Baltimore has suffered many indignities in recent years, most of them self-inflicted. It’s had several Police Chiefs as several resigned, the last over failing to file his taxes for a few years, and the last mayor resigned after bilking the schools and a health organization out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. And then there’s crime.

Baltimore is the deadliest city of its size. The police haven’t had a handle on crime for many years, a situation made worse after the Freddie Gray case, where a young man died in police custody.

Successive officials have called on residents to end the violence in the name of anything they can think of, and now they have a new rallying cry:

Mayor Young said:

“I want to reiterate how completely unacceptable the level of violence is that we have seen recently. We will not stand for mass shootings and an increase in crime. For those of you who want to continue to shoot and kill people of this city, we’re not going to tolerate it. We’re going to come after you and we’re going to get you.”

He wants people to put down their guns and end the senseless shooting because they’ll need those hospital beds for virus patients.

It’s not clear that anyone will care. Will meth dealers or rival gangs take a moment to consider possible flu patients before carrying on with their activities? It seems like a long shot.

But then again, Baltimore has become a long shot. Maybe someone will listen.