A digest of Baltimore news from local sources.
From the Baltimore Sun: Baltimore police rolling out transport vans with cameras, redesigned interior
"The Baltimore Police Department is rolling out a fleet of 10 new transport vans and retrofitting 13 others with a redesigned interior and multiple cameras to improve and record the care of detainees in police custody.
"The changes come more than a year after the death of Freddie Gray, 25, from spinal injuries suffered in the back of a transport van, which did not have a working camera on the day of his arrest.
"The department hopes the new fleet will be fully operational by the end of the summer, officials said Tuesday.
"'This is just a best practice to have a configuration that works from an officer-safety standpoint and a prisoner-safety standpoint,' said T.J. Smith, the department's chief spokesman.
"The new vans have one large compartment at the rear with benches on either side for three detainees each, without a dividing wall between them. They also have a side compartment with room for two detainees. The old vans had two compartments accessed through the rear — with a dividing wall between them — with seating for four detainees on each side.
"The rear and side compartments will be used to separate detainees, such as men from women or adults from juveniles, Smith said. As an added safety measure, straps have been placed along the benches for detainees to hold onto while handcuffed.
"The new vans have four cameras — one inside the side compartment, two inside the rear compartment and one outside the van that faces the rear loading area. The cameras will record footage, to be kept in cloud storage, and also show live images on a monitor in the driver's compartment.
"In February, the city Board of Estimates approved a $187,000 contract with Florida-based Point Blank Enterprises Inc. for camera systems for 13 vans. In January, the board approved a $200,000 contract to purchase dividers to separate detainees under the new configuration. Smith said Tuesday that he could not immediately provide full cost estimates for the 10 new vans and the 13 retrofitted vans."
From the Baltimore Sun: Baltimore city schools hands out pink slips to cut costs
"Baltimore school officials are eliminating 171 positions as part of cost-cutting measures, but they spared teachers and principals from the budget cuts.
"Slightly over 100 employees – including some school police officers and school support staff — were notified Tuesday they are out of a job effective June 30. The remaining positions cut were already vacant.
"Because retirements and resignations may continue into June, school officials said they hope to find other positions for some of the workers handed pink slips.
"The school system could not provide a breakdown of how many of those jobs were based in schools or at the central office.
"Officials said in a statement that the district-wide reduction in force needed to be taken to address a significant budget gap. When the school system passed its budget May 3, officials said only that it would be difficult to make the budget work without having some impact on schools.
"Some teachers are voicing concern about the cuts.
“'I think it is shocking really,' said Kimberly Mooney, who teaches Spanish at Roland Park Elementary/Middle School. 'We can’t imagine doing with any less than we have now, so it is a little bit frightening losing that many people.'"
From City Paper: Unbreakable: Art activists honor sexual and domestic violence survivors and combat rape culture
"The FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture headquarters overlooks the two blocks of North Avenue that were shut down on April 10 to display about a thousand quilt squares, each inscribed and embroidered with accounts of sexual and domestic violence and messages of support and solidarity for survivors. In many ways, the location was perfect: the busy blocks between Howard and Charles Streets drew tons of visitors who viewed and interacted with the quilt, even contributing their own squares. And with its high concentration of bars and clubs, that particular area is prone to incidents of sexual harassment and violence. If only for the few hours it was laid out on the street and the Ynot Lot, spelling out the words 'NOT ALONE,' the quilt changed that atmosphere completely.
"Now, over a month later, the Monument Quilt is packed away in the FORCE studio on the second floor of the Motor House building in Station North, waiting to be displayed in the Baltimore Museum of Art for the Janet and Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize finalist exhibition from June 22 to July 31. Then, in August, the quilt will embark on a West Coast tour, which will include five stops for public display. The quilt will ultimately blanket the National Mall in Washington, DC, with six-thousand squares in the fall of 2017. After this final display, the quilt will return, in pieces, to communities around the country that contributed to its creation to be displayed in local institutions.
"In the meantime, the Monument Quilt—which began as a project of FORCE in 2013—continues to grow. Survivors and allies regularly contribute new pieces through FORCE-led workshops and individually by mail. Volunteers convene in the studio multiple times a week to piece squares together, attach backing to protect the quilt, cut squares out of the uniformly bright red fabric to be inscribed with new messages, and help with various other elements of the ambitious project. The work is endless and more volunteers are always needed, says Hannah Brancato, who co-directs FORCE with Rebecca Nagle, with whom she founded the art activist group in Baltimore in 2010.
'"It's like I leave class, come straight here, and whatever stress has happened that day, it's like, OK, I'm gonna go sew things,' says Kiara James, a FORCE intern, project leader, and member of the national 30-person leadership team. 'I feel better.'
"The process of putting the quilt together means reading hundreds of stories from survivors. James recalls one that she came across while sewing that was created by a girl who had been masturbated on by a stranger in a crowded bus. Nagle remembers another quilt square in which the creator had stitched in the garment she had been wearing when she was assaulted.
"'[That] symbolizes what people do less tangibly, which is taking this burden as survivors that we've been carrying around and putting it into an object,' she says. 'Sometimes as an organizer of the project that burden, being in the quilt squares and being responsible for those quilt squares that contain those emotions and that energy, can feel really overwhelming and it can feel really heavy. And then other times it feels like this release and this freedom and it can feel really uplifting.'"