"Martin O'Malley isn’t relenting”

[bigtree]

Lis Smith @Lis_Smith · 8m 8 minutes ago
"@GovernorOMalley isn’t relenting” http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/martin-o-malley-won-t-stop-campaigning-on-his-baltimore-record-20150503 …

Martin O'Malley @GovernorOMalley
I joined @chucktodd this AM to talk Baltimore. While this was a heartbreaking setback, Baltimore is not defeated & Baltimore will be back.


____ Even after a tough week, O'Malley is staying on script, trying to continue to be the Democratic candidate in 2016 who has a vision for how to solve poverty in America.

"I did not dedicate my life to making Baltimore a safer and more just place because it was easy, and I am more inclined and more deeply motivated now to address what's wrong with our country and what needs to be healed and what needs to be fixed," O'Malley said (on MTP). "This should be a wakeup call."

In the 2016 presidential election, O'Malley is still banking on being the candidate to the left of Clinton on issues like poverty and economic mobility. And as Clinton continues to fight back criticisms she is not accessible, O'Malley will not stop talking about his executive experience in Baltimore.

"There are people in whole parts of our cities who are being totally left behind and disregarded. They are unheard, they are told they are unneeded by this economy and that extreme poverty, breeds conditions for extreme violence. People are frustrated, they are angry and they feel like people aren't listening," O'Malley said of the unrest in the city.

O'Malley isn't relenting. When asked if he would announce a presidential bid in the city, O'Malley responded "I wouldn't think about announcing any place else."


read: http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/martin-o-malley-won-t-stop-campaigning-on-his-baltimore-record-20150503

Jeff Smith @JeffSmithMO · 41m 41 minutes ago
Didn't think @GovernorOMalley had the fire to compete in '16? See him, on his hometown (Baltimore) on @meetthepress:

watch: "What happened in Baltimore should be a wake up call for the entire nation"

from Crooks and Liars:

___Todd quoted from a recent article in the Washington Post which asked “Why couldn't $130 million transform one of Baltimore's poorest places?”

TODD: What are we getting wrong here? The money has been there. What are we doing wrong?

O'MALLEY: Well Chuck, that's just not true. We haven't had an agenda for America's cities for at least two decades.

TODD: So there's money, but no agenda?

O'MALLEY: No, that's not what I'm saying. We have not had an agenda for America's cities, probably since Jimmy Carter and the UDA grants and that era. We have left cities to fend for themselves and you know what? Because of the dedication of a lot of mayors and good people throughout cities in America, cities have been actually coming back...

But look, the structural problems that we have in our economy, the way we ship jobs and profits abroad, the way we failed to invest in our infrastructure and failed to invest in American cities, we are creating the conditions. Please, Speaker Boehner and his crocodile tears about the $130 million, that is a spit in the bucket compared to what we need to do as a nation to rebuild our country. And America's cities are the heart of our country. We need an agenda for American cities. We need to stop ignoring especially people of color and act like they are disposable citizens in this nation. That's not how our economy is supposed to work, it's not how or our country works...

I tell you what Chuck, I did not dedicate my life to make Baltimore safer and more just place because it was easy. And I am more inclined and deeply motivated to address what's wrong with our country and what needs to be healed and what needs to be fixed. This should be a wake-up call. What's happened in Baltimore should be a wake-up call for the entire country.

read: http://crooksandliars.com/2015/05/omalley-rips-boehner-refusing-address

[leftofcool]

1. I hope he announces soon!

We need more Dems in this race.

[elleng]

2. THANKS, bigtree!

XPosting to M. O'M group.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. As my sigline suggests, He's not my first choice.

But, as Rupert infamously said of Hillary, "I can live with" him.

[Koinos]

4. O'Malley showed passion

I really like Bernie, and I really like Martin. They agree on all the issues that matter to me, but they have different styles and approaches for confronting the same problems.

There are times when I believe that Bernie is more capable of leading the rebellion and exposing problems, but that Martin would be more capable of governing the country and bringing about solutions.

Bernie has a lot of fire and righteous anger. I can identify with that. Martin is logical and pragmatic. I can identify with that. And I don't think either of them will "con" us and then sell out to the highest bidder.

I hope that O'Malley joins the race, and I hope that both stay in the race until one or the other shows himself to be of superior presidential caliber.

[bigtree]

5. I agree, Koinos

..you expressed that perfectly.

[elleng]

7. Yes, and how'd this do,

O'Malley/Sanders? Sanders/O'Malley?

[Kalidurga]

6. He is not running for VP

I have seen people state that. I haven't seen any evidence of that at all. He doesn't seem to be going in the direction of running a negative campaign, but that is an entirely different matter of running for VP. He is politely stating that things have been wrong in this country for far too long and that it's going to take someone outside of the establishment to fix things. I think he is coming out swinging on those issues.

[okaawhatever]

8. Part of his making Baltimore strategy was to adopt the "Broken Windows" method of policiing

Some of his big supporters have heavily criticized that from others. Wonder if they will do the same with him?

[Koinos]

11. Returned to Baltimore

O'Malley had a lot to lose by appearing on the streets of Baltimore. He was heckled by passers-by. He was trashed by a fiction-writer who made money by trashing Baltimore in a sensationalized TV caricature of that city and its mayor. But O'Malley did return to Baltimore and he took the heat, not for photo-ops, but because he genuinely loves the city he has lived in most of his life and that loved him enough in return to give him 91% of their votes. His interview on MTP this morning was quite stirring and emotional. I believe he has honesty and courage, and I respect him more every time I see or hear him. He is not flashy, but he is a decent and logical man who reads Thomas Merton and theology in the morning. And I believe his executive experience, including the things that went terribly wrong, has taught him how to govern with compassion and nuance.

I'm not sure he will enter the race. I think he would like to, because he thinks that he has something to contribute in these very troubled times. I think that, as president, he would not be as confrontational as Bernie, but perhaps more effective. Bernie is like a prophet in the wilderness. He tells us why these are hard times, and he shows us exactly who is to blame. But prophets usually have only a handful of followers, and their job is to clear the way for those able to do the hard work of incremental change. Many people here, like myself, would do anything to get Bernie nominated and elected. But is he the right person to be president? Leading the country is not the same as leading a protest march.

Having said that, IMHO, either Bernie or O'Malley would easily defeat any of the republicans now in the field. They would simply tell the truth in their own way, and the truth would burn through the republicans' shabby veil of "patently BS" absurdities and contradictions.

[Raine1967]

16. Welcome to DU, Koinos.

[FSogol]

14. Every major city in this country followed that form of policing between 1990s and ealry 2000s.

They did it due to the drop in NYC's crime rate after adopting that policy. By the mid 00s, everyone was moving away from it due to over-policing, arresting innocent people, profiling, etc.

O'Malley employed those policies when he arrived as Mayor (999), but moved away from them for the reasons stated. The number of arrests dropped each year in Baltimore as did the crime rate.

By the end of his Mayoral term he had moved away from that policy and instead used a model called Citistat. It used community policing (cops asigned to certain neighborhood who got to know the residents and could tell where the problems were and targeted policing at know problem spots, such as drug markets.)

He did not employ those methods as Governor. Unlike say, Giuliani, O'Malley changed, evolved, and modified his approach until he got a fairer/more workable system.

From a 2010 article in the Baltimore Sun:

A lawsuit filed in 2006 on behalf of 14 people alleged that their arrests indicated a broad pattern of abuse in which thousands of people were routinely arrested without probable cause. The suit also alleged that the so-called "zero tolerance" system was endorsed and enforced by city officials under the tenure of then-mayor Martin O'Malley.

In a joint statement with the plaintiffs, the police department said it has agreed to institute policies that reject the "zero tolerance policing" and establish a range of appropriate officer responses to minor offenses. The department will issue written directives that spell out the elements of common minor offenses to ensure that officers are aware of the scope of their authority, and will train every officer on the new policies for offenses, the statement said.

Arrests in the city have fallen by the tens of thousands since O'Malley became governor, and the ACLU and NAACP said in the statement that they recognize that the current city leadership has taken steps to address the issue and "applaud those efforts."

What do community leaders in Baltimore think about O'Malley? From a recent Washington Post article:

“What was positive was that there was zero-tolerance for criminals and drug dealers locking down neighborhoods and taking neighborhoods hostage,” said the Rev. Franklin Madison Reid, a Baltimore pastor. “Does that mean there was no down side? No. But the bottom line was that the city was in a lot stronger position as a city after he became mayor.”

Benjamin T. Jealous, a former president of the national NAACP who worked with O’Malley when Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013, credited him for supporting a civilian review board as mayor and for a sharp drop in police shootings that occurred during that time. Jealous said O’Malley’s “mass incarceration” police strategy is “a separate issue” than police brutality, and “a conversation for a different day.”“It was a period where a lot of mayors were doing whatever they could to try to reduce crime,” Jealous said.

O'Malley's statements on the issue:

Over the past year, as he has criss-crossed the country, O’Malley has talked about alleged police misconduct in places such as Ferguson, Mo. and North Charleston, S.C. On Saturday, he called Gray’s death “another awful and horrific loss of life.”
“Whether it’s a police custodial death or a police-involved shooting,” O’Malley said, “we all have a responsibility to ask whether there’s something we can do to prevent such a loss of life from happening in the future.”

Earlier this month, at a civil rights event convened by the Rev. Al Sharpton, O’Malley said his crime-reduction efforts as mayor saved many lives. “There are a thousand fewer black men in Baltimore who died violent deaths over the last 15 years than otherwise would have died had we not come together.”

[Raine1967]

15. CitiStat has become a model all over the nation.

and from what I have been researching is FAR preferable to the previous model that was abandoned when he was mayor.

One of the things I like about certain politicians, they are always willing to learn and improve.

[Vattel]

17. Enough with the misinformation.

"O'Malley employed those policies when he arrived as Mayor (999), but moved away from them for the reasons stated. The number of arrests dropped each year in Baltimore as did the crime rate."

Arrests peaked in Baltimore in 2005, which led to the lawsuit in 2006. It was only after O"Malley left office in January of 2007 that we got a mayor and a police commissioner that brought arrests way down. It's right in your own quote:

Arrests in the city have fallen by the tens of thousands since O'Malley became governor, and the ACLU and NAACP said in the statement that they recognize that the current city leadership has taken steps to address the issue and "applaud those efforts."

As governor O'Malley had no control over the Baltimore PD. He wasn't a part of the "current city leadership" whose efforts were being applauded by the NAACP and ACLU. So to credit him with the reduction in arrests is absurd.

[FSogol]

18. If arrests peaked in 2005, then they were obviously decreasing for two years while O'Malley was

still Mayor of Baltimore (November 2007).

So, O'Malley gets criticism for something that happened 7-1/2 years after he was in office, but can get no credit for changes made while he was in office? Who is being dishonest here?

From an article in the CSM today:

His advisers note he created a civilian review board for police conduct, expanded drug treatment and saw a decline in excessive force complaints and police-involved shootings.

After two terms as mayor, he won two terms as governor with strong support in Baltimore.

"The people of Baltimore were given ample opportunities to express at the ballot box their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the direction that our city took to reduce violent crime, to reduce homicides, to make our city more livable," O'Malley said.

Whole article by Ken Thomas and Brian Witte here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2015/0504/Baltimore-violence-and-Martin-O-Malley-s-mayoral-legacy

[Vattel]

20. That's not even correct.

He left office in January of 2007, not November. So even though arrests were still very high, you could truly say that arrests decreased his last year as mayor. That's not the same as arrests fell every year he was Mayor.

Instead of showing some integrity and admitting your mistake you accuse me for being dishonest on the grounds that "So, O'Malley gets criticism for something that happened 7-1/2 years after he was in office, but can get no credit for changes made while he was in office?" Of course, I never criticized O'Malley for something that happened 71/2 years after he was in office; so you are failing to get your facts straight again.

[FSogol]

21. If you aren't someone who was trying to link O'Malley to Freddie Gray's death, then I do apologize.

[Vattel]

22. Apology accepted. Cheers.

[brer cat]

9. I am liking O'Malley

the more I learn about him. Thanks for posting, bigtree.

[Cha]

10. KICK

[bigtree]

12. »

[bigtree]

13. kick

[herding cats]

19. Good, he needs to stay in.

I believe the more voices we have speaking about core Democratic Party issues, the better.

I don't see any of them as being totally perfect, but they all have something better to offer to the electorate than any of the GOP choices.

I'm really excited about this primary season! I think it's shaping up to be a healthy step back to the left for the Democratic Party.