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Rioting in Baltimore...


Ser Scot A Ellison

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From CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/27/us/baltimore-unrest/index.html

This is not the way to get change. This is how police end up with more power.

Agree completely.

Got the local Baltimore news on, watching as groups of men from the Nation of Islam are confronting the rioters, in some cases they are being successful in calming or turning them away, but the rioters are numerous.

My niece works in Little Italy, the rioting is not in that part of town, but I hope she is staying safe nonetheless.

ETA:

Just heard that the Orioles game scheduled for tonight has been postponed to another day.

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I've lived in this area all of my life and this is one of the craziest days that I remember ever happening here. I hope all the boarders around here and your families/friends made it out OK. I also hope today is the worst of it, because if there's another one like this... man, I don't even know.


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I absolutely sympathize with the desire to be heard but how is burning down your own neighborhood going to change anything? The real tragedy is events like this are a comment on a systemic pattern of police behavior A. First we’ll make sure our asses are covered. B. Then we will launch an investigation


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Oh hey, the board is back up long enough to talk about this, finally. Listen, I don't mean to wag a finger like I'm personally involved in what's going on, but Freddie Gray died about a week ago, and got the shit kicked out of him by police a week before that. Shit didn't make nonstop CNN reels til today, because boy howdy do people like to look at manufactured riot porn, and the original situation is far from resolved. There was a big protest this past Saturday, mostly peaceful, a few pockets of violence. Today got nuts though. There's a 10pm curfew in effect in the city for the next week. Bizarre.



Most of my fellow Baltimoreans on my Facebook are making me proud. I wrote a bunch more stuff in this paragraph that I deleted and I'm just gonna leave it at that.



I don't mean to be making light of the looting that is happening, or the shit that's burning in town, but "rioters making trouble" is not the whole story here. Stay safe Bmore.


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Summah,


Northwest took the brunt. Mondawmin looted. CVS on North and Penn looted and lit on fire. Small markets, 7-11, liquor stores. Huge fire Gay and Chester that destroyed a Senior center being built. Cars being set on fire throughout the city. Liquor stores in Fells looted. Police Officers being attacked. 15 Officers injured. 2 still in shock tauma. Unimaginable. I have no words.



Still waiting to hear from my son who's heading home. He lives in Fells.



I am sick. Just heartbroken to see people react in this way and destroy all that so many people worked for.

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What Ini said.



I like how the immediate response to this, or to Ferguson, or to any other riots, is to castigate the rioters, WHILE NOT ADDRESSING THE FACTORS BEHIND THE RIOT.



Sorry, that part needed to be cap-locked.




Edited:



Also, "this is not how to send the message" or "this is not how to get changes" are both effing infuriating. What do you think people have been doing prior to this incident? Sitting around doing nothing about the injustice and discrimination? That they went from "let's just sit and watch TV all the time" to "riot in the streets!" You think, maybe, that the things you all want them to do have, perhaps, been done in different ways, for many years, with nothing to show for, and hence, the boiling over of frustration? Maybe?


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MLA - the situation at Mondawmin is real weird. I'm hearing cops showed up in riot gear before schools let out and shut down buses so people couldn't leave.

Glad my local BwB are checking in.

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From CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/27/us/baltimore-unrest/index.html

This is not the way to get change. This is how police end up with more power.

You know what is actually not the way to get change? Not burning shit down and looting, if american history teaches us anything. The status quo just keeps on rolling.

Will riots actually change shit? Who the fucks knows. Probably not, if history is any guide. But not rioting doesn't change shit either.

Now I wanted to say something about the fact that we have lived over these last two or three summers with agony and we have seen our cities going up in flames. And I would be the first to say that I am still committed to militant, powerful, massive, non-violence as the most potent weapon in grappling with the problem from a direct action point of view. I’m absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt. And I feel that we must always work with an effective, powerful weapon and method that brings about tangible results.

But it is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society. These conditions are the things that cause individuals to feel that they have no other alternative than to engage in violent rebellions to get attention. And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.

And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.

- MLK

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What Ini said.

I like how the immediate response to this, or to Ferguson, or to any other riots, is to castigate the rioters, WHILE NOT ADDRESSING THE FACTORS BEHIND THE RIOT.

Sorry, that part needed to be cap-locked.

Edited:

Also, "this is not how to send the message" or "this is not how to get changes" are both effing infuriating. What do you think people have been doing prior to this incident? Sitting around doing nothing about the injustice and discrimination? That they went from "let's just sit and watch TV all the time" to "riot in the streets!" You think, maybe, that the things you all want them to do have, perhaps, been done in different ways, for many years, with nothing to show for, and hence, the boiling over of frustration? Maybe?

terra,

I have to respectfully disagree. Baltimore IS NOT Ferguson. Maybe I'm being naive, but Mayor Rawlings Blake and Police Commissioner Batts along with religious leaders have been working hard these last few years to institute reform within the police department and improving community relations. They've shown they will not hesitate to terminate, charge and prosecute officers that cross the line or break the law. The Mayor and community leaders are working hard to improve neighborhoods. And now, the CVS they fought so hard to get in that area (for jobs and access to goods) is gone. Looted and set on fire.

There is a massive investigation into the death of Freddy Gray. 4 separate official investigations and 1 independent. They've said over and over, they're making sure this investigation is done right. They've said it's going to take time. There have been peaceful protests all week. And now all this.

MLA - the situation at Mondawmin is real weird. I'm hearing cops showed up in riot gear before schools let out and shut down buses so people couldn't leave.

Glad my local BwB are checking in.

Massive "show up for the purge, meet at Mondawmin" sent out on social media. They said social media is watched by police, so they were being proactive to protect the neighborhood. Buses were shut down so MORE people couldn't show up.

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terra,

I have to respectfully disagree. Baltimore IS NOT Ferguson. Maybe I'm being naive, but Mayor Rawlings Blake and Police Commissioner Batts along with religious leaders have been working hard these last few years to institute reform within the police department and improving community relations. They've shown they will not hesitate to terminate, charge and prosecute officers that cross the line or break the law.

There is a massive investigation into the death of Freddy Gray. 4 separate official investigations and 1 independent. They've said over and over, they're making sure this investigation is done right. There have been peaceful protests all week.

But who actually believes that?

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Ta-Nehisi Coates is on point as usual:


http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/391640/#disqus_thread





Now, tonight, I turn on the news and I see politicians calling for young people in Baltimore to remain peaceful and "nonviolent." These well-intended pleas strike me as the right answer to the wrong question. To understand the question, it's worth remembering what, specifically, happened to Freddie Gray. An officer made eye contact with Gray. Gray, for unknown reasons, ran. The officer and his colleagues then detained Gray. They found him in possession of a switchblade. They arrested him while he yelled in pain. And then, within an hour, his spine was mostly severed. A week later, he was dead. What specifically was the crime here? What particular threat did Freddie Gray pose? Why is mere eye contact and then running worthy of detention at the hands of the state? Why is Freddie Gray dead?



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 rioters themselves.


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What Ini and TP said. I'd just like to add that the media has been very much reporting a skewed side of this story for 6 months now. ALL mainstream media reports I saw on the protests were aimed at showing a certain part of the story in the light most likely to make people dismiss it as senseless violence. The peaceful protests have been ignored, the peaceful disruption of roads or business characterised as violent, the role of people not part of the Ferguson protesters in starting fires ignored with it instead reported as the protesters doing it. I saw a video that looked pretty damn clear that the riot police were the ones burning down one of the buildings on that particular night.



People have been doing it the way they're told is OK, then they tried civil disobedience, "die ins" at malls, shutting down many malls including during busiest times of the year, Black Friday etc. They shut down the largest Mall in the world, not by actually doing anything beyond showing up and protesting in the mall - the mall and the police closed in response. When these things continue to be ignored and painted as violent is it really a surprise it winds up escalating to riots at some point? It seemed pretty inevitable to me with every new death that continues to happen, officers not even charged, officers telling a dying man "Fuck your breath", moving evidence at the crime scene etc. White Americans would have escalated to violence long ago, isn't that the whole point of the 2nd Amendment in the eyes of many?


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I've been checking in on this story periodically since about 6pm. It's hard to gauge from the news how out of control it is at this moment. The scene earlier of kids and cops throwing rocks at each other was pretty wild.

Stay safe Baltimore folks!

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