At a joint news conference Friday evening, Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced a surge of police to Baltimore, the state’s largest city. The decision by the two Democrats comes as President Donald Trump has stepped up threats to send troops to Democratic-run states and cities over the past few weeks, including Baltimore.
Since last month, Trump has singled out Moore, the first African American governor of the state, for vilification. Trump reiterated various slurs against the city, calling it a “hellhole” and a “death bed” on social media while denouncing Moore’s reported presidential aspirations. Trump has also threatened to withhold federal funding for rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed last year when a container ship collided with it.
Additionally, a substantial portion of the federal workforce either lives or works in Maryland. They have faced relentless abuse and attempts by the Trump administration to drive them out of their jobs.
In a news release, Moore stated that the increase in Maryland State Police troopers and Maryland Transportation Authority officers will create “a highly visible law enforcement presence.” On Sunday’s NBC program “Meet the Press,” Moore explained, “When I first came on board, I was very clear that public safety was going to be our number one priority, and we have made historic investments in local law enforcement, historic investments in technology, and we are making sure that when someone commits a violent crime with a handgun, we want them in handcuffs within 24 hours.”
The state plans to deploy Maryland State Police troopers to state-owned routes within Baltimore to free up city police to patrol other areas in greater numbers. The Baltimore Police Department is replacing 55 vacant sworn officer roles with 66 new civilian jobs in administrative and support functions, like Evidence Control, Inspections, and Investigations. It will hire other officers through various state funds and grants. These steps aim to free uniformed officers for street duties while reducing overtime costs.
Furthermore, the Maryland State Police have a $615.3 million fiscal 2025 budget, reflecting a 7 percent increase from the prior year. This increase is largely driven by personnel salary enhancements, adding 34 positions and investments across specialized bureaus, including Field Operations, Criminal Investigations and Support Services.
Despite opposing any National Guard deployment, the mayor and governor remain open to federal collaboration, allowing FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents to supplement city and state police.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties, as representatives of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus, accept the basic premise of a police crackdown in major cities.
The main difference between the two big-business parties is not over “democracy” or the constitutional rights of the population. The Democratic Party, which has controlled Baltimore for decades, has no problem running a police-state apparatus.
In 2016, the Justice Department uncovered vast evidence of racial profiling, use of excessive force, arrests without just cause and many other abuses. In 2005, under Democratic Mayor Martin O’Malley, as many as 1 in 6 Baltimore residents spent time in jail, as city arrests rose to over 100,000 in a single year.
For Democrats, the main opposition to Trump has always been focused on how to best suppress the class struggle in the face of intense social opposition to the fascistic president and within the working class more broadly.
“We can do this ourselves,” Mayor Scott said at the press conference on Friday. During the event, Scott led the crowd in an emphatic chant, yelling: “We’re all we got!” with the crowd responding, “We’re all we need!” This demonstrated the city’s intent to repress its own population without National Guard involvement.
The decision to surge law enforcement into the city to appease the fascist leader is all the more striking as the Baltimore Police Department itself has reported a 22 percent decrease in homicides and a 19 percent decrease in non-fatal shootings compared to last year. Violent crime is also declining nationwide.
This surge in policing echoes Moore’s law-and-order rhetoric from July 2023. After a mass shooting that summer, which left two dead and 30 injured, Moore quickly reversed his campaign promises to address the roots of crime, declaring, “You cannot violate the safety of our community and think there will be little or no accountability for it,” and that he was “coming for” violent offenders.
For the past four weeks, Trump has controlled Washington D.C. police and mobilized a total of 9,000 police officers and troops to occupy the city. Over 300 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are en route to Chicago to target immigrants. The National Guard may follow, to suppress public opposition to the raids.
The political establishment is aware that its policies are deeply unpopular; the real purpose of deployments is to intimidate the population, not address a non-existent crime wave.