A Baltimore activist has proposed a novel solution to the city’s skyrocketing murder rate — paying gang members not to kill each other.
“I can relate to the shooters, guess what they want? They want money,” Tyree Moorehead told FOX 45 of Baltimore.
Moorehead speaks from a unique perspective: he spent more than a decade in prison on a second-degree murder conviction at age 15.
Moorehead said he speaks with gang members and he believes he knows what will motivate them to put down their weapons: money.
“I’ve talked to these people, I’ve seen the shooters, it’s a small city, I know who the hustlers are,” he said.
In 2020, Baltimore recorded over 300 homicides for the sixth year in a row, Fox News reported.
The crime rate continued to rise despite the city’s lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus in 2020.
Former Baltimore Police spokesman T.J. Smith said he doesn’t believe paying criminals more money than the city pays police officers will have an effect on the crime rate.
He said more money in the hands of criminals would only make it easier for them to acquire firearms.
“It could make it easier for people to get their hands on guns because they now have an influx of a different level of cash,” Smith told FOX 45.
