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How Hampden greeted newly-convicted Mayor Sheila Dixon at Christmas parade

December 7, 2009 at 12:59 am 4

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This Hampden Santa waggled a Best Buy card in front of Mayor Dixon as her parade car passed. Photo by Sean Gallagher.

Santa waggled a super-sized Best Buy card in front of Mayor Dixon as her parade car passed through Hampden. Photo by Sean Gallagher.

Just days after Mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted on a misdemeanor embezzlement charge — for taking and using Best Buy and Target gift cards meant for the poor — Dixon had one of her more public duties to fulfill: riding through Hampden for the 38th Annual Mayor’s Christmas Parade.

Everyone wondered: would the crowd be naughty or nice?

The applause, what there was, was muted and there were some boos and jeers. At one place on Falls Road, about a half-dozen people on the sidewalk in front of rowhouses waved homemade Best Buy cards, as Dixon, in holiday-red pashmina, rode by in the back of a red convertible.

Afterwards, Dixon’s Facebook friends attempted to console her. “Things are gonna get better..forget all the ignorant people in hampden who didn’t applaud for u,” one wrote.
Hampdenites waving Best Buy signs at Mayor Sheila Dixon. Photo by Sean Gallgher.

Hampdenites waving Best Buy signs at Mayor Sheila Dixon. Photo by Sean Gallgher.

Elsewhere, in Baltimore, the reaction to Dixon, post-conviction was even worse. According to the Sunday Baltimore Sun, which sent 25 reporters across the city to question 383 people – 56 percent — said Dixon should resign.

The paper’s unscientific-but-ambitious poll showed a significant racial divide (70 percent of whites thought Dixon should step down, compared to 48 percent of African-Americans.) There was also a small gender difference. (54 percent of males wanted her to leave, compared to 57 percent of women.)

Meanwhile, about 67 percent of those they spoke with said they either didn’t know City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake or didn’t think she is ready to be mayor.

Still, Rawlings-Blake, riding a few cars back from Dixon in SUnday’s parade, got significantly more applause.

Sheila Dixon waves to Hampden as part of the annual Baltimore Mayor's Christmas Parade. Photo by Sean Gallagher.

Sheila Dixon in Hampden for the annual Mayor's Christmas Parade. Photo by Sean Gallagher.

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  • marin

    I was in Hampden; wasn’t as bad a reaction as some have said. I think people respect the work product of 3 years of a Dixon Administration

    I think we need to let the appeals play out. As the Sun “poll” showed, many Baltimoreans are deeply conflicted over the whole situation. On the one hand, its hard to argue that Mayor Dixon hasn’t done a helluva job. On the other hand, rules are rules. (But we have to let all the rules play out, not just those we agree with.).

  • Journie Carson

    You know…its sad and black folks are just happy to have someone who looks like them in office no matter how f’ed up they are…”its going to get better…” if she were white the streets would be filled with black folks demanding her resignation. It’s carma! Sheila has always had a bad attitude off of camera and you could listen to her on camera and automatically know what she would be like off camera. No matter how much she tries, the street in her cannot be hidden, just like Pat Jessamy and former Deputy States Attorney, Sharon May. Baltimore is jacked-up…black folks still following religious leaders who cheat on their wives, father illegitimate children by much younger women in their congregation all while preaching materialism in church…and black folks still flock to him giving their last dime…Baltimore politics has always been screwed-up (Lawrence Bell, Schaefer, Kurt Schmoke, O’Malley, Dixon and soon Blake) and it doesn’t matter what color they are, leadership in Baltimore and so many other cities has always been corrupt. Did anyone ever get to the bottom of Robert Clay’s death? No, but O’Malley is governor! Sheila is no different than any other elected official caught wrong doing…you’re Mayor for goodness sake Sheila not some minimum wage earner struggling to take care of self and family…someone who really needed the charity. Blake is no different; got to see her in action outside of City Hall; don’t care who her daddy was…Where are the quality-oriented leaders of today? GOD luck getting anything accomplished in Bodymore Murderland.

  • Sean Gallagher

    Rawlings-Blake was greeted on the block I was on with shouts of “Madam Mayor”.

  • John McClaskey

    This mayor has in fact accomplished some positive projects. However, it has always been at a huge cost to taxpayers and now no less than this embezzlement convicton. Some of Sheila’s protectors claim that the gift cards were intended for her, some claim it was only $600 and the excuses go on and on. If it is $.06 it is stealing to anyone with the slightest morality. Let alone the mayor of a city like Baltimore. As the highest city official, Sheila should know better and refuse or turn over such gifts to the poor from the start. I am sure she is well aware of the ramifications of accepting gifts in her position even under the best of intentions. This kind of behavior in a city elected official should never be acceptalbe or forgiven. Granting an appeal to reverse the jury’s decision in this case is ludicrous. Even entertaining an appeal is an insult to the hard work performed by the jury and another expense for the city taxpayer in an already decided case.

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