Free Republic

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) says with budgets like the GOP plan, “the have-nots of this country will rise up like the people in Baltimore.” […] “What happened in Baltimore stems from deeper economic issues and if you would take a ride down the streets of some of the greatly impoverished areas of Baltimore where change has not come, where things are the same as they were 50 years ago and have been allowed to grow worse then you will understand the lack of hope of which those riots are born from.” “So are you saying, when you say ‘rise up...

DUNDALK, Md. - Baltimore County Police say another arrest has been made in connection with the brutal attack of a Maryland man who was trying to break up a fight in front of his own house. 61-year-old Richard Fletcher was home on April 22 when a large fight broke out in the 500 block of 45th Street in Dundalk. Police say Fletcher saw two teen girls, surrounded by a larger group of teens, fighting on his vehicle. When he approached the group to ask them to move away from his truck, he was attacked. Witnesses say they believe anywhere from...

The arrests are in connection with an April 22 incident in which Rick Fletcher was assaulted in front of his 45th Street home. Antoine Willie Lawson, 17, was indicted last week on charges of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree assault, robbery and theft of less than $1,000. County police on Tuesday announced the arrests of four other teenagers charged as adults, and an arrest warrant has been obtained for a 20-year-old man. Andrew Omar Allen, 15, has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, robbery and related charges. He is being held without bail at the Baltimore County Detention Center. Yahkeem Zavion...

The increase in violence that has followed the death of Freddie Gray continued through the weekend, with four homicides reported since Saturday, according to Baltimore police. Ten people were reported shot on Sunday alone, including three who were shot to death within a span of 39 minutes. The violence comes as the city prepares for the Preakness on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course. Ten people were also shot Thursday. At least 87 people have been killed in Baltimore this year, 22 more than at this time last year. Nonfatal shootings are up nearly 50 percent across the city. The most...

A 17-year-old boy has been charged as an adult for his role in beating a 61-year-old alongside a group of approximately 50 other teens in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 22. Richard Fletcher was brutally beaten by the teens after he went outside to ask two girls who were fighting on top of his truck to move along and continue their dispute elsewhere. The mob of teens began to hit and kick Fletcher until he fell to the ground, but the attack didn't end. After the beating last month, Fletcher was left with broken eye sockets, a broken nose, broken ribs...

This weekend, a dozen Republican presidential hopefuls showed up at the South Carolina Freedom Summit. They were there to court primary voters who will winnow the presidential field next February. Judging from the speeches, it’s going to be an ugly race. What the candidates are selling, and primary voters are buying, is vituperation against people who don’t look, talk, or pray like the Republican base.............. [SNIP of stuff that sounds good to me - Santorum was on fire] ...............Mexicans, Muslims, gays, rats, roaches. Christian superiority, military contempt for the president, and gauntlets thrown down to queer-loving CEOs. It’s going to...

A Maryland man faces a long recovery after he was brutally beaten by a group of teens.

Comparisons drawn to Duke lacrosse, George Zimmerman casesMarilyn Mosby, the Baltimore City State Attorney in charge of prosecuting six police officers for the death of Freddie Gray, Jr., is coming under increasing criticism from defense attorneys and legal scholars who think she is politicizing the case and using her prosecutorial power to create her own celebrity. Ms. Mosby has raised eyebrows in several quarters with a media blitz that has spanned from a CNN interview that focused on her courtship with her city councilman husband to her decision to appear on stage with Prince during a rock concert for a...

What a shame: if only the economy had been better, the rioters would have had more name-brand stores to burn. Seriously, this had to be one of the strangest statements to come out of the Baltimore riots. On this evening's Ed Show, Baltimore Pastor Jamal Bryant complained that because of economic "disenfranchisement," the rioters "could only find one anchor store in that neighborhood" to destroy. View the video here.

State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby's decision last week to charge the officers has stoked strong opinions across the country ... Lt. Victor Gearhart, a 33-year veteran who works in the Southern District, said residents with complaints about police "are going to get the police force they want, and God help them."

The increase in violence that has followed the death of Freddie Gray continued through the weekend, with four homicides reported since Saturday, according to Baltimore police. Ten people were reported shot on Sunday alone, including three who were shot to death within a span of 39 minutes. The violence comes as the city prepares for the Preakness on Saturday at Pimlico Race Course. Ten people were also shot Thursday. At least 87 people have been killed in Baltimore this year, 22 more than at this time last year. Nonfatal shootings are up nearly 50 percent across the city.

Behind the orchestrated riots that were allowed to strike Baltimore in recent weeks, and Ferguson, Missouri, before that, lies an agenda that has nothing to do with the fact that “Black Lives Matter.” As the Obama administration and more than a few race-mongers allied with the White House have already made clear, the real goal involves further chipping away at local self-government and community control over police departments — and expanding federal control over local law enforcement in its place. In between fanning the division and unrest with racialist rhetoric, Obama is also exploiting the chaos he is helping to...

RUSH: Let me get to Marilyn Mosby here in just a second. I don't want to jump the gun on this. By that I mean jump the gun on my analysis. Let me just tell you what I think is a point that a lot of people are overlooking. Now, my buddy Andrew McCarthy has written about this case, the prosecutor and how he learned of it. He learned of the charges before he saw her speech, her press conference. And he said when you see, as he did, the press conference after you have learned this never-ending list of...

Twenty-seven senators want President Obama to block federal agencies and contractors from asking job applicants about prior criminal convictions. The senators, including 26 Democrats and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), want Obama to take executive action to "ban the box," referring to a question on job applications that asks if an applicant has any convictions. "We ask you to require federal contractors and agencies to refrain from asking job applicants about prior convictions until later in the hiring process," they said in a letter to Obama on Monday. "This policy would eliminate unnecessary barriers to employment for all job...

Education advocates on Monday called on Gov. Larry Hogan and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to increase funding for the city's schools, arguing the recent rioting in Baltimore shows the money is desperately needed. Without the funds, city schools will be forced to cut teachers, critical programs and student services, the advocates said. "Baltimore is not getting sufficient education funding to provide for all of our children's needs," said Bebe Verdery, education reform director at the ACLU of Maryland. The coalition includes the city's parent-teacher association and the city's charter schools organization, among other groups.

For close to 20 years now, I’ve been observing and reporting on a disturbing trend in law enforcement – the federalization and militarization of local police forces. Until recently, practically no one noticed what was happening. But with the focus on police shootings and the civil disturbances that have followed – sometimes involving tanks, military-style gear and Kevlar – it’s hard not to notice that local cops don’t exactly look like Officer Joe Bolton anymore. It was none other than Al Sharpton (I won’t call him reverend) who suggested recently that the answer to the use of excessive force by...

On May 1, Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby charged six police officers, including two black male officers and one female black officer, with 28 various charges, including murder and manslaughter over the death of Freddie Gray. Officer Caesar Goodsoon, the black driver of the van Gray rode in, was charged by the 35-year-old state’s attorney for Baltimore City with the most serious offense, “second-degree depraved heart murder,” which means indifference to human life. Baltimore is 64 percent black, and almost half of the Baltimore Police department is black. The officers are accused of arresting and roughing up Gray, who is black,...

A weird thing to do during a pending case for an officer of the court who’s already been accused, and not just by police, of ramping up the charges against the Baltimore cops who arrested Gray for political reasons. Maybe save the pop-star grandstanding until after we figure out whether Mosby was right or wrong when she told the universe Gray was arrested unlawfully, no?On the other hand, how could a young aspiring mayor/governor/senator resist a photo op like this? The audience spanned a wide range of ages and backgrounds, much like Prince’s fanbase. Many were surprised to see...

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are tied atop a crowded 2016 GOP primary field in the early state of New Hampshire, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush slipping into a tie for third with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who picked up some support since a separate poll was released in February. Mr. Paul and Mr. Walker were the first choice of 12 percent of GOP primary voters, followed by Mr. Bush and Mr. Rubio at 11 percent apiece and businessman Donald Trump at 8 percent, according to the Bloomberg Politics/Saint Anselm poll. Next were...

Keep in mind that polls this early in a presidential cycle measure mostly name recognition rather than solid voter choice. Even with that caveat in mind — or perhaps because of it — the Bloomberg/St. Anselm poll released last night delivers bad news to Hillary Clinton and Democrats for 2016. Instead of a commanding lead over a field of emerging names, Hillary barely edges out most of the GOP field: There’s no clear Republican front-runner in the New Hampshire presidential nominating contest, while Hillary Clinton retains an overwhelming advantage among Democrats in the Granite State’s first-in-the-nation primary.Clinton’s advantage over...