Taking back a community, step by step
Citizens on Patrol hopes to start a movement in East Baltimore

By Sumathi Reddy, Sun reporter
October 27, 2007

As dusk settles, the glittering lights of downtown emerge, just a few
miles away -- but a world removed -- from one of the roughest areas in
one of the deadliest cities in the country.

A group gathers on the corner of North Patterson Park Avenue and East
Hoffman Street in East Baltimore, within blocks of the scenes of at
least eight homicides this year.

Police officers and representatives from the mayor's office, a mother
from South Baltimore and a couple hand-in-hand, two members of the
Guardian Angels in their signature red jackets and berets. Folks from
Brooklyn and Curtis Bay, Morrell Park and Key Highway.

They patrol their neighborhoods regularly, and now they're here for what
might seem like a simple thing, a Citizens on Patrol walk, but for a
neighborhood that has never seen one, it's a significant step. Symbolic,
if nothing else.