Five years ago, hundreds of teens met up at the Inner Harbor over Memorial Day weekend, setting off a firestorm of public opinion after some grew rowdy and six were arrested.
Last year, a similar crowd of young people talking, dancing and riding scooters downtown, near the Inner Harbor, prompted a police response to “monitor” activity. Days later, two teens were shot along East Pratt Street.
This year, as the weather has warmed and with school ending for the year, Fells Point has become the latest backdrop for a perennial phenomenon — young Baltimoreans coming together in public spaces, and drawing scrutiny. On recent weekends, crowds have lingered in its outdoor square, with dozens of people milling around, some drinking alcohol or smoking pot, and sometimes fighting. A 16-year-old girl was shot in the wrist after midnight last weekend.
The late-night crowds have sparked familiar responses: Calls for police to break up the groups or go after low-level offenses, alongside concerns those suggestions are motivated at least in part by the color of the young people’s skin. Would those same voices be as loud, some ask, if the crowds were white, rather than Black and brown?
“People go where there is ‘life’ happening,” said Damion Cooper, the founder of Project Pneuma, a Baltimore nonprofit that helps young boys and teens with forgiveness, self-control and discipline. “It’s literally a catch-22 for so many of these young people. They leave their neighborhood because there is absolutely nothing for them to do or they want to escape the danger or pitfalls … So they go to places where there is lively action, even when they know they’re not welcomed.”
Democratic Mayor Brandon Scott, for the second year in a row, is pushing an engagement strategy that is separate from policing. Teams of city staffers, community organizations and social workers go out on weekend nights to encourage young people and families to find a safe way home, while checking that they have the resources they need. The city, meanwhile, has extended recreation center hours and is hosting summer events to draw teens to safer locations.
That strategy is being tested now, with law enforcement voices and business owners in an outcry.
Democratic State’s Attorney Ivan Bates has floated greater use of citations, while Fraternal Order of Police President Mike Mancuso has called the Fells Point crowds “chaos,” charging that city leaders have let it become a “free-for-all.”
“Until this city allows the police to be the police and not babysitters or even artificial parents to these out-of-control groups, they will continue to act exactly as you see in the videos, or if unlucky enough, in person,” Mancuso said in a statement.
The Fells Point entertainment district regularly draws crowds. A nightlife population of city residents and visitors flock to its bars and late-night eateries with the resulting drunken revelry, rowdy crowds and occasional altercations and shootings.
Responding to the concerns, the Baltimore Police Department increased its presence around Fells Point, joined last weekend by Commissioner Richard Worley. The department said Worley was not available for an interview. Their visibility contrasts with how the department handled swelling crowds of young people at last July’s Brooklyn Day gathering in South Baltimore: not showing up in force until gunfire erupted after midnight, striking 30, two fatally.
Videos of the crowds in Fells Point have become something of a litmus test. Some, like Bates, see citeable offenses being ignored. Others see people enjoying a summer night. Some on social media asked what’s the difference between what’s happening in Fells and the crowds hanging out by the professional baseball and football stadiums; another asked if that wasn’t what Fells was for.
“It is incredibly problematic to characterize Black and brown people simply participating in nightlife or being outside as somehow criminal or an issue that needs to be solved,” said Bryan Doherty, a spokesman for Scott, in an emailed statement. “The majority of people enjoying Fells Point are not causing any major problems or engaging in illegal activity. For those who are, we will work to hold them accountable and ensure that everyone’s safety is taken seriously.”
Heather Warnken, director of the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform, said there’s important work to be done “ground-truthing” what’s taking place, rather than relying on perceptions.
As for solutions, Warnken encouraged taking a holistic view, solving problems in a data-driven and humane way, not focusing solely on police or “capital-A accountability.”
“We have a very narrow-minded view, often, in what that response looks like,” Warnken said. “We’ve come a long way with government resources. However, we are such a long way from it being appropriately resourced.”
Bates, meanwhile, called in an interview with The Baltimore Sun for police to write more citations for such offenses as drinking or smoking cannabis in public, including for people under age 18. He said that might require changing police policies or modifying the federal consent decree that regulates the police department.
“People who live down there are frustrated because they can’t go to bed until 2, 3 in the morning, because of the rowdy crowds. The businesses are frustrated because people aren’t buying alcohol or going to their establishments,” Bates said.
Police can issue criminal citations to adults after first giving warnings. No jurisdiction in the state issues criminal citations to minors, but people under age 18 can receive juvenile civil citations, which refer the recipient to the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services. Kenneth Thompson, the court-appointed consent decree monitor, said nothing in the document prevents Baltimore Police from issuing citations to juveniles.
Baltimore Police’s policy on interactions with youth call for the “most effective and least intrusive” response. Often, the policy says, a warning, verbal counseling or a referral to community services is preferable to citation or arrest.
Data provided by the juvenile services department shows Baltimore Police aren’t often resorting to citations for young people. The agency said Baltimore hasn’t sent it any juvenile alcohol citations in the last two years. And citations represent less than 1% of offenses in Baltimore, below the statewide average.
When it does receive citations, the state juvenile services agency said it often offers the offenders services that include substance abuse treatment, voluntary participation in counseling and engagement in structured activities, among other options.
Stefanie Mavronis, the director of the Mayor’s Office for Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, said that before police get involved in enforcement activities, the outreach teams created by the mayor’s strategy are seeking proactive engagement with teens.
A mix of people are out in Fells Point, Mavronis said, including some adults of legal drinking age and some people under 21. That presents a “certain challenge” for the bar district.
On any given weekend night this summer, between 25 to 30 people will do outreach to youth as part of the engagement effort.
“We’re not going to condone our young people being out until 2 a.m., particularly when we’re thinking about that curfew age,” Mavronis said. “Those are conversations we’re prioritizing, and we’ve seen young people be responsive to our reminders about open containers and the curfew.” The curfew says anyone 16 and younger can’t be out after 11 p.m. unless they’re with a parent or guardian.
MONSE and other parts of city government are seeking a balance between proactive engagement when law enforcement isn’t necessary — and enforcement when crimes do take place, she said. Mavronis pointed to a video that circulated of a fight around the square. There was an immediate police response, she noted, which shows the “different level of presence and management of that space” compared to years prior.
“This is about the mayor’s vision — and true belief and practice — of [investing] in the promise of our young people, not their failure,” she added.
Concerns about rowdy crowds in Fells Point date back decades. The city restricted beer sales at a festival in 1992, with a mayor’s spokesman saying it had “really gotten out of control.” In 1976, the Fells Point Improvement Association challenged liquor licenses of eight bars, in part because of the “drunken customers who wander the streets after leaving the taverns, drinks in hand.”
The Maryland Youth Justice Coalition, a group of advocacy organizations including the ACLU of Maryland and Jews United for Justice, said in a statement that “this seems to be an annual Fells Point news story involving adults as well as teenagers.”
“It points to the limits of traditional law enforcement and the urgent need for more of the support, services and opportunities that are proven to keep communities safe and help young people thrive,” the coalition said.
Warnken called it “striking” how quick and intense a response the gatherings in Fells Point have garnered, compared to responses to violence in other parts of the city.
Fells, she noted, is an area where wealthier residents hang out and more privileged residents patronize businesses. That includes establishments owned by the Atlas Restaurant Group, run by nephews of Baltimore Sun owner David Smith, who also has a significant ownership stake in the parent company of local news station Fox45.
Doherty, too, said there have been instances of similar behavior — fights or other types of violence — in other areas of Baltimore or other large gatherings, such as tailgates at sporting events. The city won’t criminalize everyone enjoying nightlife, just because “a select few” break the law, he said.
“It would be naive to think that the disproportionate attention being brought by some is not related to the makeup of the crowds involved,” he said. “We will hold everyone involved in illegal activity or wrongdoing accountable, equally.”
Baltimore defense attorney Warren Brown agreed that if the crowds were white, they’d be perceived differently. But he said that distinction “belies the reality that it is a complete disruption to businesses and the patrons of those businesses.”
He argued police should enforce violations, not ignore them.
“It still doesn’t mean you let it go because white boys get away with it,” Brown said. “It means you enforce it against the white boys, too.”
Doherty’s statement added that the city has developed a series of events, based on feedback from Baltimore’s young people, that include midnight basketball, teen pool parties and neighborhood block parties.
“Our young people — like all young people — are simply looking for a place to go with their friends to socialize and enjoy themselves,” he said. “We have to give them those positive opportunities in structured, safe environments.”
Cooper, from Project Pneuma, called for a “larger net” to be cast for positive solutions geared toward young people, with a particular focus on their social-emotional wholeness and mental health.
He argued there is a fraction of the funding for early adolescents ages 10 to 14 years old, compared to the more “reactive” programming for older teens already engaged in negative behaviors.
“When youth, especially youth of color, are seen congregating in large numbers, the immediate response is a ‘shock trauma’ approach. ‘Stop the bleed! Stop the crime! Stop them from destroying the city,'” Cooper said. “We can never get to the root cause of our challenges if we don’t take the time and money to understand the ‘why.'”
For more information on Baltimore’s summer teen programming, visit the Teen Zone website of the Mayor’s Office of Children & Family Success at bmorechildren.com/bmore4thefuture. Baltimore Sun reporter Alex Mann and librarian Paul McCardell contributed to this article.
