Mothers say ‘enough' at vigil for homicide victims
Annual observance marked by reading of names of 318
killed in city in the last year
The long roll of paper — stretched out on a cold West Baltimore sidewalk like yet another homicide victim — listed the names and ages of the 318 people killed in the city in 2016.
Daphne Alston paused while reading some of the names aloud and said her cadence made it sound as though she were summoning school graduates to receive their diplomas.
“We're calling out homicide victims,” said Alston, founder of Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters United, which seeks to end the plague of city homicides.
“That should ring through everyone's heart,” she told about 60 people gathered Sunday on a street corner for prayers and speeches.
It was the second year in a row — and only the second time since the 1990s — that Baltimore surpassed 300 homicides.
In what has become an annual ritual, Alston convened a gathering of mothers and community members, including a handful of representatives of the Guardian Angels Safety Patrol, to recite the names of the dead.
Alston —whose son, Tarik Sharif Alston, was fatally shot and killed while talking on his cellphone at a teenage party in 2008 — said she picked the corner of North Fulton and West Lafayette avenues because it is in a particularly dangerous area.
Her group's motto: “Enough is Enough.”
The 48-foot-long roster of homicide victims was laid out on the sidewalk with candles positioned to keep the wind from blowing it away. Speakers took turns reading from printouts of the list. Two drummers thumped one beat each time a name was read.
A year should not pass without an acknowledgment of these lives and the impact their losses have on families and communities, said Jean Parker, an elder at True Praise Ministries of Baltimore.
“Some have lost their children this year. Some have lost their children nine and 10 years ago, and the pain is still like it's new,” Parker told the crowd. “We will not be quiet. We will go to every corner if we have to. Change has to start here, Jesus,” she said.
A year and a half after homicides started spiking dramatically in the turbulent weeks that followed the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, residents continue to struggle with relentless violence.
Parker said the annual homicide statistics need to be supplemented with names and faces so they become more than numbers.
“When you see it in the news, it is jarring. It is almost unbelievable,” she said in an interview. “When you come out here, it gives it reality.”
In their own memorial for the slain, the Guardian Angels created a makeshift cemetery at the safety organization's headquarters over the weekend in Southwest Baltimore. There was a cardboard headstone for each victim featuring the words: “We Remember.”
On New Year's Eve, the Guardian Angels also took the roll of 318 names and “stretched it out at our headquarters. We dropped it from the top [of the building] to the bottom,” said Marcus “Strider” Dent, commander of the local chapter.
The mood at Sunday's hourlong ceremony was a blend of sadness and anger.
“This mom is mad,” said Jill Robinson, whose son, Sarawak Fultze II, was fatally shot in 2014. “It has got to stop. Who wants to be out here every Jan. 1 calling out names?”
Michael Williams, who spoke at the event, wore a sweatshirt with “Cease Fire” printed on the back.
“On this corner we are officially declaring an African-American cease-fire in Baltimore,” he shouted to the crowd.
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