Baltimore killings soar to a level unseen in 43 years
巴尔的摩的谋杀案数量跃升至一个43年未见的水平

BALTIMORE – Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.

本周五,由Freddie Grey在警方拘留期间死亡而引发的暴乱发生三个月之后,巴尔的摩树立了一座严峻的里程碑:7月份共发生了45起凶杀案,是这座城市过去43年来单月流血事件之最。

Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.

警方公布了三起死亡事件——周四有两名男性遭遇枪击,周五再添一位。三人都死在当地医院。

With their deaths, this year’s homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July’s end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July’s total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.

在经历了这三起死亡事件之后,今年的谋杀案数量达到了189起,远远超过2014年截至七月底的119起。非致命枪击案相比去年同期的累计200起跃升至366起。据《巴尔的摩太阳报》报道,七月谋杀案的总数是这座城市自1972年八月发生45起以来最多的。

The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city’s violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8.

遏制这座城市的暴力事件仿佛是一个无穷无尽却又徒劳无功的任务,这也促使了市长斯蒂芬妮·罗林斯-布莱克在7月8日开除了她的警察局长,安东尼巴茨。

“Too many continue to die on our streets,” Rawlings-Blake said then. “Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime.”

“太多的人接连死在街道上,”罗林斯-布莱克说,“人们厌倦了这种痛苦,我也是。最近的事件使得我们警察部门领导层受到强烈关注,同时,也令很多人从我们本该集中关注的地方——打击犯罪——,分散了许多注意力。

But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.

但是自那以后,在临时局长凯文·戴维斯的治理下,谋杀案并未有所减少。

Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.

巴尔的摩的问题不是个例,全国大城市的罪案率都在剧增。

But while the city’s police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the “clearance rate” is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department’s mid-40s average.

戴维斯在几天前刚刚宣布逮捕了近期三起谋杀案的凶手。这座城市的警察确实在处理案件,但他们的努力赶不上暴力的蔓延速度。戴维斯在周二给出的“结案率”为36.6%,这个数字远远低于该部门平时45%上下的平均水平。

Crime experts and residents of Baltimore’s most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young black men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.

对此,犯罪专家和巴尔的摩最危险街区的居民指出了共同起作用的诸多因素:对警方的不信任;年轻黑人缺乏机会导致的普遍愤怒和绝望;非法药贩子们为暴乱中药店里被抢掠的处方药销赃,冲突更为激化。

Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused $9 million in property damage in the city.

联邦缉毒署的探员表示,各帮派盯上了城里的32家药房,抢走了大约30万剂鸦片类药物,暴乱总共给这座城市带来九百万美元财产损失。

Perched on a friend’s stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew “mostly all” of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an 18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.

雪莉·穆尔今年55岁,她坐在朋友家的门廊上说,最近在西巴尔的摩被杀的年轻人她“几乎都认识”,其中包括一名在半个街区之外遭遇致命枪击的18岁少年。穆尔说,暴乱之后有更多的药物出现在了街头,这也使得人们比平时更加疯狂。

“The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they’re eating Percocet like candy and they’re not thinking about consequences. They have no discipline, they have no respect — they think this is a game. How many can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West side?”

“那些实施暴力、枪击的人吃Percocet【译注:一种鸦片类麻醉止痛药,被称为“白领的海洛因”】就像吃糖一样,且不计后果。他们没有纪律、缺乏尊重,他们觉得这是场游戏。在东边我能干掉多少人呢?西面呢?”

The tally of 42 homicides in May included Gray, who died in April after his neck was broken in police custody. The July tally likewise includes a previous death — a baby whose death in June was ruled a homicide in July.

五月记录的42起凶杀案中还包括了格雷,四月份的时候他在警局羁押期间由于颈部折断死亡。七月份的记录也同样包括了一个之前的死亡案件——一个于六月死亡的婴儿在七月被判定为谋杀。

Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said May’s homicide spike was probably related to the stolen prescription drugs, a supply that is likely exhausted by now. But the drug trade is inherently violent, and turf wars tend to prompt retaliatory killings.

肖恩·埃勒曼是毒品管制局巴尔的摩分局的助理特别探员。他说五月份凶杀案的激增应该和那些被盗处方药物有非常大的关系,这批货现在应该已经消耗得差不多了。但是毒品交易有着固有的暴力倾向,而地盘争夺战也往往会引发报复性谋杀。

“You can’t attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a good number” of them are, he said. “You could say it’s retaliation from drug trafficking, it’s retaliation from gangs moving in from other territories. But there have been drug markets in Baltimore for years.”

“你不能将每一桩谋杀案都归因于毒品,但是我相信其中很大的一部分确是如此”,他说,“你可以说这是由于贩毒导致的报复,这是由于其他地区转移过来的帮派抢占地盘导致的报复。但是巴尔的摩的毒品市场已经存在很多年了。”

Across West Baltimore, residents complain that drug addiction and crime are part of a cycle that begins with despair among children who lack educational and recreational opportunities, and extends when people can’t find work.

整个西巴尔的摩的居民们都在抱怨说,吸毒和犯罪只是循环的一部分。这个循环始于孩子们由于缺乏教育和消遣机会所导致的绝望,而在人们找不到工作时得到了蔓延。

“We need jobs! We need jobs!” a man riding around on a bicycle shouted to anyone who’d listen after four people were shot, three of them fatally, on a street corner in July.

“我们需要工作!我们需要工作!”一名男性在自行车上四处骑行并向所有可能听他说话的人呼喊着口号。这发生在七月份有四人在一个街角遭遇枪击,其中三人死亡之后。

More community engagement, progressive policing policies and opportunities for young people in poverty could help, community activist MunirBahar said.

更多的社区参与、进步的治安政策和为穷困年轻人提供机会,对事情会有很大帮助,社区活动家穆尼尔·巴哈尔说。

“People are focusing on enforcement, not preventing violence. Police enforce a code, a law. Our job as the community is to prevent the violence, and we’ve failed,” said Bahar, who leads the annual 300 Men March against violence in West Baltimore.

“人们专注于执法而不是预防暴力。警方在执行法律。而我们社区的工作则是预防暴力,我们失败了。”巴哈尔说。他每年都在西巴尔的摩领导一场叫“300人游行”的反暴力游行示威。

“We need anti-violence organizations, we need mentorship programs, we need a long-term solution. But we also need immediate relief,” Bahar added. “When we’re in something so deep, we have to stop it before you can analyze what the root is.”

“我们需要反暴力组织,我们需要辅导计划,我们需要一个长期的解决方案。但我们也需要紧急救助,”巴哈尔补充道,“当问题变得这么严重时,我们必须在弄清根源之前先阻止问题继续蔓延。”

Strained relationships between police and the public also play a role, according to Eugene O’Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

约翰·杰伊刑事司法学院的尤金·奥唐奈教授表示,警察与公众之间的紧张关系也是问题的原因之一。

Arrests plummeted and violence soared after six officers were indicted in Gray’s death. Residents accused police of abandoning their posts for fear of facing criminal charges for making arrests, and said emboldened criminals were settling scores with little risk of being caught.

在六名警官因为格雷死亡案遭到起诉之后,罪犯逮捕数量暴跌,暴力犯罪猛增。居民们指责警方由于担心逮捕行动导致刑事指控而正在怠弃职责,他们还说鉴于被捕的风险很小,放大了胆子的罪犯还在继续实施犯罪。

The department denied these claims, and police cars have been evident patrolling West Baltimore’s central thoroughfares recently.

警方否认了这些说法,并且最近已经可以看见警车在西巴尔的摩市中心要道执行巡逻。

But O’Donnell said the perception of lawlessness is just as powerful than the reality.

但是O’Donnell表示无法无天的感觉就是比现实更强大。

“We have a national issue where the police feel they are the Public Enemy No. 1,” he said, making some officers stand down and criminals become more brazen.

“警方感觉,现在他们自己才是头号公敌,这是个全国性的问题,”他说,这使得一些警官低声下气而犯罪分子则更加肆无忌惮。

“There’s a rhythm to the streets,” he added. “And when people get away with gun violence, it has a long-term emboldening effect. And the good people in the neighborhood think, ‘Who has the upper hand?‘”

“街头有一种风气,”他补充道,“当人们持枪行凶却逃脱惩罚,这就产生了一种长期的鼓励效果。而附近的好人们也会想‘谁占了上风?’”

翻译:陆嘉宾(@晚上不买白天买不到)
校对:陈小乖(@lion_kittyyyyy),小册子(@昵称被抢的小册子)
编辑:辉格@whigzhou

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