Forward to the Past
If you needed any proof that a Sheila Dixon administration was going to be incapable of acting in any way to make Baltimore a better city you need look no further that the front page of today’s Baltimore Sun.
Frederick Bealefeld has been reappointed as police commissioner. One would have thought that given the indiscipline of the Baltimore police department, the skyrocketing muder rate, and the malfeasance in the management of the police pension fund that Mayor Dixon would have gone for an outsider to act as a change agent.
That’s what we thought.
That’s what a lot of folks thought.
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Shows what we know.
Instead of a change agent, Mayor Dixon has signaled two things. First, she isn’t particularly concerned about the condition of the Baltimore PD or how it does its job. It isn’t like Bealefeld is going to suddenly become a superstar now that he’s no longer an acting commissioner. Secondly, she has signaled that she values personal loyalty and pliability above all. By nominating Bealefeld, Dixon now has a police department run by someone who knows he has no power base outside the mayor and who will most likely be very cooperative.
With this as the modus operandi then we should not be surprised if Baltimore Fire Chief William Goodwin survives.
Qualls was one of 22 people slain on the streets of Baltimore in September, bringing the total of homicides this year to 231 — 19 more than the 212 killed this time last year. Police have solved 81 of this year’s homicides for a 35 percent closure rate.
