A silent walk through a labyrinth marked the second full day of citywide efforts by activists to bring a halt to homicides for 72-hours

Story Transcript

Speaker 1: People die every night 19 hours in Baltimore, that’s the statistic, right? We are right now at 32 hours in to the Baltimore cease fire, something like that. Speaker 2: It was a meditative pause for a city plagued by violence. Day two of a citywide call for a 72 hours cease fire, that so far has yielded positive results. Speaker 1: We figured out yesterday that seven o’clock, like L and G was like seven o’clock is the magic number, that’s 19 hours. If we get to 7:01, something shifted in Baltimore today. When it was 8 o’clock, I said, “Are we about to have 24 hours of nobody getting killed in Baltimore?” When it was 10 o’clock, we were like, “Please everybody, just stay calm.” I think the thing is spiritual science I think, that’s happening right now. Because there are so many people whose group consciousness, like we’re all thinking the same thing. Speaker 2: Here, supporters of the efforts to stop murder, silently walked the labyrinth next to the YMCA, near Charles Village, the difference between this movement and City Hall’s recent attempts to call murderers to tougher laws, was this. Engaging the spirit. Speaker 3: You can’t lock up folks. You can’t just throw people away. It’s a time for all of us to come together and be involved and find out what’s going on. Our community really talked to people, engaged in a real conversation about what we would need to do going forward. Speaker 1: Many who had gathered had suffered violence, but had learned through experience, that the source is the pain of poverty and racial isolation. In the middle of the night, I heard gunshots. Then I heard this guy running down the street and he fell like on the blacktop, so I could get at my window. I saw him laying on the blacktop and the ambulance, I could hear the silence in the background, so I knew somebody called. At 12, you don’t think you can just run outside in the middle of the night without getting in trouble. I’m like in the window panicking. I realize it’s one of the guys in the neighborhood that I really love. His name is Mike. He was like a big boy at that time to me. I heard him just saying, “God, please don’t let me die, please don’t let me die.” The ambulance came and I watched them take him away. When I went to school the next day, all day long, I’m like, is he okay, what happened to Mike? I come home from school to find out that he died in the ambulance. Speaker 2: Which is why the people who came to this quiet spot, chose to meditate and reflect and to discuss what is needed to address these ills. Speaker 4: I think the thing with this, is just connecting. As the song and the anthem, one of the songs that’s connected to the cease fire event says, “Lift your vibrations higher.” I think it’s just an effort to become in tune with the higher vibration, by concentrating on what’s inside of you and also working to bring that and put that positivity out into the atmosphere. Speaker 2: A recognition among the people that only patience and giving can heal what ails us. Speaker 1: What’s happening is people are coming out to meet the people and that makes them feel like somebody cares. Somebody’s trying to assist me. They were helping them expunge their records and things of that nature. This was on Belair and [Erdman 00:03:24] Avenue all night long. People were there with their computers, their laptops, the law center at UB was there. It was awesome, so I think it’s helping the people it’s intended to help Baltimore, larger, but people who are disenfranchised more. Speaker 2: This is Taya Graham and Stephen Janis, reporting for the Real News Network in Baltimore City, Maryland.