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Baltimore Mayor Charges Taxpayers to Send Students to Anti-Gun March

Baltimore Mayor Charges Taxpayers to Send Students to Anti-Gun March

“the city is organizing 60 free buses to send students”

https://youtu.be/nsZnRKN0AZ0

Baltimore’s new Mayor Catherine Pugh is sending public school students to the “March for Our Lives” event in Washington, DC. The event has been organized for the students of Parkland who have been repeatedly exploited by the left to push gun control. Pugh is charging the taxpayers of Baltimore for the trip.

Philip Wegmann reports at the Washington Examiner:

Baltimore mayor promises taxpayer money to high school students playing hooky and protesting gun violence

To succeed in life, stay in school … unless you’re cutting class for the sake of progressive politics.

That’s the message Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh delivered to hundreds of high school students playing hooky outside City Hall in protest of gun violence. Shouting through the SWAT team’s microphone, Pugh cheered their little act of delinquency before offering taxpayer cash for the adolescent activists to march on the national capital. Flanked by Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa, the mayor shouted, “Let’s show Washington D.C. that Baltimore matters.”

Pugh promised free T-shirts and free lunches if the students will board 60 city buses later this month to protest gun violence. The grade school protestors, in exchange, will provide advocacy and a convenient photo-op for an ambitious politician.

But since when have cities become political action committees and their municipal budgets seed money for political organizing? The stunt is irresponsible and borderline abusive.

This report from the local ABC News affiliate claims Pugh was trying to do it with private funding:

Less than a month ago, Baltimore was named the most dangerous city in the United States.

USA Today reported:

Baltimore is the nation’s most dangerous city

The collective homicide toll for America’s 50 biggest cities dipped slightly in 2017, a USA TODAY analysis of crime data found.

The FBI won’t publish its annual comprehensive crime report until later this year, but an early review of police department crime data shows that killings decreased by at least 1% in large jurisdictions compared with 2016.

The modest decrease in killings comes after FBI data showed back-to-back years in which homicides rose sharply in large cities. (Homicides in cities with 250,000 or more residents rose by about 15.2% from 2014 to 2015, and 8.2% from 2015 to 2016.)

There were 5,738 homicides in the nation’s 50 biggest cities in 2017 compared with 5,863 homicides in 2016, a roughly 2.3% reduction…

Baltimore is the big city with the highest per capita murder rate in the nation, with nearly 56 murders per 100,000 people. At 343 murders in 2017, the city tallied the highest per capita rate in its history. Columbus tallied 143 murders — 37 more than 2016 and the most the city has seen in a single year.

I’m just thinking out loud here, but maybe Mayor Pugh should try solving Baltimore’s problems before charging taxpayers to send school kids to left-wing protests.

Featured image via YouTube.

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Comments

Bucky Barkingham | March 8, 2018 at 9:20 am

Could this action be to distract the attention of Charm City taxpayers from the fact that the public schools are decrepit with many having no function heating systems to keep kids warm this past winter. Maybe the students will welcome a warm bus trip at taxpayer expense.

    Her honor is a gun control whacko. She’s having her state delegate introduce legislation in the MD legislature to require detachable magazines not exceed 10 rounds. Expect a traffic jam as her constituents he to PA to stock up on 30 rounders

      notamemberofanyorganizedpolicital in reply to MarkS. | March 8, 2018 at 10:04 pm

      It’s “misappropriation of funds” and that is financial fraud!

A politician pissing away other people’s money is nothing new.

One must watch the interview of this mayor with Laura Ingraham:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y0hmkkVjp4
Rabid and rude. And they wonder why Baltimore is in such trouble?

    MaggotAtBroadAndWall in reply to lc. | March 8, 2018 at 10:07 am

    No thanks. I tried watching it last night and had to change the channel.

    If anybody associated with The Ingraham Angle happens to read these comments, you should know that I turned the channel after Laura lost control of the interview with Mayor Pugh. Talking over each other was obnoxious. I realize Pugh “started it”, and she didn’t want to answer your questions. But it is your job to control the interview some how. Neither of you acquitted yourself well in talking over each other. It caused me to change the channel.

    Please try to elevate the interviews. Book guests who want to engage in civil dialogue. Who can respond to challenges with reasoned and respectful debate.

      I also turn the channel when the people start talking over each other. It’s even worse when you are driving and listening to satellite radio. You don’t have the opportunity to watch the faces and lips to figure out what the people could be saying.

    Paul In Sweden in reply to lc. | March 8, 2018 at 2:58 pm

    I had the Ingraham Angle on a few hours ago and Holy Crap that Baltimore Mayor is infuriating.

Albigensian | March 8, 2018 at 9:47 am

“A politician pissing away other people’s money is nothing new.”

BUT, the issues here go beyond this. Citizens should not be forced to subsidize political messages they may disagree with; forcing someone to pay for speech raises significant First Ameendment issues.

Advocacy for political change is not a legitimate function of government. (Although here I’d expect the City to claim there’s educational benefit in participating, there’d be outrage if the City were also to offer to bus students to a pro-NRA rally.)

    2nd Ammendment Mother in reply to Albigensian. | March 8, 2018 at 10:27 am

    I think there are some FEC violations in there; schools and governments are prohibited from using students or other school resources to push political candidates or activity – including bond issues.

    pst314 in reply to Albigensian. | March 8, 2018 at 1:01 pm

    “It’s not fascism when we liberals do it.”

      DaveGinOly in reply to pst314. | March 8, 2018 at 8:56 pm

      (Read in a “Fred Rogers” voice.)
      “Hello children. Can you say “Hitler Jugend”? Or how about ‘Triumph Of The Will?'”

      Nothing like the exploitation of children and mass rallies to advance a fascist agenda.

Democrats and the MSM are hellbent on making this about gun control. With this goal in mind they are puppeteering some of the Douglas students, making them high profile figures, but only some, only the ones willing to back the anti-gun agenda. So there are a few questions bugging me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one:

– Which of those high profile kids are actually “survivors” of the shooting? The shooting happened in building 12. Were David Hogg and the girl with the shaved head actually in that building? What about all the others?
– How many, or which ones, of the high profile kids were actually injured?
– Where are all the injured kids and their families? Are they, and their opinions being given enough exposure? Two of them, BTW, have announced that they will be suing the school district, the principal and Broward Sheriff Office.

    DaveGinOly in reply to Exiliado. | March 8, 2018 at 9:03 pm

    That first is a good point. I was once within half a mile of a mass shooting and in a retail establishment that was part of the overall commercial/retail activity in the area. So close, that when I came out of the retailer’s store, I found myself inside the police perimeter. Can I call myself “a survivor” of that attack? How close need one be in order to qualify as a “survivor”? In fact, nearly all Americans survived the Parkland shooting. But to use the term without some discrimination, it is reduced to an absurdity.

Contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Isn’t that illegal in most places? Even if the mayor does it.

One more reason to decriminalize school truancy. If your children are going there they are exposed to the socialist indoctrination. So, decriminalize school truancy, for the sake of the children!

The internet is on phones these days. Provide free WI-FI so students can access learning materials. Provide assessment centers where students can demonstrate they have learned sets of material. Learn enough material, pass enough tests, get a GED or something.

kenoshamarge | March 8, 2018 at 10:09 am

Most of these kids have no idea of the issues involved – but show me a teenager that isn’t up for day off school, field trip,free t-shirt and free lunch. Naturally paid for by others, in this case paid for by taxpayers who may not support this idea. A good lesson in liberalism.

Nothing is “free”, Ms. Pugh. The school district has no money. Where is it REALLY coming from?

The majority of taxpayers in Baltimore City don’t care don’t care that their taxes are being spent on some ridiculous social justice BS.

Baltimore has turned into a pit. In 1950, there were nearly a million people in Baltimore. Now there are only 614,000 and the population dwindles more every year. The demographics of the city have a population which is 65% Black. The median income is $25,707, while the national median income is $28,930 and 24% of the residents live in poverty as opposed to the national average of 13.5%. And, as is the case in every other city which has a minority in the majority of which a significant portion are below the poverty level, you have a largely incompetent political class, dominated by Democrats, which wastes money and which is at war with the local law enforcement agencies; the result of which is staggering levels of criminal activity, including homicide.

The mayor’s actions are not an anomaly, but rather the norm for such locales. The country would probably be better off if we walled off such enclaves, cut federal funding and forget about them.

She ought to be charged with misappropriation of public funds. If she were, I’m sure Soros and/or other rich Lefties would cover the expense.

There’s a reason I don’t go to Balto anymore.

Perhaps an Anti-scalpel March at the clinic of the unworthy baby (victims of the wicked solution). Whereas guns are wielded by self-abortionists and criminals (i.e. illegally), scalpels are wielded by “good” Americans to terminate human lives at a rate of around one million annually in American alone. #BLM

The Martin B-26 was called the Baltimore whore, but since the Confederate Air Force crashed the last flying Marauder the title is up for grabs.

    pst314 in reply to Firewatch. | March 8, 2018 at 1:03 pm

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-26_Marauder#Accidents

    B-26 crews gave the aircraft the nickname “Widowmaker”. Other colorful nicknames included “Martin Murderer”, “Flying Coffin”, “B-Dash-Crash”, “Flying Prostitute” (so-named because it was so fast and had “no visible means of support,” referring to its small wings) and “Baltimore Whore” (a reference to the city where Martin was based).

      alaskabob in reply to pst314. | March 8, 2018 at 1:36 pm

      Also..”one a day in Tampa Bay”

      It took Jimmy Doolittle to give demonstration flights to buck up the pilots on the plane.

      Caveat: Jimmy Doolittle won air races in the GeeBee. This would be the same as Jesus giving demonstrations on walking on water… and as we know Peter didn’t get the hang of it the first time.

        tom_swift in reply to alaskabob. | March 8, 2018 at 3:02 pm

        and as we know Peter didn’t get the hang of it the first time.

        Doolittle took a GeeBee to 6,000 feet before his first attempt at a roll. He didn’t regain control until he was down to 500 feet. If he’d tried to roll it at 1000 feet, or 5000, his first time would have been the only time.

“the city is organizing 60 free buses to send students”

Ah, so there is such a thing as a free lunch after all. Wonder if they’re serving unicorn sandwiches on the trip.

TANSTAAFL

Of course, leftists use other people’s $$$ to fund their agenda.

I want to organize a counter-march entitled ” We Said Something, Law Enforcement – NOW DO YOUR DAMN JOB!

For the Left there is no such thing as failure, just that they “hadn’t done enough” and more money was all that was needed. Just one more law and all will be well.

    DaveGinOly in reply to alaskabob. | March 8, 2018 at 9:17 pm

    This is also evident in the continued investigations into “Russian collusion.” That fact that zero evidence for such collusion has been unearthed does not convince Democrats that there was no collusion, it convinces them that the investigators haven’t looked hard enough.

    However, gun control’s failure is a feature, not a bug. Anti-gun forces 1.) have taken a step-by-step approach that has seriously eroded the right to arms over time, set much bad precedent in courts, and accustomed citizens to the idea that the encroachments on the right to arms are not “infringements,” all while positioning themselves to; 2.) demand bans and confiscations as a the only resort available after admitting the failure of every other form of gun control. They not only understood they couldn’t get an outright ban from the git-go, they understood they had to condition the American people to be more receptive to the proposition by preparing the field to favor their efforts.

If the lunch is going to be one of Michelle’s Specials, they won’t need anything like 60 busses.

Chuckin Houston | March 8, 2018 at 4:06 pm

When officials from cities like Baltimore blame others (states with ‘lax’ gun laws, the NRA, etc) I like to say “I feel really bad that your city had so many violent thugs. How can I help you get rid of them?”

They may as well go to DC as spend another wasted day in the Baltimore SD.

Voice_of_Reason | March 8, 2018 at 7:40 pm

now THAT’S what 3rd-world baltimorons need….sending off some of the worst performing students in America to protest for policies baltimore pretty much already has, and which don’t work.

I would like to know how much 60 “free” buses actually cost.

    Another Ed in reply to Dave E. | March 10, 2018 at 9:14 pm

    Free? No such thing.
    Acquisition costs amortized over life of vehicles.
    Fuel, wear and tear on the vehicles.
    Overhead costs of maintenance and storage.
    Payroll costs of the drivers, etc.
    Now, if she said there was no direct cost to be paid by the students…

The old Democrat motto: Pay for nothing, demand everything.

Is it just me or does that bony old horse-faced slacker look more than a little like the infamous “Maxine Waters”?

I hope David Simon is paying attention to this. The Wire wasn’t a TV show, it was a documentary