Ten Shocking Facts About Baltimore

Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)

Ten Shocking Facts About Baltimore

By Bill Quigley [1] / AlterNet [2]

April 28, 2015

Were you shocked at the disruption in Baltimore? What is more shocking is daily life in Baltimore [3], a city of 622,000 which is 63 percent African American. Here are ten numbers that tell some of the story.

5 -- Blacks in Baltimore are more than 5.6 times more likely to be arrested for possession of marijuana [4] than whites even though marijuana use among the races is similar. In fact, Baltimore county has the fifth highest arrest rate for marijuana possessions in the USA.

5.7-- Over $5.7 million has been paid out by Baltimore [5] since 2011 in over 100 police brutality lawsuits. Victims of severe police brutality were mostly people of color and included a pregnant woman, a 65 year old church deacon, children, and an 87 year old grandmother.

6 -- White babies born in Baltimore have six more years of life expectancy [6] than African American babies in the city.

8 -- African Americans in Baltimore are eight times more likely to die [6] from complications of HIV/AIDS than whites and twice as likely to die from diabetes related causes as whites.

8.4 -- Unemployment [7] is 8.4 percent city wide. Most estimates place the unemployment in the African American community at double that of the white community [8]. The national rate of unemployment [9] for whites is 4.7 percent, for blacks it is 10.1.

9 -- African American babies in Baltimore are nine times more likely to die before age one [6] than white infants in the city.

20 -- There is a twenty year difference in life expectancy [10] between those who live in the most affluent neighborhood in Baltimore versus those who live six miles away in the most impoverished.

23.8 -- 148,000 people, or 23.8 percent of the people in Baltimore [3], live below the official poverty level.

56-- 56.4 percent of Baltimore students graduate [11] from high school. The national rate is about 80 [12] percent.

92 -- 92 percent of marijuana possession arrests in Baltimore were of African Americans, one of the highest racial disparities in the USA [4].

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. He is also a member of the legal collective of School of Americas Watch, and can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com. [13]

Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@alternet.org'. [14]
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Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/economy/ten-shocking-facts-about-baltimore

Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/bill-quigley
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/24/24510.html
[4] https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/1114413-mj-report-rfs-rel1.pdf
[5] http://data.baltimoresun.com/news/police-settlements/
[6] http://urbanhealth.jhu.edu/media/reports/healthdis_baltimore.pdf
[7] http://www.dllr.state.md.us/lmi/laus/
[8] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/05/14/fact-check-ganslers-dramatic-line-on-unemployment-in-baltimore/
[9] http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t02.htm
[10] https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2013/04/24/hopkins-conference-tackles-link-between-wealth-and-health/
[11] http://www.education.umd.edu/TLPL/centers/MEP/Research/College/MD%20Grad%20Rates_1.2014.pdf
[12] http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2014/2014391.pdf
[13] mailto:quigley77@gmail.com
[14] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Ten Shocking Facts About Baltimore
[15] http://www.alternet.org/
[16] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B

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