Outside of the Grand Prix, a group of citizens gather to protest the handling of the shooting of Officer William H Torbit, a Baltimore City Police officer who was shot and killed by fellow police in front of a nightclub early in the morning of January 9th, 2011. Last month, an investigation cleared police involved in the shooting – which involved 42 shots fired in front of the nightclub, of any criminal charges.
This past weekend was the first Baltimore Grand Prix event, currently planned to be held every Labor Day weekend for the next 5 years. I was there for the City Paper and managed to try and soak up some of the race, my first. It seemed very crowded, at least on the actual race day, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. I heard some grumblings that some of the businesses of the Inner Harbor were seeing less foot traffic due to the race, but it’s hard to say. One thing I can say for sure is that people were covering every possible surface:
