Karel: Crime, punishment and redemption in a tough Baltimore neighborhood

The prospect of redemption is a hope dashed time after time, so it is worth celebrating when someone lives a redeemed life after a life of crime — and a decade in a federal penitentiary. That was the life of Rocky K. Brown Sr., who died Aug. 8 in Baltimore at 68. His stature in the community is clearly evidenced by two murals in East Baltimore’s Bocek neighborhood, which he helped transform after his stint in prison. A dramatic, two-story mural adorns the side of a rowhouse just off Monument Street, the major east-west thoroughfare bisecting the neighborhood. Brown’s likeness stares intently into the distance as a lion looms over his shoulder. The mural was created in 2018 by artists Elise Victoria and Justin Nethercut of the Baltimore-based Arts & Parks organization. The pair painted a similar image of Brown’s sister, Maxine Lynch, on a rowhouse at the other end of the block.