Posted on 08/01/2019 1:58:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
Back in April 2015, a young black man named Freddie Gray was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department. He'd run from the police, had an illegal knife in his pocket and resisted arrest. The police loaded him into the back of the van but allegedly failed to secure him in place. During the ride to the police station, the van's movement apparently caused Gray to slam his head into one of the walls, resulting in his death.
Given the furor surrounding the deaths of Eric Garner in New York City in July 2014 and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, among other high-profile deaths of young black men in confrontations with the police, Gray's death quickly spiraled into a national story. Many in Baltimore accused the police of racism and murder.
After Gray's funeral, protests morphed into riots, with 113 police officers injured, 486 people arrested, and serious looting and burning. The mayor of Baltimore at the time, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, bragged that she had given "space" to "those who wished to destroy." National conversations began over the legacy of racism in Baltimore.
Most of these conversations failed to note that at the time of the incident, the mayor of Baltimore was black; the majority of the city council was black; the police chief was black; the prosecutor against the police was black; three of the charged officers in Gray's case were black; the congressman for the district was black; the president of the United States was black; and the attorney general of the United States was black.
Then, after all of these profound conversations, everything returned to normal in Baltimore: Violent, poverty-stricken, drug-infested (the term "drug-infested" is, by the way, the phraseology of Rep. Elijah Cummings circa 1999, not of President Trump). As of 2018, Baltimore had the highest murder rate of any major American city. That same year, PBS ran a documentary called "Rat Film" about the infestation problem in Baltimore.
Meanwhile, Rawlings-Blake decided not to run for reelection; she had replaced Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had been ousted from office after an embezzlement conviction. Rawlings-Blake was followed by Mayor Catherine Pugh, who resigned amidst allegations of corruption.
The cycle of failure in Baltimore continued.
Then President Trump decided to use Baltimore's failures of governance as a club to wield against Cummings. This was obviously a convenient brickbat: Trump was not proposing a plan for Baltimore or suggesting solutions. But the media determined that Trump's verbiage wasn't merely boorish but racist -- and they suggested that Baltimore is, in fact, a thriving urban success. This, of course, is Trump's gift: Anything he touches becomes toxic to Democrats, while anything he criticizes becomes golden.
But when all this is said and done, will Baltimore be any better off?
We all know the answer to that question. The situation in Baltimore requires real solutions, not jabber from either side. Obfuscating Baltimore's problems because Trump put his finger on them doesn't help Baltimore any more than ignoring Baltimore's problems because Democrats govern it. And simply calling out those problems without providing a solution doesn't help Baltimore, either.
Shapiro’s adrift alone.
The little Milk Dud is deep in thought. Can Baltimory City Hall create $16 billion in back-dated
vouchers for bogus community projects in time to keep him out of jail?
Either that or she puts a bag over his head when they have sex.
Little Benji plays the middle and criticizes Trump, how brave!
Until you confront the leadership of these urban disaster areas with the failure of their policies, and make it obvious to the voters that things aren’t getting better without a fundamental change in leadership, there’s no point in proposing a specific program. After all, this is a district that apparently absorbed $16 billion last year to no discernible effect.
Improvement requires wholesale leadership change. This requires confronting that leadership and those who voted them in with their failures. No one has taken this necessary step before because doing so gets you tarred as a RACIST!, as is happening right now.
That Trump has the guts to do it, since it’s the right thing to do for the people living there, is commendable.
I had a boss that would either say it required two bags,
Or - put a flag over her head and do it for Old Glory!
BOL......
ACTION NOW:
Call President Trump: Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414
email at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
@POTUS or @realDonaldTrump on Twitter!
US CONGRESS SWITCHBOARD: (202) 224-3121
U.S. Department of Justice
Comment Line: 202-353-1555
Switchboard: 202-514-2000
FBI tip line web site----https://www.fbi.gov/tips
FBI electronic fraud unit----www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-fraud-schemes/internet-fraud
FBI Major Case Contact Center: 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324)
To report tax-free non-profit crimes: EMAIL enforcement@SEC.gov
To report fraudulent fund-raising:
FBI tip line web site----https://www.fbi.gov/tips
FBI electronic fraud unit----www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-fraud-schemes/internet-fraud
FBI Major Case Contact Center: 1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324)
L8r
The situation in Baltimore requires real solutions, not jabber from either side.
This is utter nonsense. What solution? I live in a community run by bottom-of-the-barrel liberals. If a neighbor complains about my yard I get a letter from the city telling me to clean it up.
If I don't the city does and adds its cost my taxes at 10 times what it would have cost me to do it.
If I fall behind in my taxes, the city invites me to leave since the city becomes the new owner of my property.
Even this liberal hell-hole cleans the public places 2 times each year.
Explaining that a city and its citizens need to haul away the trash is like explaining the definition to "a." If you have to state that as a solution, then there is no solution in a free society. If a city government fails at this most fundamental task, it isn't a city in the sense of human societal construction.
Shapiro is wrong, and an ass. Ben Carson was in Sandtown yesterday to announce a multi billion dollar grant designating the Freddy Gray area in Baltimore which includes Sandtown, the rat infested, derelict area under Cummings talked about this week.
Unfortunately Sandtown’s only leader doing any real good, Arthur Kirk, director of the Kirk Community center (named after his mom) is complaining that Sandtown will not receive any of this money.
City fathers prefer to spend the money on Bridges, roads and other municipal projects outside the Sandtown area. Ben Carson, director of HUD, is apparently unaware of this, having tried and failed to old a presser in Sandtown to announce the money.
Somebody needs to tell the good secretary he has been hornswoggled by corrupt Baltimore politicians, again.
“Either that or she puts a bag over his head when they have sex.”
Best laugh I’ve had in days. Thx!
Will they pick-up and move to Indianapolis too?
I remember this story as if it happened yesterday. It seems that it will never end.
-——The cycle of failure in Baltimore continued.-——
Baltimore is fully Africanized
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.