Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, engaged in a tense exchange with former Parkland student and gun control activist David Hogg at a Harvard Policy Institute event Thursday night over Hogg’s accusation that Hogan cares more about investing in the police than helping minority communities.
Hogan, amid rumors he is considering a presidential nomination for 2024, is promoting his new book “Still Standing” in which he touches on his handling of the Freddie Gray riots in 2015, he is framed as a strong police advocate. and as an ally of minority communities. . In his book, Hogan portrays his relationship with black communities in Baltimore positively, saying they appreciate that he has tried to stop the violence there and that he takes the time to listen to their complaints, says former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He advised him that he needed to be a “comforter-in-chief” after the Freddie Gray riots.
But Hogg challenged Hogan for his support of the police, saying “more than anything [gun violence] it is a problem of systemic racism and historical injustice, given that the number one predictor of where armed violence occurs most in the United States is where communities were remarked in the 1930s and 1940s. “Hogg added that Hogan killed the planned light rail “Rojo Line” in Baltimore and refused to invest other money in “the communities most affected by armed violence.”
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“You seem very willing to invest in the police and give them hundreds of millions of dollars, but when it comes to investing in these communities with these bills, didn’t you do that?” Hogg asked.
Hogan told Hogg that he agreed with him that more needs to be done about the “root causes” of violence in the city center, but said those same city center residents support measures to stop the Governor’s crime.
“But while we are working, as we have done, this takes decades to change, while we are working to solve those problems, we also have to stop the shootings and murders and I can tell you that 90 percent of Baltimore City residents and 90 percent of Baltimore City blacks supported my crime bills to combat violent crime, “said Hogan. “So not only do I have a different opinion from yours, but everyone in Baltimore has a different opinion from yours.”
Hogan also addressed the other elements of Hogg’s question about investments that the activist said he did not make in minority communities. The governor said he has invested more money in Baltimore than other Maryland governors, including “record investments in education” and money for job training. He added that his investments in the police are “trying to tackle the immediate problem of arresting the 350 people killed.”
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When Hogan detailed more actions he says he took in Baltimore, Hogg backed off and asked him to head to the scrapped Red Line in the city.
“Let me finish, because you had a very long question there,” Hogan replied. “On the Red Line, the former governor, who was the former Baltimore mayor, didn’t build it for eight years because it never made any sense. The Washington Post editorial board said it was a hoax that never had any economic or transportation impact sense.”
Hogan continued that he had spearheaded the creation of the “Purple Line,” a new DC Metro line under construction that connects many of the areas in Northeast DC with other Metro lines.
“I built the Purple Line that is located in some of our poorest communities in Prince Geroge County, our largest minority population in the state, which is one and a half times larger than the city of Baltimore outside Washington. So, I am not opposed to Investing in working transit systems, it’s just that one didn’t make any sense in Baltimore, “Hogan said.
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This year there has been an increase in gun violence in many cities, along with a series of protests against racial injustice and police brutality after George Floyd’s death while in the custody of the Minneapolis Police Department. One officer was charged with second-degree murder for Floyd’s death, while three others were charged as accessories to the alleged crime.
Hogan, in his book and in a series of media appearances, has advocated for investments in the police and a harsh approach to crime. But many on the left, like Hogg, say the police are the problem, pointing out that African-Americans are much more likely to die at the hands of the police than whites. Some have even gone as far as advocating for the dismantling of the police or the widespread dismantling of the police departments and replacing law enforcement with a model of public safety that would send unarmed professionals to deal with issues like domestic disputes.
“It is one of the worst ideas I have ever heard,” Hogan said of underfinancing the police in an interview with Fox News last week. “If you want to go after trouble in the cities and violent crime and murder, we have to have more police … If you want to try to recruit and have more diversity, you have to invest more. If you want better training and a better team and you want, you know, body cameras and you want people to have the training and the downscaling, all that takes money. “
