The number of people in Baltimore who have tested positive for coronavirus currently stands at five, which is two less than the number of people who were shot in Baltimore's Madison Park neighborhood on Tuesday night. Mayor Jack Young is now calling on the city's residents to stop shooting one another so that hospitals will have additional resources to treat coronavirus sufferers.
There were 348 homicides in Baltimore last year. So far, there are no reported deaths from the coronavirus in the state of Maryland. In the U.S., the CDC estimates flu deaths since Oct. 2019 are somewhere between 22,000-55,000 people. But let's get back to panicking about the coronavirus.
Mayor Young said "we cannot clog up our hospitals and their beds with people that are being shot senselessly because we’re going to need those beds for people infected with the coronavirus. And it could be your mother, your grandmother or one of your relatives. So take that into consideration."
"I want to reiterate how completely unacceptable the level of violence is that we have seen recently," Young said. "We will not stand for mass shootings and an increase in crime."
So it took the coronavirus to finally get Mayor Young to start cracking down on shooters.
"For those of you who want to continue to shoot and kill people of this city, we’re not going to tolerate it," Mayor Young continued. "We’re going to come after you and we’re going to get you."
In Nov. 2019, when Baltimore reached its 300th homicide for the fifth consecutive year, Mayor Young said he wasn't responsible for any of the city's homicides because he wasn't personally committing any of the murders.
"Because I'm not committing the murders," Young argued at the time. "And that's what people need to understand. I'm not committing the murders. The police commissioner has not committed it. The council's not committing it. So how can you fault leadership?"
The mayor is hoping that people who have no qualms about shooting other human beings will suddenly change their behavior to help sick people experiencing flu-like symptoms. Something tells me this is going to fall on deaf ears.