However, after three robberies at a subway station in a more affluent neighborhood, the police made it their "first priority" to respond with an extra presence there, he said. "This was the same district commander. The only difference was the first meeting was in Sandtown-Winchester and the second meeting was in Bolton Hill."
"Those robberies carried more weight with our police department than the lives of four black men," Kelly said. "The property of three white people took priority, and that's the way the police department is structured."
Policies are "geared to target minorities and these minority neighborhoods, and because you're a minority, you're black, you're brown, you're a suspect. There's suspicion about what you're doing there and what you're up to."
This leads to distrust of the police in which citizens "assume the worst," he added.
"They question why a young black man runs when the police car pulls up; but you get slapped around enough times or you spend a couple of nights in Central Booking with no charge, and you know why people run," he said.
Community leaders have been speaking up "that there are racist practices," he said, "and we've gotten pushback for years saying that that's not the case, and one bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch."
"And the DOJ report kind of validates what we've been saying for years and kind of brings in the concept that the whole barrel is rotten. So if you've got a rotten barrel, you could have 100 good apples. They'll be rotten soon enough."
Yet the Church has been doing more to further race relations in Baltimore, especially in the last year, he explained.
"I'm happy to see that the Church is getting more involved in this actual racial part of the conversation, and not just doing what we can for the community but now stepping up and actually doing things with the community."
Instead of just sending materials to needy neighborhoods, the Church is now "part of the planning and the structuring" of events there.
The No Boundaries Coalition partnered with Pax Christi USA for an "annual public witness," for instance. The start of racial justice circles has led to "conversations about privilege and race relations outside the police department," Kelly said, and even talks of "how can people in the Church use their white privilege to assist lower-income communities in their fight for equality and racial justice."
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"We want to put that message out there that the Catholic Church is still the refuge for those in need," he said.
The DOJ report is no "silver bullet," he insisted, but rather "another tool for another opportunity to actually change the policies and address these systemic issues."
"So it's more from a Church and a Catholic perspective," he said, "this is our voices actually being heard, and its validation. And that could be the first step towards change."
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.