aforementioned scenario. But here, government - acting as a parent, has failed to provide even half of the basic needs for its children - the citizenry, and yet expects more from them.

And a government official who was brewed in Ghana's Parliament for years, served as a Minister and now in charge of Ghana's National Petroleum Authority, NPA, Moses Asaga, confidently compares the prices Ghanaians pay for petroleum products to that of some of the world's most powerful economies.

I find it an insult to the soul, insensitive and perhaps narrow-minded for an experienced politician of his stature to compare prices of petroleum products in Germany or Holland to what pertains in Ghana in his attempt to justify the rather suffocating and ill-timed hikes.

I read an interesting Facebook Post that only gave impetus to the hypocrisy and dishonesty in politics in this country. It read " when it comes to increasing fuel prices, they compare us to Germany, US, Holland and other developing nations, but when they are talking about the country's development progress, they compare us to Togo, Mali and the rest, shame on you" he ended.

Still on that German comparison, I want to believe that what Germans pay is commensurate with their wages, inflation, cost of living, standard of living, and not abnormally at variance with every other micro and macroeconomic indicator like we have here.

It will also most likely tally with the quality of social services they enjoy from their hard earned taxes paid to their government. Which of the social services in Ghana performs better for your people? Is it the provision of water, electricity, health or roads?

I have repeatedly asked myself whether every intellectual robotically or consciously loses his or her sense of objectivity and integrity once they enter politics in this country.

And even more shocking, is the fact that Mr. Moses Asaga rather used the phrase ''intellectual dishonesty'' to describe an opposition figure who criticized the increases; like seriously? A clear scenario of the pot calling the kettle black.

Who's being more dishonest here? Is it the one who failed to review fuel prices downwards when crude prices were at an all-time low in the last decade; and now comes to increase amidst worsening power crisis, or the one who merely criticizes the increase?

Mr. Asaga, please come again if you have something much more rational to say or better still respect the people and keep quiet. Clearly, government is pushing its own inefficiencies of managing the petroleum challenges on the consumer.

Well, this is not new - In Ghana or Africa for that matter, the cheapest ways used in solving problems of this nature, is simply pass the cost to the consumer and damn the consequences; rather than critical thinking outside the box.

They are used to taking insults and complaints with no solutions so once such drastic decisions are taken, all they do is put on an alligator skin and take all the shots of vituperation that will come at them; after all, insults don't kill and it will end after a few days.

Come to think of it; Mr. Asaga enjoyed fuel allowance as an MP and now as NPA boss in a luxurious car that belongs to the state. And the irony is that, the Ghanaian taxpayer he is 'insulting' pays for all that and other unwarranted benefits. What can be more indecorous than this?

Even an apology is not enough. Elsewhere he would have been fired or in defense of his own integrity and conscience if any, resign. But that culture of integrity is clearly non-existent in our culture or body politics. And where there is no integrity, mediocrity is hailed. And in a society where politics rewards the most loose and lousiest talkers, there is certainly no genuine regrets for such misfiring.

A friend once said that "when leaders get their bellies filled to the brim, all they spew out is trash". As harsh as it may it is not far from the truth.

In the last few months, several of Ghana's youth have made comments deemed offensive to the leadership or the elderly in this country. I will not defend the so-called insults; neither will I be hard on them because I am of the firm conviction that the victims of the supposed insults have brought these upon themselves.

And I can say without a shred of doubt, that there is very little respect left for leadership or the elderly in this country. It did not start today; it is only deepening more rapidly.

The era of plastering our mouths as children or youth, while the elderly took wrong decisions  and added salt to injury by speaking 'recklessly' to our faces is over. It is over because that outmoded culture which was misconstrued as humility and respect for the elderly, only sowed seeds of timidity and silence in us, and cannot be allowed to persist.

The youth or children of today will bear the brunt of today's mess tomorrow; and so they can't keep quiet. Not even the deceitful form of silencing people by painting them with partisan brush, will cow the bold, selfless and patriotic ones into submission.

Running a country is not like running your home where you shut all your children up when they question your actions or inaction.

Our President, a communicator by academics, has made comments considered inappropriate in recent past, and so has several of his appointees and party followers; as well as some present and past politicians both in government and in opposition.

It is even more nauseating when after boldly making those comments and justifying them repeatedly, same persons turnaround to render unqualified apologies sometimes considered doubtful, since they are often done under 'duress'.

The youth cannot and will not keep quiet particularly when the grayed-hairs are silent - they are the future leaders.

Respect is reciprocal; it is earned and not commanded like it is done in the military. And not all gray-hairs speak or possess wisdom because a 'foolish child' grows gray, likewise a wise child.

Ghanaian motivational speaker Emmanuel Dei Tumi once said “The depth of your conversation determines your level of education rather than your certificate".

Therefore, let those who parade with double or more degrees, masters, PHDs and what have you re-examine their speeches once again because it speaks volumes about them than their academic credentials. Ghana deserves inspirational leaders. 'My mouth has fallen'.


By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/ enadadzie@gmail.com 

Blacks in Europe

Good Afternoon from Upper Darby!

Here is an article highlighting that things aren't exactly as kosher as White Europeans claim for being Black in Europe.
O_o!!!! SHOCKED FACE 5!

Again!? I'm not gonna yap! Just gonna post the article;

On Being African in Europe

Patrice Motsepe

Good Afternoon from Upper Darby!

Here is an article concerning South African Mining Magnate Patrice Motsepe where he is going to give away billions to South African Black Poor. He says he was motivated to do so by Bill Gates and a few other White Billionaires. To my knowledge Motsepe has been promising this for the last 2-years. I'm not gonna yap, I'm just gonna post the article;

South Africa’s richest Blackman gives $1.3 billion, half his wealth, to the poor

Wednesday, 20 May 2015 20:48
South Africa’s richest black man, Patrice Motsepe, has announced he is giving away half his wealth to improve the lives of the poor.

The mining magnate said the money would be handled by the Motsepe Foundation to address education and health issues.

He said he was inspired by the word’s two wealthiest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who are encouraging billionaires to donate to charity.

Mr Motsepe has a net worth of $2.65bn (£1.67bn), Forbes’ rich list estimates.

‘Part of our culture’

Born in the Soweto township, he is a lawyer by training and South Africa’s first and only black billionaire.

He founded the publicly traded mining conglomerate, African Rainbow Minerals, which has interests in platinum, gold, coal and other minerals.

He made most of his mining fortune through the government’s black economic empowerment policy, which mandates that mining companies be at least 26% black-owned, says the BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg.

The businessman also owns Pretoria-based football club Mamelodi Sundowns.

Mr Motsepe made the announcement at an event in Johannesburg, where on a live video link Microsoft founder Mr Gates praised his decision.

He said he was also going to join the The Giving Pledge, a campaign started by Mr Gates and investor Mr Buffet in 2010. So far more than 70 billionaires have signed up to it.

“I decided quite some time ago to give at least half of the funds generated by our family assets to uplift poor and other disadvantaged and marginalised South Africans but was also duty-bound and committed to ensuring that it would be done in a way that protects the interests and retains the confidence of our shareholders and investors,” Mr Motsepe said in a statement.

Mr Motsepe said he was also inspired by the spirit of “ubuntu” – an African belief system which translates as “I am because you are”, meaning individuals need other people to be fulfilled.

“South Africans are caring, compassionate and loving people.

It has always been part of our culture and tradition to assist and care for less fortunate and marginalised members of our communities.

This culture is also embodied in the spirit and tradition of ubuntu/botho,” he said.

5-29-2015 The Voice of Reason Episode Loyalty in Relationships

Good Afternoon from Upper Darby!

Here is Zo Williams' Voice of Reason Episode from a few days ago where him and his panel talk about Loyalty in Relationships. I decided to post this youtube, which is audio only, and I don't know why Zo has decided to only record the audio and not video, but? It was interesting how he and his panel of women spoke on the issue of loyalty. I thought it was interesting enough to post this one up on here. Me?

I've already chronicled how loyalty has gone in my recent relationships, it hasn't. BUT!? I'm the first one to say that both My Ex-Wife and Former Fiancee simply were NOT WORTH BEING WITH, based on WHO I AM AND WHAT I BELIEVE. Where both of them BELIEVED IN NOTHING BUT BULLSHIT. My excuse making for their behavior put me in bad situations where I should have ended the relationships long before they reached the critical meltdown points that they did.

Both of them have and still had SERIOUS LOYALTY ISSUES. Stacey flat out cheated on me, because she's an attention-whore and wanted to run with Her Side-Piece-Chick-Dude who was HER LONG TIME MARRIED MISTRESS. Bear in mind I am most definitely calling Baby Dave, a grown married Blackman still being called Baby anything is always a fuckin red-flag. But women who want that THRILL could care less about something so blatantly obvious that they need to avoid that particular "man". Bottom line is things didn't work out with Dave's ass, just like I warned her it wouldn't. So now Her immature ass has tattoos and shit on her from thinking that inking her fuckin body is gonna help her deal with the fact that SHE WAS LOOKING AT HERSELF IN THE MIRROR AND NOW KNOWS SHE'S A SCUM-BAG BITCH. And not some "innocent-lamb" who just had some "hard-luck relationships".

All this while I caught her South African Coloured Lying-Ass plotting to run down to Baltimore to fuck Dave and his Wife! -_- But? She doesn't like women. -_- Yeah, okay, whatever. And YES! I put her phony-ass on front street WHERE SHE BELONGS. Because I told her UP FRONT, yo!? Don't fuckin waste time lying to me. If you wanna go and be in a relationship with SOMEONE ELSE THEN SAY THAT AND GO! But don't fuckin be some pussy-ass bitch about it and then try to string me along when I have My Son to get back. A writing career to get off the ground SO I CAN EARN A LIVING AGAIN! A Surrogate Son who is breaking HIS NECK TO SUPPORT ME! And bad health where I don't need the stress.

If there is one thing I am 1000% sure of its that Capricorns and Libras just DO NOT GET ALONG IN RELATIONSHIPS. And yes you read it write, I just list some astrological sign-shit. My Ex-Wife is a Lady Libra and My Former Fiance is a Lady Libra and if there is one thing I have had enough of is that they are VERY GOOD AT FUCKING. And equally VERY GOOD AT FUCKING SHIT UP. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA! Then looking around going "Did I do that?" YES YOUR URKEL-ASS DID DO THAT MYSTICAL JR.! HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH! Capricorns like for things to have a reason and purpose behind why they are there and around them, while Libra's love fuckin attention for the sake of attention and regardless of whether it is GOOD OR BAD. They then COMPLAIN ABOUT IT WHEN IT GETS BEYOND OUT OF CONTROL, which means that when it was simply OUT OF CONTROL, it was an adrenaline rush of excitement and feeling "alive".
-_-
I woke up this morning.
That means I'm alive.
I don't want nor need to manufacture fake excitement.
Because it's fake.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Bottom line is I know how I fucked and why and by finally getting MY ACT TOGETHER, this is why this blog is here. This is why the ebook is staring me in the face and saying can you finish this last chapter asshole so we can see whether people think we suck or not as a writer and his creative concept!? Being loyal in a relationship is NOT HARD, IT'S REALLY ABOUT WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON. And I have always lived by the fact that;

I cannot expect my woman to do something that I am not doing myself. If I am disloyal? Then I should EXPECT HER TO BE DISLOYAL. How this has become so complicated is because we've made it that way, AND!? As usual, we are chasing after, modifying and imitating, the shit that goes on in White society and of course we're getting our collective asses handed to us because of it. Here is the episode!


Baltimore PD Abandons Their Jobs, BUT STILL HAVE JOBS...!

Good Evening from Upper Darby!

This next article is further proof of WHAT HAPPENS when we as Black People are TOTALLY DEPENDENT UPON WHITES. We see now in Baltimore, just like in New York City, the Nazi-American Police Department decides once they are even REMOTELY TOLD TO STOP RANDOMLY KILLING, STALKING, AND HARASSING BLACK AMERICANS... they simply stop doing Their Jobs.

Make no mistake about it that this kind of childishness shows that THESE ARE NOT PEOPLE WHO SHOULD BE POLICE OFFICERS. Because this is not how you respond if you give TWO FUCKS about the people you're supposedly protecting, also!? Police Officers PAY COMES FROM TAX PAYER DOLLARS, YET LOOK IT HOW THESE ASSHOLES ARE ACTING?

So to sum it up? This is why WE MUST REBUILD OUR COMMUNITIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE SO WE CAN HAVE A POLICE FORCE, FIREFIGHTING FORCE, ETC! THAT TRULY WANTS TO DO RIGHT BY US. Here is the article, for what it is worth AND NOTE!? That the header even TRIES TO TELL THE READER THAT ONLY WHEN BLACK ARREST ARE UP! DOES CRIME ITSELF GO DOWN! Which is a LIE! By simply patrolling the streets and doing their jobs a real police officer or patrol officer or city patrol group!? Shows criminals that they will have to contend with the Law when and if they are caught. It's a deterrent system simply by seeing that their is a physical presence out there that will apprehend law-breakers, however?

When the Cat's Away, the Mice WILL PLAY. But the very FRAMEWORK of this article FROM JUMP STREET! Tries to ONCE AGAIN SAY THAT ALL BLACK PEOPLE DESERVE IS TO BE LOCKED UP AND WITH NO NAZI-COPS TO KEEP THE VIOLENT NIGGERS IN CHECK!? LOOK WHAT THEY'VE DONE!? LOOK! BE AFRAID! BE VERRRRRRRRRRY AFRAID! Pathetic. Propaganda at it's best, cheesiest, and WORST. Here is MORE PROOF that all that Whites desire is JUSTIFICATION TO LOCK US UP AND DESTROY US. And as usual, IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE NAZI-COPS PUSSIFIED JOB ABANDONMENT!

Oh? And they blame Freddie Gray for why this is happening too, based on THE HEADER of this article, pathetic. Bear in mind ALSO, that the Local Nazi-Police Departments have been CAUGHT REPEATEDLY, dressing as Plain-clothes officers, GOING TO PEACEFUL PROTESTS. And THEN INSTIGATING AND PERPETRATING VIOLENCE! Where!? >_< If that isn't Nazi, then nothing else is. To dress up as protesters and then INFILTRATE PEACEFUL PROTESTS and CAUSE UNREST ON PURPOSE. Dirt-bags. Dirt-bags, Dirt-bags, Dirt-bags, THAT IS A DIRT-BAG MOVE!;

Baltimore gets bloodier as arrests drop post-Freddie Gray


Associated Press


The most recent killings claimed the lives of Jennifer Jeffrey and her 7-year-old son, Kester Anthony Browne. They were identified by Jeffrey's sister, Danielle Wilder.
Jeffrey and her son were found dead early Thursday, each from gunshot wounds to the head.
As family members cried and held each other on the quiet, leafy block in Southwest Baltimore where they lived, Wilder said she felt as if "my heart has been ripped out."
Wilder said a neighbor called their other sister early Thursday, concerned that she hadn't heard any noise coming from Jeffrey's house: no footsteps, Wilder said, no voices, and no gunshots. But when her brother let himself into the house to check on the mother and son, he discovered their bodies.
"She was in the living room," Wilder said. "The baby was upstairs, in the bed."
Wilder said police told her there were no signs of forced entry, and that whoever killed Jeffrey and Browne were let into the house sometime yesterday. Wilder said Jeffrey also lived with her niece and grand-niece. Wilder said she believed that whoever killed Jeffrey wanted to catch her alone, and that the boy was collateral damage.
Thursday's deaths continue a grisly and dramatic uptick in homicides across Baltimore that has so far claimed the lives of 38 people. Meanwhile, arrests have plunged: Police are booking fewer than half the number of people they pulled off the streets last year.
Arrests were already declining before Freddie Gray died on April 19 of injuries he suffered in police custody, but they dropped sharply thereafter, as his death unleashed protests, riots, the criminal indictment of six officers and a full-on civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that has officers working under close scrutiny.
"I'm afraid to go outside," said Antoinette Perrine, whose brother was shot down three weeks ago on a basketball court near her home in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. Ever since, she has barricaded her door and added metal slabs inside her windows to deflect gunfire.
"It's so bad, people are afraid to let their kids outside," Perrine said. "People wake up with shots through their windows. Police used to sit on every corner, on the top of the block. These days? They're nowhere."
West Baltimore residents worry they've been abandoned by the officers they once accused of harassing them, leaving some neighborhoods like the Wild West without a lawman around.
"Before it was over-policing. Now there's no police," said Donnail "Dreads" Lee, 34, who lives in the Gilmor Homes, the public housing complex where Gray, 25, was chased down. "People feel as though they can do things and get away with it. I see people walking with guns almost every single day, because they know the police aren't pulling them up like they used to."
Police Commissioner Anthony Batts said his officers "are not holding back," despite encountering dangerous hostility in the Western District.
"Our officers tell me that when officers pull up, they have 30 to 50 people surrounding them at any time," Batts said.
Batts provided more details at a City Council meeting Wednesday night, saying officers now fear getting arrested for making mistakes.
"What is happening, there is a lot of levels of confusion in the police organization. There are people who have pain, there are people who are hurt, there are people who are frustrated, there are people who are angry," Batts said. "There are people, and they've said this to me, 'If I get out of my car and make a stop for a reasonable suspicion that leads to probable cause but I make a mistake on it, will I be arrested?' They pull up to a scene and another officer has done something that they don't know, it may be illegal, will they be arrested for it? Those are things they are asking."
The Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 on Thursday posted a statement from President Gene Ryan on social media saying that the police are "under siege."
"The criminals are taking advantage of the situation in Baltimore since the unrest," Ryan wrote. "(Police) are more afraid of going to jail for doing their jobs properly than they are of getting shot on duty."
Protesters said Gray's death is emblematic of a pattern of police violence and brutality against impoverished African-Americans in Baltimore. In October, Batts and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake invited the Justice Department to participate in a collaborative review of police policies. The fallout from Gray's death prompted the mayor to ramp that up, and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch agreed to a more intensive probe into whether the department employs discriminatory policing, excessive force and unconstitutional searches and arrests.
Baltimore was seeing a slight rise in homicides this year even before Gray's death April 19. But the 38 homicides so far in May is a major spike, after 22 in April, 15 in March, 13 in February and 23 in January.
With one weekend still to go, May 2015 is already the deadliest month in 15 years, surpassing the November 1999 total of 36.
Ten of May's homicides happened in the Western District, which has had as many homicides in the first five months of this year as it did all of last year.
Non-fatal shootings are spiking as well — 91 so far in May, 58 of them in the Western District.
The mayor said her office is "examining" the relationship between the homicide spike and the dwindling arrest rate.
Even before Gray's death, police were making between 25 and 28 percent fewer arrests each month than they made in the same month last year. But so far in May, arrests are down roughly 56 percent. Police booked just 1,045 people in the first 19 days of May, an average of 55 a day. In the same time period last year, police arrested 2,396 people, an average of 126 a day.
In fact, police did not make any arrests in the triple digits between April 22 and May 19, except on two occasions: On April 27, when protests gave way to rioting, police arrested 246 people. On May 2, the last day of a city-wide curfew, police booked 140 people.
At a news conference Wednesday, Rawlings-Blake said there are "a lot of reasons why we're having a surge in violence."
"Other cities that have experienced police officers accused or indicted of crimes, there's a lot of distrust and a community breakdown," Rawlings-Blake said. "The result is routinely increased violence."
"It's clear that the relationship between the commissioner and the rank-and-file is strained," she added. "He's working very hard to repair that relationship."
Emergency response specialist Michael Greenberger cautions against directly blaming police. The founder and director of the University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland Security, the spike in homicides is more likely a response to Gray's death and the rioting.
"We went through a period of such intense anger that the murder rate got out of control. I think it's been really hard for the police to keep on top of that," he said.
Lee disagrees. He says rival gang members are taking advantage of the police reticence to settle old scores.
"There was a shooting down the street, and the man was standing in the middle of the street with a gun, just shooting," Lee added. "Usually, you can't walk up and down the street drinking or smoking weed. Now, people are everywhere smoking weed, and police just ride by, look at you, and keep going. There used to be police on every corner. I don't think they'll be back this summer."
Batts acknowledged that "the service we're giving is off-target with the community as a whole" and he promised to pay special attention to the Western District.
Veronica Edmonds, a 26-year-old mother of seven in the Gilmor Homes, said she wishes the police would return, and focus on violent crime rather than minor drug offenses.
"If they focused more on criminals and left the petty stuff alone, the community would have more respect for police officers," she said.