Tonight people who live in Northeast Baltimore gathered outside the jazz club where former Baltimore City Councilman Ken Harris was murdered, to say they're fed up with of crime and violence.
They came together for a rally called, ‘Enough is Enough.’ ‘Innocent lives are being taken every day,’ said Ron Edwards, of the Belair-Edison Community Association. ‘One thing the community has to do is to organize and come together because all of our concerns are all of the residents' concerns.’
‘I just wanted to do this in honor of Ken Harris and to show support for renewing the shopping center and doing something for the young people,’ added Lois Hybl of Northeast Baltimore.
Harris was murdered during a robbery of the New Haven lounge early Saturday morning. At the rally, there were calls for the shopping center's owner to beef up security. Community leaders who spoke, talked about what Ken Harris would have wanted. ‘If he were here he'd tell us to take back this shopping center and he'd tell us to keep fighting,’ said Delegate Maggie McIntosh, a Democrat from Baltimore City.
Radio host Marc Steiner helped organize the event. He encouraged everyone to stay after and get to know their neighbors, hoping that might be the key to preventing something like the murder of Ken Harris from happening again. ‘This is our shopping center, we have a right to be here in safety and get to know each other and talk and begin a process where they take this back,’ he said.