The Unbelievably Backward Black County of Prince George’s

Prince George’s County, Maryland is typically described as that great Mecca of African American wealth, pride and social standing – it is a county over 70% Black and it boasts the highest ratio of middle to upper-middle class African Americans in the nation.  It surges ahead as an example of Black success, of a place where there is no lack of professional, educated, well-housed African Americans who – for the most part – drive expensive German and Japanese luxury vehicles and purchase homes in the $500,000 to $1 million range. 

But, there are some very ugly, sordid truths abound in “PG” County that speak to unresolved social and cultural issues ripping at the very fabric of its community.  We point to recent reports about a child neglect case in the County’s Circuit Court gone absolutely awry.  Washington Post’s Ruben Castaneda writes:

A mother who left her five young children alone in squalid and dangerous conditions in a basement apartment in New Carrollton pleaded guilty yesterday to seven misdemeanor crimes and was ordered to serve 20 days in jail.

Amara N. Eden, 31, pleaded guilty under an agreement with prosecutors in Prince George’s County on the morning her case was to go to trial. She was sentenced to five years in jail, with all but the 20 days suspended, and five years on probation.

In March, police acting on the neighbor’s tip entered Eden’s unlocked apartment. Battle-Brooks said that, had the case gone to trial, the state would have presented evidence that the children were living in squalor. “When you walked into the apartment your feet sunk into the urine and feces there,” Battle-Brooks said.

The children — four boys and a girl, then ages 6 months to 6 years — were huddled on a mattress without a blanket, there was a pan of burning food on the stove, and a space heater was operating near a pile of clothes, she said.

Eden had been charged with five counts of reckless endangerment and five counts of leaving a child under 10 unattended, all misdemeanors. Under the agreement, she pleaded guilty to two counts of reckless endangerment and five counts of leaving a child unattended.

Wallace ordered that she attend parenting classes and follow the directions of caseworkers with the county Department of Social Services. She is also not allowed to have a pet. When police found her children, they found a 1-year-old dog chained in the living room without food, water or a way out of the apartment to relieve itself.

Obviously, the dog made out better than the kids in this case.  In a manner rather typical of “PG” County (yes, we say that rather sardonically and loosely to those Prince Georgians who constantly berate others for referring to this “proud” African American community by its initials), the kids get the short end of the stick; there appears to be more care for the pet dog than the young human beings barely old enough to understand the scope of their abuse and neglect at the hands of a clearly clueless, uncompassionate and obscenely incompetent mother. 

Says PG County’s Maryland State’s Attorney and next-in-line for County Executive Glenn F. Ivey:

At a news conference after the guilty plea, State’s Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said he and social services officials are hopeful that Eden and her children will be reunified. “Hopefully the convictions will be a strong wake-up call for the mother to get her life on track,” Ivey said.

The wisdom of prosecutors in this case appears to have lost sense of what real parenting is.  Here, the conclusion is that this mother has fell on “hard times” and that her economic challenges forced her into “squalor.” Yes – the plight of the working poor is rather real and the challenges faced present a desperate need for solutions.  But, poverty does not excuse neglect; inability to feed your children does not mean that one then has them living in “urine” and “feces.”  Just because your poor does not mean that you can’t be clean.  In the ultimate analysis, poverty is a state of mind – poor, rural Black people living in a segregated South knew to live clean and maintained dignity despite the brutal realities of Jim Crow racism. 

Here, once again, is another example of PG County’s monumental failure as a compassionate government – of a county court system which still refuses to reform itself while domestic violence cases remain the highest in the region and battering men are allowed to punish caring mothers through endless legal maneuvering as an extension of their violence.  Corruption is abound; taxes get higher while the schools are sub-par (where’s all the money going?); and there is a sense of gamesmanship, party machines and nepotism in the county’s electoral process as one must be “linked” into the political elite before one can even decide to run and contribute to the common good. 

Hence, it comes as no surprise that the county can’t find alternative living arrangements for the children, only slapping the mother on the wrist, broadcasting a message that child neglect is “O.K.” in very PG County.  We hear whispers of Child Protective Services investigators getting paid under the table to actually discredit young victims or having their jobs threatened if allegations aren’t dropped against perpetrators.  We then ask: why even have such services available if they only serve to tragically disappoint and fail those who need them most?  Why should these agencies exist when they are teaming with career bureaucrats who care nothing about protecting the interests of children but, instead, care only about reaching retirement in secure government gigs.

This is a very real reality in PG County and, frankly, we continue to remain awfully sickened by it.