At the intersection on Druid Hill Park Drive, across from the Baltimore City Zoo, at the I-83 exit, a stalwart weather-worn, leather-faced man holds a cardboard sign that reads, ‘My Girlfriend Left Me and Took Everything but This Sign.’

It is a Sunday morning as the night crew grocery clerk leaving the location of the Baltimore Riots of April 2015, gets on his cell phone and calls me, the tenacious homeless man at the intersection having sparked some reflex to vent to a Harm City dweller who might understand.

“Hey, Mo, this city is unbelievable. I got off work this morning and walked outside—you know we got hit for the entire deodorant section this week. The cop was coming on duty just as the thief was running out with a backpack full of deodorant. The cop chased him to Frederick Douglas High School—a black cop—but once he got to the school he lost the kid. The school students and staff would not help point out where he went. You can’t even point a finger to save civilization! Really!

“The customers in this area do not see anything wrong with theft. Normally you have thieves, some who support the thieves, and some who will not support the thieves. At Mondawmin, every customer supports the thieves, watches, does not give a head’s up, shouts that the cop is being too rough taking down the thief, what have you.

“Now the Gamestop over at the mall just got hit and they used two of our shopping carts to shuck the emptied DVD cases—one-hundred-and-fifty-fucking-nine DVDs and video games, Mo! And every church going mother and father in this neighborhood will by buying them after church this morning, the same people who will complain that they have no local shopping opportunities when these business close down again—and eventually we will. The shrink will become too much and we’ll be out of business. If we didn’t have a city cop on duty, we would already be out of business. This shit city is a gathering of oxy-morons—and there is a fucking deer leaping out in front of me, Mo!”

“Later—and thanks.”

-Kevin