Reply To: Baltimore Riots

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#1074515
akuperma
Participant

The frum community in Baltimore is pleasantly ghettoized, and separated from the rest of the city by a very wide avenue (Northern Parkway), several very large institutions (Sinai Hospital and Pimlico Racecourse) which are non-residential (okay, a lot of horses live in Pimlico, but there have been no report of criminality among them), and the Jones Falls (a small river and expressway).

The only serious impact of the current riot on the frum community is a city wide curfew, which I doubt will be strictly enforced in our area, though it is forcing stores to close (to let employees go home early) and interferes with late minyanim. When one looks at a crime map with little dots for reports of crimes- our neighborhood sticks out as the area with few dots.

The anti-crime community groups are usually so desperate for news that they report toys being stolen off of people’s lawns as major crimes. The fact that one can walk through the community and see toys left on the lawn speaks for itself.

But if you are really paranoid, take reassurance in the fact that one of the largest National Guard armories is in the neighborhood, along with the State Police headquarters.

Frankly I’ld worry about New York City more. You have a lot of anti-semitic leaders with real clout such as Al Sharpton. Until recently you had a mayor who made cracking down on Bris Milah as his leading health care priority. To a large extent, secular Jews control much of New York politics, and we are always “in their sights”. Several areas with large frum populations in New York have serious crime problems – which are likely to increase given your current mayor. Leaving New York City might be a good idea – and you’ll really like it in Baltimore where its quiet and safe.