The video below sums up the worsening situation in Baltimore. Protesters have been sabotaging fire hoses to stop the Fire Department from saving buildings. The CVS in this case was first looted and then burned (as have other business and cars). When the Fire Department showed up, this man punctured the hose to frustrate efforts at putting out the fire. In the meantime, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake denounced the “thugs” in the streets of her city. She however added another mangled quote after her earlier assurance that the police would give protesters “space” to destroy. For the riots consuming the city during the afternoon and in the early evening. The mayor objected that the city is being “destroyed by thugs who in a very senseless way are trying to tear down what so many have fought for.” People immediately asked if there was a sensible way to tear down the city.
The mayor was clearly trying to convey the pain of watching this great city being destroyed by thugs who cared little for its history or its people:
MAYOR RAWLINGS-BLAKE: What we see tonight that is going on in our city is very disturbing. It is very clear there is a difference between what we saw over the past week with the peaceful protests, those who wish to seek justice, those who wish to be heard, and want answers and the difference between those protests and the thugs who only want to incite violence and destroy our city. I’m a life-long resident of Baltimore and too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs who in a very senseless way are trying to tear down what so many have fought for. Tearing down businesses. Tearing down and destroying property, things that we know will impact our community for years. We are deploying every resource possible to gain control of the situation and to ensure peace moving forward.
The man puncturing fire hoses sums up her point vividly.
Authoritarian solution to an aggrieved public:
Give them room to express themselves enough that they commit crimes… Then go and arrest the offenders so that we can start the process all over.
Again, why torch your own hood? Who does that help?
And to sabotage first responders?
I do not support rioting, but Baltimore managed to give an even worse public relation response to the death of Freddie Gray than Ferguson did with Michael Brown.
I did not think that could be possible (at least not with a major city), but Baltimore did it.
theebl – you don’t suppose that Baltimore hired Ferguson’s PR flack?
Terp
Glad to see you agree with me. It is the fault of both parties, and as long as the issue(s) remain political fodder the problems will persist.
Paul, lucky me…….Nope.
TJ, add 900 murders in Baltimore. Most are still unsolved.
1. Nick Spinelli is wrong on Angelos. He’s thinking of Peter. That’s who made his money over mesothelioma and the tobacco industry. That is John’s father.
2. The rioters on Saturday were locals, but they were egged on and purposefully agitated by drunk baseball fans who began hurling racist insults and beer bottles at them.
3. The police have become agitators. Yesterday, they had a “credible threat” that student were going to do something, so they closed down mass transit and all it did was lead to a bunch of teens being stranded blocks or miles from home. Then things got ugly.
4. This morning, when people were peacefully cleaning up the city, the police arrived in riot gear and told them they had to stop because it was a “state of emergency”. There’s nothing in the SOE order about people not being able to clean up – it involves a curfew from 10p-5a. The police continue to agitate.
5. Today the police claimed a credible threat against several malls, which caused mass panic and NOTHING happened.
6. The police have invented credible threats of them being “attacked” by gang members, who have actually united to make the city safer over the last few days. So far nobody has been arrested over this “credible threat” and no police have been killed, it’s almost like they are spinning something that happened for sympathy.
Jude
Baltimore, MD
Jude – nationally the report is that the Crips and the Bloods have joined to get the cops. I would call that a credible threat. Pictures of rioters show both Crips and Bloods within striking distance of each other going after cops.
fran
I think it obvious that ‘someone’ brought in people to destroy, to cause more rioting, to steal, to whatever it is that they were called to do. Why?
Virtually all of the rioters are from Baltimore. There were 35 riot related arrests Saturday, 31 of the arrested were from Baltimore. The riot at the mall started when the local high school let out. Most of downtown was already closed because police had discovered students were planning the riot during the school day, coordinating via social media.
A recent report from the ACLU of Maryland found that at least 109 people died in police encounters in Maryland from 2010 to 2014.
But those crazy protesters. Those are the thugs! Lock em up!
This is Justice for a comfortable, respected person. Only speak out against government overreach when it effects you or your immediate family and friends.
TJustice – let’s take these shootings one by one. We know that Michael Brown was a good shooting. Gray is not a shooting. So, the real question is; is every police shooting a bad shooting? No, we know that.
Breaking news:
The Baltimore Orioles will play a game against the Chicago White Sox in an empty stadium on Wednesday, the team has announced.
Ticket holders to all six affected games will be able to exchange their plans for another date. Boy, have I got other plans!
Harry – if you are a season ticket holder I guess you are screwed.
Mr schulte,
You make a great point. And I think you’re right that the only place to have a say is in local gov. many people couldn’t care less about government in general, let alone at the local level.
We review the immortal and incisive words of Lincoln in his rational years, before he succumbed to religious zeal, perpetrating his definitively unconstitutional “Reign of Terror.” His plan for compassionate repatriation would have restored the natural state, was the appropriate “reparation” and would have inculcated a foundational sense of nationhood and empowering, legitimizing self-esteem.
Abraham Lincoln –
“If all earthly power were given me,” said Lincoln in a speech delivered in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854, “I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution [of slavery]. My first impulse would be to free all the slaves, and send them to Liberia, to their own native land.” “he asked whether freed blacks should be made “politically and socially our equals?” “My own feelings will not admit of this,” he said, “and [even] if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of white people will not … We can not, then, make them equals.”
Paul C. Schulte
Sure, there is a measured level of democracy, but not much influence.
For example,
The most democratic movement this country has seen since MLK jr. probably, happened here in Jackson, MS, with the election of Chokwe Lumumba. Known as “America’s most radical mayor” there was wide support for him and he spent little money – it was genuinely grassroots. During his time in office, the people of Jackson voted and passed a 1% tax on certain items for better infrastructure (the roads and water service are terrible). The State came in and put great limits on the democratic referendum.
Also, I could call my representative, but a random secretary would answer. And some people don’t wish to work within an eroded system.
It’s basic Joseph Story, practical politics is local, but power is held at the top. Federal > State > City.
TJustice – the only government in which you really have much say is your local government. Anything above that is just a guess. You have to gang up on them or buy them.
@ P HaW
“So (sic) Shepard Smith is an idiot.”
What’s the name of that logical fallacy you habitually call attention to in the remarks of others?
And what is the fallacy of attributing to someone something he didn’t say, and then citing evidence against what he didn’t say?
In this case, Smith was pointing out some of the probable factors precipitating the rioting in Baltimore, whereas you cite two social scientists who “tentatively” assess the effects of previous riots.
Ergo, to the extent that any “idiocy” is in play in this instance, it’s not attributable to Shepard Smith.
by Ta-Nehisi Coates Apr 27, 2015
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/391640/
“The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray’s death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death and so they appeal for calm. But there was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested. There was no appeal for calm when Jerriel Lyles was assaulted. (“The blow was so heavy. My eyes swelled up. Blood was dripping down my nose and out my eye.”) There was no claim for nonviolence on behalf of Venus Green. (“Bitch, you ain’t no better than any of the other old black bitches I have locked up.”) There was no plea for peace on behalf of Starr Brown. (“They slammed me down on my face,” Brown added, her voice cracking. “The skin was gone on my face.”)
“When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is “correct” or “wise,” any more than a forest fire can be “correct” or “wise.” Wisdom isn’t the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community.”
A person that Should be well respected in our society. Beautiful & Heroic.
“The most heroic word in all languages is revolution.” – Eugene Debs
TJustice, astounding, out of touch and not surprising coming from him.
Inga – using TJustice’s example, all but the very rich are disenfranchised. However, as most people know “all politics are local” and can you call your local councilperson, etc. I sure can, and have.
“The people now calling for nonviolence are not prepared to answer these questions. Many of them are charged with enforcing the very policies that led to Gray’s death, and yet they can offer no rational justification for Gray’s death and so they appeal for calm. But there was no official appeal for calm when Gray was being arrested”
Just example no. 542 as to why T.N. Coates is an idiot.
And I think we can all agree that no TRUE LIBERAL Mayor would have a city in chaos and rioting. Only conservative Democrats do that.
LOL.
“poor people are NOT disenfranchised in any society.”
Mr. Schulte,
Check out political scientist Thomas Ferguson… He discusses money in politics (voting, government).
I’m not sure how socially you don’t see poor people being disenfranchised. That’s rather astounding and quite out of touch.
TJustice – call your representative. Does someone answer the phone?
Baltimore and MD are controlled almost top to bottom by Democrats. And yet the problem isn’t them – its what? Racism again? And I love the comment, its not about what party is in power. Yeah right. If it was a white Republican mayor we’d never hear the end of comments in the MSM about “Republican Rassiss” making poor black people to riot to protest the Racism.
“People immediately asked if there was a sensible way to tear down the city.”
And you would never have the self-awareness to see that the poster on top of this blog features men (similar to yourself, white, well-respected in society) that were well aware that many villages would be torn down and people killed under their leadership and guidance. Ethical scholars call it genocide.
Thug simply means criminal. That should be applied to all criminal actions, one’s recognized and not recognized by our present system. After all, none of the people JT has called thug have been convicted yet. But the actions of high-level American officials, major corps. and lawmakers are consistently lawless.
If principled, the application of thug should be attached to criminal action whether it goes punished or not. Or, alternatively if you think the system should get more deference, wait till these people get their day in court before you throw the term around.
I’ve never heard JT call David Petraeus a thug, someone who has had his day in court and been punished for criminal action. Or many, many others…
https://www.facebook.com/meghann.v.harris/posts/10204024813480401
Everything is not as it appears on our newz.