Russia Today is showing a less than positive image of the United States as a video shows its reporter trying to report on the protests in Baltimore last week only to be mugged on camera. Fortunately, police were in the area and apprehended the suspect. In the meantime, another disturbing video shows City Paper Photo Editor J.M. Giordano was tackled and beaten by Baltimore City police outside of Western District headquarters last night while covering the protests. The attack on a journalist by police was accompanied by the arrest and charging of another reporter for disorderly conduct.
The protests have followed the death of an African American man, Freddie Gray, in police custody. Six officers have been injured in the later protests and 34 people arrested.
One group looted a convenience stores and broke store windows. Another group smashed the front window of a department stores and threw flaming debris at police.
The group involved in the attack on the journalist was shown yelling profanities before the mugging:
The majority of protesters however remained peaceful.
City Paper Photo Editor J.M. Giordano was beaten outside of Western District headquarters. He was standing next to the protester in the video and facing the police line, at about 12:30 when someone threw a rock which hit a police officer’s shield. That appears to have triggered the violent response. The video was shot by City Paper Managing Editor Baynard Woods who is heard yelling, “He’s a photographer! He’s press!” Giordano was not arrested though the man next to him was, even though Giordano says that he did not throw anything. However, he says that Reuters photographer Sait Serkan Gurbuz, was arrested nearby and taken away in the police van. Gurbuz was later released and cited for disorderly conduct.
Police apologizes later for the confusion with the reporters.
Amen, sister.
@NickS
I agree. I just hate it when some stupid white reporter picks out a black looter, and ask them what their “grievance” is, or those kind of stupid questions. Or, they ask them what they want to happen in their community, when any idiot ought to know the answer is, “Uh, could they restock the liquor store, please??? Because looting the liquor store again would help me forget the injustices done to what’s his name.”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky, I have black friends who raise their kids to be good citizens. There are MANY good, black parents who do so. The news is not interested in them.
Why do you differentiate between SMALL businesses being looted and LARGE businesses being looted?
Good question. Why don’t they discriminate against Big Government they way they do against Big Business?
@NickS
This one black official was telling on FOX about one black mother who came out and starting whomping her brat kid upside the head for rioting and tearing stuff up. He said more parents should be out doing that. I suspect that more than one black parent in Baltimore is having a talk with their kids tonight about, “Listen, quit taking all that crap we say about Trayvon and Michael Brown seriously. That is just the crap we feed idiots Whiteys sooo they will feel guilty.” Sooo, there is hope! Here, this will raise your spirits!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq2YUEFELLc
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Freddy Gray stuck his neck out for the cause but then he snapped.
Squuek, I’m watching baseball. I have ceased watching this staged news. When I see the coverage, I flip. We are going to have a long, hot summer. All the old Viet Nam protesters will get semi erect chubbies and sorta moist, remembering the 60’s/70’s riots. You are too young to have lived through that. These old hippies actually enjoy this. It’s retro for them. Pretty sickening, really. JT is a little young, but I think he feels a strong connection to hippies and fighting the pig. Bad cops gotta go and/or be prosecuted. But, the cop haters are becoming emboldened. Sad for me to watch. Sure wouldn’t want to be a good cop nowadays.
@NickS
Yep. Knock on wood. Are you watching FOXNews??? They are covering the crap in Baltimore live. Still quite a mess there.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeek, Have you noticed how much more civil and less toxic it is today, just 48 hours or so into your No Response to Trolls Diet? Don’t get cocky. Stay focused and strong.
Bam Bam
I’m not sure what law school market you are discussing, but minus a “generous” scholarship, I’m not sure law school is such a “generous” opportunity as I fill the pockets (along with many other students) of university officials and law professors.
If you haven’t read my posts, I’m consistently critical of the system that I’m currently a part of. Law school is one of the most eroded and corrupt systems in higher education. Check out Brian Tamanaha.
My point about small and large businesses being looted. Sure, it’s tragic when any businesses are looted and likely always criminal. But if you follow any protests in the US you will find that large companies are well protected by the array of federalism police protections via the fourth branch (National, state, and local).
So it’s not fine to torch those places, it just doesn’t really come into the realm of possibility. We value our great capitalist institutions (our multinationals and others’) much more than a person’s human rights or civil liberties.
@bam bam
I saw her on a news conference tonight, and she really walked that statement back. Tonight she called the looters “thugs” several times. Some of the other black speakers were doing the same. I wonder what they all had to say back in the Trayvon days, or during the Feguson affair??? I am guessing that there is nothing like watching one’s own city burn to help with a sense of perspective.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Baltimore mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake made a stunning admission Saturday in the aftermath of violent protests over the recent death of Freddie Gray, saying she wanted to give space to those “who wished to destroy.”
I’ve made it very clear that I work with the police and instructed them to do everything that they could to make sure that the protesters were able to exercise their right to free speech,” Rawlings-Blake said during a press conference Saturday night.
“It’s a very delicate balancing act, because while we tried to make sure that they were protected from the cars and the other things that were going on, we also gave those who wished to destroy space to do that as well.”
“And we worked very hard to keep that balance and to put ourselves in the best position to deescalate, and that’s what you saw.”
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That’s right folks, you read it correctly. A mayor of a major US city declaring that she wanted to give space to those who wished to destroy.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+video+for+mayor+of+baltimore+space&FORM=VIRE5#view=detail&mid=9980BAE3C8AE56FB4E8A9980BAE3C8AE56FB4E8A
TJustice
Your words:
Also, I noted in two posts that destroying and looting small businesses is tragic and criminal.
Its terrible to see the unrest and looting and much of it is criminal.
Give me a break there is not a wholesale destruction of the city. It’s quite tragic that local businesses and franchise stores will face damage. But as for what runs american cities, large corps and banks – they will be just fine.
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My, oh my, where to begin?
Why do you differentiate between SMALL businesses being looted and LARGE businesses being looted? I thought that, perhaps, you had made an error, but, evidently, as you NOTED twice, that distinction was no mistake. Why is it only tragic and criminal, in your opinion, when those businesses are small? I see no distinction, other than a major corporation may be able to weather the loss and devastation in a somewhat easier fashion. That same looting and destruction, however, regardless of the size of the business, in no less tragic or criminal.
The looting. . .much of it is criminal? What part of looting is not considered criminal?
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Your words:
Nevertheless, I’m not morally bankrupt to the point that I can’t understand their actions. I guess I haven’t had a valuable enough position to fear losing in society.
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You once stated that you are a law school student, and a poor one, at that. No shame in that, and I make reference to that because I can’t help but wonder if you have ever bothered to take a gander at your university’s endowment fund–especially its contributors and its major benefactors. What do you have to say about all of those evil and despicable major corporations and wealthy patrons, whose generosity allows you to even attend law school? Do you shun any and all grants and/or scholarships offered to you because the source of that money may just emanate from one of those rotten, corrupt corporations? How about monetary gifts from some of the benefactors, whose source of that wealth may be directly traced to those same corporations and banks that you eschew? Do you reject that as well?
You don’t have a valuable enough position which you fear losing? I’d say think again.
The word is that the cops like to throw people in the back of that transport van and give them a “rough ride” on the way to the station.
Seems like they got carried away and (almost) severed his spinal cord.
BettyKath-Yeah. Ok. The Bloods & Crips care so much about the lives of young black males, they have stopped killing young black males in protest.
Solid logic.
Edward – I taught Bloods and Crips. If I used a blue marker on the board the Bloods would go crazy, if I used a red marker the Crips would go nuts.
And actually not probable cause but reasonable suspicion. If civil liberties are the principle this is worriesome because that power could be used against you. Reasonable suspicion is barely anything to justify seizure and authoritative behavior around civilians… But if it’s fine for Gray, it ought to be fun for you too.
Bam bam
Just because you understand someone’s actions does not mean you condone said actions.
Also, I noted in two posts that destroying and looting small businesses is tragic and criminal.
And any help I can get in the law I’ll take!! We often make things up as we go, so it can be tough to remember. I took criminal law already, but that Criminal procedure final I have will be tough! In a legal argument, I’ve already said most courts would uphold the police dragging gray and seizing him due to probable cause (based on eye contact and running). Just because a court says it doesn’t make it justice. I get that legally I can’t use tons of arguments that are available to a general conversation. That doesn’t bother me.
IF we didn’t have eugene debs and thousands of principled folk, there is no louis Brandeis or oliver Wendell Holmes speaking on free speech in comfort.
Cops can take responsibility for a truce: http://www.alternet.org/longtime-enemies-bloods-and-crips-join-together-fight-police-brutality-baltimore
Help! Lost a post!
Pogo, that’s a sad update. I heard on the radio that 3 gangs are now working together to kill cops.
It is possible that the young man suffered one of those unusual accidents during the chase. The police may have had absolutely no idea they would need to use a back brace and completely immobilize him. They might be at a complete loss as to what they could have done to break his spine, when in reality, they moved someone without realizing he had an undiagnosed spinal injury.
It’s interesting that when I think about it, I’ve known 3 people who broke their backs from unusual circumstances. One from a horse flipping over, one from an overdose seizure, and one who fell off a stack of hay bales that was only a few high. He just hit the ground exactly right. None of these people were dragged into a police van by their arms, so luckily they can all walk now, although the man who fell off the hay bales was in a wheelchair for quite a while.
I am NOT saying this was an innocent accident. I merely point out that until we have a thorough investigation and autopsy, none of us know what happened, so put the torches and pitchforks down.
There are families with kids living in a city gone mad. There are business owners losing their livelihoods. Cops getting hurt. And more young black men going to jail for the violence they will commit tonight.
Are we a rational society who demands justice based on evidence, or just a mob walking around waiting for the orders to ignite?
Karen. I retrieved your comment at 2015/04/27 at 5:26 pm
Karen – there is now a Twitter meme running that the Baltimore PD are like the IDF. And, of course, who can forget that George Soros paid $33 million to bus protesters into Ferguson. How many of these protesters are home-grown.