Reneging on reform promises.
Sneering at the people’s will.
Concocting success stories.
There you have the administration of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott to a T.
The mayor is a throwback to the young King Joffrey I Baratheon of Westeros from the acclaimed HBO series “Game of Thrones.”
Scott’s 2020 signature campaign themes were defunding the police, slashing homicides, and reforming the city’s Board of Estimates. After winning, Mayor Scott abandoned all three themes like used furniture.
The first U-turn.
Scott, as council president, introduced legislation to eliminate the two mayoral appointees to the Board of Estimates as “necessary for a representative democracy.” After election as mayor, he committed infanticide against his own legislative baby by opposing Council President Nick Mosby’s revival of then Council President Scott’s brainchild.
The second U-turn.
Scott avowed as mayor he would plunge law enforcement spending in line with his proposal to slash the police budget by $22.4 million as council president. In his maiden year as mayor, Scott jumped the police budget by $28 million.
Scott’s pledge to diminish homicides proved a fantasy. They did not dip below 300 until his third year and only by Scott’s piggybacking on the efforts of Ivan J. Bates, Baltimore’s state’s attorney, and U.S. Attorney Erek Barron.
The mayor stood like the Rock of Gibraltar behind Bates’ initiative to revamp the Citation Docket process to put teeth in accountability for quality-of-life crimes. Then he defected to the opposition to throw spanners into the works at every opportunity—including non-participation by the Baltimore police force. When Bates exposed the defection, Scott evaded the charge by an ad hominem attack on his former comrade in arms.
Perfidy seems to be the mayor’s stock in trade. Councilman Mark Conway reached out to the Scott administration for hearings on the alarming scale of drug overdose deaths revealed by The New York Times. The deaths cast discredit on mayor Scott, who thus used a figurative sledgehammer against the councilman.
Cruelty and malignancy earmarked King Joffrey. Scott has bettered the instruction, including the rumored firings of two defeated city council candidates and others who have balked at sycophancy.
Doubts have been raised about the mayor’s Safe Streets program. The FBI raided one location. Secrecy in lieu of transparency has enveloped spending, operations and the names of program workers.
The prime difference between King Joffrey and Mayor Scott is that the former fictional figure was harmless while the latter real person is not. The citizens of Baltimore are paying a staggering price.
Armstrong Williams (awilliams@baltsun.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.