(WND) Business owners in one Baltimore district are staging a “tea party” with their taxes because of the city’s recent moves to defund police and refuse to provide basic services such as trash collection.
Dozens of business operators in the city’s Fell’s Point district have written to Mayor Brandon Scott, council members and others warning that “the chaos and lawlessness that escalated this weekend into another night of tragic, unspeakable gun violence” is unacceptable.
“Our elected leaders have closed their eyes and ears and turned their backs on our community for long enough,” they said in their letter. “We are fed up and frustrated, and we now realize that nothing will change unless we demand action.
“To compel our leaders to do their job and to stand up for neighborhoods all across Baltimore, the undersigned parties are prepared to withhold our city taxes and minor privilege and permit fees and place those funds into an escrow account, which we will not release until and unless basic and essential municipal services are restored.”
They list a failure to “pick up the trash.”
It piles up and “attracts rodents and fosters disease,” among other things, they say. “We’re sick of it.”
And they want traffic and parking laws enforced, and “open-air alcohol and drug sales” shut down.
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“On top of everything else, some of our employees are now scared, and we are scared for our employees.”
