Activists, slain officer's family members call police commissioner to step down
By: Christian Schaffer abc2news.com  | | WATCH VIDEO |
Family members of a Baltimore City police officer who was shot and killed by fellow officers are calling for Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld to step down. They're also saying the FBI is the only agency with enough credibility to investigate the shooting. Thursday night they gathered along with community activists outside the Select Lounge on North Paca Street. They lit candles around the corner on West Franklin Street where 33-year-old Officer William Torbit died. 'He wanted to be an example. He wanted to be a role model. He wanted to allow young people to see that black men can make a difference in Baltimore City,' said Torbit's cousin, Maria Crowder-El. They clapped 41 times -- one for each of the shots fired outside the Select Lounge - police have said all 41 were fired by police officers. 'Our family wants justice, and wants to know what happened. My cousin was a good guy and nobody deserves to go like that,' said another cousin, Nabalo Torbit. The funeral for 22-year-old Sean Gamble, who also died in the gunfire, was also held on Thursday. The shooting happened early Sunday morning after a fight broke out as the club closed. Officer Torbit responded to the incident in plain clothes. Police have said four more officers who responded saw him firing his weapon, and fired at him -- not knowing he was an officer, even though they worked with him in the Central District. 'How did they not know that?' Crowder-El said. 'I want to know that. These are the questions I want to know.' Baltimore City's mayor has already said an outside agency would investigate the incident. The activists and the family members say that agency should be the FBI. 'If there's no preventative measures and steps that have been put in place, then what took place last Saturday night could very well happen again tonight, tomorrow night and it could be your loved ones,' said activist and talk radio host Darren Muhammad.
'I don't trust the police to investigate them. We need somebody else, out in the federal government somewhere else to come in Baltimore City to investigate them. I don't trust (Commissioner Fred) Bealefeld. I don't trust none of them,' Crowder-El said.
The practice of officers wearing plain clothes has been temporarily suspended by the city police department, because of the shooting over the weekend. Police are expected to issue a new clothing policy next week. |
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City Councilman Carl Stokes Speaks at Vigil for Officer Torbit, Sean Gamble
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Funeral For Fallen Officer Set; Civilian Laid To Rest
Family, Friends Lay Sean Gamble To Rest
 | | Sean Gamble |
wbaltv.com
BALTIMORE --
Baltimore police announced on Thursday funeral arrangements for the late Officer William Torbit Jr., as the second victim of a weekend shooting was laid to rest.
A public viewing for Torbit is scheduled for Tuesday at the Wylie Funeral Home at 9200 Liberty Road in Randallstown from 3 to 8 p.m.
A wake is scheduled for Wednesday at 10 a.m., followed by a funeral service at 11 a.m. at The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen at 5200 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. Interment will take place at Arbutus Memorial Park immediately after.
Torbit was fatally shot Sunday while responding to disturbances outside a downtown Baltimore nightclub.
Sean Gamble, 22, was also killed during the melee in which city police said 41 shots were fired by five police officers.
On Thursday, his family and friends packed a funeral home to celebrate his life.
"He was energetic and the life of the party when he was there. He was able to make a dark room shine," said Minister Jacob McNeill, Gamble's uncle.
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A Ten Point Plan For Crisis Intervention in Baltimore City
First submitted to Mayor of Baltimore and Baltimore City Council on
08/06/02
Tyrone Powers, Ph.D.
POSITION STATEMENT
It is impossible for approximately 3,700 police officers to maintain peace and tranquility in a city of 600,000 people unless there is community cooperation and involvement. The Community must be intimately involved in coming up with its own solutions and deciding its own destiny. Plans made for the community instead of with the community tend to fail because the community is not fully invested in the process. History and research clearly indicates that only the community can save the community. The Police should be a part of the community - not apart from the community. Officers are community members not soldiers controlling the community. Only this kind of thinking will yield long-term results.
Aggressive policing yields short-term results. I liken it to what occurred during the Korean war when North Korea drove the South Koreans all the way south only to be pushed back North, as they lacked the support and network of the indigenous people. The United States and South Korea met with the same fate when they pushed the North Korean army back north to the Chinese border. In the end both settled for the 38th parallel - middle ground. Today the community of Koreans is still divided - staring across at each other and on the verge of another bloody war and possibly a nuclear war - a war to end all wars.
Unless our strategies in Baltimore involve the community - the indigenous people - 5 - 10 years from now when the current politicians have moved on to bigger and possibly better things - or have just moved on - we will end up back where we started with the violent crime problem. This is unacceptable. We must have the support of the people. They must be intimately involved. They are intelligent, strong and resilient. The community must come to see the police as an ally rather than the enemy or as a savior. Paternalistic relationships seldom yield long-term positive results. They are, in fact, somewhat oppressive and they stifle growth.
We are clear that the Criminal Justice System does not exist and cannot operate alone in the serious and sustained reduction of crime. So the problems that we face are not just problems of crime. We would be foolish to approach the problem from this narrow minded and ill-fated angle. The education system, the health system, Parks and Recreation, Economic Development and the Department of Public Works all play an important role in preventing and reducing crime. A sustained solution will take the involvement of all of these agencies along with the Community. These agencies are the Community. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted:
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. Read More |
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Kinetics Faith & Justice Network mission is to provide the faith community with the tools to advocate and mobilize on local, national, and international issues, to build capacity to solve our own problems, and to use dialogue as a catalyst for social change. Members include clergy, scholars, lawyers, social justice advocates, and nonprofit and business professionals.
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Officer William H. Torbit, Jr.'s Family Speaks-out!!
 | | Vigil organizers Daren Muhammad (State of the City radio program on WFBR 1590 AM) and Doni Glover (BMORENEWS.com) talk with George Lettuce of WBAL TV 11 |
BALTIMORE - January 14, 2011) - Just as Prince George's County is in shock at a rapid murder rate to start off the year, the other majority black jurisdiction in Maryland, Baltimore, also wreaks of blood in the streets.
Last night, the "State of the City" radio show on WFBR 1590 AM and BMORENEWS.com joined forces to present a press conference/vigil for the two victims who died at the hands of Baltimore City Police this past weekend.
Sean Gamble, 22-years old, and 30-year old City Officer William H. Torbit, Jr. were both killed in the hail of 41 shots fired by police. Gamble, a civilian near Select Lounge on Paca Street, was unarmed. This incident happened 1 am Sunday morning.
Last night, Officer Torbit's family broke their silence and made a plea for a federal investigation. More importantly, they want answers and they want justice.
Torbit was revered by his community. Gamble's body was funeralized yesterday at March Funeral Home, Hundreds paid their respects.
Watch Video
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Friends, family, colleagues mourn nightclub shooting victims
At vigil, loved ones recall cheerful athlete, father; others praise police officer
Sean Gamble's friends and family shared tears, laughter and flashes of anger Monday night at a candlelight vigil for the 22-year-old killed in this weekend's nightclub melee.
Close to 200 huddled together for 80 minutes on the Woodlawn High School football field, where Gamble had been a star football player, to pray, sing and remember the young man - called "Loz" by many - for his cheerfulness, his fierce athletic spirit and his strong sense of friendship and family.
"He was charismatic, always with a smile, always in a good mood," says Tyra Wildy, a classmate and former manager of the football team. "He was loved by a lot."
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MLK: Nonconformist
"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people"
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
"I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
"Ten thousand fools proclaim themselves into obscurity, while one wise man forgets himself into immortality."
"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."
"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
"Yes, I see the Church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists."
"There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period when the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But they went on with the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment"
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About Us
... You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell. (Isaiah. 58:12)
Kinetics mission is to develop new ideas that work to strengthen social movements within the African-American community; bridging the gap between church and community and providing them with the tools and skills to pursue justice and better address the needs of those whom they serve.
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