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.
Aridog
Great post. I will read more about those incidents.
But that “accusation” that police are provocatively aggressive is not much of an accusation once the proof is presented.
On the subject of excessive taxation…I am voting “NO” (and hell no) on Michigan’s Proposition 15-1 on Tuesday 05 May 2015. Why? Because it has been hyped almost solely as “for the roads” ( a lie) … yet it includes myriad other expenditures in a stew of nonsense. They don’t have the guts to propose a pure tax format that actually addresses our roads at a rate higher than the barely 2/3’s level in Prop 15-1. Once again they might want to address the load limits here, double those in the rest of the states in the country…most are 80,000 lbs, we have 160,000 lbs on 11 axles (once higher on 13 axles)….most noticeable on freeway entrance and exit ramps where the side pressure, as wheels drag sideways in a turn, is obvious in road deterioration. Many 11 axle trucks are far heavier, closer to 200,000 lbs. They know how to dodge the ordnance enforcement folks. You’d think after some 60+ years of this we’d have come up with stronger road beds? But nope. Resurface today, fill potholes and wide cracks within the first year, or 2nd year at best…and then, here we co again “for the roads.” The “target” , now, of course is the savings we all have from lower fuels prices….and when those prices go up, the tax increases will not go down. Bend over , Michigan drivers, the government will drive you home.
TJustice … you may have inadvertently identified a significant difference in the “protests” of today versus the protest turned riot in Detroit in 1967. Back then 25%+ of those killed by police or soldiers were white…and whites were also part of the rioting. More were killed of both hues and never found, or reported, under the charred & collapsed remains of many buildings, let alone the river which delivered the corpses to Cleveland, so to speak.
The “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality of media today may be guilty of faulty reporting of the real root causes of the contests today. The simple fact it is still happening should tell us we’re missing something. No?
I doubt there are 1 in 10 people, outside of Detroit and old enough, who today recall the white participation in the violence against police and firemen back in my day. In those days the police were laid back, not provocatively aggressive….which doesn’t match the accusations of today. Whatever the cause(s) we need to look deeper in to the economic and social drivers … not to mention the punitive taxes that drive away jobs. It is not coincidental that the 30+ plus years of rabble rouser corrupt mayors here caused much of the on going strife….maintaining it was their cause celebrant. Once upon a time in the 60’s and early 70’s black and white socialized closely in many places here…I doubt I missed a single “cabaret” in the black neighborhoods (always invited) … those events that featured local fashions and local musical talent….and v-e-r-y little drinking. Then about 1973 it changed to mutual isolation. I miss the old days and wonder if we’ve missed the real causes for the isolation that came after those good days?
I may be too old now to have an effect. But I can hope. Or I can just sit and watch. Hard to tell what works anymore.
Well, Carl Stokes used the N word twice in an interview!
Video at the link. The fun starts around 3:10 into it.
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/04/28/baltimore-councilman-slams-obama-and-mayor-just-call-them-nggers/
Sooo, I guess we aren’t supposed to use the “T” word, now???
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeeky – not sure where Carl Stokes is coming from. It is better to call them n**gers then thugs. I don’t understand that.
https://youtu.be/4BTNjeKqpEk
So, we have a phenomenon rampant throughout the US, in right and left wing zones. Police overstepping their powers and getting away with it is not unique to the left or the right. Add a poor disenfranchised area that has a Democrat lean and all of a sudden it’s all the fault of the Democrats, Progressives, etc. There are many valid arguments to be made against the left as there are many valid arguments to be made against the right. However, conditions found in places like Baltimore are the result of more than the local mayor being Democrat or Republican. The racism of the police, the ‘get out of jail free’ card of the police, and the strangle hold America’s laissez faire attitude regarding social responsibilities has on these areas are shared conditions of both Democrat and Republican dominated constituencies.
There are some intelligent arguments to be made for and against both parties. But, the ones that seem to dominate this article are not among them. The vacuous yet visceral connections of all that is wrong with urban America with the Democrats only warn us more of how remote the right is in this country. Lame, lame, lame, yet angry, angry, angry. Reflect upon how the angrier the rant, the more remote the ranter.
Bam bam
Henry David Thoreau, a figure and writer in support of civil disobedience defended John Brown after Harpers Ferry.
Nobody that is white has died in these protests or Ferguson. People in support of protests aren’t extreme, but people denouncing the protests are most certainly out of touch and missed civics when it didn’t talk about people that are popular and promote state power.
Bam bam
When did I say any of those things weren’t illegal? I haven’t.
I have no special knowledge, it’s rather basic understanding that most civil disobedience will be called out by authorities and parts of the public as criminal and thuggish behavior. Or alternatively, silenced with force or propaganda.
I will agree that there is a group in the Negro community advocating violence now. I happen to feel that this group represents a numerical minority. Surveys have revealed this. The vast majority of Negroes still feel that the best way to deal with the dilemma that we face in this country is through non-violent resistance, and I don’t think this vocal group will be able to make a real dent in the Negro community in terms of swaying 22 million Negroes to this particular point of view. And I contend that the cry of “black power” is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we’ve got to see that A RIOT IS THE LANGUAGE OF THE UNHEARD. And, what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the economic plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mlk-a-riot-is-the-language-of-the-unheard/
Arson is criminal.
Looting is criminal.
Throwing rocks, concrete bricks and bags filled with urine and/or feces at police officers is criminal.
Slicing/puncturing hoses, carrying water to douse fires started by arsonists, is criminal.
TJustice, please lecture us on our inability to appreciate and understand civil disobedience. You seem to have a grasp on it.
Commoner
i never once said people in baltimore weren’t scared.
Name calling and labeling to evade the topic is a common theme on the Internet. Unfortunate.
And I’m aware of the difference. If you know anything about civil disobedience, you are aware that it is often labeled criminal by authorities and the public.
The rule of law is defied by civil disobedience. This gov uses this as justification to use violence.
Are you the same principles “civil libertertarian” that would say edward snowden is a criminal and not a whistleblower (a practice of civil disobedience)?
Just watching the local news here in St. Louis, Missouri. Protests are starting again in Ferguson, and someone has been shot. We don’t want our thugs to be outdone by Baltimore’s thugs. We’re going to have a thug-off to see who can destroy more of their own communities. Great going Mr. President. Great leadership.
commoner
I agree with most of what you say, but Obama’s tepid response was so very predictable. How long did it take our great leader to finally step up and make a statement? While one of this country’s cities is burning, and its police are being pelted with concrete rocks as big as bricks, Alfred E. Newman is giving a watered down, lukewarm response. I bet that he’d show more fortitude and passion if one of his golf games had been cancelled. He should’ve called for an immediate stop to all of the violence, threatening harsh measures if the looting and mayhem continues. Mr. Community Organizer doesn’t have it in him. There’s a part of him that loves this s&@t. He’s a disgrace.
Still, no angst can excuse what Obama called the behavior of “criminals and thugs who tore up” Baltimore.
“When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they’re not protesting. They’re not making a statement. They’re stealing,” he said. “When they burn down a building, they’re committing arson. And they’re destroying and undermining businesses and opportunities in their own communities. That robs jobs and opportunity from people in that area.”
-CNN
Preach Obama preach
Um I am from Baltimore. They are scared there. Tjustice and anon I am just sure that if your life was on the line you would stand proud and say “the cops are bad so the citizens have to suffer getting killed” then die. You are just idiots that don’t understand the difference between civil disobedience and violence. Shoot to kill-Mayor Daley 1968 riots. Guess what it worked. You have to fight violence with violence.
Mr. Schulte,
We have a second amendment right in this country to personally carry a gun. So much for civil liberties again.
And indeed, Kajieme and VonDerrit were killed in my backyard of South St. Louis.
“This week’s chaos on the streets of Baltimore has been decades in the making.”
“What’s Happening In Baltimore Didn’t Just Start With Freddie Gray”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/28/freddie-gray-baltimore-history_n_7161962.html
Odd that Mr Coates says…The case against the Baltimore police, and the society that superintends them, is easily made…” when referring to a black
majority city. [64%] One that has a black mayor and black police commissioner no less. Who is “superintending?” Or is Coates just looking for someone to blame other than those actually in charge in Baltimore?
http://gawker.com/unarmed-people-of-color-killed-by-police-1999-2014-1666672349
Mr. Schulte,
I mean this is Gawker and it demonstrates the point that’s easy to see.
do you really think “crime-fighting” is why law enforcement exists?
No, not every police shooting is a bad shooting per se. Most probably are though. It happens often in the US, just look at statistics in European countries, does not occur nearly as often.
I’m not sure how one squares a principle for civil liberties with allowing civilians (commonly unarmed) to be shot dead by uniformed law enforcement with a wink and a nod type of investigation and zero accountability.
TJustice – you didn’t read your own link did you. There are a variety of manners of death. About 1/3 are iffy. BTW, some of these people were armed or thought to be armed.
Jude, Hopefully you read medical records better than you do comments here. Regarding your #1 assertion in your 4:51p comment. I know that was Peter Angelos’ son that made the stupid comment. And, that is indicated in my comment that you misread.
I remember the night the great Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record. The slimeball Angelos[Peter, the dad] stepped to the microphone and started droning on and on. He was soundly booed by the crowd and cut his remarks short. I see the son is equally pompous and longwinded. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, err shrub. Angelos is a little man.