WWW: Hello, we are here today with Yitzy
Schleifer, Councilman for the Fifth District. Yitzy, thank you for sitting down
with us today. Let’s start by talking about COVID and the vaccine effort; then
we’ll touch on crime. First off, how has COVID impacted the community? How has
the community responded to it?
YS: Our community certainly has been ahead of
the game. Shutting down Purim last year was the first move in ensuring we did
not have anywhere near the loss of life and sickness that some other
communities have had. Following that, the steps taken by the schools and shuls
have certainly contributed to the low number of deaths and sickness. Unfortunately,
we have had people pass away, and some are feeling the effects of COVID long
term. However, I think our community has done a great job at taking COVID
seriously with proper precautions to ensure we did not experience a great loss
of life.
WWW: How has the vaccination effort been going
within the frum community?
YS: The vaccination effort has been going
great. Starting off, it was very difficult to get a vaccine. After 500
appointments were canceled by the Baltimore City Health Department, I got very
involved. I noticed how many details could be improved and how we could expand
accessibility and get to those hard-to-reach populations. From there, I started
working closely with volunteers from Bikur Cholim, Hatzalah, and other
organizations to help expand those efforts. Initially, we helped those whose
appointments had been canceled find new appointments. Then, through
word-of-mouth referrals, senior citizens reached out, and we had hundreds upon
hundreds of appointments scheduled. Next, we began working on getting our own
vaccine location to make it extremely accessible. It’s been a challenge for our
seniors to get downtown to the Convention Center or one of the stadiums, so
creating a site right here in the community at Ner Tamid with Bikur Cholim has
been a game changer. We’ve been able to vaccinate many seniors from this area.
Now we even do home-based vaccinations. In doing so, we are ensuring that
people who are home-bound are not contracting COVID from their aide, guest, or
relative.
WWW: Do you have any numbers as to how many
members of the frum community has
been vaccinated to date?
YS: We have numbers broken down by
neighborhood. Cross Country and Cheswolde have a decent number of vaccines
administered. If I had to put a number on it, I would say that probably just
over 50% of those 60 and over have been vaccinated.
WWW: Wow! Have you heard from people
specifically avoiding getting the vaccine?
YS: Absolutely. I hear it all day, every day. A
lot of people are hesitant to get the vaccine for multiple reasons. We have
people who talk about fertility issues or mothers who are nursing. Then you
have people who had COVID and said, “I had it, it wasn’t so bad; why do I need
to get a vaccine?” Or people who are concerned about reactions to the vaccine.
Although there are people who have
had minor reactions, the benefits of vaccination, in my opinion, far outweigh the
possibility of any short-lived discomfort.
WWW: Do you see any likelihood of communal
organizations, be it shuls or schools, requiring people to get the vaccine to
be allowed into public places? How do you feel about vaccine passports?
YS: We’re already seeing the effect of
vaccination in government, where a mask order was recently lifted in certain
circumstances. Airlines have various rules. Israel has rules when coming and
going. In addition, quarantine rules have been relaxed for those who have been
vaccinated. So we are certainly seeing circumstances where different rules
apply to those who are vaccinated and those who aren’t.
Regarding vaccine
passports, there are constitutional questions. But in general, I think we all
have a responsibility to do what’s in the best interest of the entire
community. Even if you’re young and healthy and feel you’re at low risk from
COVID, you have to understand that you’re coming into contact with other people
who can spread it to more vulnerable people. It’s not just about you as an
individual; it’s about your neighbors and friends and their families. Each
person has to have a conversation with his or her doctor regarding any medical
concerns. But it’s important that everyone take it upon him or her self to get
vaccinated and be responsible for the people around them.
WWW: Moving on to COVID economics. What
resources are available to people or businesses that have been impacted by
COVID?
YS: A lot of resources have been provided on
the federal level. Everyone knows about PPP, the Paycheck Protection Program.
There are also federal programs for restaurants and other specific types of
businesses. On the local level, Baltimore City has launched programs for
outdoor seating at restaurants, as well as other assistance programs to bridge
the gap on other costs associated with COVID.
WWW: Have you heard from your constituents
about how businesses have been impacted by COVID in the frum community?
YS: It varies. Some people haven’t been
impacted at all, and some people have been put out of business. Even now, as
more and more people are being vaccinated and things are getting back to normal,
some businesses are having trouble finding employees. People who are unemployed
have said that with their unemployment checks and the incentives involved they
have no reason to return to work for the time being. They’re making almost as
much as they were making while working. This is certainly a challenge for restaurants
and other businesses that need employees to get back up and running again.
WWW: What can people do to help local business?
YS: The best thing you can do is to patronize
local businesses. Go out there and support them. You might not necessarily go
out to eat that often, but now is definitely the right time to do it if you
have the means. If you haven’t bought a new suit lately or you need new
clothing, now is the time to make those purchases from local stores, because we
really need to infuse money into the market to keep those businesses open.
Although you may not be attending many events or weddings now, and you might
not have a need for products related to them right now, if those businesses
don’t survive, they won’t be there when you do need them.
WWW: Let’s shift now to another important topic
– crime in Baltimore City. What trends are you seeing in the City in terms of
crime increasing or decreasing?*
YS: Thankfully, we have not been plagued with
the same high levels of crime that we used to have. We’ve seen occasional
carjackings and robberies, but in more recent cases the police have apprehended
suspects and brought cases to closure a lot quicker. In the past, there were
20, 30, or 40 incidents before we saw someone was apprehended. Now, the Police Department
has made arrests within a day or two of carjackings in the area.
WWW: Are you personally tracking the outcome
of those arrests and whether there are convictions that follow through from
those?
YS: I do the best that I can to keep track of
cases and trends in my district. It would require a full-time person to keep
track of all cases. I try to focus on priority cases, especially violent
crimes.
WWW: The state’s attorney recently announced
that she will no longer be prosecuting “petty crimes,” such as minor traffic
offences, trespassing, and drug possession, including marijuana, heroin, and
cocaine. What’s your take on that?
YS: There’s a great debate about the short-term
versus long-term effects of removing lower-level crimes from the equation. We’ve
seen in the past how crimes escalate. There are signs that holding people
accountable for crimes helps prevent them from “graduating” to the next level.
Right now, the
City has invested a lot of money in diversion programs and other resources to
help those who are committing these crimes get back on the right track. It is
concerning that we might not be able to reach these individuals if we aren’t
able to detect issues early. I understand if prosecutors want to prioritize violent
crime. However, even if they don’t prosecute all low-level crimes, due to the
overwhelming caseload, I wouldn’t remove it from the table. If somebody is
dealing drugs in front of your house, and you don’t want them to be doing that
in front of your house, for obvious reasons, there should be tools available to
deal with that. But taking it off the table removes those tools from the
toolbag.
WWW: Has the City been tracking the outcome of
these diversion programs, whether they are successful or not?
YS: For some programs, like ROCA, there are
updates and tracking. At the end of the day, it’s hard to see the benefits
short term. It’s more of a long-term solution. Diverting someone from a life of
crime, getting him on the right path and fully employed makes a great impact on
that individual and his family. The question, though, is whether these programs
are doing enough to reach the many people committing the crimes. For now, a lot
of crimes have been down. That could be the result of fewer arrests being made,
fewer things being reported for low-level crimes. And we are seeing shooting
and homicides on the rise.
WWW: Okay. Can you talk about the “defund the
police” movement? I know we spoke about it last year. Since then, other states
have tried it without much success, in particular, Minneapolis. Can you talk a
little bit about that and about the Mayor’s recent budget proposal regarding
police?
YS: The Mayor’s recent proposal actually kept
the Police Department’s budget steady and did not cut it. I applaud him for
prioritizing public safety even though there are growing calls to defund police.
I have not seen how that model can work. You can’t defund the police and expect
there to be any rule of law on the streets.
I can see how
there might be a need for a shift in priorities. I have been a long advocate of
two different assets in the City, as they pertain to crime fighting. I’ve been
a major ally of the crime lab and also of the FoxTrot police helicopter unit. Both
of these play a significant role in resolving cases on the ground. Some people
might say “Well, having more officers on the street won’t necessarily catch a
crime, because they can’t be everywhere. The police could be on one corner, and
the crime could happen on the next corner.”
The critical
components that need to be fully funded, in my opinion, are the ones that
actually resolve crime: the detective units. You must have enough detectives to
handle the volume of crime so that they can solve cases. The only way to reduce
crime is to make arrests, hold people accountable for crimes, and clear cases so
that criminals are not out there committing additional crimes. To simply defund
the police doesn’t work. You must be able to have a more reasonable
conversation on what aspects of law enforcement should have what resources. And
again, my opinion, the assets that need the resources are the ones that
physically help resolve crime – because that’s the most important thing.
WWW: How’s the morale in the Police Department
right now? Are the police retiring or quitting? Are they getting enough
recruits and detectives?
YS: Attrition is a problem across the board in
the entire profession. The Baltimore Police Department has launched aggressive
recruiting campaigns in the past year. It is tough to recruit officers to a city
with such high crime, but I think they are doing a pretty good job at the
recruitment efforts; there are new classes with new recruits. I think some
adjustments need to be made to allow more people to be eligible to be officers.
In doing so, they’ll have more people applying. There is certainly a high level
of interest in becoming a police officer, but only a fraction of the recruits
actually make it out of the academy.
WWW: How do you see all these changes in terms
of crime reduction policies impacting our community moving forward?
YS: It’s twofold. There’s the prevention
aspect, which I think we’ve been doing an excellent job on, as well as
community engagement and the police-community relations piece. As far as crime
itself goes, some neighborhoods have very low levels of crime. But the
important thing is that when crimes occur, no matter where they occur,
that they are resolved.
WWW: Last question, a more general question.
What bills are coming through Baltimore City, or even the state level, that our
community should be aware of?
YS: Well, this session I developed a bill with
Delegate Attar to bring transparency and accountability to the juvenile justice
system for the first time. By law, juveniles who commit crimes cannot have
their contact and identifying information disclosed, and we would not be
allowed to ask for it. We did want a tracker, though, like the one for adults.
You can follow an adult case through the judiciary’s case search feature on the
website http://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch. The basic premise of
the bill is to have the same opportunity when it pertains to juvenile crimes.
If a juvenile commits a violent crime, such as an armed carjacking, you should
be able to look it up, and say, “Oh, this suspect, who allegedly committed this
crime at this and this location, was seen by Judge John Doe, and Judge John Doe
ruled that this should be the punishment, or that there wasn’t enough evidence,
or whatever the outcome was.”
The community and
the entire city and state deserve to know the outcome of cases that impact them
and their communities. Currently, you only have the victim himself receiving that
information. All stakeholders should be able to see the relevant information
because, often, the issue is in certain components of it. You might have a
judge who is simply not following the letter of the law, or sometimes you’ll
find that not enough evidence was provided. The only way we can improve the
system is to know what is going wrong in the process. We had a bill together
that was supposed to do just that, and the leadership never brought it to a
vote.
WWW: Got it. Any other bills we should be aware
of?
YS: In the next election, there will be an
item on the ballot about returning local control to the Police Department. Right
now, all legislative changes to policing for Baltimore City must go through
Annapolis. This bill will determine whether the Baltimore City Council gets to
legislate Police Department matters.
WWW: Yitzy, thank you very much. We appreciate
your time and all the effort you put in on behalf of the community.
Judah Katz is a Baltimore
native and a partner with the law firm of Neuman & Katz, LLC. He
focuses on corporate law
and estate planning. He can be reached at jkatz@neumankatz.com. This interview has
been edited for length and clarity.
* This interview occurred the morning
after the horrific murder of Ephraim Gordon. Due to the ongoing nature of the
investigation, Councilman Schleifer was unable to comment.
