Corporate funding is provided by mutual of america designing customized individual and Group Retirement products. Thats why we are your retirement company. Additional support is provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. From the tisch wnet studios in Lincoln Center in new york, hari sreenivasan. Sreenivasan good evening. Thanks for joining us. We begin tonight in baltimore where a throng of people, some chanting take back the city and calling for an end to the curfew, gathered peacefully today outside city hall. This, following the release on bail last night of the Six Baltimore Police officers, who were arrested in connection with the death of freddie gray. The 25yearold died in Police Custody touching off days of riots. For the latest from baltimore, we are joined once again tonight by Luke Broadwater of the Baltimore Sun. Whats the timetable for the prosecution . The charges came down very quickly. What kind of a timeline are we looking for now that we know these six officers are out on bail . Felony charges in maryland have to go before a grand jury so a grand jury is going to have to hear these charges. Obviously thats a oneside situation where only the prosecution gets to present evidence. That will have to happen within 30 days. If the grand jury decide to bring charges against the officers then they will have an arraignment. So we could see that all within the next month. And after theyre arraigned, then wed likely see what they want to plea or go to trial. So we we could be you know trials in baltimore notoriously take a long time. I mean, we see postponements all the times. Weve seen cases that drag on for years and years and years. But i think with the highprofile nature of this one, i think we will be seeing these cases in court pretty quickly. Sreenivasan so three of the Six Police Officers involved were African Americans. How is that affecting how this story is consumed, perceived on the streets of baltimore . I would say it makes very little difference. Almost everybody i talk to on the street says it doesnt matter to us whether the officer is white or black. What matters to us is that we get justice in the case. I think potentially, especially when were talking about big National Cases the race of the officers seems very important to maybe people who are looking in from the outside. But on the ground here, i found almost entirely people say that does not matter at all to them. Sreenivasan so as this you know as you pointed out, that this case could drag on for months or possibly longer is the city equipped to handle another flareup or another round of tension given what theyve experienced over the past couple of weeks . Well, as we saw on i would say only one day this week did we really need the National Guard, and that was on monday. That was the day all hell broke loose and the day of the riot. That day, definitely, there were a lot of police that were need ed to keep order in baltimore. Since that day, there has been no violence at all related to the protest of the freddie gray case. What there has been is a lot of violence that has nothing to do with the freddie gray case, and that is the normal violence that there is in baltimore. I mean, i think weve had 17 people shot since the National Guard arrived. We just had a store owner robbed and killed. So we are seeing violence, but its not its not from the protesters. Sreenivasan Luke Broadwater from the Baltimore Sun thank you very much so much for joining us. Sreenivasan in Oakland California, protesters sreenivasan in Oakland California last night, demonstrators protesting alleged Police Brutality threw rocks and chairs at police and smashed car windows at auto dealerships. The incidents occurred after peaceful gatherings to mark may day. There was also trouble in seattle. At least 15 people were arrested there and several dozen vehicles were damaged, according to authorities. Iowa has become the third state to declare a state of emergency because of the growing spread of the avian flu. Iowa produces more eggs than any other state. Governor Terry Branstads declaration gives authorities additional powers to enforce preventative measures. Minnesota and wisconsin took similar steps last month. An estimated 21 million chickens and turkeys have been or will be killed nationwide to try to curb the outbreak, which does not pose a threat to humans. The United Nations says more than a million and a half Million People in nepal are in immediate need of food. This, as the death toll from last weekends earthquake climbed today to more than 7,000. Authorities say delivery of assistance is only possible by helicopter to some areas outside the capital city of kathmandu. Word from nigeria tonight of the rescue of another 234 women and children who had been taken captive by boko haram islamic extremists. Several hundred others were freed by the Nigerian Army earlier this week. According to the bbc, it was not immediately clear what connection, if any, those rescued today had to the 219 school girls abducted a little more than a year ago. In afghanistan, 49 suspects, including 19 police officers, were put on trial today in connection with the mob killing of an afghan woman. The 27yearold woman was beaten, kicked and then set on fire as several policemen reportedly looked on. The case drew National Attention after the attack was captured on a mobile phone and distributed online. Todays Court Proceedings were televised nationally in afghanistan. And Prince William and Kate Middleton are the new parents of a baby girl. The unnamed newborn was delivered shortly after 8 30 in the morning local time in london and weighed in at eight pounds and three ounces. The princess is the fourth in the line to the throne behind her grandfather, prince charles; her father, Prince William; and her 21monthold older brother, prince george. Sreenivasan Something Different tonight. Were going to use most of our remaining time to offer you a detailed look at life in one of the poorest sections of baltimore. Our focus is Sandtown Winchester the impoverished neighborhood where there was rioting this past week following the death of freddie gray. He grew up and was arrested there. So lets begin sandtown by the numbers. its a community of 14,000 thousand people on baltimores west side that like so many others was hard hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs after Big Companies like bethlehem steel left town. The latest available numbers put the Unemployment Rate in sandtown at more than 21 about four times the national average. Almost a third of the residents there live in poverty thats twice the national average. We begin by looking at health care in sandtown. For more about this we are joined by dr. Robert blum, the director of Johns Hopkins urban health institute. The institute is less than 5 miles from sandtown. So, theres this phrase about this genetic lottery. We dont choose who were born to. But the infant tortality rate in sandtown is more than three and a half times the national average, 21 per,000 births compared to six per thousand births. From the very outset of life we already see a huge disparity in health for a person born there versus the average american. Unpack that for us a bit. Well, first of all just to put that in perspective if baltimore were a country, we would be 75th in the world for infant mortality, below every industrialize country and many low and middleincome countries. We have persistent problems due to lack of access to resources, due to persistent poverty, due to lack of education, due to lack of opportunities, and all of these interact to create an environment where neither children nor adults thrive. Sreenivasan so theres another number we came across that struck us. That is Life Expectancy in sandtown. Its just over 65 years. 13 years below the national average. That puts people there on par with folks in pakistan and rewanda. What should we make of that . So what we have is a whole set of conditions. We know today that ones environment, ones context drive their Life Expectancy, drive their health status, and to live in an environment of persistent poverty, were not just talking about access to medical care. Were talking about access to food healthy food. Were talking about access to exercise and recreational places. Were talking about sanitation. Our environments in sandtown sandwich is one example, but there are many communities like that in baltimore where the entire environment, both the physical and social environment, is toxic. Sreenivasan sreenivasan you wrote in the washington post, teenagers in baltimore face Poorer Health and more negative outlooks than those in urban centers of nigeria and china. How does this affect the perception they have of the world . The perception they have because of lack of opportunity because of being left out of any American Dream is that there isnt any institution they trust. The focus this past week has been on the police and lack of trust for the police. But theres lack of trust for education, for government, for social services. They dont trust any adult because in fact many of them report that they live in persistent fear in home, in school in their neighborhoods. Their lives are consistent fear. Sreenivasan focusing in on health care what kind of access challenges are there in this neighborhood . I mean, just when i was there in the last couple of days, i met several of these folks who dont have transportation, so for them, even the burned down cvs was a serious problem of where they were going to get their prescriptions filled. Absolutely. So lack of transportation is a big issue. Lack of healthy food is a huge issue. Many people in these communities have to travel miles without any transportation to get to a grocery store, a green grocer. For many, lack of access to health care services. These are compounded by persistent trauma that people in our neighborhoods have. For example children have, on average, two experience two adverse childhood experiences. This is extreme violence. Approximately 18 say they have witnessed a relative or a friend or someone they knew having been shot or killed. So kids grow up in these kinds of environments and that kind of toxic stress takes a huge toll on physical health as well as mental health. Mental Health Issues are a tremendous set of concerns for people. And it becomes intergenerational. Its passed from mother to child or father to child not genetically or biological, but socially, and thats the context. Sreenivasan all right dr. Robert blum, director of Johns Hopkins urban health institute. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you very much for having me. Sreenivasan of course, all week long, weve seen many young people from Sandtown Winchester, other inner city baltimore communities along with many other concerned citizens protesting, the death of freddie gray at the hands of police. For a look at relations with the police, we are joined now by natasha prattharris, a ph. D. , an associate professor of criminal justice and sociology at Morgan State University in baltimore. I want to play you a clip we came across this week. Its of a young man talking about how he believes police treat men of color as suspects. It really hurts when you come out in the morning and you just cant come out, take deep breath and take a walk. You cant even take a walk, because when you do, half of the times they are staring at you they are looking at you. You got something planned in their minds. Sreenivasan is that a fair description about whats happened . I would say hes speaking his truth. I actually grew up in the city of baltimore attended public schools. I actually teach in the city of baltimore at Morgan State University. I have not met a man of color in this city who spent any significant time in the city who hasnt had that experience, an experience that was in some ways negative, some negative encounter. So what he said does not surprise me. I will say that, you know, we dont necessarily hear voices like his sharing whats happened. So its without a doubt a fair description. One of the things that i want to make certain is clear however, is that is not the only experience for residents of the city when it comes to Law Enforcement. There are quite a few positive encounters, but those negative ones outweigh the positive, similar to this past week. Weve seen the negative depictions of persons who were engaged in violent criminal acts and those negative things outweighed the very positive things that happened. Sreenivasan young men are arrested at a much higher rate than the national average. Actually, more than five times as often. So how do community relations, Police Relations suffer or how are they affected by this . I will kind of speak to why thats happening. Theres this debate that the rationale behind that number is related to the incidences of violence or the rate by which persons are engaging criminally. So the one side of the argument is if people are engaging criminally, theyre going to be detained. Theyre going to be arrested by Law Enforcement. But the other argument is that they had more contact with the police. That means that police are in communities that are impoverished. They are actually identifying individuals as engaging criminally. If theres more contact with Law Enforcement, theres more likelihood of encounter, which lends itself to containment and later incarceration. Sreenivasan there are going to be people who say, look the homicide rate in sandtown sandwich is so many times the national average. Dont the People Living in this community deserve a Police Presence to protect themselveses . I mean, we had a doctor on who talked about how most kids there witness a couple of traumatic events in their lifetime, which is kind of something the rest of the country doesnt connect with. I understand, and i agree that Law Enforcement are responsible for policing, but Law Enforcement doesnt only have to engage in the traditional sense of policing. Theres such a thing as Community Engagement and the Baltimore City police has done a fantastic job historically in engaging with the community. And we are familiar with the Police Athletic leagues where they engage. They had a presence. If you are actually in the presence and engaged with members of the community thats another way to police because you get a sense of whos who and whos engaged in what activity so you can either quell or just eliminate the possibility of some criminal activity engaging. Tent what we see is a reactry type of policing instead of prevention. Were responding to i argue to our fear glz when we think about policy for years under former Baltimore MayorMartin Omalley the City Institute aid broken windowstyle, zero tolerance policing and they say crime rates did decline like they did in many big cities, including new york. What are the ripple effects of that . Why didnt those policies work or what are the policies that should be implemented . Well those particular policies i would argue were they were effective in reducing crime or they may have been effective. What we know is that there were still pains and troubles and problems in those very communities purpose there were resources and programs that were cut after or during the Omalley Administration which in fact can speak to the very problems that we see today. Theres just some simple things that we can do to address community Police Relations. It begins with having a conversation. Sreenivasan okay, natasha prattharris, associate professor of criminal justice and sociology at Morgan State University in baltimore. Thanks so much. Thank you for having me. Sreenivasan we wanted to turn now to social aspects of life in sandtown. Especially family life. For more about that, we are joined by tara huffman from the open Society Institute in baltimore. She is the director of the criminal and juvenile justice program. So tara, i want to start by playing you a clip an excerpt of what president obama said earlier this week, describing impoverished communities across the country that he said he had been stripped of opportunity. Where children are born into abject poverty; theyve got parents often because of substanceabuse problems or incarceration or lack of education themselves cant do right by their kids. Communities where there are no fathers who can provide guidance to young men. Sreenivasan is that a fair picture of what life is like in sandtown . Yes, i would say thats a very fair picture of what life is like in sandtown sandwich. If you loo